Isaiah 60:1-6 * January 4, 2009 * Epiphany * Pastor Leyrer
Dear
Friends in Christ,
Although
the message and meaning of Christmas is the most familiar Bible truth for
Christians, we nevertheless review and rejoice in it every year. Through a variety of special services – this
year was no exception – we annually remember how God was made flesh and dwelled
among us, “full of grace and truth” (John 1:14).
Interestingly
enough, in the early days of the church the Festival of Epiphany was actually a
bigger deal than Christmas. As a “holy
day” it was celebrated and observed second only to Easter. Somewhere down
through the ages it moved to not a forgotten position, but certainly a lesser
one.
Consequently,
if it is important to review the message and meaning of Christmas each year, it
is perhaps even more important to review the message and meaning of the
festival of the Epiphany once a year as well. Let’s do that now.
So
what is the significance of Epiphany, and why is its message so important? Here is what we need to know:
“Epiphany”
comes from a Greek word meaning “manifestation” or “showing forth.”
The
message of Epiphany revolves around this idea and the day of Epiphany was set
aside to rejoice in two great truths.
Truth
#1 is that Jesus Christ through His words and actions (especially His miracles)
repeatedly “manifested” or “showed Himself” to be the Son of God.
Truth
#2 is that Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, “manifested” or “showed Himself”
to be the Savior God of the world. While Jesus entered into our space and time
through one particular nation, He is
nonetheless the Savior of all nations.
Our
Scripture lessons underscore these two great truths. The Old Testament lesson (our text) talks
about the Savior breaking forth into the world like a light that chases away
darkness and draws people from every nation to Himself. In the second lesson, Paul talks about his
role in getting the message of Jesus Christ out to the Gentiles – meaning
anyone who isn’t of Jewish descent. And
it is not difficult to understand how the familiar account of the Wise Men –
non-Jews from far-off lands reverently recognizing and then worshiping Jesus as
the newborn King – is the traditional Epiphany Gospel reading.
It
is this double message of Epiphany – and what it means to us – that we’d like
to contemplate once again today based on these words from Isaiah:
As we work our way through this text, understand its fulfillment in Jesus and apply it to ourselves personally, we’ll see ourselves as
1.
Light receivers, and
2.
Light reflectors
Life
as a member of the Jewish nation in approximately 750 B.C. – in other words,
the people who originally received these words from Isaiah – wasn’t all that
spiritually enriching. It should have
been – after all, they were part of the chosen people through whom God promised
to bless the entire world through a Savior to come from their lineage – but it
wasn’t.
Sadly
(and inexplicably) much of the nation was riddled with unbelief. You’d never know it from appearances. Outwardly they were very religious; inwardly,
however, they were far away from their God.
For years Isaiah and other prophets had been calling them to repentance,
but to no avail. And God’s judgment was
beginning to set in.
Still,
there remained true believers among them.
Devout, Old Testament believers who loved the Lord and believed in the
Savior-to-come that God had promised them; those who understood they were saved
by faith in that coming Savior and, out of love for what God had done for them,
strived to live to His honor and glory and according to His Word.
But
even for them, faithful as they were, encouragement was needed. Isaiah provides it with these words. Speaking of future events as if they had
already happened, Isaiah tells them: “Arise, shine, for your light has come, and
the glory of the Lord rises upon you.
See, darkness covers the earth and thick darkness is over the peoples,
but the Lord rises upon you and his glory appears over you. Nations will come to your light, and kings to
the brightness of your dawn.”
In other words, the promised light – the Savior – would come. He would come to dispel and chase away the darkness of sin and unbelief that covered the earth and personal despair that covered their hearts. Like moths drawn to the light so He will draw people from all nations to Himself, Jews and Gentiles, rich and poor.
That
same kind of imagery – people from all nations coming to know and believe and
rejoice in the Savior – continues in the second portion of our text as
well: “Lift up your eyes and look about you; All assemble and come to you;
your sons come from afar, and your daughters are carried on the arm. Then you will look and be radiant, your heart
will throb and swell with joy; the wealth of the seas will be brought to you,
to you the riches of the nations will come.
Herds of camels will cover your land, young camels of Midian and
Ephah. And all from Sheba will come,
bearing gold and incense and proclaiming the praise of the Lord.”
Because
this light will come and the glory of the Lord will rise upon them, Isaiah
tells God’s people not to be downhearted and not to view life only by their
immediate circumstances. Because of the
One who was to come, they could arise
from their gloom and shine (reflect)
the glory that was theirs.
The
“light” and “the glory of the Lord” is, of course, a reference to Jesus
Christ. Some eight centuries later Jesus
would utter similar words about Himself, recorded for us in the Gospel of
John: “I am the light of the
world. Whoever follows me will never
walk in darkness, but will see the light of life.”
Maybe you can think of something else, but I don’t think there is a better description of who Jesus Christ is and what Jesus Christ does than to equate Him with light. After all, what does light do? It illuminates an area. It chases away darkness. It allows us to see clearly.
And
in a spiritual sense, this is exactly what Jesus is all about. He came first and foremost to set us free
from the damning darkness of our own sin and unbelief. The plan?
His perfect obedience before God in place of our disobedience; His
substitutionary death in place of our deserved death for sin. And everything He did becomes ours through
trusting Him as our Savior.
There
is no better news than the Gospel. But
there is a caution involved: We may be
so used to hearing the Gospel of forgiveness that we’ve become almost calloused
to it. What is familiar often becomes
underappreciated. This is not meant to
be a criticism, just an observation.
That’s
why it is sometimes good to see things through the eyes of others. And one person who never failed to understand
the spiritual ramifications of where we are with Christ and where we were
without Him is Martin Luther.
In
verse two of his powerful hymn, “Dear Christians, One and All, Rejoice,” he
captures the utter hopelessness of our natural condition and life without
Christ:
Fast bound in
Satan’s chains I lay; death brooded darkly oe’r me.
Sin was my
torment night and day; in sin my mother bore me.
Yet deep and
deeper still I fell; life had become a living hell,
So firmly sin
possessed me.
Pretty
dark stuff. So what’s up with
Luther? Was this a case of a man who
spent too much time obsessing over his personal failures? Not at all.
Just a man who understood very well the “before” and “after” of life
with Christ.
He
also understood what God did about this.
This is verse four:
But God beheld
my wretched state before the world’s foundation,
And mindful of
his mercies great, He planned my soul’s salvation.
A Father’s
heart he turned to me, sought my redemption fervently;
He gave His
dearest treasure.
And
that dearest treasure was Jesus Christ, the Light of the World. By His death on the cross Jesus destroyed the
power of sin to condemn and we become children of the light.
Furthermore,
through the work of the Holy Spirit, who, as we confess in our creeds,
“proceeds from the Father and the Son,” we have been illuminated so we don’t
stumble around in the darkness of despair or despondency but bask in the light
of the truth.
Do
we know how wonderful this is?
Just
like Isaiah’s original audience, we are at times in need of encouragement. Because all of us go through personal times
of darkness – occasions when times are tough or God seems to not be answering
our prayers or things just don’t seem to be working out the way we’d hope. Spiritually it may not be pitch black, but there
are times in our lives when it seems like we’re walking in the dusk; days when
we’re living in the shadow-lands.
Then
we recall the promises of Christ. “I am
with you always,” He says. “Fear not,”
He says. “I will never leave you or
forsake you,” He says. “Keep your eyes
on me, not on the waves swirling around you,” He says. And it’s like turning on a light in a dark
room. The light of God’s pronouncements
and promises “chase the shades of night
away and turn the darkness into day” (CW 183).
So
the personal application of the Epiphany message to ourselves is this: We are receivers of the Light. We know Jesus is the Son of God, our
Savior. By the grace of God His
“epiphany” has not been lost to us. Which
means we are the ones who possess “the light of life” – fulfilled life
in the present and eternal life forevermore.
This is the glory that is ours.
And
what we have received, we also reflect before a watching world. Naturally.
Joyfully. Under no sense of outward
compulsion, but driven by the inner conviction that we are redeemed, restored,
forgiven. Just grateful to live as
emissaries of the King.
Jesus
Christ is the Son of God. Jesus Christ
is the Savior of the world. Our
Savior. This is the message – and the
personal impact – of Epiphany: We can arise and shine because we know the light has come.
Perhaps
the early Christians were on to something when they made today second only to
Easter in high holy days. Blessings of
the Epiphany to us all. Amen.