The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light, and upon those who sat in the region and shadow of death light has dawned

Valaam Monastery

 Now when Jesus heard that John had been put in prison, He departed to Galilee.  And leaving Nazareth, He came and dwelt in Capernaum, which is by the sea, in the regions of Zebulun and Naphtali, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying:

"The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali,
By the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan,
Galilee of the Gentiles:
The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light,
And upon those who sat in the region and shadow of death
Light has dawned."

From that time Jesus began to preach and to say, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand."

- Matthew 4:12-17

Yesterday we read that Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.  And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterward He was hungry.  Now when the tempter came to Him, he said, "If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread."  But He answered and said, "It is written, 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.' "  Then the devil took Him up into the holy city, set Him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, "If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down.  For it is written:  'He shall give His angels charge over you,' and, 'In their hands they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone.' "  Jesus said to him, "It is written again, 'You shall not tempt the LORD your God.' "  Again, the devil took Him up on an exceedingly high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory.  And he said to Him, "All these things I will give You if You will fall down and worship me."  Then Jesus said to him, "Away with you, Satan!  For it is written, 'You shall worship the LORD your God, and Him only you shall serve.' "    Then the devil left Him, and behold, angels came and ministered to Him.

 Now when Jesus heard that John had been put in prison, He departed to Galilee.  And leaving Nazareth, He came and dwelt in Capernaum, which is by the sea, in the regions of Zebulun and Naphtali, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying:
"The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, by the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan,  Galilee of the Gentiles: . . .."  My study bible tells us that the term Galilee of the Gentiles is an indication that there were many non-Jews living in Galilee.  As it had a mixed population, Galilee was not considered to be genuinely Jewish, although many Gentile residents had converted to Judaism in the Maccabean period.  As many Jews there were influenced by Greek culture and customs, they were generally considered to be second-class citizens by the Jews of Judea.

" . . . The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light, and upon those who sat in the region and shadow of death light has dawned."  My study bible explains that darkness means ungodliness.  In yesterday's reading we observed in a detail of an icon that the devil is always represented in darkness, and this imagery is consistent with that which does not share in the light.  Here "darkness" is used as metaphor to represent the Gentiles' unawareness of God, and the Jews under the shadow of the Old Covenant.  My study bible says that to sit in darkness means to be overcome by spiritual ignorance.  The great light is the gospel of Jesus Christ.  The entire quotation here is from Isaiah 9:1-2.

From that time Jesus began to preach and to say, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand."  My study bible notes that Christ's first word echoes that of John the Baptist:  "Repent" (see this reading).  It adds that the kingdom of heaven is present wherever Christ is.

Jesus deliberately returns to the place of His childhood, Galilee, after He has heard that John the Baptist has been put in prison.  John is imprisoned in Galilee, as well, by the one who rules there, Herod Antipas, who is tetrarch of Galilee.  Everything begins here in this region of both Jews and Gentiles, highly influenced by the classical Hellenistic culture of ancient Greece, but also a population of many converts to Judaism as well.  In the ancient world, it was actually common for Jews to become Greeks (as to be "Greek" was to live life by certain tenets) and Greeks to become Jews (see this passage).   We are also given images of light and darkness, contrasting the illumination or "enlightenment" of God with the darkness of the ignorance of God, and in particular, of the good news of the gospel message.  But Jesus' first word, like that of John the Baptist, as my study bible says, is repent.   So what we have in Christ's preaching, as a way to turn from darkness to light, is repentance as a way to facilitate transformation.  If we think of the turn from the darkness of ignorance to the light or illumination of God -- and all the things that which would mean and include -- what we are to understand is that to truly prepare for receptivity to the things offered in the light, including wisdom and all the fruits of the Spirit, we need to reconsider our own orientation to what it is we think we need and want in life.  In other words, it seems that without repentance, without this turn around, a real "change of mind" that changes us, we won't really get anywhere.  We turn from one way of life, which sees things a certain way in the darkness, to another, which opens to the spiritual light of God, of Christ.  We find that this is an ongoing process.  What we learned in childhood, for instance, may not be the best way that God calls us to see ourselves and our world and our place in it.  We may have an ongoing "enlightenment" that evolves through time.  The world will present us with particular ideas, and we need to turn in prayer to find how to think of them or respond to them.  Life continually moves in this cycle of repentance and reception of the light, a transformation ongoing.  This is what it means to grow and mature in our faith; it is a spiritual journey that continues onward.  Christ's path is a way meaning "road" in the Greek.  He calls Himself that way ("I am the way, the truth, and the life"), and this is what it means to follow Him.  Just as the disciples we will read about shortly, we are called to a particular way, and we continue on that way.  But first we must be ready to make the change -- and as do the disciples, to continue down that road that will ask for all of what is within us, and it will hand us back our lives as new, even that which we would never expect.  We do not have to live in a region of the Holy Land to understand the same elements in today's reading at work in our own lives.  When a light dawns, we need to repent to receive it, to take it in and have it truly change us -- and continue to follow and receive that light in us.  The kingdom of heaven seeks ever-fertile ground upon which to shine its light.