The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light

 

 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, after His Baptism by John the Baptist,  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: . . . "   Matthew quotes from Isaiah 9:1-2, a prophesy of the coming of Christ.  My study Bible comments that the term Galilee of the Gentiles indicates that many non-Jews lived in the region.  As Galilee had a mixed population, it says, it was not considered to be a genuinely Jewish land, although many Gentile residents had converted to Judaism during the Maccabean period.  As much of the Jewish population there had been influenced by Greek culture and customs, they were generally looked upon as 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.  Here it is a representation of the Gentiles' unawareness of God, and the Jews being under the shadow of the Old Covenant.  To sit in darkness means to be overcome by spiritual ignorance.  The great light is the gospel of Jesus Christ.  As we can see from Isaiah's prophecy, this darkness of spiritual ignorance has an association with death and evil.

From that time Jesus began to preach and to say, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand."  Christ's first word in His preaching, like that of John the Baptist, is Repent."  My study Bible comments that the kingdom of heaven is present wherever Christ is.

In the use of Isaiah's prophecy, we see how Scripture is meant to work.  There are echoes of truths throughout the Old and New Testaments; things which are foreshadowed in the Old manifest themselves through Christ's ministry and Incarnation -- right through to Ascension -- in the New.  It is important to understand Scripture as its own kind of literature:  it's not a history textbook, it's not a how-to book, it's not like any other kind of literature.  One thing we can note here is its sense of timelessness, of being outside of time.  Or rather, time is something that is intersected by this place from which literature comes.  Where the kingdom of heaven is, there is no sense of boundaries by time; it is something always "present."  So when the Isaiah is given a prophecy about the great light that dawns in Galilee of the Gentiles, its root is from this place Christ calls the kingdom of heaven, as we know that Isaiah lived and gave his prophecies in approximately the 8th century BC, long before the Galilee of the Gentiles existed and before the birth and ministry of Jesus Christ.  But this is how prophecy works:  it comes out of an experience given to some of the kingdom of heaven, and the prophets in turn give that to us.  Time is immaterial in this sense that the kingdom is present to those who experience it and in turn present what they are given to us.  Of course, we don't know this Kingdom in its true fullness, but we are given glimpses; God visits us in these forms, and manifested as both divine and human in one Man, Jesus Christ.  This is the center of our faith.  Jesus teaches, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand."  In the context of what we have just reviewed of the prophecy of Isaiah and its meaning, what do we make of this?  We know that the prophets themselves, such as Isaiah, were frequently persecuted, out of sorts with the world, deliberately called out of the world to serve God -- especially at times of great corruption, to call people back to God and to God's message.  Here is Jesus, God made manifest as human being, fully God and fully human, who teaches us that this kingdom of heaven is present with Him, and He, like the prophets before Him (particularly in the word of John the Baptist from chapter 3), teaches us to repent in order to successfully meet that Kingdom, and to receive it.  The fact that today's reading tells us that Jesus begins His preaching when He knows John has been imprisoned further indicates that this present message is reflected through time.  When Jesus sends out the apostles on their first mission, He will teach them to say the same, that the kingdom of heaven is at hand (Matthew 10:7), that it has drawn near.  This is because, as those sent out by Christ, the apostles carry that Kingdom with them, and they go before Him announcing the "good news," the gospel of Christ -- the same way a messenger would be sent out to announce the gospel (εὐαγγέλιον/evangelion) or great message of Caesar or another earthly ruler.  And in that same sense that anything with Caesar's stamp or image on it indicated Caesar's presence and the presence of his realm, so the kingdom of heaven is present where there is an image or icon of Jesus Christ -- most especially where we seek to worship and to honor Him, and within ourselves as we learn that each one of us is made in the image and likeness of God, and to bear that image and likeness into the world.  If all of this sounds confusing, it is meant simply to mean this:  that God is with us (Matthew 1:23), the kingdom of heaven is present to us (Matthew 3:2, 4:17, 10:7), and that it is within us (Luke 17:21).  But we will not realize it without faith (the work of God), and the repentance which accompanies that faith, as we also grow in this image and participate in the Kingdom through worship, prayer, and the sacraments.  But let us consider how this great light dawns in our lives, to dispel our own darkness, to teach us in the love of God, revealed through the beautiful poetry of Isaiah and the gospel of Jesus Christ.  We would do well to remember that this is an ongoing  process and continues today in our world and in us, at all times present and at hand in this way.