Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
The text this morning is from the prophet Isaiah, the 60th chapter:
Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the Lord will arise upon you, and his glory will be seen upon you. And nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising. Lift up your eyes all around, and see; they all gather together, they come to you; your sons shall come from afar, and your daughters shall be carried on the hip. Then you shall see and be radiant; your heart shall thrill and exult, because the abundance of the sea shall be turned to you, the wealth of the nations shall come to you. A multitude of camels shall cover you, the young camels of Midian and Ephah; all those from Sheba shall come. They shall bring gold and frankincense, and shall bring good news, the praises of the Lord.
Thus far the text.
Dear friends in Christ,
Today, in the calendar of the Church, is all about the visit of the Magi to the child Jesus. We call it Epiphany. But it is more than just a visit from the Magi. It's about what God will do among all the nations. As Isaiah prophesies about this visit, the Magi coming to the Lord Jesus with their gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh, they would be at the forefront of the coming of the Lord to all people, not just the Jews, but also the Gentiles. What would start with a slow trickle of these men and their gifts would soon grow into a deluge at Pentecost and out into the whole world and across time and space.
In fact, we could say that if it were not for the sign of these Magi coming to Jesus here, we should be suspicious that the Lord had even come from us. For very few, if any, of us gathered today have Jewish blood within us. In fact, it is more likely that we have none whatsoever. So, for us who are Gentiles, if we were lead to believe that this Messiah was only for the Jews and not for us Gentile dogs and sinners, we would have no hope.
But, you see what God is up to here. He is using pagan practices and pagan men to bring about His glory. And how is this done? The same way that the Lord uses Jewish practices and Jewish men to bring about His glory.
For He sent His Son, Jesus the Christ, into our flesh, that He might be born in a small city south of Jerusalem, Bethlehem. And this young boy would be loved and cared for by His parents, when one day the Magi would appear at their doorstep, having seen in the stars a sign that showed them that the King of Israel had been born.
This King of Israel was one that no one expected at that time, save those illumined by faith. And yet, the light of the Lord had come into that little town of Bethlehem in order that it would overcome the darkness.
What darkness is this? The darkness that covers over all things, leading people to stumble in the dark, moving around the world like an aimless wind-up toy, when, given enough time, topples over the steps and into the pit of hell. This darkness is indeed our own sin, the sin that separated us from the very image of God Himself, the sin that, if it could, would kill God, grabbing Him by the throat and drowning Him. Our sin, the Scriptures tell us, causes us to HATE God from our conception, we would rather He die, we’d love to kill Him ourselves. But, of course, that is impossible to do.
But, just as God declared His judgment on the world and drowned in the flood all those evil men and women and children who did not trust in Him, just as God declared His judgment upon Egypt and toward Pharaoh and his army in the Red sea, God also spared Noah and His family in the flood of water by placing them in the ark, and God spared Israel as they walked through the Red Sea, leading them by a pillar of cloud and fire. Though we desire to kill God, God desires to make us truly alive. And He does this in the way that He promised, through water. And so, He, in the light of His Christ, has promised us that, when we are washed by the water and the Word, He will send His Holy Spirit to us, to bring to us salvation by grace through faith.
This is how the darkness is overcome. The darkness cannot hold its defenses against the light. Even the smallest match can illuminate your way in the darkness. Imagine when the sun all of the sudden appears as if it had been under a dark blanket. Everything is illumined, everything is brought to light. There are no shadows, there is no more darkness, for the darkness only recedes against this light.
And so it is for you, that the Son of God, being brought to you by the Holy Spirit in the washing of regeneration and renewal, Baptism, and in the Lord’s Crucified and Risen Body and Blood in the Lord’s Supper, so it is that you have received the true Light and grow and are strengthened in the true Light, the Light of Christ. The Light has penetrated you and sends the darkness fleeing. That Light is Christ, it is the faith that He has granted to you. It is what brought these Magi to the Christ child.
For here, the nations shall come to this light, and so they have. Following the star of Bethlehem, they sought after the true King of Israel. The light of the world shone towards them, illuminating their hearts and their minds to follow after this Christ Jesus, seeking Him with all the wealth they could muster. They came from afar, traveling over deserts and mountains, risking life and limb, all to come to this child. What is it that would draw these men in such a way?
Only faith. Only faith given to them by the Spirit. Only the desire to look upon the face of Christ, the face of the one who has always been, yet deigned to come into this world and take on our human flesh. The face of one who would grow though His childhood, changing a little every day. Learning to roll over, learning to sit up, learning to crawl, and to walk. Learning to feed Himself. Learning to talk. Growing in size and shape. Changing His face and His body, even through puberty, but still always is and has been the Son of God, the second person of the Trinity. And soon, this Jesus would grow to be a man, and having lived a perfect life, laid that righteousness down upon the shoulders of all people, so that He could be lifted up upon that accursed tree and die for the sins of the whole world, and be resurrected on the third day. This is the face those Magi saw.
And it is the face that we see and shall soon see. His is the body we eat. His is the blood we drink. His is the water that washes us. His is the hand that does all these things.
But this is our hope, this Epiphany, that Christ did come for us, even though we are Gentiles, and Gentiles sinners at that. Paul tells us this is our hope, that somehow, even we are fellow heirs with Christ because we are partakers of the Gospel. For this Christ did indeed die for the whole world. He did indeed care for all people to be crucified for them. And this causes us, just as Isaiah said, to thrill and exult. I know, Lutherans don’t like to get rowdy during worship, and we shouldn’t. But, what this does mean is that we respond to the coming of the Lord with joy and thanksgiving.
We thrill at the sound that He has forgiven us. We exult in the reading of His psalms. We thrill at the hearing of His Word. We exult in the prayers we pray to Him. We thrill at the reception of His sacraments. We exult in the singing of His hymns. We thrill and exult that He then sends us into the world, the world that He came into, the world that He still occupies, to go about our daily business and do those things, those vocations, He has called us to do.
For this is what the Lord has done. He has come into this world to bring to you this faith that hears and understands His Word for you, that you are forgiven all of your sins, all of them, even the sin of being a pagan, a Gentile sinner, a Gentile dog. But, I must warn you, this news, this very Good News, this is only found as the Church delivers it, any congregation and people that teach the Word of God in its fullness and rightly delivers the Sacraments, because only in the Church is the manifold wisdom of God made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. Only in the Church is God’s Word preached. Only in the Church are Christ’s sacraments delivered.
You will not find these things, Word and Sacrament, outside the walls in the sin-filled world. For remember, the world has hated Christ since our fall into sin. It has hated God since the beginning. So, you will not find God’s Good News for anyone out there, not at the bottom of a beer, nor in an ice-house, nor in a stand, nor in your bed, or anywhere in your own home. You will only find God’s Good News of Jesus Christ, His Word and Sacrament, where He has promised to be: His Church.
Though this seems harsh, remember, God has made you the Church. He has given these promises to you. He has come to be with you. Just as He illumined those Magi long ago to travel from afar to come and worship Him, so He has also illumined you so that you be here with us, in the one body of all believers, all of the saints, for all time. And so He illumines all those called by the Gospel that they would come and hear and receive the good works and news of the Lord Jesus Christ.
This is what Epiphany is all about, truly, that all people, Jew and Gentile alike are invited to this house of the Lord to receive His good gifts. Though you have much darkness in this world, though you may have much darkness in your heart, take heart, for Jesus has overcome the world, and He shall soon raise you up without sin, without corruption, so that you, by the hearing of His Word and reception of His sacraments, may be with Him forever. This is the Good News of Epiphany. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Now may the peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord! Amen.
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