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The Light arises on a new Israel

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Sermon for Epiphany

Isaiah 60:1-6  +  Matthew 2:1-12

You heard again this evening the familiar story of the visit of the wise men—Gentiles who followed the star to Jerusalem and then to Bethlehem, who found and then worshiped the One who had been born King of the Jews. We’re going to let Isaiah guide us into the meaning of this Epiphany. But we’re going to take our Isaiah readings out of turn this evening, since the reading for Epiphany comes from Isaiah 60. By chapter 60, Isaiah has already focused on God’s promise to deliver Israel from captivity in Babylon. He’s already focused on God’s promise to deliver Israel from sin through the suffering and death of the Messiah. In these final chapters of Isaiah’s book, the focus now turns to the New Testament period and beyond.

Arise, shine; For your light has come! And the glory of the LORD is risen upon you. For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, And deep darkness the people; But the LORD will arise over you, And His glory will be seen upon you.

That’s the Christmas message, isn’t it? The coming of Him who is the Light of men, the coming of Him who is the radiance of God’s glory. Into the midst of the deep darkness of man’s sin, idolatry, violence, arrogance, ignorance of God, and ignorance of salvation, Israel could expect the coming of Christ as surely as the sun rises. Only to Israel would the Christ come. Only over Israel would His glory appear. The glory of the Lord shined around the shepherds of Bethlehem, not of Syria or Greece or Rome. The Christ wouldn’t show up and shine with His light in Europe or the Americas or Africa or Asia. Salvation wasn’t to be found anywhere else, in anyone else—none of the Gentile gods, none of the heathen deities, none of the pagan celebrations. Only the light of the Christ, shining brightly from the land of Israel, would be able to dispel the darkness of sin.

But Isaiah didn’t stop with the Christmas message. He continued with the Epiphany message:

The Gentiles 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 nursed at your side. Then you shall see and become radiant, And your heart shall swell with joy; Because the abundance of the sea shall be turned to you, The wealth of the Gentiles shall come to you. The multitude of camels shall cover your land, The dromedaries of Midian and Ephah; All those from Sheba shall come; They shall bring gold and incense, And they shall proclaim the praises of the LORD.

The Gentiles, or “the nations,” would be drawn to Israel, to the glorious light of Christ. That prophecy wasn’t exclusively about the coming of the wise men. But they were the first—the first non-Jews to recognize that the promised Christ had finally come, and that this King of the Jews was not only King of the Jews, but of the Gentiles, too.

The wise men were the first, but they weren’t the last. Some Gentiles heard and believed the Gospel while traveling or staying in the actual land of Israel. But most heard the Gospel as it went forth from Israel with the apostles after the Day of Pentecost and with Jewish believers in Christ who traveled outside of Israel. And never once did any of the apostles say, “Now, you Gentiles, you need to go live in the land of Israel.” No, because, in a sense, all who believed the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Savior of mankind, had already come into Israel.

They came in figuratively, not literally. Most Gentiles have never stepped foot in the land of Israel. Most have not petitioned for citizenship in the nation of Israel. And yet, according to Isaiah, and according to the apostle Paul, we Gentiles have come to Israel. Because the Israel Isaiah foresees is no longer the physical descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob dwelling on a particular plot of land. The Israel Isaiah foresees is much bigger than that.

By believing in Jesus as the Christ—sent to Israel, but sent to be the Savior of all men—we are actually bringing (or, actually, God is bringing) glory to the original people of Israel. As Gentiles, we confess readily that God chose that nation, descended from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, that He nurtured and instructed that nation, and prepared that nation for the birth of His beloved Son. By reading and believing the Old Testament Scriptures, we are bringing glory to that original people of Israel, whom God made the recipients and the caretakers of His very words to mankind. Before the time of Christ, the vast majority of God’s believing children were literally children of Israel, leaving us many, many good and godly examples to follow. And we give thanks to God for every one of them. That is God bringing glory to His Old Testament people Israel through the Light of Christ whom He sent to Israel.

But as I said, the Israel Isaiah foresees is bigger than that. The original people of Israel were preserved by God long enough to preserve His Word, long enough to get His Son born into the world, long enough to put His Son up on a cross on a hill on the outskirts of Jerusalem. He gave them the Light of His Son and of His Son’s Gospel, and He shined on them for the time He remained there. But, as we all know, the nation of Israel, as a nation, chose to go back to darkness, rejecting Jesus as the Christ.

Not so with the new Israel! The new Israel that Isaiah foresees is made up of the Jews and Gentiles who believe, who desire to walk in the light of Christ Jesus. It’s a new Israel that embraces the Lord God, which means embracing the Lord Christ. It’s a new Israel that worships God under a New Testament—not one of obedience to the Law, but a covenant of grace and the forgiveness of sins to all who believe. In effect, the new Israel, which is the holy Christian Church, is the offspring of the old Israel, not according to the flesh, but according to the spirit.

This evening we celebrate the wise men as the first Gentiles to enter into this new people of God, the first men from among the nations to come to Israel, both physically and spiritually, to worship the Christ. Physically, they departed, after worshiping Jesus and offering their gifts of gold and frankincense and myrrh. But spiritually we have every reason to believe that they remained. And you and I have joined them there, in Israel—here in Israel! —because it’s no longer a place, but a people, no longer a physical genealogy but a spiritual one. Because, as St. Paul writes to the Ephesians, through the Gospel, the Gentiles are fellow heirs with the Jews, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus. May this Epiphany (or “revelation”) of Jesus as the One born to be your King, too, fill you with all joy and peace in believing! Amen.

Source: Sermons

The radiant appearance of the King of Jews and Gentiles

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Sermon for the Epiphany of Our Lord

Isaiah 60:1-6  +  Matthew 2:1-12

Christmas is over, as of today, but Epiphany has at least as much joy for us Christians. It’s the season of light, of brightness, of the shining light of Christ, who is “a Light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of His people Israel,” as old Simeon once sang about baby Jesus. Epiphany is a Greek word that means “radiant appearing.” God’s Son was finally born into the world. And following His birth, there were many appearances, many revelations of His glory. Today, on January 6th, in the ancient Church, three such revelations were traditionally celebrated: The revelation of Jesus to the wise men as the King of Jews and Gentiles. But also the revelation of Christ as the Son of God and our Savior at His Baptism. And the revelation of Christ’s divine power and goodness at the wedding at Cana, which we’ll hear about in a couple of weeks.

For now, our Gospel turns our attention to the visit of the wise men. There was literally a light that shined on Israel at the birth of Christ—a miraculous light, a “star” that was no ordinary star, but, as Isaiah prophesied, The glory of the Lord is risen upon you…The Gentiles shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising. It led the wise men to the land of Judah. But it wasn’t really the star that led them.

There was another light that led the wise men to the Light in Israel. As the Psalm says, Your Word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path. These wise men from the East had clearly been exposed to the Holy Scriptures of the Hebrews, probably from the time of the Babylonian captivity. These wise men had learned about the LORD God of Israel and had found some of the prophecies of the Old Testament about the coming Savior-King who would be born from King David’s line and rule, not only over the Jews, but over all the nations, all the Gentiles. God used His Word to enlighten them, to bring them to understand and believe the prophecies about this divine King.

The light of the star only took them as far as Jerusalem, where they had to inquire, Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we have seen His star in the East and have come to worship Him. Now the light of the prophet Micah had to guide them, as Herod had the priests and scribes search the Scriptures for the answer: But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are not the least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you shall come a Ruler who will shepherd My people Israel. See how God always drives His people back to His Word, so that we ground our faith, not in outward signs that are so often misinterpreted, but in His sure, unfailing Word.

So the Word of God shined the light on Bethlehem. But not everyone cared to see it. The king and the priests of Jerusalem, and most of the city with them, were not happy to hear about the birth of the King of the Jews. They were “troubled,” it says. They were upset. Others were obviously apathetic; they didn’t follow the wise men to Bethlehem to worship the newborn King.

So, as we heard on Christmas morning, the light shines in the darkness, but the darkness did not comprehend it. Or as Jesus would later say, He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God. The world, in its darkness, in its idolatry, in its sin and love for sin, doesn’t love the idea of the true God sending His Son into the world. And that’s tragic, because the true God, while His Laws are demanding and His wrath is severe—the true God has given His own Son to suffer the punishment for our sins, to obey His own Law in our place, and to give us eternal life as a gift. The Son of Man came, not to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. Salvation is by faith in Him, faith that the Holy Spirit Himself creates through the light of His Word.

The Holy Spirit was resisted by most of Israel; He can be resisted. But He worked faith in the hearts of the non-Jewish wise men. They journeyed to Bethlehem, and then, led by the Word of God, they were again blessed with the light of the star to point them to the exact place where the Child was.

They found the humble Baby with His humble mother in a humble house—not a palace, not a mansion. He had no attendants, no servants, no other worshipers. Their eyes told them that this must not be the place, that He must not be the One. But Scripture told them otherwise, and they believed the Scriptures over their own eyes. They knelt before the Baby. That’s what you do in the presence of royalty, or in the presence of divinity, or in this case, both.

The gifts they gave, too, demonstrate their beliefs about this Child: gold and frankincense and myrrh.

Gold is what you give a king. Gold was the best, most expensive gift this Child could receive from the hands of men. But it wasn’t the best gift He could give to the sons of men. He would redeem us, not with gold or silver, but with His holy, precious blood, and with His innocent suffering and death. Forgiveness of sins, life and salvation are the gifts He brings. A Father in heaven to call your own. The promise of His help and guidance to make it through this life into the next. Those are the gifts that Jesus gives.

Frankincense was used to make perfume—the perfume of kings. It was required in some of the offerings the Israelites brought to the Temple, and it was used in the incense that was burned in the inner sanctuary, the incense that symbolized the prayers of God’s people rising up as a sweet-smelling aroma to God. Another fitting gift! Because Jesus was a King. He is also the one who adds Himself—His holiness—to the offerings of God’s people, to the good works that we do as believers, making them holy and acceptable in God’s sight. And He is also the One who makes our prayers acceptable to God, the One Mediator between God and man, the Man Christ Jesus.

Myrrh was also used to make perfume, and together with frankincense, it was the perfume that King Solomon, the son of David, wore for the day of His wedding, which all, in the Song of Solomon, was an allegory of the great Son of David, Jesus, and His beloved Bride, the Christian Church, made up of Jews and Gentiles—of all who believe in Him.

But there’s still more to myrrh. It was also a main ingredient in the recipe for the sacred anointing oil in the Old Testament, the oil with which prophets, priests, kings, and even the very furnishings of the Temple were to be anointed. It was used as a pain-killer and was offered to Jesus, mixed with wine, before His crucifixion, although at that time He refused it as a gift. Finally, it was one of the precious spices that Nicodemus offered as a gift to King Jesus—for the burial of His body on Good Friday. Again, such a fitting gift for the King of Jews and Gentiles, who was anointed at His Baptism as the true Prophet, Priest, King, and Savior, who, by His death and by our baptism, which unites us to His death, has saved us from sin, death and the devil.

So celebrate this Epiphany—all these epiphanies of the Lord Jesus, with great joy. For as important as His birth was, it would have meant nothing if God had kept His Son a secret from the world and hidden Him away. Instead, little by little, Christ was revealed as the promised Savior. Even now the Holy Spirit is revealing Him to you, another Epiphany, the radiant appearance of the King of Jews and Gentiles, right here in our midst, here in the Word, and here in the blessed Sacrament. Come, let us follow that light, that we, too, may worship Him all our days! Amen.

Source: Sermons