The Light that drives out Darkness

Isaiah 9:1-7.   Psalm 27:1-14.   1Corinthians 1:10-18.   Matthew 4:12-23

There once was a man named Gideon

Who fought the army of Midian

There was a great fight

He put them to flight

And so the nation was rid of them.

I am sure you all know the story of Gideon and the fleece…but I’ll retell the story anyway, just to refresh your memories and to give you some background information. As punishment for Israel’s sin, the Lord allowed the Midianites to rule over them for a time. Now, the Midianites were so cruel that many of the Israelites ran away and hid in caves in the mountains. And whenever the Israelites planted crops, the Midianites would come and destroy everything, leaving the people nothing to eat. After a while, the situation became so desperate that the people cried out to the Lord for His intervention. Just as an aside, have you ever wondered why it always takes a trial to get us on our knees? How much easier life would be if we simply stayed humble and obedient and dependent on the Lord! 

Be that as it may, God heard the cry of His people and He sent them a prophet who said: “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘I brought you up out of slavery in Egypt. I rescued you from the Egyptians and from all who oppressed you. I drove out your enemies and gave you their land. I told you, ‘I am the Lord your God. You must not worship the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you now live.’ But you have not listened to Me.’” In other words, God said, “I did everything to set you free and I told you how to live, but you did not listen and now you are bearing the consequences of your own bad decisions.” Does that sound familiar at all?

Nevertheless, in spite of the fact that they certainly did not deserve it, God raised up a savior for them. The Angel of the Lord paid a rather unlikely chap called Gideon a visit. He greeted him with the words, “Mighty hero, the Lord is with you!” Now, listen to Gideon’s reply, “Sir, if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? And where are all the miracles our ancestors told us about? Didn’t they say, ‘The Lord brought us up out of Egypt’? But now the Lord has abandoned us and handed us over to the Midianites.” So, in Gideon’s mind, whose fault was it? God’s fault, right? “You’ve abandoned us God!” No mention of sin or guilt or repentance…I digress…

Then the Lord turned to Gideon and said, “Go with the strength you have, and rescue Israel from the Midianites. I am sending you.” “But Lord,” Gideon replied, “how can I rescue Israel? My clan is the weakest in the whole tribe of Manasseh, and I am the least in my entire family!” You can just imagine the Lord rolling His eyes as He repeated, “I will be with you.” And then He added as a word of encouragement, “You will destroy the Midianites as if you were fighting against one man.” 

Now you know the rest of the story…God’s explicit promise to be with him was still not enough…no, Gideon had to ask for a sign, not once but twice. The first time involved a sacrifice that the Lord consumed with a flash of fire from the tip of His staff. The second time was the famous fleece sign…wet on the fleece, dry on the ground, and then dry on the fleece and wet on the ground. Only then did Gideon go and fight against the Midianites. And, as God had said, he and a small army of 300 defeated the Midianites and released Israel from bondage. 

Now, you may be wondering, why am I telling you the story of Gideon when we read from Isaiah, Corinthians, and Matthew? Well, I’ll tell you. Because in verse 4 of Isaiah 9 God tells His people through the prophet that the Child to be born will be like the mighty warrior Gideon. Look at verse 4. God says that He (the Child to be born) will “break the yoke of their slavery and lift the heavy burden from their shoulders.” He would “break the oppressor’s rod, just as you (plural) did when you (plural) destroyed the army of Midian.” Now for the Israelites the connection was clear. This Child, though seemingly insignificant would banish the dark clouds of oppression and despair, just like Gideon. 

You see, the time being addressed here in Isaiah was very similar to the time of Gideon. What we didn’t read this morning in Isaiah chapter 8 is that Israel was in bondage once again because they had once again disobeyed His Word. In verse 20 God said, “People who contradict My Word are completely in the dark. They will go from one place to another, weary and hungry. And because they are hungry, they will rage and curse their king and their God. They will look up to heaven and down at the earth, but wherever they look, there will be trouble and anguish and dark despair. (So) they will be thrown out into the darkness.” And it is into that darkness that the Light of this Child would come to shine…and the darkness would not be able to overcome the Light…that Light would drive out the darkness.

I really want you to see how things have not changed much in spite of the fact that these words were written thousands of years ago in very different geo-political and socio-economical settings. When people turn from God they turn from the only source of truth…and so they stumble around in the dark and the more they stumble the more angry they become and they curse their leaders and they even blame God for their predicament. And as then, so too today, the only solution to this darkness is the Light…there is no other way. People may look up to the heavens and seek help from the planets and the stars, or they may look down to the earth and consult mediums and call up the dead for guidance or gaze into crystals or look to political leaders for help, but there will be nothing but trouble and despair and darkness.

But the Lord says that this darkness will not continue on forever…not then and not now. Matthew clearly associated the Light predicted in Isaiah with Jesus…the Child born to rule eternally and universally. Matthew believed that Jesus’ move to Capernaum, beside the Sea of Galilee, in the region of Zebulun and Naphtali was in fulfilment of Isaiah’s prophecy: “In the land of Zebulun and Naphtali, beside the sea, beyond the river Jordan, in Galilee where so many Gentiles live, the people who sat in darkness have seen a great Light. And for those who lived in the land where death casts its shadow, a Light has shined.” 

From the prophecy of Isaiah, especially with reference to the defeat of the Midianites through the warrior Gideon, one can understand why the Jews at the time of Jesus were expecting a warrior king who would defeat the Romans…but Jesus’ battle was not against flesh and blood. His battle was far greater than Gideons with far greater consequences. Jesus’ battle was against the greatest enemy of humankind…Jesus’ battle was against death itself and the only way to defeat death was to defeat Satan and sin…and that could only be done through the death of a sinless human being.

That is what makes the death of Jesus all the more fantastic. God was not at fault, although that has never stopped people from saying He was and is. It was humanity that turned its collective back on their Creator. We disobeyed. We disregarded His Word. We are the ones who see ourselves as something greater than what we are…but what are we anyway in the scheme of things? 

That was the problem in Corinth…some thought they were better than others in the church because of their spiritual pedigree…but all were equal as all were in need of forgiveness and salvation and all had been saved from sin through the gracious sacrifice of Jesus of Himself once for all on the cross. 

You see, we all have the same problem…we all think we are better than others…down through the centuries, we have looked down on those who are not in the same class or caste, or who do not speak the same language, or who do not have as much money, or who do not have the same education, or the same skin color or the same whatever…we think we are better than what they are. But what are we? We are nothing. We came from dust and we will return to dust…where will all our greatness be then? Where will our boasting be? Our arguments? Our so-called wisdom? Our wealth and possessions? 

But in spite of our deluded haughtiness…in spite of our self-centeredness and selfishness…in spite of our disregard for others and for God Himself…the Child Who would be called the wonderful counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, and the Prince of Peace would break into our self-created darkness and shine His light on us, setting us free from self-inflicted banishment and oppression. 

And so, together with the Psalmist, we who are in the Light can say, “The Lord is my Light and My salvation – so why should I be afraid?”

Isn’t it just amazing? Amazing grace! Amazing love! That He who did no wrong would give Himself for those who did Him wrong. We sell ourselves out to sin and then we dare to question Him! We fight, we argue, we bicker, we bite…because we want it all…our way or the highway…while He…He denied it all and took on the form of the lowliest slave and obeyed God in everything even when it meant dying a criminal’s death on the cross, paying a penalty for a crime that was ours, not His. That, dearest beloved brethren, that is the power of the Light that dispels all darkness. 

And that Light shines here ever so brightly through the Eucharist once again this Sunday for all to see. Here He calls out to us again from the Table that represents His love and acceptance and forgiveness and grace and mercy through the sacrifice of His Son once for all. His Body broken for us…His blood shed for us…His life given for our lives. The Child whose birth we celebrated a few weeks ago, now rules and reigns as universal King in justice and fairness and as the Light of the world, He shines into us, sharing with us His very life…and He requires of us to take that which He gives…His life and His light and His love…He requires of us to take His light into the darkness of this present world and to shine. Just as Gideon led out the 300, so He too leads us out…we few…to conquer that which oppresses and divides and crushes our fellow human beings. 

Dearest brothers and sisters in Jesus, will you contradict His Word? Will you disobey His Word? Will you take what He has given and keep it only for yourself? 

Or will you follow His lead into battle and bring His peaceful reign to bear upon this village of ours, this country of ours, this continent of ours, this world of ours? 

Let your light so shine before humanity, Jesus said, so that they might see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven. So, beloved brethren…let us shine…

© Johannes W H van der Bijl 2020

Is Jesus Really God?

Isaiah 42:1-9.   Psalm 29.   Acts 10:34-43.   Matthew 3:13-17

It comes as no surprise to learn that there are many people today who do not believe that Jesus is God, if they know about Him at all, that is. Even some who would identify themselves with the Church and mainstream Christianity have denied His deity, claiming that He was a prophet, a good man, a moral teacher, and the like. Muslims do not believe that Jesus is God…they honor Him, but only as a prophet inferior to Mohammed. They argue that there are many verses in the Bible that seem to teach that Jesus is not God and that Jesus never clearly claimed to be God…

Take John 17:3 as an example. Jesus was praying to God the Father and He said: “And this is the way to have eternal life – to know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, the one You sent to earth.” This is very similar to the teaching of Islam…that there is only one God and that Jesus was merely one sent to proclaim that truth. Or what about John 14:28 where Jesus stated: “The Father is greater than I”? This seems to indicate that not only is Jesus separate from God, but He is inferior to Him. And then there’s Mark 10:18 where the rich young man asked Jesus, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” To which Jesus responded, “Why do you call Me good? Only God is truly good.” 

In the Gospels, Jesus prayed to God, He told people to worship God alone…He told people that He could do nothing apart from God, that only God knew the day and the hour of the end of the age, and so on. Jesus is also portrayed as limited and finite in the Gospels, he called Himself a prophet, and referred to Himself as the Son of Man. But the cherry on the cake for many who deny the deity of Christ is that, to them, Jesus never actually clearly claimed to be God. In the Old Testament, God claimed divinity repeatedly, as in our Isaiah reading: “I AM the Lord; that is My name! I will not give My glory to anyone else, nor share My praise with carved idols.” So here’s the question: If Jesus was God, why did He not say so? Why did He not come out and simply say: “I AM God. Worship Me.”? 

Now, of course, taken in isolation, as I have just done, these verses I mentioned as well as quite a few others seem to threaten our faith in Jesus as God…but therein lies the problem. Every one of these verses has a context and needs to be interpreted in terms of that context…not only the immediate context of the chapter or even the book, but of the whole Bible. 

For example: A number of the verses I quoted from or alluded to came from the Gospel of John…but John started and ended his Gospel by clearly proclaiming Jesus to be God. “In the beginning,” John wrote,” the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. He existed in the beginning with God. God created everything through Him, and nothing was created except through Him. The Word gave life to everything that was created, and His life brought light to everyone.” And John clearly identified this “Word” with Jesus in verse 14, “So the Word became human and made His home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen His glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son.” 

You see, you simply cannot extract verses from their context and build a case against what the whole context clearly claims. I am sure everyone of us can think of a time when something we said was taken out of context and used to say something we did not say! Likewise, one has to understand biblical verses in the light of other biblical verses and interpret them together as a whole in a balanced manner. 

For instance, should someone ask: “How can Jesus be God and the Father be God and yet the one be inferior or lesser than the other?”, we can point them to the words of the great ancient hymn quoted by the Apostle Paul in Philippians 2:5-8: “You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had,” Paul wrote. “Though He was God, He did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, He gave up His divine privileges; He took the humble position of a slave and was born a human being. When He appeared in human form, He humbled Himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross.” 

In other words, as I have said many times before, although Jesus never ceased to be God, He voluntarily limited Himself to the constraints of humanity so that He might not only demonstrate how we ought to live as believers, but also so that He might fulfil the requirements of the penalty for the curse our forebears brought upon our race in the Garden of Eden…the penalty for sin was death and as every human being has sinned and falls short of the glory of God, no human can ever give or sacrifice himself or herself for another…we each pay the penalty for our own sin…that is, until Jesus took upon Himself human form and died as a sinless human being for all sinful humanity. 

So why didn’t Jesus openly proclaim Himself to be God from the outset of His ministry? The reason is simple…He chose to wait for the right moment. 

Now remember, even before Jesus started His ministry, John the Baptist had indirectly called Jesus God when he answered the questions of the priests and temple assistants. When asked, “Who are you?” John replied: “I am a voice shouting in the wilderness, clear the way for the Lord’s coming.” This composite quotation came from two prophetic books, Isaiah and Malachi, both referring to the coming of God Himself. In other words, John said the One coming after him would be God. 

But while people like John the Baptist and the Gospel authors also identified Jesus as God, and while the demonic forces declared Him to be the Holy One of God, Jesus Himself waited…He waited until the mockery of a trial where He quoted from three well-known Old Testament Scriptures to bring to a climax His life and His ministry, namely Exodus 3:14, Daniel 7:13, and Psalm 110:1. When asked under oath if He was the Messiah, the Son of the Blessed One, Jesus bluntly replied, “I AM. And you will see the Son of Man seated at the place of power at God’s right hand and coming on the clouds of heaven.” The High Priest knew exactly what Jesus was saying and therefore tore his robe in horror as he exclaimed, “Why do we need other witnesses? You have heard His blasphemy.” 

You see, unlike so many Christians today, the Jews knew the Scriptures well and they knew that by saying “I AM” Jesus was equating Himself with the God who revealed Himself to Moses as I AM in Exodus 3: “I AM WHO I AM,” God told Moses. In saying He would be seated at the right hand of God He was alluding to Psalm 110: 1, “The Lord said to My Lord, sit at My right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.” And in Daniel 7:13 we read, “I saw someone like a son of man (a title Jesus often used when referring to Himself) coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient One and was led into His presence. He was given authority, honor, and sovereignty over all the nations of the world, so that people of every race and nation and language would obey Him. His rule is eternal – it will never end. His kingdom will never be destroyed.” Only God rode on the clouds as chariots in the Old Testament. Only God could rule over the world eternally. Here was a clear if not a blunt claim from the lips of Jesus Himself…I AM God in human form, and soon I will lead all who believe in me to freedom from slavery to sin, death, and the devil and I will reign as Messianic King over the universe…AND…while you are now seated in judgement over ME, at the time, I will be seated in judgement over you.

Now, there are many other Scriptures I could mention, such as the calming of the sea or Jesus walking on the waves…God does both in the Old Testament as we saw in our Psalm for today…but I am sure I am preaching to the choir. We believe that Jesus is God…we say as much every Sunday when we recite the Nicene Creed.

But think on this for a moment. What kind of love is this? What kind of God is this who denies His divine privileges to take on human form so that as a human He could pay a penalty He Himself had pronounced? It is through the shedding of His blood that the God-Man, Jesus brought about peace between humanity and their Creator, and it is through His Body broken that those who believe in Him will have their sins forgiven in His name. 

This is why I love the Eucharist as every time I come to His table I am reminded of how much my God loves me…in spite of me…He loves me enough to die for me, even though I most certainly don’t deserve it! But more, dear brothers and sisters…the Eucharist tells me that Jesus is Who He claimed to be…He is God come in human flesh to conquer sin and death and to release me from bondage to Satan as only God could accomplish this task. 

So, as you come to partake of these great symbols of love unbounded, be assured of His acceptance in the beloved and know that you are safely hidden in Him for eternity.

© Johannes W H van der Bijl 2020