Epiphany (Observed) 2023

Text: Isaiah 60:1 “1 Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.”

People of Light or Darkness?

Over the past few weeks, you’ve heard Isaiah use quite a few beautiful images to describe God’s deliverance. You’ve heard Isaiah foresee the child whose name would be called “Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace” (Isaiah 9:7). You’ve heard him promise that His rule would bring such peace that “6 The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together; and a little child shall lead them” (Isaiah 11:6). Now, today, you’ve heard another powerful image of God’s deliverance: “Arise, shine, for your light has come” (Isaiah 60:1).

If that image doesn’t resonate with us, here, in Michigan, in winter, then I don’t know what would. In other places, people talk wistfully about getting up early and enjoying the sunrise or taking the time in the evening, at the end of the day, to enjoy a sunset. Here, you can sleep in and still get to see the sunrise. There’s a pretty good chance you’ll see the sunset because it’s about mid-afternoon. Have we had two sunny days in the last month? I doubt it. That darkness takes its toll. It takes a toll physically; it takes a toll mentally; it takes a toll emotionally.

Today— in the midst of all that darkness— you are comforted by those precious words of Isaiah: Arise, shine. Your light has come. And that beautiful image is paired, this morning, to the very fitting account of the Epiphany: the wise men following the star— literally the nations flowing to the light.

Of course, if that were the only darkness that you had to contend with in your life, we wouldn’t need to be here. You can already feel the daylight starting to get a little bit longer each day— the sun rising just a minute earlier, the sky getting dark just a minute later. Who knows, we might even see a sunny day at some point?!

That’s not the only darkness you must contend with. You live in a world of darkness 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year— a world of spiritual darkness. And that darkness does not get any less day by day.

In fact, it would be hard to overstate the spiritual darkness of this world. The bloodshed, the wars, the senseless violence are bad enough, but they’re only the tip of the iceberg.

You and I live under the curse of darkness. All men are darkened in their minds and in their hearts. You and I are not immune.

The hearts of all men are filled with darkness.

The hearts are all men are full of animosity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, division, envy... (Galatians 5:19-21).

You continue to turn to anything and everything to guard you against the fear of the future rather than trusting in the One True God. (It’s really amazing how our society has turned its back on God only to embrace even the stupidest forms of superstition like horoscopes and the like.)

Your minds are so filled with darkness that you try to comfort yourselves by forbidding people from speaking what is Right and True and insisting that evil be called good.

Truth is uncomfortable, at best, and deeply offensive, at worst. So you and I cloak ourselves in lies, as long as they justify how you think and feel. Conspiracy theories become your crutch instead of the simple reality that this world is corrupted by the sin of all men.

Meanwhile, the best answer this world can offer is to try to darken your mind to the darkness through drunkenness and sexual immorality.

You live in a world of darkness. And you and I are not immune from the darkness. Your sins are far more sanitary, of course. They’re carefully explained and excusable and justified. They’re safely tucked away out of sight. They’re covered with the veneer of respectability— “That’s just how business is done today.” You’re not immune from the darkness and your relationships, your homes, even your very bodies themselves, carry the scars to prove it.

In countless ways in our world— and in your life— St. John’s words are proved true: “People loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil” (John 3:19).

Your Light Has Come

To those people— to you— Isaiah says, “Arise, shine.”

St. John’s words were also true when he wrote: “9 The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world” (John 1:9).

John didn’t describe Jesus’ birth. But he did want to make it very clear who that child was: “In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” (John 1:4-5).

The darkness did try. On Holy Thursday, the forces of darkness moved to arrest Jesus. And Luke records Jesus pointing out what was happening: “53 When I was with you day after day in the temple, you did not lay hands on me. But this is your hour, and the power of darkness” (Luke 22:53).

Through that night He was put on trial and every possible lie was marshalled in order to try to snuff out His life from this earth. In the end, they condemned Him to death for speaking the truth. And the following day brought such darkness that the sun hid its face.

But the physical darkness that day did not compare to the darkness that Jesus had taken upon Himself on the way to the cross.

He took the darkness of your heart and your mind upon Himself. And, on the cross, He snuffed out the darkness once and for all.

That very dark day, the darkness did its worst in order to try to snuff that Light out of this world. It seemed to have its way until, finally, just before sunset, He was laid in the darkness of the tomb. But even the darkness of death could not overcome Him.

That first Easter morning, a Light rose that can not ever be hidden, that can not ever be denied, that can not ever be snuffed out.

On that morning the words of Zechariah were fulfilled: “In the tender compassion of our God, the dawn from on high shall break upon us, to shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death and to guide our feet into the way of peace.”

Arise, Shine!

“Arise, shine. Your light has come.”

You need no star to point you to Him. He dispels the darkness by the bright light of the Gospel. In the light of His Word you see that true Light coming into the world that illumines all people (John 1:9; Gerhard, Johann. “Thanksgiving for Calling Through the Word,” Meditations on Divine Mercy. Concordia Publishing House.).

“8 [A]t one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light 9 (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true)” (Ephesians 5:8-9).

“[You were] blind and loved blindness and walked through the darkness of sin toward the darkness of hell. But [Christ], my illuminator, sought the one who was not seeking [Him]. [He] called the one who was not calling to [Him]. [He] converted the one who was not converted to [Him]” (Gerhard, Johann. “Thanksgiving for Conversion,” Meditations on Divine Mercy. Concordia Publishing House.).

“6 God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in [your] hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:6).

You shine as lights in this world, in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, holding fast to the word of life (Philippians 2:15).

No, this world is certainly not getting any less dark, day by day. But the day is coming when Your Savior will return and usher in a new heaven and a new earth where “5 Night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever” (Revelation 22:5).

“The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light” (Romans 13:12).

Cast off your idolatry, sorcery and superstition, animosity, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, divisions, drunkenness, sexual immorality, and all the rest (Galatians 5:19-22).

“Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them” (Ephesians 5:11). Expose them by confessing them and receiving the light of absolution into every last corner of your heart and mind.

Because “5 you are all children of light, children of the day. [You] are not of the night or of the darkness” (1 Thessalonians 5:5).

So Isaiah’s words ring out this morning, both as prophecy and as a promise to you: “Arise, shine. Your light has come!”