To whom does the Servant
come? The light begins in Galilee
of the nations.
As the
Sundays of Epiphany move on, the preparation for the mission to the nations is
complete and the work begins. The prophetic
reading identifies the geography of the people to whom the Servant
brings good news.
In the
Isaiah passage the nature of the good news is clearer than the geography, so we
will start with that message.
The people
who walked in darkness
have seen a great light;
those who lived
in a land of deep darkness –
on them light has shined.
You [O God] have
multiplied the nation,
you have increased its joy;
they rejoice
before you
as with joy at the harvest,
as people exult when dividing
plunder.
For the yoke of
their burden,
and the bar across their shoulders,
the rod of their oppressor
you have broken
as on the day of Midian.
This is a
message of release from occupation by foreign troops.
“The yoke of
their [the subject people’s] burden” has been removed. “The rod of their oppressor [slave-driver]”
has been broken. The population has
increased, they are joyful, exulting as in a time of bountiful harvest or a day
of great victory. (The “Day of Midian”
[verse 4] refers to Gideon’s overthrow of the Midianites who had occupied and terrified
Manasseh in old frontier days – Judges 7:15-25 .) The people who lived in the dark gloom of
occupation and oppression have been freed, have been enlarged and restored to
well being.
Who are the
people to whom this message was addressed?
The verse
giving the geographical references (9:1 [Heb. 8:23 ])
has some complications in it, as different translations show. However, the place names are relatively
clear. What they show is that we have
references to lands of the northern kingdom of Israel
that were conquered and occupied by the Assyrians in 733 BCE.
The
Assyrians defeated Israel
and turned much of its land into Assyrian provinces named Dor, Megiddo ,
and Gilead . Samaria
was left in the hill country farther south as the capital of a now rump kingdom
of Israel ,
vassal of Assyria .
The geographical references in Isaiah 9:1
– Zebulun, Naphtali, “the way of the sea,” “the land beyond the Jordan ,”
and “Galilee of the nations” – these places made up the three
new Assyrian provinces that replaced much of the old northern kingdom of Israel . These were the lands occupied and exploited
by the Assyrian conquerors in the earlier years of Isaiah of Jerusalem.
The language
about the child born and the son given (verses 6-7) is thought by many
interpreters to have referred originally to the birth or accession of Hezekiah,
the son of that king (Ahaz) to whom the Emmanuel prophecy was given (Isaiah
7:11-17).
The language
imitates the oratorical and declamatory style of the court and corresponds to
aspiration rather than political and military reality.... Though full of vivid
imagery, the language is unspecific enough to have permitted the poem to be recycled
on successive occasions.
(Joseph
Blenkinsopp, Isaiah 1-39, The Anchor Bible, Yale University Press, 2000,
pp. 249 and 248.)
There is one
historical occasion when the “child” part of our passage could have been
“recycled” and included in an announcement of joy to the subject peoples of
those occupied Assyrian provinces. In
705 BCE the Assyrian emperor Sargon II (who had destroyed Samaria ,
the northern capital) died and rebellions broke out throughout the empire. King Hezekiah of Jerusalem also rebelled, and
for at least three years he enjoyed an independent hand in Judah before the new
Assyrian king, Sennacherib, came down on him (in the year 701).
Our passage
could have been uttered in that period of freedom and independence,
anticipating a new age of prosperity and stable rule under a divinely blessed
ruler (a “wonderful counselor…prince of peace,” verse 6). The old northern kingdom, including “Galilee
of the nations,” could be freed from Assyrian rule and reunited with Judah
in a new age of Solomon, whom King Hezekiah emulated (see Proverbs
25:1 ).
With such a
vision, the prophet sent forth a word of hope to the people who had been living
for thirty years in the gloom and darkness of occupation and subjection.
Psalm 27:1, 4-9.
The prophecy
of the light to shine out of darkness for Galilee of the
nations includes the expectation of a divinely guided leader from the house of
David (Isaiah 9:7). In the Psalm reading
we hear such a leader expressing his total trust in the Lord.
The Lord is
my light and my salvation;
whom shall I fear?
The Lord is
the stronghold of my life;
of whom shall I be afraid? (verse 1, NRSV)
There will
be times of threat and doubt, times when the servant will appear to be lost,
but the psalmist is confident of God’s deliverance and will seek God only.
Hear, O Lord,
when I cry aloud,
be gracious to me and answer me;
“Come,” my
heart says, “seek his face!”
Your face, Lord, do I seek.
Do not hide your face from me.
Do not turn
your servant away in anger,
you who have been my help.
Do not cast
me off, do not forsake me,
O God of my salvation. (verses 7-9)
The speaker
seems aware that the servant of the Lord may appear to be abandoned, even
despised and God-forsaken. Such a
destiny was anticipated for the Servant who was sent as a light to the nations
(see Isaiah 49:7 ).
I Corinthians 1:10-18.
The second
reading from First Corinthians in the current season speaks to a group of Jesus
followers who have recently come out of the darkness of ignorance into the
light of knowledge of their Lord.
Paul has
spoken of “the church” that was gathered in the metropolitan city of Corinth
(I Corinthians 1:2), but that community of faith is now a few years old and
contains several subgroups with varied backgrounds and experiences. The problem of factions and divided
loyalties has appeared. Different groups
identify themselves by different leaders of the new Christian movement. “I am Paul’s,” “I belong to Apollos,” “I
belong to Cephas,” and “I am Christ’s” – such are the various claims Paul has
heard (verse 12).
Paul was the
first missionary preacher in Corinth
and could claim to be the founder of the church there. Apollos was a popular preacher (described in Acts
18:24 -28 ) who
served the Corinthian community for some time after Paul had gone on to Ephesus
for his three years of work there.
“Cephas” is the Aramaic name of Peter, who was probably not himself at Corinth ,
but who was famous for his leadership at Antioch
and who was probably a symbol of continuity from Jesus to the Greek-speaking
Jewish world in Asia and Greece . (Those claiming that they belong to Christ
may have gotten the message right – from Paul’s viewpoint.)
Paul’s most
telling comment in this passage may be his statement that “I thank God that I
baptized none of you … so that no one can say that you were baptized in my
name” (verse 14, NRSV). Baptized in
the name of Paul! Hardly. The relationships must be kept straight. Leaders, however popular or symbolic, must be
appreciated only as servants, servants of that one message about the cross,
which is “the power of God” for those who are being saved (verse 18).
The Gospel
reading presents Jesus advancing into the land where the people dwell in
darkness but are about to see a great light.
The Gospel
of Mark, which Matthew is following in broad outline, mentioned only that Jesus
went to Galilee and began preaching. Matthew elaborates by adding that Jesus left Nazareth
and made his home in “Capernaum by
the sea in the territory of Zebulun
and Naphtali” (verse 13, NRSV).
Using these
tribal terms is old fashioned, a little like referring to upstate New
York as Iroquois country. Politically, this area hadn’t had such names
in eight hundred years. (The romance of Tobit,
written around the third or second century BCE, sets its hero in Naphtali in
the days of the Assyrian conquest, Tobit 1:1-9.
The story emphasizes, following the viewpoint of the book of Kings, that
Naphtali in that era was a land of apostasy and unfaithfulness.)
Matthew
presents this place where Jesus’ ministry began as fulfilling the prophesy that
some Jesus followers had found as they searched the scriptures for signs of
Jesus. They found the Isaiah passage
about Galilee of the nations, and this
prophecy became part of their message of salvation addressed to Israel
and the nations.
In this land
of darkness Matthew has Jesus declare his message, “Repent, for the kingdom of
heaven has come near” (verse 17). This
summary statement of Jesus’ message will shortly be expanded enormously in the
Sermon on the Mount.
But first
Jesus will call some disciples as the nucleus of the new people to be
gathered at the mountain. Matthew
repeats Mark’s version of calling the two sets of brothers who worked in the
fishing industry (verses 18-22). He
promises to teach them to fish for people!
Then Matthew
provides a summary of all Jesus’ work in Galilee
(verse 23), the work that attracted the attention of so many people, and caused
the huge turnout at the Sermon on the Mount.
(In the Gospel reading next Sunday we will hear the Beatitudes, that
astonishing opening of the Sermon delivered to the new people of God at the
mountain.)
But for
Matthew, the key point is that Jesus brings a renewed word of God to a renewed
people of God – spoken from a mountain in Galilee
of the nations.
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