Darkness To Light
Commentary
In the season of Epiphany, Jesus is revealed. It’s more than just a question of seeing Jesus. We are meant to perceive who Jesus is! These three texts open three different doors onto the same Christ. In Isaiah’s darkness we see the light of hope. In Corinth, where the Christian churches are anything but Christ-like, Paul shines a bright light to illuminate error. And Matthew uses the light of Isaiah’s scripture to show that despite the arrest of John his message continues, while Jesus expands it to include healing and hope.
Isaiah 9:1-4
This passage begins in darkness and murk, but now the prophet tells us that the people who have walked in darkness have seen a great light. Previously, the so-called fog of war obscured their sight. The failure of King Ahaz to hear the earlier messages of the Lord given through Isaiah is leading to political disaster. Even so, eternal hope springs! The brunt of war’s disasters fall most heavily on those who had least to do with war -- the poor, the people of the land, those furthest removed from making policy. Yet the blood-soaked garments will be rolled up, and joy will ensue. The things that really matter to ordinary folks, like the success of the harvest, evidently matter to God because that joy is being restored, despite the failure of their rulers. God abides in the ordinary things, the good things of this earth.
1 Corinthians 1:10-18
There’s a tendency to see a biblical situation in terms of our own experience. We’re used to thinking of a church meeting in one building as one congregation, but the situation in first-century Christianity seems to have been much different. The church in Corinth, for instance, didn’t meet in a building constructed for that purpose. It consisted of several house churches, groups of believers that met in a home. Likely some of those homes were larger villas, including a number of people who may have actually lived in that home and worked together on the craft or product that supported the household.
In this letter we have evidence of at least as many as seven house churches, four of which are in conflict. Paul speaks of “Chloe’s people.” Chloe may have been like Lydia in Philippi, a rich woman whose household produced a product (in Lydia’s case expensive purple dye) and whose church met in her home. It is Chloe’s people who have reported the problem.
Four other house churches take their names from different individuals. The Paul church and the Apollos church are named after individuals who visited and served in Corinth. The Peter church is named after someone who probably never went to Corinth. Scripture is silent on the issue. And then there is the Christ church -- as if one house church could corner the market on Jesus. Paul expresses his alarm at this group by questioning whether Christ can be divided.
There is one humorous moment in this passage. We forget that Paul dictated his letters, and he expresses relief that he had not baptized more than two Christians: Crispus, who was an official of the Corinthian synagogue (see Acts 18:8), and Gaius, who in Romans 1:23 is identified as the leader of a house church (is this the sixth house church, or is this one of the four that are in conflict?). Having said this, Paul either remembers that he also baptized the household, or house church, of Stephanus (is this the seventh?) or perhaps someone who was standing nearby while Paul dictated the letter interrupted him in the process of dictation to correct him, and Paul passed along the correction. This sounds like a pretty big error. A household could include 100 or more!
The solution to this darkness, the key to walking back to the light, is the cross. That artifact of torture, humiliation, and death may seem foolishness to some, but is nothing less than the power of God to those who are being saved. It is the cross that can unite these feuding factions and bring them back to life.
Matthew 4:12-23
John the Baptist plays a crucial role in the calling of Jesus. He appears in all four gospels. Jesus praises John, and calls him the greatest and the least of all the people of God. The arrest of John must have had a jarring effect on all, including Jesus, yet in this passage it is the spur for Jesus to begin a two-pronged ministry. First, he continues to preach the message of John, calling on the people to repent because the Kingdom of Heaven is night. But Jesus also embarks on a healing ministry, which changes the lives of ordinary people for the better. And though there is never any question about Jesus being able to accomplish this ministry, Jesus begins a collaborative ministry, calling disciples to join him in proclaiming and healing.
And though we don’t doubt that Jesus would do the job better than us, we may also have come to believe that some of the saints in our own congregations can’t be replaced, and that when it comes to be our turn to pick up their ministries and expand them, that we’re not up to the task. Jesus made his disciples able -- he is able to make us able as well.
Isaiah 9:1-4
This passage begins in darkness and murk, but now the prophet tells us that the people who have walked in darkness have seen a great light. Previously, the so-called fog of war obscured their sight. The failure of King Ahaz to hear the earlier messages of the Lord given through Isaiah is leading to political disaster. Even so, eternal hope springs! The brunt of war’s disasters fall most heavily on those who had least to do with war -- the poor, the people of the land, those furthest removed from making policy. Yet the blood-soaked garments will be rolled up, and joy will ensue. The things that really matter to ordinary folks, like the success of the harvest, evidently matter to God because that joy is being restored, despite the failure of their rulers. God abides in the ordinary things, the good things of this earth.
1 Corinthians 1:10-18
There’s a tendency to see a biblical situation in terms of our own experience. We’re used to thinking of a church meeting in one building as one congregation, but the situation in first-century Christianity seems to have been much different. The church in Corinth, for instance, didn’t meet in a building constructed for that purpose. It consisted of several house churches, groups of believers that met in a home. Likely some of those homes were larger villas, including a number of people who may have actually lived in that home and worked together on the craft or product that supported the household.
In this letter we have evidence of at least as many as seven house churches, four of which are in conflict. Paul speaks of “Chloe’s people.” Chloe may have been like Lydia in Philippi, a rich woman whose household produced a product (in Lydia’s case expensive purple dye) and whose church met in her home. It is Chloe’s people who have reported the problem.
Four other house churches take their names from different individuals. The Paul church and the Apollos church are named after individuals who visited and served in Corinth. The Peter church is named after someone who probably never went to Corinth. Scripture is silent on the issue. And then there is the Christ church -- as if one house church could corner the market on Jesus. Paul expresses his alarm at this group by questioning whether Christ can be divided.
There is one humorous moment in this passage. We forget that Paul dictated his letters, and he expresses relief that he had not baptized more than two Christians: Crispus, who was an official of the Corinthian synagogue (see Acts 18:8), and Gaius, who in Romans 1:23 is identified as the leader of a house church (is this the sixth house church, or is this one of the four that are in conflict?). Having said this, Paul either remembers that he also baptized the household, or house church, of Stephanus (is this the seventh?) or perhaps someone who was standing nearby while Paul dictated the letter interrupted him in the process of dictation to correct him, and Paul passed along the correction. This sounds like a pretty big error. A household could include 100 or more!
The solution to this darkness, the key to walking back to the light, is the cross. That artifact of torture, humiliation, and death may seem foolishness to some, but is nothing less than the power of God to those who are being saved. It is the cross that can unite these feuding factions and bring them back to life.
Matthew 4:12-23
John the Baptist plays a crucial role in the calling of Jesus. He appears in all four gospels. Jesus praises John, and calls him the greatest and the least of all the people of God. The arrest of John must have had a jarring effect on all, including Jesus, yet in this passage it is the spur for Jesus to begin a two-pronged ministry. First, he continues to preach the message of John, calling on the people to repent because the Kingdom of Heaven is night. But Jesus also embarks on a healing ministry, which changes the lives of ordinary people for the better. And though there is never any question about Jesus being able to accomplish this ministry, Jesus begins a collaborative ministry, calling disciples to join him in proclaiming and healing.
And though we don’t doubt that Jesus would do the job better than us, we may also have come to believe that some of the saints in our own congregations can’t be replaced, and that when it comes to be our turn to pick up their ministries and expand them, that we’re not up to the task. Jesus made his disciples able -- he is able to make us able as well.
