The joy of the kingdom community
Commentary
The front page of any newspaper in the land can bring despair to its readers. Far more than the scandal sheets, legitimate newspapers and nightly telecasts bombard us with the nasty stuff of life. Countries vie against each other. Sections of countries or former countries like Yugoslavia take special pleasure, it seems, in committing atrocities against their neighbors. Race crimes and racial injustices in our own country continue to shock those of us who thought more progress had been made over the last four decades. Domestic violence is the polite name we give for the rage which goes on behind a family's closed doors. In short, people do not get along with others at any level of society.
Our lessons for the day force us to look beyond the gloom of disintegration to the possibilities of community, especially to the community of God's people, and to discern in our visioning the joy that God promises when we realize our oneness.
Isaiah 9:1-4
Our pericope actually consists of two parts. Verse 1 is a long prose verse that is directly related to the promise of restoration following the devastation of Galilee in the north. Verses 2-4 are the first verses of a poem or hymn that belongs to the traditions of Jerusalem in the south. They are connected by the contrast between gloom and glory.
Verse 1 clearly focuses on the hope that remains after the consequences of the events portrayed in the Isaiah Memoirs of chapters 6-8. The problem throughout that section was the Syro-Ephraimite alliance which brought Syria and Israel together as a force to unseat Ahaz in Judah and thus provide a strong defense against the advances of the Assyrian armies. From 734-732 B.C. the Assyrians devastated most of Israel, leaving only a small portion to be ruled by Israel's last king, Hoshea. When he saw a chance for freedom, he took it, and what he got out of his attempt was the destruction of what little remained of his kingdom. By 721 Israel was gone, indeed tens of thousands were deported to Upper Mesopotamia and Media.
That brief account of the last days of Israel explains the "anguish" of the northern kingdom. Although the instrument of such despair was Assyria, it was the Lord who "brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali." From the perspective of Judah such judgment was inevitable because of Jeroboam's act of establishing rival sanctuaries to Jerusalem by setting up the golden calves in Dan and in Bethel (1 Kings 12; see the prophecy of judgment at 13:1-10). From the perspective of Amos the divine judgment was due to the abuse of the poor and the needy (Amos 2:6-8).
The prophetic word had been spoken: the comfortable had been afflicted. Specifically, "at the former time he dishonored" those northern lands. The "former time" usually points to a time of judgment which resulted in a particular devastation. Second Isaiah uses the expression "former time" frequently to speak of the judgment that took the people of Jerusalem to Babylon. The act of "dishonoring" (NRSV "brought into contempt") the object of God's wrath appears also at 23:9 to indicate the coming divine judgment on Tyre and on "all the honored of the earth." Here in our pericope the dishonoring of Israel had occurred. The people were in anguish.
Now comes the word of the Lord that the afflicted will be comforted: the Lord "will make glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations." The good news here is for the northern kingdom, a nation that no longer exists. That news is the announcement that the disaster will be turned into its opposite: glory rather than dishonor.
The means by which that glory will be achieved is explained by the following verses, the beginning of a hymn. The identification of "the people who walked in darkness" is changed or broadened by the context of the preceding verse. In all probability the people of the hymn were the inhabitants of Judah originally, since the hymn derives from the Jerusalem royal ideology. Those Judahites cannot be excluded by the context of verse 1, but the impression is given that Israel too will benefit from what is to follow. The good news, in other words, is for the whole people of God, Israel and Judah alike.
The people of God will move out of the darkness of their existence into the light. The light that turns gloom into glory is undoubtedly the Lord. In the following chapter the Lord is "the light of Israel" (10:17). His brightness will indicate divine presence and strength precisely to those who have felt God-forsaken by the events of history.
What a change the people will experience through "the light"! Shouts of joy will be heard where before there was only weeping and wailing. The rejoicing will be so festive that people will think they are celebrating a harvest.
The reason for the rejoicing is clear: all the symbols of oppression -- yoke, bar, rod -- God will break just as surely as "on the day of Midian." The reference to that day and to the place called Midian mean little, of course, without knowledge of what "the day of Midian" was all about. The phrase points to Judges 6:33--7:25, the story of the battle in which God defeated the Midianites who were interfering with God's plans to provide peace for his people in the Promised Land. The battle that day was described in the typical terms for a Holy War: a self-destructive panic among the enemy which causes them to flee in retreat (see Exodus 14:10-31; Joshua 10:6-11; Judges 20:29-36; Psalm 18:13-15). Such victories in Holy War often led to the acclamation that God is king (see Psalms 96, 98).
Once again, our pericope promises the faithful and powerful action of God to enable his people to live in peace in the land that the Lord gave them. If only that light would shine!
1 Corinthians 1:10-18
Having established the identity of the Corinthian congregation as "the church of God" (v. 2) and thus as part of the "fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord" (v. 9), Paul turns his attention immediately to the problem at hand: dissension and quarreling within the congregation. The apostle learned of the problem from "Chloe's people," often assumed to be either servants or slaves of a woman whose name meant something to the congregation.
Skillfully the apostle introduces the subject by calling his audience "my brothers and sisters" (v. 11). By doing so, he establishes himself as part of their family and even more importantly reminds them that they themselves are family. That connectedness is essential because they were dividing themselves on the basis of loyalty to different role models: Paul himself, Apollos, Cephas, and Christ.
Apollos is mentioned again at 3:6 as the one who "watered" after Paul had planted the congregation. Presumably then he was the one nurturing the congregation which Paul had established. We know him only through a single paragraph in the Book of Acts as an Alexandrian Jew who was renowned for his eloquence (Acts 18:24-28). He was well-versed in scripture although he needed more accurate instruction than he possessed when he first arrived at Ephesus. Priscilla and Aquila met that need. Apparently he learned his lessons well, because when last seen, Apollos was publicly refuting the Jews in Achaia. The mention of Cephas in the list raises the question about the involvement of Peter in the congregation at Corinth. No evidence exists of his activity there, and so perhaps the loyalty came from those who had been baptized by him in Jerusalem before moving to Corinth. As for Paul, perhaps one can understand how some people would claim "I belong to Paul" because of his earlier role there (Acts 18) or because they sided with his theological position over against some of the strange ideas floating around Corinth.
One would only hope that the Corinthian Christians confessed, "I belong to Christ," because that relationship was precisely what made them Christians. (The reader will recall Paul's own statement at Galatians 3:29: "If you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise.") However, the confession here is set within the context of congregational dissension, and so it must refer to the claim of some that they have the corner on the Jesus market.
The introduction of baptism in verse 13 immediately following the naming of the various groups raises the question about a view of baptism in Corinth that established an intimate connection between the baptized and the baptizer. Paul divorces himself completely from any such relationship, because he was not the one "crucified for you" and they were not "baptized in the name of Paul." Paul even separates himself from the role of baptizer (excepting only a few cases) in order to make the obvious point that Christ was the one crucified and so the baptized die with him. Furthermore, the Christians there were baptized in the name of Christ to whom they all belong.
In order to strengthen his argument Paul announces that Christ did not send him to baptize but to preach the gospel. Certainly the records about his call, whether in the Book of Acts (9:15; 26:16-17) or in his own epistles (Galatians 1:11--2:21), focus on his preaching role exclusively. We need to be clear that Paul here is not diminishing the essential nature of baptism; he is only indicating that he was not commissioned to be a baptizer (as the tradition reports concerning the original eleven at Matthew 28:16-20). The second point Paul makes here is that his preaching is "not with eloquent wisdom," an emphasis to which he will return at 2:1. On both occasions the reason for that emphasis is the same: nothing can diminish the importance of the cross of Christ.
The final verse of our pericope defines the two-edged nature of "the word of the cross." To assert that in the common form of execution used by the Romans, namely crucifixion, God was sacrificing his Son for the sins of the world is utter foolishness to the wise and rational of the world. However, "to those of us who are being saved," that is, who have heard that word of the cross and have appropriated it in faith, the foolish word of the cross "is the power of God." That understanding of the word of the cross makes it identical with "the gospel" itself, because at Romans 1:16 the gospel is defined as "the power of God to every one who has faith...."
That assurance of salvation through the gospel is directed "to us," that is, to "the church of God," to "the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord." Paul makes no distinction among the various groups in the congregation. The good news belongs to all, in spite of their dissensions and quarrelling.
Matthew 4:12-23
Matthew takes five verses (12 through 16) to accomplish what Mark did in two (Mark 1:14-15), namely to move Jesus into Galilee and then introduce the content of his preaching. In making his additions, however, Matthew provides a significant metaphor to identify Jesus.
After Jesus had been baptized by John and had immediately experienced the temptations of the devil, Jesus learned that John had been arrested, and so he withdrew into Galilee. The move establishes as Jesus' new home the fishing village of Capernaum. That site, roughly speaking, put him into what was known a thousand years earlier as the territory of the tribes Zebulun and Naphtali. The only reason for all the additional information is to connect Jesus to the prophecy of Isaiah 9:1-2, the passage that is our first lesson for the day.
The connection with Isaiah provides us with two important insights. First, by placing Jesus in "Galilee of the Gentiles" (in the Old Testament, "nations"), Matthew hints at the universality of Jesus' role, a point which will provide Matthew's punch line for the whole gospel: "make disciples of all nations" (28:19). Second, the punch line of the Old Testament quotation itself is "light has dawned." We have seen in our discussion of Isaiah 9 that "light" here is probably a reference to the Lord, who is called "the light of Israel" at 10:17. At John 8:12 Jesus identifies himself as "the light of the world." This method of quoting the Isaiah passage would seem to be Matthew's way of applying the same epithet to Jesus, the Son of God. Perhaps it is only by making this statement about Jesus that Matthew can have Jesus say to his disciples in the following chapter, "You are the light of the world." It would appear too abrupt to move from the notion that God is the light of the world to the disciples as the light of the world without identification of Jesus as the light that shines on the people in darkness.
The same motif is evident in the psalm for the day. Psalm 27 begins with the confession that "the Lord is my light and my salvation," and that assertion enables the worshiper to endure a host of difficulties that emerge from living in the darkness of life.
At any rate, the end of the quotation from the Isaiah passage might in fact bring to conclusion the introductory material of this gospel. The words which follow the quotation immediately are "from that time." The expression is unique to Matthew but not to this passage. Matthew uses it again at 16:21. In each case, the expression introduces a new body of material. Here at 4:17 the words begin that section of Matthew's Gospel about the public ministry of Jesus, a body of writings which will extend to 16:20. When the expression occurs again at 16:21, it introduces a new section of the Gospel about the private ministry of Jesus.
With that division of the Gospel in mind, we are now ready to follow Jesus as he goes public with his ministry. That ministry is summed up in the sermon attributed to him here: "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." The sentence calls for several comments. First, the summation of Jesus' preaching here is quite similar, but not identical, to that of Mark: "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news" (Mark 1:15). Mark's version uses "kingdom of God" rather than Matthew's "kingdom of heaven," probably because Matthew was sensitive to the Jewish tradition that uses euphemisms for the name of God: Adonay or "the Name" instead of Yahweh or Elohim. More important, however, is the logical sequence of both versions. While Matthew begins with the word "repent," his sentence structure indicates the same meaning as Mark's: Since the kingdom of God/heaven is at hand, it is time to repent, to turn 180 degrees walking toward God rather than away. The point is significant: it is not human repentance which brings the kingdom of God; it is the coming of the kingdom which calls for and enables repentance. God's action comes first; God's call for us to respond follows.
Once that announcement of the nearness of the kingdom is made by Jesus, the light of the world, we can live with the prophetic hope that gloom will be turned into joy and that people divided for a variety of reasons will realize that kingdom joy as a community of God's people.
FIRST LESSON FOCUS
By Elizabeth Achtemeier
Isaiah 9:1-4
Isaiah 9:1-4 is the first part of the lesson that was the stated Old Testament text for Sunday, December 24, 1998. But on that Sunday, all of 9:2-7 was read. Today in 1999, only the first stanza of the oracle is prescribed.
Obviously, 9:1-4 has been specified because it is paired with the gospel reading in Matthew 4:12-23, and because portions of verses 1 and 2 are quoted from the Septuagint version in that Matthew passage. After the death of John the Baptist, when Jesus leaves Nazareth and goes to Capernaum to "dwell," Matthew understands that as a fulfillment of Isaiah 9:1-2. Jesus is the Savior who brings "great light" into the lives of those in Gentile Galilee, just as he is the Savior who brings light and release for us Gentiles who sit in the shadow of darkness and of death.
The result of Jesus' coming into our lives is to give us great rejoicing, joy equal to that of those who celebrate an abundant harvest or to that of those who exult over a great victory over an enemy (Isaiah 9:3). And that joy comes from the fact that our Lord has, indeed, lifted the "yoke" from our shoulders, and broken the "rod" of that which oppresses us.
In the Old Testament, there are many references to a "yoke." Any forms of captivity or subjection to another are frequently described as "yokes." Thus, Israel's slavery in Egypt was a "yoke" (Leviticus 26:13), as is Judah's defeat and subjugation to Babylonia (Jeremiah 27:8, 11, and so forth). And when the Lord delivers Israel from bondage by the exodus from Egypt, Leviticus says that the Lord has broken the bars of Israel's yoke and made her walk erect (Leviticus 26:13).
"Yoke," however, can also signify God's guidance of his people. The indictment that God looses against Judah in Jeremiah declares, "Long ago you broke your yoke and burst your bonds; and you said, 'I will not serve' " (Jeremiah 2:20). That means that a life faithful to God is guided by a Master, who holds its reins and directs it in the right way. The biblical life of faith is not unbridled freedom, but obedience to a guiding Lord. Jesus therefore bids us to "take my yoke upon you and learn from me; for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light" (Matthew 11:29-30).
In order to lead us in the right paths, God first, however, must free us from our captivity to other powers of this world. That is the liberation celebrated in our text for the morning; Zebulon and Naphtali will be delivered from their captivity to Assyria by a messianic, davidic king (vv. 6-7). But the gospel reading in Matthew spiritualizes that to a certain extent and declares that Jesus is that Messiah who delivers not only Zebulon and Naphtali, but also us from our captivity, from the "yokes" that burden us.
What are our burdening "yokes"? Third Isaiah says that they are yokes of wickedness (Isaiah 58:6), burdens that oppress us, and indeed they are, are they not? -- the sins that bend our lives out of shape daily; the burdens of guilt that weigh us down from the past; foolish pride and uncaring self-interest; indifference toward the plight of our neighbors and greedy grasping after our own well-being; repeated forgetfulness of our God and failure to practice his love and forgiveness; and yes, finally, our fear of the loneliness and pain of death and the meaninglessness that the grave can give to every human life. Sin and death hold us captive and subject us to their "yoke."
But the announcement of our Isaiah text is that our Messiah has broken the yokes that burden us, snapping in two the bonds of sin and freeing us for new and good lives, defeating the bars of death that would keep us forever locked in its shadowy and decaying depths. And so we, like those Galileans of our text, can rejoice with exceeding great joy, because we have been freed for a new life in Jesus Christ our Lord.
That the gospel according to Matthew understands our Lord Jesus as the fulfillment of this Old Testament text points to the ongoing work of God which binds the two testaments together. Throughout Matthew, we find the phrase, "This was to fulfill...." This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet. This was to fulfill what God declared to Israel in the days of the Israel of the Old Testament. In other words, God began a history of salvation in the time of Old Testament Israel, and that history continues into the New Testament and finds its fulfillment in Jesus Christ.
God made lots of promises to Israel, and one of them is found here in Isaiah 9. God promises light in our darkness, freedom from our bondage, joy instead of our sorrow. And the God of the biblical history is the God who always keeps his word. As Second Isaiah proclaimed, God's Word stands forever (Isaiah 40:8). When he speaks his Word, it does not come to nothing, it does not fall by the wayside, it does not return to God void. Rather, God's Word, says Second Isaiah, is like the rain and the snow which come down from heaven "and return not thither but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater" (Isaiah 55:10). God's Word brings results. It works in human lives until it is fulfilled. And so when God promised, according to our text, that the people who walked in darkness would see a great light and have the yoke of oppression and captivity removed from them, the Lord God worked through all the centuries until he sent his Son, our Messiah, to fulfill the ancient words which God through Isaiah had promised. And now you and I, we Gentiles, can find ourselves released from the yokes which oppress us -- from our sin and from the finality of death -- if we trust God's fulfillment of Isaiah's promise in Jesus Christ our Lord.
More than that, God's saving work in our lives continues, stretching out toward the future, bringing to pass God's further promises given us by our Lord Jesus.
So let us rejoice, good Christians, like those who rejoice at abundant harvest, like those who celebrate a glorious victory. For our God in Jesus Christ has indeed won the victory, and we, like Israel, are his people.
Our lessons for the day force us to look beyond the gloom of disintegration to the possibilities of community, especially to the community of God's people, and to discern in our visioning the joy that God promises when we realize our oneness.
Isaiah 9:1-4
Our pericope actually consists of two parts. Verse 1 is a long prose verse that is directly related to the promise of restoration following the devastation of Galilee in the north. Verses 2-4 are the first verses of a poem or hymn that belongs to the traditions of Jerusalem in the south. They are connected by the contrast between gloom and glory.
Verse 1 clearly focuses on the hope that remains after the consequences of the events portrayed in the Isaiah Memoirs of chapters 6-8. The problem throughout that section was the Syro-Ephraimite alliance which brought Syria and Israel together as a force to unseat Ahaz in Judah and thus provide a strong defense against the advances of the Assyrian armies. From 734-732 B.C. the Assyrians devastated most of Israel, leaving only a small portion to be ruled by Israel's last king, Hoshea. When he saw a chance for freedom, he took it, and what he got out of his attempt was the destruction of what little remained of his kingdom. By 721 Israel was gone, indeed tens of thousands were deported to Upper Mesopotamia and Media.
That brief account of the last days of Israel explains the "anguish" of the northern kingdom. Although the instrument of such despair was Assyria, it was the Lord who "brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali." From the perspective of Judah such judgment was inevitable because of Jeroboam's act of establishing rival sanctuaries to Jerusalem by setting up the golden calves in Dan and in Bethel (1 Kings 12; see the prophecy of judgment at 13:1-10). From the perspective of Amos the divine judgment was due to the abuse of the poor and the needy (Amos 2:6-8).
The prophetic word had been spoken: the comfortable had been afflicted. Specifically, "at the former time he dishonored" those northern lands. The "former time" usually points to a time of judgment which resulted in a particular devastation. Second Isaiah uses the expression "former time" frequently to speak of the judgment that took the people of Jerusalem to Babylon. The act of "dishonoring" (NRSV "brought into contempt") the object of God's wrath appears also at 23:9 to indicate the coming divine judgment on Tyre and on "all the honored of the earth." Here in our pericope the dishonoring of Israel had occurred. The people were in anguish.
Now comes the word of the Lord that the afflicted will be comforted: the Lord "will make glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations." The good news here is for the northern kingdom, a nation that no longer exists. That news is the announcement that the disaster will be turned into its opposite: glory rather than dishonor.
The means by which that glory will be achieved is explained by the following verses, the beginning of a hymn. The identification of "the people who walked in darkness" is changed or broadened by the context of the preceding verse. In all probability the people of the hymn were the inhabitants of Judah originally, since the hymn derives from the Jerusalem royal ideology. Those Judahites cannot be excluded by the context of verse 1, but the impression is given that Israel too will benefit from what is to follow. The good news, in other words, is for the whole people of God, Israel and Judah alike.
The people of God will move out of the darkness of their existence into the light. The light that turns gloom into glory is undoubtedly the Lord. In the following chapter the Lord is "the light of Israel" (10:17). His brightness will indicate divine presence and strength precisely to those who have felt God-forsaken by the events of history.
What a change the people will experience through "the light"! Shouts of joy will be heard where before there was only weeping and wailing. The rejoicing will be so festive that people will think they are celebrating a harvest.
The reason for the rejoicing is clear: all the symbols of oppression -- yoke, bar, rod -- God will break just as surely as "on the day of Midian." The reference to that day and to the place called Midian mean little, of course, without knowledge of what "the day of Midian" was all about. The phrase points to Judges 6:33--7:25, the story of the battle in which God defeated the Midianites who were interfering with God's plans to provide peace for his people in the Promised Land. The battle that day was described in the typical terms for a Holy War: a self-destructive panic among the enemy which causes them to flee in retreat (see Exodus 14:10-31; Joshua 10:6-11; Judges 20:29-36; Psalm 18:13-15). Such victories in Holy War often led to the acclamation that God is king (see Psalms 96, 98).
Once again, our pericope promises the faithful and powerful action of God to enable his people to live in peace in the land that the Lord gave them. If only that light would shine!
1 Corinthians 1:10-18
Having established the identity of the Corinthian congregation as "the church of God" (v. 2) and thus as part of the "fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord" (v. 9), Paul turns his attention immediately to the problem at hand: dissension and quarreling within the congregation. The apostle learned of the problem from "Chloe's people," often assumed to be either servants or slaves of a woman whose name meant something to the congregation.
Skillfully the apostle introduces the subject by calling his audience "my brothers and sisters" (v. 11). By doing so, he establishes himself as part of their family and even more importantly reminds them that they themselves are family. That connectedness is essential because they were dividing themselves on the basis of loyalty to different role models: Paul himself, Apollos, Cephas, and Christ.
Apollos is mentioned again at 3:6 as the one who "watered" after Paul had planted the congregation. Presumably then he was the one nurturing the congregation which Paul had established. We know him only through a single paragraph in the Book of Acts as an Alexandrian Jew who was renowned for his eloquence (Acts 18:24-28). He was well-versed in scripture although he needed more accurate instruction than he possessed when he first arrived at Ephesus. Priscilla and Aquila met that need. Apparently he learned his lessons well, because when last seen, Apollos was publicly refuting the Jews in Achaia. The mention of Cephas in the list raises the question about the involvement of Peter in the congregation at Corinth. No evidence exists of his activity there, and so perhaps the loyalty came from those who had been baptized by him in Jerusalem before moving to Corinth. As for Paul, perhaps one can understand how some people would claim "I belong to Paul" because of his earlier role there (Acts 18) or because they sided with his theological position over against some of the strange ideas floating around Corinth.
One would only hope that the Corinthian Christians confessed, "I belong to Christ," because that relationship was precisely what made them Christians. (The reader will recall Paul's own statement at Galatians 3:29: "If you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise.") However, the confession here is set within the context of congregational dissension, and so it must refer to the claim of some that they have the corner on the Jesus market.
The introduction of baptism in verse 13 immediately following the naming of the various groups raises the question about a view of baptism in Corinth that established an intimate connection between the baptized and the baptizer. Paul divorces himself completely from any such relationship, because he was not the one "crucified for you" and they were not "baptized in the name of Paul." Paul even separates himself from the role of baptizer (excepting only a few cases) in order to make the obvious point that Christ was the one crucified and so the baptized die with him. Furthermore, the Christians there were baptized in the name of Christ to whom they all belong.
In order to strengthen his argument Paul announces that Christ did not send him to baptize but to preach the gospel. Certainly the records about his call, whether in the Book of Acts (9:15; 26:16-17) or in his own epistles (Galatians 1:11--2:21), focus on his preaching role exclusively. We need to be clear that Paul here is not diminishing the essential nature of baptism; he is only indicating that he was not commissioned to be a baptizer (as the tradition reports concerning the original eleven at Matthew 28:16-20). The second point Paul makes here is that his preaching is "not with eloquent wisdom," an emphasis to which he will return at 2:1. On both occasions the reason for that emphasis is the same: nothing can diminish the importance of the cross of Christ.
The final verse of our pericope defines the two-edged nature of "the word of the cross." To assert that in the common form of execution used by the Romans, namely crucifixion, God was sacrificing his Son for the sins of the world is utter foolishness to the wise and rational of the world. However, "to those of us who are being saved," that is, who have heard that word of the cross and have appropriated it in faith, the foolish word of the cross "is the power of God." That understanding of the word of the cross makes it identical with "the gospel" itself, because at Romans 1:16 the gospel is defined as "the power of God to every one who has faith...."
That assurance of salvation through the gospel is directed "to us," that is, to "the church of God," to "the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord." Paul makes no distinction among the various groups in the congregation. The good news belongs to all, in spite of their dissensions and quarrelling.
Matthew 4:12-23
Matthew takes five verses (12 through 16) to accomplish what Mark did in two (Mark 1:14-15), namely to move Jesus into Galilee and then introduce the content of his preaching. In making his additions, however, Matthew provides a significant metaphor to identify Jesus.
After Jesus had been baptized by John and had immediately experienced the temptations of the devil, Jesus learned that John had been arrested, and so he withdrew into Galilee. The move establishes as Jesus' new home the fishing village of Capernaum. That site, roughly speaking, put him into what was known a thousand years earlier as the territory of the tribes Zebulun and Naphtali. The only reason for all the additional information is to connect Jesus to the prophecy of Isaiah 9:1-2, the passage that is our first lesson for the day.
The connection with Isaiah provides us with two important insights. First, by placing Jesus in "Galilee of the Gentiles" (in the Old Testament, "nations"), Matthew hints at the universality of Jesus' role, a point which will provide Matthew's punch line for the whole gospel: "make disciples of all nations" (28:19). Second, the punch line of the Old Testament quotation itself is "light has dawned." We have seen in our discussion of Isaiah 9 that "light" here is probably a reference to the Lord, who is called "the light of Israel" at 10:17. At John 8:12 Jesus identifies himself as "the light of the world." This method of quoting the Isaiah passage would seem to be Matthew's way of applying the same epithet to Jesus, the Son of God. Perhaps it is only by making this statement about Jesus that Matthew can have Jesus say to his disciples in the following chapter, "You are the light of the world." It would appear too abrupt to move from the notion that God is the light of the world to the disciples as the light of the world without identification of Jesus as the light that shines on the people in darkness.
The same motif is evident in the psalm for the day. Psalm 27 begins with the confession that "the Lord is my light and my salvation," and that assertion enables the worshiper to endure a host of difficulties that emerge from living in the darkness of life.
At any rate, the end of the quotation from the Isaiah passage might in fact bring to conclusion the introductory material of this gospel. The words which follow the quotation immediately are "from that time." The expression is unique to Matthew but not to this passage. Matthew uses it again at 16:21. In each case, the expression introduces a new body of material. Here at 4:17 the words begin that section of Matthew's Gospel about the public ministry of Jesus, a body of writings which will extend to 16:20. When the expression occurs again at 16:21, it introduces a new section of the Gospel about the private ministry of Jesus.
With that division of the Gospel in mind, we are now ready to follow Jesus as he goes public with his ministry. That ministry is summed up in the sermon attributed to him here: "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." The sentence calls for several comments. First, the summation of Jesus' preaching here is quite similar, but not identical, to that of Mark: "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news" (Mark 1:15). Mark's version uses "kingdom of God" rather than Matthew's "kingdom of heaven," probably because Matthew was sensitive to the Jewish tradition that uses euphemisms for the name of God: Adonay or "the Name" instead of Yahweh or Elohim. More important, however, is the logical sequence of both versions. While Matthew begins with the word "repent," his sentence structure indicates the same meaning as Mark's: Since the kingdom of God/heaven is at hand, it is time to repent, to turn 180 degrees walking toward God rather than away. The point is significant: it is not human repentance which brings the kingdom of God; it is the coming of the kingdom which calls for and enables repentance. God's action comes first; God's call for us to respond follows.
Once that announcement of the nearness of the kingdom is made by Jesus, the light of the world, we can live with the prophetic hope that gloom will be turned into joy and that people divided for a variety of reasons will realize that kingdom joy as a community of God's people.
FIRST LESSON FOCUS
By Elizabeth Achtemeier
Isaiah 9:1-4
Isaiah 9:1-4 is the first part of the lesson that was the stated Old Testament text for Sunday, December 24, 1998. But on that Sunday, all of 9:2-7 was read. Today in 1999, only the first stanza of the oracle is prescribed.
Obviously, 9:1-4 has been specified because it is paired with the gospel reading in Matthew 4:12-23, and because portions of verses 1 and 2 are quoted from the Septuagint version in that Matthew passage. After the death of John the Baptist, when Jesus leaves Nazareth and goes to Capernaum to "dwell," Matthew understands that as a fulfillment of Isaiah 9:1-2. Jesus is the Savior who brings "great light" into the lives of those in Gentile Galilee, just as he is the Savior who brings light and release for us Gentiles who sit in the shadow of darkness and of death.
The result of Jesus' coming into our lives is to give us great rejoicing, joy equal to that of those who celebrate an abundant harvest or to that of those who exult over a great victory over an enemy (Isaiah 9:3). And that joy comes from the fact that our Lord has, indeed, lifted the "yoke" from our shoulders, and broken the "rod" of that which oppresses us.
In the Old Testament, there are many references to a "yoke." Any forms of captivity or subjection to another are frequently described as "yokes." Thus, Israel's slavery in Egypt was a "yoke" (Leviticus 26:13), as is Judah's defeat and subjugation to Babylonia (Jeremiah 27:8, 11, and so forth). And when the Lord delivers Israel from bondage by the exodus from Egypt, Leviticus says that the Lord has broken the bars of Israel's yoke and made her walk erect (Leviticus 26:13).
"Yoke," however, can also signify God's guidance of his people. The indictment that God looses against Judah in Jeremiah declares, "Long ago you broke your yoke and burst your bonds; and you said, 'I will not serve' " (Jeremiah 2:20). That means that a life faithful to God is guided by a Master, who holds its reins and directs it in the right way. The biblical life of faith is not unbridled freedom, but obedience to a guiding Lord. Jesus therefore bids us to "take my yoke upon you and learn from me; for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light" (Matthew 11:29-30).
In order to lead us in the right paths, God first, however, must free us from our captivity to other powers of this world. That is the liberation celebrated in our text for the morning; Zebulon and Naphtali will be delivered from their captivity to Assyria by a messianic, davidic king (vv. 6-7). But the gospel reading in Matthew spiritualizes that to a certain extent and declares that Jesus is that Messiah who delivers not only Zebulon and Naphtali, but also us from our captivity, from the "yokes" that burden us.
What are our burdening "yokes"? Third Isaiah says that they are yokes of wickedness (Isaiah 58:6), burdens that oppress us, and indeed they are, are they not? -- the sins that bend our lives out of shape daily; the burdens of guilt that weigh us down from the past; foolish pride and uncaring self-interest; indifference toward the plight of our neighbors and greedy grasping after our own well-being; repeated forgetfulness of our God and failure to practice his love and forgiveness; and yes, finally, our fear of the loneliness and pain of death and the meaninglessness that the grave can give to every human life. Sin and death hold us captive and subject us to their "yoke."
But the announcement of our Isaiah text is that our Messiah has broken the yokes that burden us, snapping in two the bonds of sin and freeing us for new and good lives, defeating the bars of death that would keep us forever locked in its shadowy and decaying depths. And so we, like those Galileans of our text, can rejoice with exceeding great joy, because we have been freed for a new life in Jesus Christ our Lord.
That the gospel according to Matthew understands our Lord Jesus as the fulfillment of this Old Testament text points to the ongoing work of God which binds the two testaments together. Throughout Matthew, we find the phrase, "This was to fulfill...." This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet. This was to fulfill what God declared to Israel in the days of the Israel of the Old Testament. In other words, God began a history of salvation in the time of Old Testament Israel, and that history continues into the New Testament and finds its fulfillment in Jesus Christ.
God made lots of promises to Israel, and one of them is found here in Isaiah 9. God promises light in our darkness, freedom from our bondage, joy instead of our sorrow. And the God of the biblical history is the God who always keeps his word. As Second Isaiah proclaimed, God's Word stands forever (Isaiah 40:8). When he speaks his Word, it does not come to nothing, it does not fall by the wayside, it does not return to God void. Rather, God's Word, says Second Isaiah, is like the rain and the snow which come down from heaven "and return not thither but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater" (Isaiah 55:10). God's Word brings results. It works in human lives until it is fulfilled. And so when God promised, according to our text, that the people who walked in darkness would see a great light and have the yoke of oppression and captivity removed from them, the Lord God worked through all the centuries until he sent his Son, our Messiah, to fulfill the ancient words which God through Isaiah had promised. And now you and I, we Gentiles, can find ourselves released from the yokes which oppress us -- from our sin and from the finality of death -- if we trust God's fulfillment of Isaiah's promise in Jesus Christ our Lord.
More than that, God's saving work in our lives continues, stretching out toward the future, bringing to pass God's further promises given us by our Lord Jesus.
So let us rejoice, good Christians, like those who rejoice at abundant harvest, like those who celebrate a glorious victory. For our God in Jesus Christ has indeed won the victory, and we, like Israel, are his people.
