“The Light to the Nations”

Isaiah 60:1-6

Matthew 2:1-12

January 2, 2005

The Israelites were in dark times. Their nation was overrun. The people were scattered throughout the known world in exile from their home land. Their hope was a fleeting reality. They wondered if they would ever be able to return home. They wondered if they would ever be a nation again. They wondered if Yahweh had abandoned them. But what had been promised long ago was now echoed by the prophet Isaiah – Yahweh had not abandoned them and the promise of long ago was about to be fulfilled. Yahweh would act again. Their light was coming and the light would be Yahweh himself, and his light would push out the darkness and despair and bring an unprecedented glory to the people. Something new was about to happen that Israel could not have expected or believed. The light of Yahweh would end their exile. The oppressed and nearly forgotten people would be drawn back toward the light and Yahweh’s light would become their own light. The light would be the light to the nations drawing people from every race and land to Jerusalem, and they would bring the wealth of the nations with them to worship the God of Israel. The people of every race and land would come together as God’s people. All would bask in the glow of God’s radiant light. All would receive the gift of life.

On this second Sunday of Christmas, we lift up the reality that in Jesus Christ the light of Yahweh has come. He is the light to the world and for the world, a light that now shines in the darkness and the darkness is not able to overcome it. His light brings life to all people. For too long the church as treated the gospel as its own possession, and has declared that it is only for those who accept it. This is a most unbiblical reading of the scriptures which point to God’s universal grace and love to all people, which point to God’s universal work of reconciliation of all people to God’s self. Christmas reminds us that Jesus Christ did not just come for Christians but for the world, and the mystery of the incarnation is that in Jesus Christ, God came among us as one of us to bring all people to himself. The “us” is not just the church, and it is not just Israel, this “us” is the universal “we” – all of us, the entire created order.

What God has done for the world, God has done it for the world’s behalf. Nothing need be done by you and me for it to have happened or for it to be in effect. What God did is none other than an act of complete and unmerited grace upon grace. This should not come as a shock to us for it is the message of the gospel from beginning to end. It is the reason why you and I are believers today. What God did through Jesus Christ brought light and life to those outside of Israel. What God did through Jesus Christ brought light and life to you and me, to the gentiles of the world, to every race and land beyond the borders of Israel.

This is what Matthew points to with his story of the wise men from the east. For Matthew, the great mystery of the Word of God incarnate is the proclamation that he is the Lord and Savior of all people and for all people. The wise men from the east came from beyond the borders of Israel following the light to Bethlehem bringing with them the wealth of the nations of gold, frankincense, and myrrh to give in an act of worship to the newborn king. The glory of the Lord long promised to Israel has appeared among their people, as one of their own, and the nations have responded bringing their wealth and their worship. The light of Jesus Christ has shined beyond the nation of Israel to the nations of the world.

The gift of Christmas is not just that Jesus came for me, but that Jesus came for all people. Christmas points us to the larger scope of God’s redemptive work for the salvation of all of humankind – of the cosmos itself. Do we not long for the day when the God of Israel, the God we know in Jesus Christ, will be worshipped by all people? Do we not long for the day when Yahweh’s light will shine bright in the midst of a world that still finds itself in darkness? Do we not hope with all hope that one day every knee will bend in heaven and earth and under the earth and every mouth will proclaim Jesus is Lord? Do we not want all people to come to know the way and the truth and the life of the Son of God? Do we not want all people to come to know the hope, peace, joy, and love of Jesus Christ just as we do? Or do we want Jesus only for ourselves? Do we want the number of the saved to be fixed to include only those who are already in relationship with the living Lord? Do we really want to reduce the gospel down to good news for some and bad news for others?

The message of our scripture readings is the declaration that the gospel of the Jesus Christ is always good news and never bad news, that the gospel of Jesus Christ is the hope for all people and the light to the nations. The coming of the light to the nations is God’s good news to the world that God has not abandoned the world to leave them and us in the darkness in which they live, that God will not allow the darkness of despair and hopelessness to have the final say.

Maybe we the church should get back to what we are supposed to do and announce the good news of the gospel, that the light of Yahweh has indeed come in the person of Jesus Christ. Maybe we the church should get back to letting the light of Yahweh become our own light so that we may be the reflection of that light in the world. Being witnesses to the light and reflecting that light is not about coming to the conclusion that all religions proclaim the same truth but from a different perspective, it is about being the light of Christ in and for a world that is in need of God’s abiding presence and everlasting love, so that they can come to discover for themselves God’s grace upon grace.

What we discover in these texts from scripture is the wonderful good news that the light to the nations is not a place but a person, and wherever the light of Jesus Christ is at work his light shines and the nations respond.

We are doing the work of Christ in the world. We are shining the light of Christ for all the world to see. We are worshipping the God we know in Jesus Christ. We are worshipping the light of the nations, the one who is the light of life. Amen.