The Real Light of the World

Matthew 4:12-23

So other than the Bible, I’m not really into ancient writings, but when Damien and Professor Suksmei and former Vicar Phil were doing our text study this last week, we were reminded of one of the analogies that Plato had made. And it really kind of fits the thoughts of our text. So I’m gonna talk it through, it’s a little lengthy, but it’s kind of interesting. Plato’s analogy starts off with there’s this group of people who are chained in a cave facing the wall. And so all they can see is the back wall of the cave. So all they can see is the darkness of the cave. Behind them, quite a ways back, there is a fire which gives a little bit of light into the cave, and also standing behind them are a group of puppeteers who are holding up shapes. They’re holding up shapes of trees and vases and violins and people and et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, all these different things. And the shadow goes up against the wall. And these prisoners, they see these shadows, and they assume these things are real. And they assume these things are reality. And so they start naming those shadows, those phantoms, and they talk excitedly about them, and they discuss what they might be like and what they might indicate, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Well, one day, the unbelievable happens. One of the prisoners escapes, and he gets out of the cave. And at first it’s just painful. He’s never seen sunlight before. And so his eyes are just like, whoa. And now he gets even a greater sense of pain when he realizes what sort of delusions he had been living under. For now, instead of seeing the image of a tree, he sees a tree. And instead of seeing the image of a rabbit, he sees a rabbit. And instead of seeing the image of a person, he sees people. And he realizes that for all his life, he’d lived under this delusion that the phantoms, the shadows up there on the wall, that those things were real when they weren’t real at all. They were just shadows. And he continued to think about it, and he continued to think, oh, there’s all those other people who are stuck in that cave, who are under this delusion that this is what life is about and that those shadows and phantoms, that that’s the real thing. I’m gonna go back into the cave. I’m gonna give up my freedom and go back into the cave so I can tell these people about the reality of the sun and the reality that there’s light and what real things are. And so he did. And he began to explain these things to the other people who were stuck there in the cave. And at first, they were confused. Because none of this connected with the reality that they had, the only reality they had ever known, which was staring at the dark wall in the back of the cave. But the returnee kept pushing it, saying, no, no, no, those shadows up there, well, that’s not reality. That’s just a phantom. That’s just a shadow. And the other prisoners eventually got angry. And in fact, they got so angry that they plotted that they would kill him. Now, Plato used that analogy to try to teach people the importance of philosophy. That in his opinion, philosophy was like coming out into the sunlight, which helped you to see reality more clearly. In reality, Plato was just diving into another kind of darkness. But he didn’t know that. But what he also probably didn’t realize was how accurate his description is of this world. Amen? You and I are born into the dark cave of this world. We are sinners. We’re surrounded by sinners. We live in a sinful world. And so by nature, we’re staring at a dark wall, and then people try to tell us what’s really important in life. Well, what’s really important in life is that you’re successful, that you make a lot of money, that you build relationships with people, that you have status in life, that you have wealth, that you have power. And in reality, those things are just so important. In reality, those things are just shadows and phantoms on the wall. Because what happens when unbelievers chase after power and status and health and et cetera? They’re still empty. There’s still something missing. It’s dark. It’s gloomy. And of course, overriding all of that is the deepest, darkest gloom that our world knows. And that’s, of course, the deep, dark gloom of death. And perhaps that’s why the chasing after status and wealth and power and glory and success leaves us so empty, because we know that no matter how much power, glory, status, success we find, we’re still gonna die. And that conscience inside of us says, and your darkness, you have no right to stand before God. You deserve to be sent to hell. And no matter how much status or power or glory we have, that’s reality. [silence] At the time of Jesus, Galilee was in many ways a dark place. Right from the moment Joshua led the Israelites into the promised land, the Israelites had struggled to take firm hold of the region of Galilee. Galilee is up by the Sea of Galilee, as you would guess. The Israelites had struggled with it. And because the Sea of Galilee is on some of the major trade routes of the ancient Near East, there were lots of people who came through, and there were lots of peoples from other nations who ended up settling there. And so at the time of Jesus, we don’t know for sure, but the population seems to be, if not majority Gentile, there’s a lot of them. The major city on the Sea of Galilee at the time of Jesus was a city called Tiberius, who was named after a Roman Caesar. To the north of the Sea of Galilee, and a touch maybe to the east as well, but mostly north, was a city that today is known as Banius. In those days, it was called Caesarea Philippi. Caesarea, after the Roman Caesar, Philippi, after Herod Philip, who was the local ruler. And what was the biggest thing, the most important thing in Caesarea Philippi? It was a major temple to the god Pan. Pan is a Greek word that means everything, and it seems to have been a temple dedicated to Pan, who was the god of the goats, the god of fertility, the god of the fields. And there’s some speculation that human sacrifice was taking place there. And this in the boundaries of what should have been the land of the people of God? This is darkness. And then Jesus comes popping onto the scene. And Jesus goes to the synagogues in Galilee, including the one in Capernaum. And Jesus drives out demons. And Jesus heals Simon Peter’s mother-in-law, who had a fever. And Jesus gives sight to the blind. And Jesus feeds the 5,000, and later the 4,000. And Jesus drives demons out of the gatherene demoniac, the ones who go to the pigs and off the cliff, they go running. And all of that stuff Jesus did in Galilee. And it was in Galilee that Jesus said, “I am the bread of life. “One who comes to me will never hunger.” All those things took place in Galilee and a whole lot more. Wow, light has come to this dark, dark place. But of course, all of that would merely be kinda interesting, I guess, if Jesus didn’t confront the greatest darkness that there was, the darkness of death. And that’s exactly what Jesus did. That Jesus goes to the cross, Jesus closes his eyes in the darkness of death, Jesus is laid into a dark tomb as his burial place, cave, as his burial place. And then you know what happened. Is it a coincidence that as the dawn was breaking, there was the great earthquake, and the tomb was rolled open to reveal that Jesus wasn’t there? Was it yet another little sign from God that light has come bursting into the world? I think so. And Jesus tells us, and the angel tells the disciples to go where? To Galilee. Of course. And eventually, Jesus is seen by the 500, almost undoubtedly in Galilee. And it’s when he’s seen by the 500 that he says, “Go, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.” Light had come. And my brothers and sisters, light has come to you in God’s amazing grace and mercy. God has convinced you that your baptism is worth hundreds, thousands, millions of times more than any paycheck or house or car or status or wealth could ever mean. Because this made you to be a son or daughter of the Most High God. God has convinced you that when you come to the altar, you are going to receive Jesus’s true body and Jesus’s true blood, worth thousands, millions, billions of times more than anything that the world could offer. You know that because Jesus died for you and Jesus rose for you, that when your eyes close in that darkness of death, that will not be the end because your eyes will reopen again. First in the glories of heaven to see Jesus, and then Jesus will resurrect that body back to life, and you’ll be able to see God with your own eyes. And that allows you to see that all those phantoms that the world says you have to chase after, status and power and wealth and glory and honor, those are just phantoms. The realities are Jesus. The realities are the forgiveness of sins that Jesus has won for you. The realities are baptism by which God claims you, the supper by which God feeds you. Those are the realities of life. Those are the big things of life. And God’s given them to you. And can you imagine? God now turns us loose to be light bringers. But just like he took Peter and Andrew, James and John, and said, “Come follow me, I’ll make you fishers of men.” So God has made you and me to be the lights of the world. “You are the light of the world,” Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount. “By the way,” also preached in Galilee. “You are the light of the world.” “And oh, it’s true that there will be times “where, like the prisoner going back into the cave, “the world will not like what you and I have to say.” “No, you are not the master of your own destiny.” “No, you are not a good person. “You are a sinful human being “who deserves to be sent to hell.” “No, you can’t earn God’s favor on your own.” “Oh, some of the prisoners may get angry.” And they may get frustrated. And they may even want to get rid of us. Maybe even kill us. Yeah, they did with a whole lot of our brothers and sisters early on, didn’t they? And they continue to do so today in different parts of the world. But there will be some, there will be some who will listen to you, and God will open their hearts, and they will come to trust that Jesus really is the light of their world. And they’ll be able to begin to see those phantoms for what they are. And they’ll be able to begin to see the realities for what they are. That Jesus, that Jesus is the light of the world. Amen? – Amen. – And amen.