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Sermon for the Epiphany of Our Lord
Isaiah 60:1-6 + Matthew 2:1-12
Have any of you ever gone to Israel? You have. You all have. I know you have. And today’s festival of Epiphany explains how.
On Sunday, we looked at three Old Testament prophecies that were fulfilled in Jesus’ infancy. The visit of the wise men, which only Matthew recounts in his Gospel, is yet another fulfillment of prophecy. Now, some will point to the prophecy pronounced by the false prophet Balaam as the children of Israel were journeying toward the land of Canaan, to conquer it. And they may be right. The Holy Spirit overcame that false prophet and spoke through him: I see Him, but not now; I behold Him, but not near; a Star shall come out of Jacob; a Scepter shall rise out of Israel, and batter the brow of Moab, and destroy all the sons of tumult. And Edom shall be a possession; Seir also, his enemies, shall be a possession, while Israel does valiantly. Out of Jacob One shall have dominion, and destroy the remains of the city. That’s the only prophecy in the Old Testament that mentions a special star rising out of Israel, like the one the wise men followed.
But Isaiah’s prophecy from chapter 60 that you heard this evening is an even clearer prophecy of the visit of the wise men. And not only of that event, but of a much, much greater fulfillment that is still taking place. In the visit of the wise men, we see the Gentiles, the nations, coming literally and physically to Israel. But they only came to Israel because that’s where Christ was at the time. And still today, the nations come to Israel by coming to Christ, wherever He is at this time.
Matthew tells us that, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of King Herod, behold, there came wise men from the East to Jerusalem, saying, “Where is he who has been born King of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the East and have come to worship him.” Who were these wise men or “Magi”? Legend says they were three kings from the region of Babylonia. They’re even given names: Caspar, Melchior, and Balthazar. But no one really knows. And how did they know that a star would herald the birth of the King of the Jews? Again, no one knows for sure. What we do know for sure about them is what matters: They were Gentiles, non-Jews, who were drawn by God to the land of Israel, because they were convinced, not only that the King of the Jews had been born, but that this particular King of the Jews was also born for them, for those who are not Jews, and that He deserved their worship, their honor, and their very precious gifts of gold and frankincense and myrrh.
How did Israel respond to the wise men’s news about the birth of their King? When King Herod heard these things, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. For the most part, Jerusalem and its inhabitants were not thrilled at the news. They were troubled. But we know that some in Jerusalem were thrilled. We heard a not long ago about Simeon and Anna who were there in the temple to welcome their King with open arms. In fact, Simeon was the first to announce what the birth of the Messiah would mean for Israel and for the Gentiles. You know the Nunc Dimittis, where Simeon said that Jesus is a Light for enlightening the Gentiles and for glory to God’s people. Israel has no glory apart from the light of Christ, and Gentiles have no light, only darkness without the light of Christ. But when the Gentiles come to Him, they have their darkness replaced with light.
That brings us to Isaiah’s prophecy. What did he say to the people of Israel? Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD has risen upon you. For, behold, darkness covers the earth, and deep darkness the peoples. But the LORD will rise upon you, and his glory will appear over you. Israel spent hundreds of years, from the time of Solomon’s son Rehoboam through the Babylonian captivity, in constant rebellion against God, with only brief moments of humility and faith. Nothing was going to change that. They were a stubborn and rebellious people. But, honestly, not really worse than the rest of the nations. Mankind’s corruption is complete. No nation on earth could ever truly thrive in justice and righteousness. Look at the days before Noah’s flood. Look at the days following Noah’s flood. Look at the history of the whole world. Injustice, violence, war, rebellion against God have always been the norm for sinful mankind, and always will be. The only difference for the nation of Israel was that they were the only nation that had a promise from God that something wonderful would come to them, and from them. God would send a light to Israel. The LORD Himself would rise upon Israel, like the sun. His glory would appear over them (perhaps a reference to the “star” the wise men saw). In other words, the Christ, the Son of God, would be born in Israel. He would be for their glory, as Simeon said; His coming would bring great, world-wide renown to Israel. And so they should arise and shine with joy at His coming, because He was the true Light who would bring glory to that nation.
And He would bring them glory because the light of Christ that shone from Israel, starting from the birth of the King, would reach the Gentiles, would reach the ends of the earth, and would draw the Gentiles to Israel, to walk in the light that was coming from Israel. But the light wasn’t coming from Israel as a nation, or as a people, or as piece of land. It was coming from the baby in Bethlehem.
That’s where the wise men went, leaving Jerusalem behind. The light of God shining in the pages of Holy Scripture had shown them the way to Bethlehem, where the Christ was to be born, and then the light of the special star returned to show them exactly where He was. And when they had come into the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they fell down and worshiped him. And opening their treasures, they presented to him gifts: gold, and frankincense, and myrrh. Why worship an infant? Why travel all that way, and present such precious gifts? Because the King of the Jews would be the Savior of the whole world. By His suffering and death, he would provide atonement for the sins of all men, and through Him men would again have access to the holy God, to their Creator, to their King.
All this was foretold by the prophet Isaiah. And Gentiles will walk in your light, and kings in the brightness that rises upon you. Lift up your eyes all around and see! They all gather together; they come to you. Your sons will come from afar, and your daughters will be nursed at your side. Then you will see and be radiant, and your heart will marvel and swell, for the abundance of the sea will be turned over to you, the might of the Gentiles will come to you. The multitude of camels will cover you, the dromedaries of Midian and Ephah. All those from Sheba will come; they will bring gold and incense, and they will declare the praises of the LORD.
This was a recurring theme and a big prophecy in the Old Testament, that the Gentiles would come to Israel—so big, in fact, that it’s one of the reasons the nation of Israel has historically rejected Jesus as the Christ, because they didn’t see Him literally drawing all nations to the physical nation of Israel. “At best He drew a few wise men from the East. So what? Big deal!” Yes, the wise men’s journey to the land of Israel was the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy. But it was only the beginning of the fulfillment. The whole Old Testament opens up for you when you realize that the coming of the Gentiles to Israel was always about coming to the Christ who would come to Israel. All the prophets who spoke of this were talking not about the expansion of cultural Israel or of the Jewish nation according to the flesh, but the widening of Israel to include all nations, and to include them in one way and in one way only, by shining the light of Jesus the Christ into the world from that moment, 2,000 years ago, when the Christ was born in Israel.
But He’s no longer shining from Israel, and you no longer need to go to Israel to find Him. Now the light of Christ shines wherever His Gospel is preached in the world. And wherever people hear it, and believe, and are baptized in the name of Christ, there they are coming to Israel, into the expanded version of Israel that God had planned from the beginning, which has nothing to do any longer with a piece of land, because the true Israel is found wherever He is found who was born on that piece of land, in Bethlehem: Jesus the Christ, the Savior of all men, and especially of those who believe. Israel is present among us, because Christ is present here among us, where two or three are gathered together in His name. As He promised, I am with you always, to the very end of the age.
And so, you see, whether or not you have ever gone to Israel, you believers in the King of the Jews have most certainly gone to Israel. You have visited Jerusalem, and Bethlehem, together with the wise men. You have seen the glory of the Lord rising upon that nation. You’ve seen it through the words of Holy Scripture and through faith in the words you have heard. You have come to Israel by coming to Christ, and, together with all believers from every nation, you have been incorporated into the expanded Israel that is called the Holy Christian Church. Epiphany marks the beginning of that expansion, but hardly the end of it. Until the end of time, the nations will be coming to Israel by coming to Christ, by coming into the Christian Church, where you, too, have fallen down before the King of the Jews, to worship Him, to praise Him, and to present to Him your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. A blessed Epiphany to all! Amen.
