Christ Lutheran Church
Cleveland, Ohio
January 25, 2026
by: Rev. Dean Kavouras
Epiphany
The Light Of The World Banishes The Darkness
On this 3rd Sunday of Epiphany the church of Jesus Christ continues to detail for the whole world who the Savior is. And moreover to all places far and near; to places where people live in elegance, in squalor and everywhere in between.
Now, while not all people live in material degradation, we all live in spiritual dilapidation. From the beginning the human race, via its first parents, have utterly rejected the Light that our Creator shone on the world in Genesis 1:3.
As the earth was “formless and void” then, and as darkness “covered the face of the deep” then – a new age of gloom covers our world from east to west, from north to south. We live, as it were, beneath a glass ceiling.
The term glass ceiling is often used by marginalized groups of people who, for all the world, should be able to climb as high as they wish in life. There is nothing stopping them. No one is holding them down. But because of politics and prejudices they always bump into a “glass ceiling.” Invisible to the eye, but as hard as bullet-proof glass.
There is another glass ceiling as well that keeps us away from our God above. The Prophet Isaiah calls it, “the covering that is cast over all peoples, the veil that is spread over all nations.” (Is. 25:7)
St. Paul picking up this central theological truth says it like this, “the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” (2 Cor. 4:4)
Our Lord Jesus Christ says it like this, “the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.” (John 3:19-21)
Now knowing that spiritual and theological darkness are the default condition of humanity, we can begin to understand the dazzling prophecy that Isaiah gives to two of the darkest places on earth: Zebulon and Naphtali. And Jesus knowing the prophecy of course, since it was inspired by his own Holy Spirit, describes his own life and actions as the fulfillment of the prophecy. The prophecy that was give 750 years before the Lord assumed human flesh. “The people that lived in darkness have seen a great light.
In one of our Eucharistic Prayers we acknowledge this verse when we say to our God, “you continually visited us though your holy prophets; and in these last days you manifested to us who sat in darkness and the shadow of death a great light; your only-begotten Son whom you sent into the flesh to bear our sin, and be our Savior.”
Now the kind of light we are talking about is no photons, but inner light that we obtain from Him who IS the Light of the world. From Jesus who says, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never live in darkness but will have the light of life.” (John 8:12)
When it comes to photons there is no shortage of light in the world. But when it comes to the “inner light” of faith in Jesus, and of hearing and believing God’s Word, his Word Made Flesh, our Lord Jesus Christ. Then there is a great shortage. Indeed there is all but a power outage.
Not because there is no light to be had. Remember that even on a cloudy day the sun is still shining; but the clouds of our sinful intellect, and our addiction to sin, and our love for the pleasures of this world. Said another way: the darkness of our hearts render us, “the blind leading the blind.” What could be more pathetic.
The places mentioned by Isaiah, and taken up by S. Matthew in today’s gospel: Zebulon and Naphtali were especially dark places in the world. They were trade towns and every imaginable philosophy, theology and religious predilection passed through and left its mark.
Moreover Zebulon and Naphtali were located in the extreme North by Northeast sections of the Promised Land and peopled largely by Gentiles who did not know, nor care about: God the Father Almighty Maker of Heaven and earth.
There were, apparently, a number of synagogues there, and so the true Israelite religion was alive – how healthy we cannot say. But it was alive and waiting for the Light of the World to shine upon them, and upon the most utter pagans one could ever meet.
We have such places today. No one in the Greater Cleveland area ever asked a real estate agent: could you show my some houses in East Cleveland. It is such a disaster from top to bottom that some have suggested that the City of Cleveland annex it. But Cleveland, no “city on a hill” itself, wants no part of it! That said there are no doubt good people who live there, but they live in the modern day equivalent of Zebulon and Naphtali.
And then there are the great college campuses which were founded by devout Christians, but now will not tolerate any love or faith in Christ, or his teachings.
And then there are our dark hearts that as often as we give them over to the sins of the flesh, or the culture, or the devil make us as visionless as could be. We think unholy thoughts, and twirl them around in our minds. Don’t do that! Instead pray the simplest prayer of all: Lord, have mercy upon me, and He will.
A great deal of earth’s darkness is demonstrated by the illnesses that overtake us. All sickness can be traced back to sin. Sometimes, but not always on a one to one basis. But however clean and healthy of a life you live; taking every new FB cure that comes down the pike, we will all get sick, and finally we will all die. Thank you Adam!
But in every darkness no matter the place nor the cause: a bright light has shone upon us! Jesus is that light. The church is his soma/body. And you, by baptism, are inside of him and he inside of you! He is the: medicine of immortality. And we should still come to him for all our illnesses and pray for relief. It’s what he did then, and what he still does now.
And so no matter that we live in Zebulon or Naphtali, in the culture of spiritual Gentiles. Jesus has settled is among us, and made his home here among us in the church.