Weekly Bible Study - Isaiah, Ephesians, Matthew

The Epiphany of the Lord

4 January 2015

Writing centuries apart, Isaiah, Paul and Matthew illuminate a common theme in today’s readings: Christ will be a light to all nations.

Isaiah assures the people of ancient Judah that the darkness of their sufferings will end in a glorious new day of hope, light and victory. The imagery in this passage is stunning. Splendor, brilliance, light, glory, radiance suggest a brightness beyond human imagination. It is Christ who will illuminate Judah’s “new day."

Nations shall walk by your light and kings by your shining radiance.

The New Testament letter to the Ephesians builds on this theme. In those early days in the church, it was a blinding, astonishing challenge for Jewish Christians to believe (as the apostles taught) that Christ extends God's promise of salvation to the Gentiles. Foreigners become co-heirs of the kingdom along with the Jews! Inconceivable (for many, at that time).

In a similar vein, Matthew's gospel paints a picture showing that “all of Jerusalem” was greatly troubled by news of a divine birth. The ones who first seek out the long-awaited Messiah are outsiders, non-Jews (Gentiles). Matthew's troubled, mainly Jewish-Christian community was surely astonished at the irony. How can it be that foreigners could be among the first to seek and find Jesus, to offer gifts, pay homage and announce this revelation to distant lands.

The universal availability of salvation was surely part of God’s plan from all eternity.

Food for thought: Do we put limits on God's salvation? Is anyone excluded from God's kingdom on the basis of their birth or culture alone?





The author, Ms. Barbara Gawle, Class of 2001, leads Bible studies at her parish, Incarnation Church of Wethersfield, CT. She is the 2012 recipient of the Biblical School's highest award, the Lawrence Boadt Memorial Medal.