The Season of Eureka

Nearly every week, I listen to a podcast called “Same Old Song” that features two Episcopal priests talking about the upcoming Sunday’s lectionary readings. Fr. Jake and Fr. Aaron are seasoned preachers who are committed to the Gospel, and they also possess the ultimate charism of the podcast universe: great banter. These two priests take God’s Word very seriously, but they love poking fun at themselves, each other, and, best of all for this listener, the idiosyncrasies of the Anglican tradition. It’s no surprise that these two goofballs have spent the last three weeks referring to our current liturgical season as “The Season of Eureka.”

Fr. Jake and Fr. Aaron are not wrong—the Epiphany season is all about unveiling and revealing that which has been hidden. But “Eureka” doesn’t fully encapsulate the meaning of Epiphany, which is quite a bit more than “aha! moments” of clarity. The type of clarity offered to us in the season of Epiphany is as important as the clarity itself; the type of clarity that Christians from the East might call a theophany—an event in which God “appears” in our midst. The message of Epiphany is not simply that God has revealed something new to us. The message of Epiphany is that God has revealed himself to us in the God-man Jesus Christ. Moreover, the revelation of Jesus Christ extends beyond Israel to fulfill God’s promise to Abraham that “all the families of the earth will be blessed”—Jews and Gentiles, alike. The Gospel readings during the Epiphany season are carefully curated to reflect this message.

This Sunday’s Gospel reading (Matthew 4:12-22) situates us on the edge of the sea in Capernaum. Jesus, having just endured forty days of satanic torment in the wilderness, has just received this news that his cousin and prophet, John the Baptist, had been arrested. Upon hearing that news, Jesus goes home—into Galilee, in the town of Nazareth. The text does not tell us what happens in Nazareth, but this is Jesus’s last trip home before he launches earnestly into his three-year ministry. This is Jesus’s last trip home before he begins walking the path to the Cross.

Matthew goes on: “And leaving Nazareth he went and lived in Capernaum by the sea, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali.” Matthew’s Gospel repeatedly draws our attention backward—back to the words that would’ve been very familiar to its original Jewish audience: the words of the Old Testament.[1] In v. 15, Matthew quotes a prophecy from Isaiah, which portends, “The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles—the people dwelling in darkness have seen a great light, and for those dwelling in the region and shadow of death, on them a light has dawned.”

Over the land of the darkness-dwellers, dawn has broken. What’s more, the Prophet Isaiah has told us that the Light which has come into the world has a name:

“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon[d] his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore” (Isa. 9:6-7)

Remarkably, the Light who has come to occupy the throne of David has established a kingdom in Zebulun and Naphtali. David’s Kingdom, which has hitherto been the kingdom of the Jewish people, now includes the Gentiles. For the Gentiles, who the apostle Paul says were without hope and without God in the world, the Light of God’s salvation has dawned. The Day has come when they will be “brought near” to God by the blood of the One who occupies David’s throne (Eph. 2:12-13). Those who were once strangers and aliens are now, through Christ, citizens, and saints in God’s Kingdom.

Eureka!

Dcn. Bree Snow
Minister of Formation and Catechesis

[1] Are you interested in hearing more about The Gospel of Matthew? Consider attending Fr. Chase’s class on this Gospel on Wednesday nights this Spring! You are welcome to jump in now, even though the class has already begun—Wednesday nights at 6:15 in the Parish Hall.