Ephesians 4.7 – 13

Acts 19.1 – 8

Matthew 4.12 – 17

John 1.29 – 34

It says, ‘When He heard that John the Baptist was put into prison, He departed to Galilee.’ Remember what the Angel says to the Myrrhbearing women at the Tomb of the LORD’s Resurrection: ‘Lo, He goes before you into Galilee.’ Look closely at the biblical icon set before us this morning centered on Galilee. In the one, the LORD goes into Galilee having risen from the Tomb; in the other, He goes into Galilee having risen from the Jordan. In both, He goes into Galilee after having triumphed over the devil.

There are other parallels. In the one, the heavens are split open and the Holy Trinity is made manifest; in the other, the curtain of the Temple is split open, and Jesus (now dead on the Cross!!) is manifest to the Centurion as truly the Son of God.

There is another parallel that comes into view from the Psalm sung at the Feast of Theophany. ‘What ails you, O sea, that you flee? O Jordan, that you turn back?’ (Ps 114.5) Can you see the fleeing sea and the Jordan turned back in parallel with the rolling away of the stone from the LORD’s Tomb – and discovering that it is empty?

The sea that flees is the Red Sea that parted for Israel to pass through; and when the sea returned to its former state, the earth was emptied of Pharaoh and his horsemen. The Jordan that turned back is the River that parted for Israel to pass through to enter the Promised Land.

I.e., Theophany is about the New Israel being raised from the grave and being led into the Kingdom of Heaven, the true Land of Inheritance. And, the Tomb of the LORD is where the waters of death split open that we may pass over onto the ‘better and changeless Path’ that ascends into the heavens opened at the LORD’s Baptism and into the Heavenly Sanctuary opened at His death on the Cross.

And that ‘better and changeless Path’ into Heaven, in the theological icon of Holy Scripture, goes through Galilee!

Galilee is more than a geographical region in the Bible. I have a sense that it is a biblical image for the Garden of Eden that those united to Christ now live in, hidden from the world in the hidden man of the heart. This much we can say: Galilee is on the way of the LORD’s Exodus from the Jordan to the Tomb, and from the Tomb of His Resurrection to His Ascension into the Kingdom of Heaven.

We read in Ezekiel of that snow-melt River that issues from the Temple of the Last Day – we recognize the Temple as the Virgin Theotokos. The River grows deeper, and its current grows mightier as it passes through Galilee and the Arabah (Arabia, which means desert or wilderness), and into the ‘outlet of the sea.’ Might we see the outlet of the sea to be LORD’s Tomb where He passes over to the ‘better and heavenly city’ in the deep, beyond all things? Everywhere that River goes, says Ezekiel, it makes stagnant waters fresh, and it makes living creatures to live. Is that not what the LORD does as He goes through Galilee, preaching and teaching and healing every illness among the people?

We did not read from Ezekiel at Theophany. We will read from Ezekiel at Holy Pascha. At Theophany, we read from Isaiah. We read Isaiah’s vision of what looks like that same snow-melt River seen by Ezekiel. "As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and return not thither but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and prosper in the thing for which I sent it.’ (Is 55.10-11)

Who is this River that makes the waters fresh? It is the WORD of the Lord, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who goes from the Mouth of the Father and becomes incarnate of the Holy Virgin Mary Theotokos, the Most Blessed Panagia. And what is the purpose of this WORD who goes forth from the Father to come into the world and to become flesh, and to suffer and to die and on the Third Day rise again? Isaiah tells us explicitly: ‘Thus saith the LORD, Behold, I turn toward them as a River of Peace, and as a torrent bringing upon them in a flood the glory of the Gentiles.’ (Is 66.10) The purpose of this River? To make the stagnant waters fresh, to make the earth bring forth and sprout life, to destroy death by death and give life to those in the tombs, to destroy him who has the power of death, that is the devil, and to deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong bondage! (Heb 2.14b-15)

Again, in Ezekiel, this River goes through Galilee on its way to the outlet of the sea. And we read now in Ecclesiasticus: ‘I came out [in Eden, in the beginning] as a brook from a River, and as a conduit into a Garden. I said, I will water my best Garden and water abundantly my Garden bed; and lo, my brook became a river, and my river became a sea.’ (24.30-31) Might we understand from this that Galilee is the Garden of Eden?

Theophany, then, manifests the mystery of the Church as Galilee and as the Garden of Eden. Here surely is at least one of the biblical sources for all those liturgical hymns and prayers of the Church that see Her as the Garden of Eden. The Church, that is to say, is Galilee, She is Eden, She is this world transfigured in the presence of the risen LORD Jesus Christ into a Garden, because everyone who draws near to Christ in the fear of God with faith and in love is touched by the Living Waters of Christ and is made new, made to live in the eternal life of Christ, the Resurrection and the Life!

It says that He came down from Nazareth and dwelt in Capernaum. Capernaum, in Hebrew, means ‘village of consolation.’ Is Capernaum also an image of the Church? Is not the Church a place of consolation because in Her, the Light of the risen Christ shines in the darkness and the darkness cannot put it out - witness the final fate of the Holy Innocents slaughtered by Herod in last Sunday's Gospel! In the Church, drawing from St Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, God the Father comforts us in all our tribulations. For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also abounds through Christ. (2 Co 1.4-5)

I just indicated that last Sunday, we read the Gospel of Herod slaughtering the Holy Innocents, and of Rachel weeping for her children because they are no more. Is it by accident that this Sunday after Theophany, we see the LORD Jesus, in His triumph over the devil in the wilderness beyond the Jordan that already proclaims His victory over the devil in the Tomb of His Holy Pascha, we see the LORD Jesus settling among us in Capernaum, in His Church, in the ‘Village of Consolation’ here in Galilee, here in this world where we iive? Is it not in the Church that Rachel hears and sees in the Resurrection of Her Son and Her God the consoling fulfillment of Jeremiah’s prophecy? ‘Thus says the LORD: Refrain from weeping, and tears. There is hope in your future; your children shall come back to their own border. (Jer 31.16-17)

This morning, we hear John the Baptist bearing witness to Jesus as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Here is the source of our consolation. The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world is the Lamb who was slain from the foundation of the world (Rev 13.8). The world is founded, it is 'established'  in ‘the mystery of Christ’s death and Resurrection by which He has destroyed death and given life to those in the tombs. That’s why the world shall never be moved. (Ps 93.1)

In the beginning, God founded the world in light (Gn 1.3). What was that light? It was the Law of God, Torah. In the light of Torah, the earth began sprouting grass and herbs even before there was sun and moon, which were not created until the fourth day. But where did the light of the Law come from? It came from Jesus Christ, the Wisdom of God by whom all things were made, the Radiance of the Father’s Brilliance. He is the True Light who was before the light of creation, and at Christmas, He has come into the world.

Therefore, when we hear from the prophet in our Gospel this morning: ‘The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light, and upon those who sat in the region and shadow of death Light has dawned,’ we hear the proclamation of a new creation that has begun. And this New Creation is founded not in the Law but in God Himself, the Light who created the light. That eternal Light has come into the world, and it is in the world even though it is not of the world. It is the Church, the Body of Christ risen from the dead and ascended into Heaven but in no way absent from us here, for the Church is the Body of Christ. In the Church, Christ is in our midst, risen from the dead and glorified. That's why the Church is Capernaum, the Village of Consolation. In the Church, the concrete manifestation of the risen and triumphant Christ present in the world, Christ the Great Light has dawned on those sitting in the darkness of death. The Church is the Body of Christ, the True Light, proclaiming to all that the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. The word in Greek means, joined to; in the Church, in the mystery of Christ the incarnate God, the Kingdom of Heaven is joined to the creation. Therefore, repent. Turn away from the darkness and begin making your way to the Light of the Church, to the Body of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, to the Body of Christ risen from the dead. Cleave to Christ in His Holy Church and receive the consolation of His Gospel, the consolation of eternal life in the Light that scatters the darkness. Amen!