Where is your Zebulun and Naphtali?

Bishop Peter Muhich
Homily from the Televised Mass, NewsCenter1
Third Sunday in Ordinary Time, January 22, 2023

We hear in the Scriptures this Sunday, the people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. Our reading, our first reading, is from the great book of the prophet Isaiah in the Old Testament. Isaiah would have ministered eight centuries before the coming of Christ, and we heard this passage about the people walking in darkness seeing a great light at Christmas time if you remember as well. But here on the third Sunday of the year we hear it again. The prophet speaks about Zebulun and Naphtali which are two northern kingdom tribes. They are areas that suffered greatly one century before when the Assyrians, who were the regional power at the time, attacked that area near and around the Sea of Galilee. And the people went through much hardship. Isaiah says, in fact, the Lord degraded in these tribes and the people were allowed to go through an experience of suffering, exile, torture, oppression. But, the prophet says, from this land of gloom a great light will come, and those who welcome darkness will see this great light. The Lord will break the rod of the task masters. The yoke that burned them. The pole on their shoulders. They will experience a new beginning.

Our Gospel passage today picks up on this prophecy of Isaiah. Matthew, we’re reading from Matthew this year in cycle A. You might remember that Matthew was a Jewish Christian who knew the Jewish scriptures, the Old Testament very well, and he’s writing to other Jewish Christians. He’s always going to point out how the Lord fulfills the prophecies of the Old Testament. And so, Matthew explains that Jesus fulfills this prophecy from Isaiah.

You see the Lord Jesus is from Nazareth. He is actually a man of Zebulun and Naphtali, a region associated with that suffering I talked about, but also a suspicion. Matthew calls it the Galilee of the Gentiles. What’s that about? Well, some of the Assyrians remained in the region after they had conquered those northern tribes and intermarried with the people so it’s kind of a half-breed region, considered backwards and of suspicion. That’s why in John’s Gospel we hear Nathaniel say, “can anything good come from Nazareth?” when he hears about Jesus. But Jesus Christ, the great light of the world, comes precisely from this land of gloom — from Zebulun and Naphtali, the Galilee of the Gentiles.

We have here, Bishop Barron in his commentary on this text points out a very important Biblical principle. A very important principle about the way God works can be seen in these readings. God has a way of bringing the best from the worst. The most wonderful from the least expected people and places.

There are so many examples of this in the scriptures. Think of Abraham and Sarah. Abraham was a hundred and Sarah ninety. They’re well past childbearing age. Couldn’t conceive a child. But from them comes Isaac, and from him a great people.

And the Joseph of the Old Testament, sold by his jealous brothers. Falsely accused and imprisoned for seven years. Carted off to Egypt, but after his imprisonment he becomes a great official in the royal household, and he saves his people during that time of famine.

Or Moses who wanders in the desert for years and cannot speak well, but God calls him anyway and he becomes the liberator of his people.

Or Hannah, the childless woman who has Samuel, a son, because of God’s mercy and he becomes a great prophet.

Or David, another example. The youngest of Jesse’s sons. Not the likely candidate for king, but he becomes king and a great king as well.

Or Peter, James, and John. Simple fishermen are called by the Lord to become, in spite of their weaknesses, pillars of the church — apostles.

Or Paul, a ruthless persecutor of Christians becomes the great apostle to the Gentiles.

And the Lord Jesus in his person sums all of this up. He’s condemned and rejected as a criminal crucified, tortured to death on a cross. And yet he is, in the process of that humiliation, offering his perfect sacrifice. He is God’s son and accomplishes the salvation of the world.

The world we live in does not live by this Biblical principle. Instead, it exalts power and privilege and success and wealth. It sees failure and suffering, growing older and death as things to be avoided, certainly not successes. But we as followers of Jesus Christ, hold up the cross as our guide and seek to embrace it in all things. In weakness, as St. Paul tells us, power reaches perfection in the way God does things.

So, I have a question for all of us to ponder this week. Where is your Zebulun and Naphtali? Where is your Zebulun and Naphtali? Where is your area of struggle, your place of suffering, your weakness, your oppression, your gloom? Maybe it’s an illness you’re undergoing right now. A strange relationship in your life. A humiliation or failure that you’ve undergone. A loss of a loved one.

Because the Scriptures tell us this Sunday, that from there the light may very well emerge. From there God may be preparing to have a grace breakthrough in your life. So, where is your Zebulun and Naphtali? Whereas the prophet, the great prophet Isaiah tells us, the people who walked in darkness have seen a great light.