Matthew 2:1-12
May the Light of the Lord shine upon you, as the light of Lord shined through Jesus upon Israel and all who met Jesus.
Today is the Day of the Epiphany of our Lord, the beginning of the season of the Epiphany. For most of us, I’m sure that doesn’t mean a whole lot. The word epiphany, by itself means manifestation, but my guess is, that even knowing that definition, doesn’t help. Most of us have a faint recollection that the Epiphany has something to do with the Wisemen and it does, but not so originally; originally Epiphany had much more to do with Jesus’ birth. You see, in the Bible, epiphanies had to do with God and his appearances or manifestations to humanity. Epiphanies are not common, but there are a number of stories of God appearing in human form and other forms throughout Scripture. You might remember that God appeared to Abraham, a few times as a man and Abraham made food for God, walked and talked with God, he even negotiated with God for a reprieve for Sodom and Gomorrah; this kind of thing we call an epiphany. God also appeared to Moses; he appeared to him first in a burning bush that was not consumed (speaking from the bush) and God appeared to Israel as a pillar of fire by night and a pillar of cloud by day as he led them and safeguarded them in the wilderness; that too we call an epiphany. When Isaiah described his calling, he spoke of the appearance of the Lord God in the Temple of the Lord, and told about how his robes filled the Temple, such was the greatness of God; that we also call an epiphany.
Within Christianity, beginning in the Eastern realms of Christianity, the Day of the Epiphany marked the birth of Jesus. In Jesus, God put God’s self into a helpless human infant. God manifested God’s self in an all new way in this birth, and did so for humanity. It was God’s plan that through Jesus, God would make himself known; he would experience humanity in an all knew way and humanity would have the opportunity to come face-to-face with God. God’s will, God’s love, God’s forgiveness and mercy were all manifested in Jesus. Why then has it been linked to the Wisemen? In the visit of the Wisemen to Jesus, God was manifesting God’s self to the Gentiles. This is something special; God had time and again manifested God’s self to the Jews, to God’s people, but rarely to Gentiles. But over the centuries the celebration of the Epiphany has been linked to other events in Jesus life, events that proclaimed Jesus as God’s Son, like at the time of his Baptism. And for many Christians the Epiphany became a celebration of the Baptism of our Lord; if you remember the story, the Holy Spirit descended upon Jesus as a dove and the voice of God rumbled out of the clouds that the Lord God was pleased with Jesus his Son. The Holy Spirit manifested itself as a dove, God’s voice manifested its self from out of the clouds and of course there was Jesus, the ultimate manifestation of God in human form, but this manifestation went well beyond appearances, here God’s Son was Jesus. God was a part of who Jesus was, he came here to live and to die, to experience joy and suffering and to bring about our salvation. This was not God just popping in and popping out. Today we have a Sunday (separate from and in addition to the Epiphany), on which we celebrate the Baptism of Our Lord. Next Sunday will be that Sunday. But today we celebrate the Epiphany of our Lord, that is Jesus, in which God manifested himself.
We celebrate this wonderful event and connect it with the arrival of the Wisemen, because our date, on which we celebrate Jesus birth, is a couple weeks prior. But we should understand, this is the day that the Eastern Rite Christians (Greek Orthodox Russian Orthodox, etc.) celebrate as Christmas. Because of the dominance of western based Christianity, Epiphany has often been called “Little Christmas”. But Epiphany is not about, which churches celebrate what holiday when, but about, the manifestation of God to us, to the world. It is about recognizing God in the baby Jesus, in the boy Jesus who sat in the Temple among the teachers, about the man Jesus who was baptized, who preached, healed people, organized a group of disciples, taught them and others, fed the poor and raised a couple people from the dead, who was arrested, condemned, scourged, hung on a cross to die, was buried and raised from the dead. And all of this was for us. This Epiphany, this manifestation of God’s Son among us, was all so that we might know God’s love; it was so that we might receive God’s forgiveness and so that we may enjoy salvation with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
God doesn’t seem to just appear, create an Epiphany, just for the fun of it, though God could, could appears to us for a reason. When God appeared to the prophets it was to give them a message that they were to share with the People of God, usually a message of warning, reminding them of God’s will and God’s intention to punish them, if they refused to repent. When God appeared to Moses it was to have him lead the People of God out of slavery and into freedom. When God manifested God’s self in Jesus there was much more going on. The warnings rarely worked, and even as he watched over and protected Israel from their enemies they went astray. God was doing something different; he was entering into creation through his Son and subjecting God’s self to all that humanity experiences, both risks and joys. When Jesus died, somehow (at least) a piece of God died as well. This Epiphany was much more than an appearance; when God manifested God’s self in Jesus, it was for real, and more important, it was for us. All the Epiphanies of the Lord were for God’s People, Jesus (however) was for all human kind. May the Lord continue to appear to us and may his Epiphanies bring us the joy of the Lord.