Having An Epiphany

Believe it or not, yesterday was Christmas.  Okay, yesterday was the twelfth and final day of the Christmas season according to the ancient church calendar.  In many places around the world, the old church calendar is still followed and celebrated, though in the United States, the practice has somewhat gone out of fashion.  Two seasons are still celebrated in many mainline denomination churches:  Advent and Lent, but the other seasons are generally limited to one day celebrations including Christmas, Easter and Pentecost.  Though in reality Christmas lasts twelve days; Easter, fifty days; and Pentecost, the rest of the year up to the first week of advent.  So, where are we now?

Today, we stand in the gap:  Epiphany, lasting from January 6 until Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent, or to some of you, the day after Mardi Gras. 

So Epiphany, what’s that all about?  Well, it generally celebrates three events:  the visit of the Magi, the presentation of Jesus at the temple and Simeon’s declaration of having seen God’s salvation in Jesus, and the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist.  All three of these are pretty cool things, but I want to focus on one in particular:  the visit of the Magi.

We’ve all heard the song, “We three kings of Orient are, bearing gifts we traverse afar.”  (Or, the elementary schoolyard version, “we three kings of Orient are, tried to smoke a rubber cigar, it was loaded and e  So, the song calls them kings, many translations of scripture call them “wise men,” but the word in Greek is “magi.”

xploded, now two kings are we.”)

So, who were these guys?  From the scriptural text, I think it can be assumed that they were not “kings” in the sense that we think of.  Wise men-well, let’s face it, that’s just dodging the question.  The term “magi” is the root of our English word “magician.”  It is believed by many that these people (not necessarily even men) were astrologers from the east, possibly in or around modern day Iran.  They could even possibly have been Zoroastrian priests!  Can you imagine it!  See how shocking this is and why it is only included in ONE gospel!  These people were not just Gentiles, disliked but tolerated, but Pagans who believed that life on earth was determined by the stars!  Not only that, but they consulted the hated King Herod whose very name was an affront to Judaism because of his murder of the innocents (Matthew 2:16-18) and his willing cooperation with the Romans. 

In my former life as a church worship director, I built a Christmas Eve service around the idea of the great gifts of Christmas and linked them to Christmas Scriptures.  The first gift was God comes in human form, the second was God comes to the least-the shepherds, and the third, represented by the Magi, was God comes to us all.  This is remarkable.  The only begotten Son of God leaves His throne to provide a way of salvation for His friends, but also His enemies…and let’s face it, we’ve all either been or still are enemies of God.  But He came for all of us.  Not just the righteous, or the wealthy, or the learned, or the religious among us, but in Jesus Christ, God shows us His unique care for the unrighteous, the poor, the uneducated and the unreligious of this world.

There’s an interesting section of the text of Matthew 2, where the story of the visit of the Magi is found.  I think it’s my favorite line of the passage, “they returned to their country by another route.” (v.12b NIV)  Okay, I know the text is talking about a physical return to their country by another physical route, but I can’t help but thing they returned to their country a different way; that their encounter with the young Jesus and family changed them.  The verses previous say they were “overjoyed,” they “worshiped Him” and “presented Him with gifts.”  What a miracle, God created an astrological event that called these stargazers to Himself.  They are so moved by it all, that they worship, probably for the first time in their lives, the one thing worthy of true worship.  God gifts these magi with the opportunity of being among the first to gaze upon His plan for the salvation of all humanity.  How could they not go home different?  I can't help but believe that the magi had an epiphany.  (You see what I did there?)

So, it’s Epiphany, is it just for the religious?  I would say not!  It’s a celebration of the gift to all of humanity in the person of Jesus Christ.  A gift of truth and it’s true whether you believe it or not, it’s true whether you like it or not and it is true whether you even know about it or not.  The hand of God is extended with the gift of true freedom, will you take it?