An epiphany is having a sudden realization or revelation. It is the appearance or revelation of a divine being. As Christians we use it to refer to the arrival of the Wise Men when they visit Jesus. Christian tradition says that was twelve days after his birth. Setting Christ’s birth on December 25 then puts Epiphany on January 6.
The birth story of Jesus from
Matthew’s gospel is below. It is the
core text of Epiphany. Whenever I read
it I find it ironic that the Wise Men (who were pagan astrologers) recognized
the birth of the one who would be king of the Jews, while the Jewish religious
leadership (the insiders and experts) completely missed it. But more about that later. Here is Matthew 1:18-2:12:
18Now
the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way. When his mother Mary had
been engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found to be
with child from the Holy Spirit. 19Her husband Joseph, being a
righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to
dismiss her quietly. 20But just when he had resolved to do
this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of
David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in
her is from the Holy Spirit. 21She will bear a son, and you are
to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” 22All
this took place to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the
prophet:
23“Look,
the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,
and they shall name him Emmanuel,”
which means, “God is with us.” 24When
Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took
her as his wife, 25but had no marital relations with her until
she had borne a son; and he named him Jesus.
In the time of King Herod, after Jesus
was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, 2asking,
“Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his
star at its rising, and have come to pay him homage.” 3When
King Herod heard this, he was frightened, and all Jerusalem with him; 4and
calling together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired
of them where the Messiah was to be born. 5They told him, “In
Bethlehem of Judea; for so it has been written by the prophet:
6‘And
you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
are by no means least among the rulers
of Judah;
for from you shall come a ruler
who is to shepherd my people
Israel.’”
7Then
Herod secretly called for the wise men and learned from them the exact time
when the star had appeared. 8Then he sent them to Bethlehem,
saying, “Go and search diligently for the child; and when you have found him,
bring me word so that I may also go and pay him homage.”
9When
they had heard the king, they set out; and there, ahead of them, went the star
that they had seen at its rising, until it stopped over the place where the
child was. 10When they saw that the star had stopped, they were
overwhelmed with joy. 11On entering the house, they saw the
child with Mary his mother; and they knelt down and paid him homage. Then,
opening their treasure chests, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense,
and myrrh. 12And having been warned in a dream not to return to
Herod, they left for their own country by another road. (New Revised Standard Version)
If we had continued into the next
verses we’d find the story taking a very nasty turn. King Herod discovers he has been tricked by
the Wise Men. He is infuriated and
orders the killing of all the children in and around Bethlehem two years of age
and younger. That’s a very dark part of
the Christmas story that we almost always ignore.
You may have heard me say many times
that the way we understand the Christmas story is highly distorted. We take bits and pieces from Matthew’s gospel,
and bits and pieces from Luke’s gospel, and we turn it into a sweet baby story. (We also ignore a lot of the things in the
stories too.) We sing gentle songs like
Silent Night and imagine a quaint and clean farm scene. But not so!
(Did you notice in Matthew’s story that Jesus is in a house and not a
stable?!? In fact, there’s no stable in
Luke’s gospel either! NOWHERE does the
Bible say Jesus was born in a stable, but many people are absolutely convinced
it’s a central part of the story!)
I said before that it was ironic that
the Jewish religious leaders missed the signs the foreigners picked up on. And yet, are we any better? (And I don’t mean just our ignorance of what
the Bible actually says about Jesus’ birth.)
On this Epiphany day let’s have a revelation of some truths – both in
the Christmas story and in our own faith understanding as 21st
Century American Christians.
Let’s have a quick exam. How many wise men were there? Did you answer 3? Why did you answer that? Was that fact in the Bible text we just
read? The truth is the Bible doesn’t
say. Church tradition invented the idea
of three wise men because of the three gifts.
And what’s the deal with these three
gifts? Gold makes sense. It is a gift for a king. But why the other two? To understand the story we need to remember
their symbolic significance.
Jesus is: king, priest, and sacrifice.
Gold for a king.
Frankincense – an incense used in religious
rituals – is a gift for a priest.
And myrrh – a sap-like resin used for
embalming – is a gift for someone who will die.
(Definitely an unnerving thing to give the parents of a newborn!)
Let’s
take our understanding to a deeper layer.
If you read the Christmas story from Matthew (the same goes for Luke)
and you ignore the societal/political realities of the time you are missing the
richer dynamics of the story.
In
Jesus’ day Rome was not the only global superpower. Immediately to its east was the equally vast
Parthian Empire. For over a century the
Parthians were the biggest power in the world.
Their military was arguably superior to Rome’s. However, Parthia was declining. Though its might reached to the borders of Israel,
its power center lay hundreds of miles away (modern day Iraq). While the Parthian’s would have loved to
snatch Israeli territory from Rome it was just too much of a stretch.
Controlling Israel was also a stretch
for Rome. It was eastern extreme of the
empire. Rome, however, couldn’t afford
to lose it. Losing it to the Parthians meant
losing a land route around the Mediterranean to Africa.
Rome found it advantageous to prop up
the power of the Herod family. The
Herod’s made dubious claims to leadership in and around Israel; yet they were
effective.
So put the pieces together: tension
between Rome and Parthia over Israeli territory and “King Herod” trying to keep
hold of an illegitimate claim to power.
To us the arrival of the Wise Men is
just a nice story. To Herod, who knew
who buttered his bread, these “Wise Men” were really astrologers from rival
Parthia bearing gifts to the up-and-coming Jewish leader. In Herod’s eyes it was an attempt by Parthia
to snatch Jewish loyalty away from Rome.
It was an act of international subversion. Herod acted like the tyrant he was. He cheated, he lied, and he killed to
eliminate the threat.
Jesus’ entry into the world as a baby,
meek as it may sound to us, is portrayed by Matthew as a potential threat to
the world order. And indeed, while it
would take centuries, the followers of Jesus would establish a world order that
would outlast both Rome and Parthia!
Speaking
of a Christian world order takes us to an epiphany for today.
The
Jewish leaders missed the signs of the birth of the Savior. While we may not exactly consider ourselves
to be religious experts, how much do we really know about our own faith? My suspicion is that most American Christians
today do not realize how much of their understanding of Christianity is
downright wrong.
The Adult Sunday school class had been using a video series featuring theologian Luke Timothy Johnson. Johnson pointed out in the very first episode that most Americans who consider themselves to be Christians are woefully ignorant of even the most basic tenants of their faith. The Men’s Breakfast has been using the course Christianity in America by 1517.org. There historian Daniel van Voorhis shows that the faith underpinnings many Christians think America was founded upon are simply not true. I highly encourage you to go to 1517.org and sign up for the free course. The link is:
https://1517-academy.thinkific.com/courses/christianity-in-america
Don’t
worry. If you’ve been listening to my
preaching and teaching for awhile you shouldn’t find anything in courses like
these shocking. But they are challenging.
I bring it up to point to one thing I
find very troubling thing with Christianity in our nation today. What many people think is authentic
Christianity is in truth 19th Century Americanism. That does not necessarily mean that it is
bad. It is just very far from a complete
picture of Christian faith. Don’t make
the same mistake as the Jewish religious leaders in Matthew’s gospel. They thought they knew their faith but were
completely missing what God was actually doing.
That is the exact opposite of an epiphany!
Never
put a box around God. If you do you’ve
really just put a box around yourself.
I hope that today may be an epiphany for
you.
God is always acting in new and surprising
ways.
-May your eyes be open to it.
God’s forgiveness is inexhaustible.
-May your heart be made whole by it.
God’s peace can calm any chaos.
-May that be a source of hope for your
life.
God’s love is broader and deeper than we can
ever grasp.
-May you be swept away in its current.
God does not invest in shallow happiness, but
in deep value.
-May
you always live in the full knowledge of how valuable you are to God!
I enjoyed the blog. I have taken several free courses from 1517 and I find them very interesting and well down.
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