God’s Grace and Peace to you!
January 6th, the Day of Epiphany, has become a church festival that is no longer widely celebrated. The Day of Epiphany is the day in the church calendar that we celebrate the Wise Men who followed a star traveling from afar to visit who they understood to be the newborn King of the Jews.
Just what does the word "epiphany” mean? An “epiphany” is when something reveals itself or shows itself. So, January 6th celebrates the visit of the Wise Men and the revelation of God in human form in the person of Jesus.
I think that one reason for folks to skip celebrating Epiphany is that many people believe that Christmas is over on the 26th of December when they finish shopping the after Christmas sales. Within days following Christmas, many will begin to store away their holiday decorations – including the nativity sets with the Wise Men and their camels. For many, unless it happens to fall on a Sunday, Epiphany is no longer a religious festival day. I think that this is really too bad as we need to continually hear the great news of the birth of the Messiah, Jesus.
The star led those visitors from the East and scripture tells us that it came to rest over the place where the child was. When they saw the star stop over their destination, they were overjoyed. Biblical scholars agree that by the time these visitors from the East arrived in Bethlehem, some things had changed. Mary and Joseph and the infant Jesus had moved into a house. Long gone were the shepherds. And the child no longer slept in a manger.
After Jesus was born, Wise Men came and worshipped Jesus as Savior, but scripture also tells us that King Herod tried to kill him. As an adult, when Jesus performed miracles and taught the people about the kingdom of God, people believed in him or they said he was possessed by the devil, some of which plotted to have him killed.
Those people who tried to have Jesus killed did eventually succeed. They paid off one of his disciples to betray Jesus; they rushed Jesus through trials in which they manufactured evidence against him; they encouraged the crowd to call for his death. The Roman governor, Pontius Pilate had Jesus crucified – nailed to a cross. There Jesus suffered and died.
If Jesus had been only human, he would have stayed dead. Dead is what happened to a mortal when they were crucified under Roman rule. But Jesus, along with being fully human, is also fully God. That’s why on the third day after being crucified, Jesus rose from the dead. Jesus came back to life. And then forty days after his resurrection he ascended to heaven, promising that he would return.
I believe that there are two ways to respond to the birth, life, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus: either you believe it or you walk away from it and act as if nothing extraordinary happened.
The wise will still follow the Epiphany star. Then the wise will find the Light of the world, the King of all creation, and the Savior of us all.
In Christ!
Pastor Bakker
1 Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations. 5 Thus says God, the Lord, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and what comes from it, who gives breath to the people upon it and spirit to those who walk in it: 6 I am the Lord; I have called you in righteousness; I have taken you by the hand and kept you; I have given you as a covenant to the people, a light to the nations, Isaiah 42:1, 5-6 (NRSVUE)