Some Thoughts on the Epiphany

And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary His mother, and fell down and worshipped Him.

We are celebrating this day the Epiphany of our Lord, otherwise described as the Manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles. It is a most significant feast, especially for those of us who are Gentiles, which is probably almost everyone here.

Three Gentiles, variously described as wise men from the east, or Kings of the Orient, are led by supernatural means, by God, to the infant Jesus. For most of my life I sang the great hymns which tell of this event, As with Gladness Men of Old, We Three Kings of Orient Are, and so on, without ever asking what this passage of scripture really means. I was too separated from the things of God to wonder why three Gentiles would respond to an urge, which can only have come from God, to make a long, hazardous journey to meet a tiny baby.

Nor did I ever ask why God would take such trouble to manifest His Son, newly clothed in human flesh, to these Gentiles. But these are important questions, especially in the complete context of the Nativity.

The wise men were not the first group to be brought to Jesus. First were the Jewish shepherds, as St. Luke records in chapter 2, There were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And lo, the Angel of the Lord came upon them and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. And the Angel said unto them, Fear not: for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a saviour, which is Christ the Lord.

God always keeps His promises and here was the Messiah long promised to His chosen people, the Jews, and shown first to a group of shepherds, men of His chosen people. The shepherds went and spread the good news, but sadly, as St. John tells us, He came unto His own and His own received Him not. Despite the great number of vivid and detailed prophesies in their own scripture; despite their expectation and yearning for the Messiah, the Jews for the most part rejected Him when He came.

But the Angel told the shepherds something which expands the significance of these events beyond measure. I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. This baby, this Messiah, this Saviour is for all people, Jew and Gentile alike.

So the second group of visitors to the infant Jesus is the trio of wise men from the east, Gentile representatives of all Gentiles through all time. This should come as no surprise, because Scripture abounds with prophecies on this matter also.

David, in Psalm 2:8, writes, I shall give thee the heathen for Thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for Thy possession. Isaiah writes in 49:6, It is a light thing that Thou shouldest be my servant, to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel; I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that Thou mayest be My salvation unto the end of the earth. And in 60:3, And the Gentiles shall come to Thy light, and kings to the brightness of Thy rising.

Jesus Christ was promised to Jew and Gentile alike and that is the beginning of the answer to the question, Why was He manifested to the wise men?

This manifestation is the first visible proof that God’s blessings are freely offered to all mankind. Jesus Christ is for me and for you and for everybody. In place of a national religion into which membership was restricted, the Epiphany gives glorious witness to the fact that we have been given the Catholic, that is, the universal Church.

The universality of the Epiphany is cemented by our Lord’s own words during the last supper, as related by St. Luke, This cup is the new testament in my blood, which is shed for you. Luke 22:20. The Greek word translated in my King James Version as “testament”, is diaqhkh, which is an extremely important word, appearing almost 300 times in Holy Scripture. It is most often rendered as “covenant”.

The Epiphany is a sign, a huge, wonderful sign, that we re all included in the New Covenant between God and His creatures. Yes, as Jeremiah prophesied, it was to be written on the hearts of His people, the house of Israel. Jer.31:33, but it is also for the hearts of all who hear and believe the Gospel of Christ; those who receive Him into their hearts. And in this, the Epiphany is just a beginning – the Manifestation of Jesus to the Gentiles is sealed as a Covenant by the shedding of His blood upon the Cross on the infamous hill of Calvary.

Now the word, diaqhkh, contains the meaning of a mutual agreement between two parties, in this case the two parties being God and us. But let me leave no doubt that it means in any sense an agreement between equals, for it most certainly does not. No one but the Son of God could make of Himself, by the will of the Father and the co-operation of the Holy Ghost, the perfect sacrifice for the sins of all mankind; no one could but He could atone for our sins and reunite us to God; no one but Jesus Christ could seal the New Covenant with God.

As the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews says in 9:15, diaqhkhV kainhV mesithV, “He is the mediator of a new covenant”. Through that New Covenant, we all who are believers are His people and He is our God. The wise men recognized that and fell down in worship before Him. So should we all.

God’s side of this Covenant is always there for us, immutable, and expressing in very real terms His insatiable longing for us to come to Him. Christ upon the Cross makes that sure for all mankind for all time. Our side of the Covenant is to be entered into, to be embraced by and through faith. God will enter into a covenant with those who, like Charles Kingsley, can affirm: I have devoted myself to God, a vow never, if He give me the faith I pray for, to be recalled.

The wise men were led to their Epiphany by a star, a sign they recognized for they were knowledgeable about stars. The star was their outward sign, but they also were led by the Spirit of God within them. It was their obedience to these two guides which gave them the awesome reward of time in the presence of God Incarnate. Small wonder they rejoiced with exceeding great joy.

There is a bigger wonder in the Epiphany message. If we think about it, it points us to the fact that we also are blessed by God with two guides, guides which will lead us to the manifestation of Jesus Christ in our own lives.

Outside we have the Bible, the workshop manual of our lives, in which is clearly laid out the way – a brilliantly shining path to our heavenly home. Jesus says, I am the way, and everything we need to know about Him waits for us in the pages of Holy Scripture. Jesus says, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. That light, the promised light to the Gentiles, shines gloriously from Holy Scripture. What else could we possibly need?

The answer, of course, is that we need the second of our two guides, the guide inside us, the Holy Spirit. Jesus says, The Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things. God inspired Holy Scripture through His Holy Spirit and just as it was written through this divine guide, so it needs to be understood through the same divine guide. God provides the Spirit to teach us the Truth, to sanctify us and, entirely through His Grace to make us worthy to enter into the New Covenant. Then we Gentiles may be, as St. Paul says, Fellow-heirs, and of the same body, and partakers of His promise in Christ, by the Gospel.

May the Holy Ghost lead us to pray for the faith to open our hearts to the manifestation of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ in our own lives, that God may seal with each and every one of us His New Covenant.

Peter Jardine+

Epiphany Sunday, 2007