The Feast of the Epiphany

Today (Wednesday, January 6th) is the Feast of the Epiphany. This feast celebrates God’s revelation of himself in the person of Jesus Christ to a world blinded by sin. In particular, we celebrate not only that God has revealed himself to the Jews through Jesus, but also revealed himself to the Gentiles. This is why the ordinary reading for Epiphany is the story of the Magi, who were the first Gentiles to worship Christ.

It is startling that from the very beginning, Jesus Christ received the worship of Gentiles. The disciples had a hard time with this, and it took time for the apostles to understand what it meant that salvation was not just for the Jews, even if it was from the Jews (Jn. 4:22). Acts 10 and 11 reveal Peter’s struggle to accept this, and Acts 15 is a record of the church’s wrestling with how to incorporate Gentiles. Paul calls this a “mystery” (Eph. 3:6), which demonstrates to us how amazing it was to the Jews that Gentiles, who were not recipients of the promises given to Abraham, were included in salvation.

We now take for granted that we have been included, so much so that we are rarely amazed by the fact that God has revealed himself to us. But Epiphany is our once-per-year reminder that what we take for granted is actually startling—God has revealed himself to us! We, who were blind, lost, and dead in our sins (Eph. 2:1), have been shown the “light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (II Cor. 4:6). This should bring us to our knees in wonder. God has revealed himself to us! We did not deserve it and could do nothing to accomplish it on our own, yet God has freely revealed himself to us.

Spend time this evening or tomorrow pondering what it means that God has revealed himself to you in Jesus Christ, and thank him for the ways your life has been transformed because of this revelation.

Steven+