2025 01 05 Epiphany (JAN 06)
Sadly, we
can now take down our Christmas trees, but don’t worry, it is only 355 days
until it will be Christmas again… and about 321 until you can put your tree up
again.
We take our
Christmas trees down, but I’m reminded of a line in the famous Charles Dickens,
“A Christmas Carol” where the central character, Scrooge has had a change of
heart about Christmas after his visits from the three Ghosts of Christmas past,
Christmas present and Christmas future.
The quote is this; “"I will honour Christmas in my heart, and
try to keep it all the year. I will live
in the Past, the Present, and the Future.
The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me. I will not shut out the
lessons that they teach.”
Scrooge,
through those visits to the past, present and future, was given a look at
things as they were, are and might be.
In doing so, he attained a new perspective. It would be very true to describe this new
perspective as an epiphany. He came to a
brand new and wonderful realization.
According to the online dictionary, this is what Epiphany means; a moment of sudden and great revelation or
realization.
Today we
celebrate the feast of the Epiphany.
This is the great and sudden revelation and realization that Christ came,
not just to be the saviour and messiah for the Jews, but he also came for the
Gentiles as represented by the Magi- The wise men from the East.
Who were
these mysterious men? It doesn’t
actually say that there were three of them.
Over the years there have been speculations and stories told that took
poetic licence, designating that there were three (probably due to the three
gifts) and named them kings. Certainly,
these were learned men who were not Jews.
These Magi came from the East and they studied the stars. After researching the various ideas and
opinions about the Magi, it is acknowledged, and I agree, that the most
reliable source of information about them is actually the Bible itself.
In the 6th
century before Christ was born, many Jews were carried off into exile in
Babylon. Remember the song? By the rivers of Babylon? Which is of course from the Psalm 137. Well, this is the story or the song of
lamentation when those people were carried off to Babylon. At that time the King of Babylon was looking
for some wise men to work for him and Daniel was one of those men and he became
a leader among those wise men. The story
of this and more is in our Biblical book of Daniel.
The Book of
Daniel mentions others who were advisors to the King – calling them wise men
and astronomers - Magi. At this time
there were a group of people, the Chaldeans, who had been absorbed into the
Babylonian Empire, and they were famous for their fixation with the stars and
planets. They were quite brilliant and
influential with other people groups who had been mixed into that empire. Daniel was observed by the King and all
others to be a person of outstanding understanding and wisdom. When the King had a dream that the other wise
men, who worshipped various other Gods, could not interpret, Daniel came to the
rescue. Unlike the other wise men,
Daniel whole heartedly relied on God as the source of his wisdom and declared
this openly.
The
significant part of the Book of Daniel, for our purpose, is that an Angel
appeared to him and declared many things about the Messiah and even the time
when the Messiah would arrive…. Although it was in a kind of code that I don’t
understand…. But Daniel did and so did those he taught. This was all recorded and written down –
which is why we have the Book of Daniel -
and it is assumed that these writings were common knowledge among those
people who worked with Daniel – ie, the Magi (Wise men).
Interestingly,
there is a modern astronomer who researched the stars at the time that Christ
was born. His name is Rick Larson and he
used NASA technology and discovered an extremely rare triple conjunction: The
“king” star (Regulus) crossing the “king” planet (Jupiter) within the
constellation of the lion (Leo), “king” of the animals. This showed three astronomical aspects
denoting King… King, king, king. Also interesting to note that the
constellation of the lion has an association with the Kingly tribe of
Judah. The messiah was often referred to
as the lion of Judah. I can imagine
with the knowledge of the prophecy from Daniel and the knowledge and study that
this group of people had in watching the stars, this sign in the sky proclaimed
to them that a King of Kings was near. (https://www.oneforisrael.org/holidays/how-did-the-magi-from-the-east-know/)
This is all
very interesting, but of what consequence is it to us? Something so significant happened, that some
of the wisest people on earth came looking for the King of the Jews. Something so significant happened that there
were signs in the heavens telling about it.
Which reminds me of Psalm 19 that says, “The heavens declare the
glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands. Day after day they pour
forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge.…” as they say – The truth is out there… it
truly is.
At that time
the people who were outsiders…. Wise and trained in the prophecy, but outsiders
none the less… these came to worship Jesus. Our first reading prophetically tells us that
“A multitude of camels shall cover you, the young camels of Midian and Ephah;
all those from Sheba shall come. They shall bring gold and frankincense and
shall proclaim the praise of the LORD.”
This was referring to those outsiders who would come to worship the
Lord. The Epiphany is when we celebrate
the realization that God came to be the saviour, not just for the Jews, but for
us also. … the outsiders.
Now, today,
we have been grafted in, to the family of God.
We are no longer outsiders. We
look forward to Christ’s return and pray that his kingdom come, knowing that
His will be a rule like that described in our Psalm, which is acknowledged as a
prophetic psalm about the Messiah; “In his days may righteousness flourish
and peace abound, until the moon is no more.
May the kings of Tarshish and of the isles render him tribute; may the
kings of Sheba and Seba bring gifts. May
all kings fall down before him, all nations give him service.” Here again we also see the prophecy of him
being brought gifts by outsiders.
There is
just one more thing I want to make known to you; Jesus was born in Bethlehem,
not far from Jerusalem, yet the “Insiders”, the Chief Priests and Scribes and
the King of Judea, did not bring him gifts.
Some ignored, the other tried to kill him. It was the outsiders who worshiped.
Christmas
may be over for the year, but what has it meant to us? Will we be like the Chief Priests and
Scribes, with the knowledge of the truth, but not letting it affect us too
much, or will we be like the wise men and worship, offering our gifts and our
giftedness?
Scrooge
promised to honour Christmas in his heart and try to keep it all the year. This is the epiphany we need too. Our eyes need to be opened to seeing the love
of God and the incredible miracle of the fact that God became flesh. There is no God like our God. God became human and died and rose, so that
we too could have eternal life. He is our
saviour. Don’t miss the magnitude, by
being so familiar with the story that we, like the scribes leave him to “do his
own thing” in Bethlehem. Let us determine
to deliberately and with all our energy, follow the star, leaving homely
comforts and connect with the life of Jesus… come and worship, and let us also
promise to keep Christmas in our hearts all year round.
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