The Celebration of God’s One-Way Path
COVER STORY – EPIPHANY
If we could travel back in time, one of the many things that would no doubt surprise us would be the changes that have occurred in ecclesiastical emphasis. Virtually all Christians today would, for example, list Christmas, Good Friday, and Easter as our greatest Christian celebrations. Yet church historians tell us that many Christians in prior centuries regarded Epiphany as the preeminent Christian event. The change is difficult for modern Christians to grasp, especially given the fact that Epiphany receives so little emphasis or notoriety today. What caused such a dramatic shift in emphasis? In two words, ignorance and entitlement.
Christians today have no trouble identifying the basis for our modern celebrations of Christmas, Good Friday, and Easter: Jesus was born, Jesus died, and Jesus rose from the dead. Not so with Epiphany. While many could explain that the word epiphany means “manifestation” or “appearance”—and might even be able to associate Epiphany with the arrival of the Magi, the baptism of Jesus, and Jesus’ first miracle at the wedding feast in Cana—few could articulate the importance of those events. In the minds of most Christians today, Epiphany is encapsulated in Christmas. Jesus manifested Himself on earth at His birth. It seems illogical to us that God would send His Son into our world, but then withhold the revelation of that Son. The three events that are routinely commemorated in connection with the Epiphany simply tell us how God revealed His Son also to the Gentiles (the star that drew the Magi), how the Father announced to the Jews that Jesus was His Son (His Baptism), and the revelation of the miraculous powers that verified Jesus’ deity (changing water to wine in Cana). Given all of that, Christians today still find it difficult to grasp the significance that prior generations recognized in Epiphany.Read More »The Celebration of God’s One-Way Path