Epiphany symbolizes the light of Christ for all people.
Today is Epiphany. It’s a part of the Christmas story, but like Advent, many churches don’t celebrate it. It’s not mentioned in the Bible; it’s church doctrine that was adopted by Eastern Orthodox churches originally. Whether or not your church celebrates it or even mentions it, I believe the idea of Epiphany is definitely noteworthy.
When we celebrate the birth of Jesus in church, the major players are Mary and Joseph, Jesus, shepherds, angels and three wise men, magi, or kings. Every Nativity Set, you purchase will have those figures. Every child’s Christmas pageant you attend, will have those figures. We like to put them all together and tie them up neatly with a bow.
The story of the wise men comes from Matthew 2:1-12. Verse one tells us some wise men from eastern lands arrived in Jerusalem asking, “Where is the newborn king of the Jews? We saw his star as it rose and we have come to worship him.”
Notice that it doesn’t say three wise men; it just says some. Also notice it doesn’t say they were kings either. The scripture goes on to say that they brought three gifts to Jesus and so somewhere along the way, mankind decided that there must have been three wise men. We like for life to be neat like that; don’t we? Three wise men, three gifts, arriving on the scene at the stable right after the shepherds and then we are done. The Christmas story is told, the end.
But, as is the usual case with God, His timing is different from ours and the story hasn’t even nearly reached the end. The Holy Family had left the stable by the time they arrived. Verse 11 says, “they entered the house and worshiped him.”
The wise men were priests most likely from ancient Persia, which was modern-day Iraq. They weren’t Jewish. They didn’t believe in our God. They followed the stars, but they knew the birth of Jesus was significant, so much so that they traveled anywhere from 800-900 miles to pay homage to him with gifts and to worship him.
This was a big deal because this was part of God’s plan to include non-Jews in His plan for salvation. God even warned them in a dream to travel home on a different route than they came and not to return to Herod. The entire experience touched the men enough that they believed and did as God told them. I’ve often wondered what the rest of their story is. How did the encounter with the Baby Jesus change their lives? The Bible doesn’t tell us.
Epiphany celebrates the fact that we are all included. We are all invited to the table. That was a big departure from Old Testament law. I think it’s also a beautiful reminder to us not to try to put God in a box, like we do our Nativity Sets. He is way bigger and more powerful than we could ever imagine and, nothing is impossible for Him or with Him. I don’t know about you, but I think that’s cause to celebrate.
Have an awesome day!
Wendy 🙂