January 6th is the official date of the celebration of the Christian feast called Epiphany. The origins of the word mean “appearance, miraculous phenomenon” and our celebration of it surrounds the ‘shining forth’ of the revelation of God to mankind in human form in Christ (see Wikipedia.com). Epiphany is the celebration of the visit of the Magi (Wisemen) who sought the Child Messiah and who were led by the star over Bethlehem. Ancient liturgies speak of Illuminatio, Manifestatio, Declaratio (Lighting, Manifestation, Declaration) and this is certainly what Christ did – He came to be the light of the world, to manifest God’s character, and to declare the Good News of His new kingdom on earth. Epiphany, then, is more than a date on the calendar – it is the recognition of a revelation, the illumination of dark places, the uncovering of a Kingdom. In short, it is the opening of blind eyes, an Aha! of the soul of mankind to the truth of God’s love revealed in the birth of Jesus Christ.
We all have Aha! moments throughout life. These are those miraculous instances when we realize someone loves us for the first time, or we finally understand a mathematical equation, or we discover the answer to some difficult situation we’ve been struggling with for a long time. Epiphanies can occur every day if we are alert to their possibility. Just the other day my wife, Donna, and I were driving along in the car with our fourteen-year old daughter, Aly. Suddenly from the back seat Aly says, “Ooh-ooh! I know what geriatric means!” She’d had an epiphany, an Aha! about the word geriatric. What once was meaningless suddenly found revelation and she understood the word for the first time. Thankfully, she wasn’t applying that word to either of us so she didn’t get grounded for the next week!
Epiphany is all about worship and vice versa. The Wisemen sought to worship the Messiah and so do we. Their long journey from the east mirrors our own journey in worship as we seek to uncover the truth of who He is in our own lives. Their gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh were prophetic of His kingship (gold), of the worship He is worthy of (frankincense), and of His sacrificial death on our behalf (myrrh is actually a spice used in burial). We mirror these gifts in our lives. The gold we bring to Him is our hearts, the frankincense is a life of worship (the aromatic incense of worship and prayer), and the myrrh can speak of our sacrifice of praise, or a life that is sacrificed to Him in praise. The greatest Aha! for any Christian is when we finally understand that He is worth losing our lives for, that He alone is worthy.
We often try to induce this revelation, this Aha! in others by calling them to recognize Jesus’ lordship in their lives, but it is a work of God’s Spirit and not something that we could ever legislate. It’s a work of grace that we pray for, not force onto others against their wills. Paul understood this and prayed often for this revelation, this epiphany, in the young churches he pastured. Paul Baloche’s now classic song Open the Eyes of My Heart is actually based on one such prayer found in Ephesians 1:17-19 that says, “I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation so that you may know Him better. I pray also that they eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which He has called you , the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints, and His incomparably great power for us who believe.” Notice that Paul is praying specifically for revelation, for epiphanies, in the hearts of other believers. If we received all the wisdom and understanding that we needed at the point of salvation there would be no need for this prayer or any need for Bible study or worship.
God’s purpose in Christ was to reveal Himself. God’s continuing purposes in our own lives is that His kingdom will shine forth and be revealed in the way that we live. A lifestyle of worship, the discipline of living in love with Him, goes along way in bring about a million epiphanies around us each day as people see His light shining through us.
Heavenly Father, may the light of the world, Jesus Christ, shine in me today. May the Spirit of wisdom and revelation from You open the eyes of my heart to see more of who You are in and around me, lighting the way for others to see You, too. I pray that Epiphany will be more than one day on the calendar. May revelation be a way of life to me so that Your love can shine in this dark world. In Jesus’ bright name, Amen.
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