Epiphany

Epiphany

(Manifestation, Revelation, Insight)

The Word Became Flesh

  ¹In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ² He was with God in the beginning. ³ Through Him all things were made; without Him nothing was made that has been made. ⁴ In Him was Life, and that Life was the Light of all mankind. ⁵ The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

  . . .

  ⁹ The True Light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. ¹⁰ He was in the world, and though the world was made through Him, the world did not recognize Him. ¹¹ He came to that which was His Own, but His Own did not receive Him. ¹² Yet to all who did receive Him, to those who believed in His Name, He gave the right to become children of God— ¹³ children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.

  ¹⁴ The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the Glory of the One and Only Son, Who came from the Father, full of Grace and Truth.

~ John 1:1-5, 9-14

  On the immediate heels of Christmas and celebrating that The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, Epiphany CELEBRATES that this flesh-dwelling of The Word is The Manifestation of God coming INTO and TO the world, bringing The Father's Love and revealing The Light of Salvation, Jesus.  

  More specifically, tradition pronounces that Epiphany is the celebration of Jesus coming to the gentile world as evidenced by God's cosmic revelation to the magi from the east and their  subsequent search, visit, and worship of Jesus in Matthew 2.  For this reason, some traditions refer to Epiphany as "Three Kings Day."  Think about it, Just as unorthodox as it may have seemed to have the angel reveal Jesus' coming to the unlikely troupe of shepherds, God also planted a star in the heavens to lead these outsiders to Jesus.  In so doing, God declared that The Light of Jesus is for all humanity! That is a wonderful revelation! Jesus' coming is for you and for others around you!

  John shares such a broad scope of The Word's coming in the flesh and that scope reaches far beyond "the east".  Note these phrases in John's opening chapter: 

• In Him was Life, and that Life was the Light of all mankind. (v. 4)
• The True Light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. (v. 9)
• Yet to all who did receive Him, to those who believed in His Name, He gave the right to become children of God ... (v. 12)

In drawing on John's text, we can summarize that God's Light of Salvation will lead any who will receive Him and believe in His Name out of the darkness of separation into a relationship with God as His child.  This summarization is reiterated by Jesus during His conversation with Nicodemus via the scripture many know verbatim:

¹⁶ For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.    ~John 3:16

  John does admit that not all will receive Jesus and believe in His Name, starting with "His Own" - Israel.   Nonetheless, the light, not just of the star the magi saw, but The Light of God in Jesus  reveals His glory as John wrote: 

We have seen His glory, the Glory of the One and Only Son, Who came from the Father, full of Grace and Truth. (v. 14b)

  Though only the magi saw The Star and though we do not literally see Jesus, we can join John and see His Glory, full of Grace and Truth because God still reveals Himself through Jesus, Whom we read about in the Bible and about Whom the Holy Spirit teaches us.

  Epiphany!  God has manifested Himself to us, to the world, through Jesus!  He is The Revelation we all need!

CELEBRATE HIM ...

not just for a day, but again, for a season .... This Season of Epiphany, which will lead us to Ash Wednesday and Lent!