Epiphany

Today we celebrate the feast of the Epiphany. Epiphany means “Revealed.” It’s the day we celebrate Jesus being revealed to the nations – specifically to the wise men or Maji – by the star. As you might guess, our Gospel is the visit of the Maji, and the other readings point us to God’s revelation of His Son. O come let us worship the Lord!

When God makes a promise, you can be sure it will be kept. It’s not one among many options that may happen. It’s the thing that will happen. As we see in the scriptures, often God makes a prediction, and then our blind human reason doesn’t see it as it is being fulfilled. But that doesn’t mean the promise isn’t good. It’s as if a parent promises dinner to a child, and then at the appropriate time says “Get your coat on. We’re going to the car now.” If the child was expecting dinner at the table, and didn’t know what a restaurant was, they might object, “You said we were having food. Not travelling.” And yet, the promise is being fulfilled. The disciples don’t understand why Jesus had to die until after he was raised from the dead and explained it to them. We hear God’s Word, the Spirit gives us faith to receive it, but our blind reason is not always able to see how God’s plan works together for the good of those who love him, who are called according to his purpose.

When God makes a promise in the Old Testament, it’s often spoken in what’s called the prophetic perfect tense. If you had one of those hard-nosed English teachers years ago, you might remember the perfect tense of verbs. It’s usually indicated by have or had. “I have eaten.” Eating accomplished. “I have graduated from school.” School accomplished. When God predicts something, he often puts it in that past tense – as if it has already happened. “Arise, shine for your light HAS come, and the glory of the Lord HAS risen upon you.” Mission accomplished! It’s already finished, even though it hasn’t happened yet. That’s how certain God is of the outcome. He isn’t reading the tea leaves and thinking about how things might play out and hoping for the best, or just trying to be encouraging even though the outcome is in doubt. “Everything will be ok, you’ll be fine.” God exists in all places and at all times. There is nothing hidden from him. He knows what will happen, he’s already been there, and already seen it, and so when he gives a word to the prophets, he speaks as if it were already accomplished. Not “Your light will come, but Arise Shine, IT HAS ALREADY COME.”

When God gives Balaam the prophecy in Numbers 24 of a star announcing a new king, it isn’t – and this is how it’s usually translated: “I see him, but not now; I behold him, but not near: a star shall come out of Jacob, and a scepter shall rise out of Israel” It’s really “I see him, but not now; I behold him, but not near: a star has already come out of Jacob, and a scepter has already risen out of Israel.” Obviously that doesn’t make sense. I don’t see him yet, but it’s already done. This is how God speaks when he speaks through the prophets. And this is likely – almost certainly – the verse that those wise men from the east had that guided them to Israel to ask about he who has been born king of the Jews.

All attempts to figure out what the star was have failed. Conjunction of planets, reported comets, or supernovas, all seem to fall apart under close scrutiny. There’s no way to know for sure if you’re right even if you were to guess correctly. The wise men knew their stars and their signs. God uses this strange and mystical and uncertain practice to announce himself with certainty to them. They are confident enough in what they see in the heavens that they take off and go. Without their training, their insight, and their complete library of records, we can’t know what it was. But it was enough to announce to them that a new king was born. As for the wise men themselves, they are likely Persian or Babylonian in origin. Those were the greatest star-forecasters of the day. And they had extensive libraries with those ancient prophecies. This isn’t a horoscope. It would have been far more sophisticated than that. Beyond that, we don’t know much about the background, other than they came from the east, as we hear in our Gospel today.

Whatever they had for a text prophesying a new king, it carries them only as far as Jerusalem. They seem to know their Numbers 24 -the books of Moses, but not their Micah, not later prophets. They need to be told what Micah said about the birth of the new king. Bethlehem – the city of David. From you will come one who will rule my people Israel. Bethlehem may be the city of David, but the word Beth-lehem means house of bread. The bread of life is born there. There are no coincidences in scripture. Jesus is the bread of Life who will feed us with his very own body and blood. And he is to be descended from David, born in the same small town.

We’ve got short days this time of year. It gets dark early. Jesus – as we learn from John’s Gospel on Christmas morning – is the light of the world. He is the light no darkness can overcome. Today, Isaiah says “Darkness has covered the earth... but the Lord will arise upon us. The gentiles will come to his light.” This sounds like our Gospel reading from last week (the Nunc Dimittis) – Simeon says Jesus is “A light to lighten the Gentiles and the Glory of Thy People Israel.” Jesus is the true light in the darkness. He is the glory of the Lord revealed.

And that’s of course what Epiphany means – revealing. This is the season of God revealing himself to us in the person of his Son. God in his mercy and love sets up the prophecies and then makes sure the magi will have copies so they will search the heavens, he arranges the stars so that they will look up and feel the need to get moving with their gift for the new king, He will arrange it so they begin their long journey just in time to get to the leaders in Jerusalem to ask about Jesus. Just as God arranged it so Caesar Augustus decided to tax and register the entire empire, just in time for Joseph and Mary to leave Nazareth and end up in Bethlehem as “the days were accomplished that she should be delivered.” Micah’s prophecy fulfilled with ease – it only took the entire might of Rome to do it. This is all arranged by God to work like a well oiled machine. Now, it certainly didn’t feel like that at the time. Joseph and Mary with a call to travel at the worst possible time, just as she is very pregnant, the wise men who travelled for months to get to Judea only to have no idea where this new king is, no one has heard of him. The leaders of the people who were troubled because Herod was troubled, and when mad king Herod was troubled, people died – as would happen with the holy innocents. Rachel weeping for her children, who are no more.

And yet, the prophecies – going back 1500 years – about Jesus being born in Judea, 700 years to Micah predicting little Bethlehem, all of it working just so that Jesus is born, the star announces him to the Gentiles, and we now today have this promise for you and your children, for all who are near and far off, all whom the Lord calls according to his purpose. We have salvation announced, revealed to the world!

And this salvation is not just being saved from the drudgery of life in this world, the hopelessness of existence – although it is that. We are given meaning and purpose by Jesus and his work. But more than that, we are now joined to the life of God himself. We are brought not just into the divine presence, but into the divine life through Jesus. He has brought that life from his Father to us, by becoming one of us. God would have us partake of his life, and offer his life through His Son. We are now brought to our heavenly Father by the work of Jesus. And his life is now infused into us by Jesus, who gives us his body and blood so that we would be a part of this new life. A life that begins at the font, and ends in glory at the right hand of the Father.

It is only hardness of heart – utter rejection of him – that keeps us away. We see this in the leaders, who are more afraid of Herod than they are joyful at the fulfillment of the promised Messiah. And obviously Herod who is told the scriptures prophesied the new king was born, the stars announced him, and he thinks he is going to outwit, or out-plan God. He will kill until his dying day. He’d already killed his wife, his sons, all manner of folks. The innocents in Bethlehem are just one more piece of a twisted and wicked life. Herod will be dead soon. But not before one final defiant play against God, and against His Anointed. Jesus parents will flee to Egypt with him. Herod won’t succeed in killing the promised one. He will only succeed in further damaging his own hard heart. And that’s how it is when we reject God’s salvation, when we go chasing after sin. We damage ourselves. We harden ourselves against the truth, against the reality of life in God. God must break up the stony ground of our heart, he must break the rocks so we can receive his word of promise. This is the purpose of the preaching and Sacraments which God offers as a gift – a gracious gift – through his church. Paul talks about it to the Ephesians. “To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things, so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.” Paul does not preach for himself. He preaches in and through the church so that the people would find salvation. God gives his church on earth to us, in grace and mercy, so that the rulers and authorities would be instructed – and yet as we see from Herod and the leaders, they are often hard of heart, unwilling to hear. So God goes out into the highways and byways to find those who will hear. He puts his star in the heavens for those gentile magi. And they come and worship him. And we have the assurance – Jesus has come for all nations. What a blessed revelation we have this day. Yes, we – who are not by our birth part of the promised people of God, are brought into his family, we receive the adoption of sons, through Jesus death and resurrection.

Those wise men bring gifts – gifts for a king, gifts which are used to anoint Jesus after his death. We never get too far from that, do we? Always back to this – that Jesus is come into this world to save sinners by his death and resurrection. Frankincense and Myrrh are specially appointed for this purpose – first for the offering of sacrifices – which Jesus is, and second for the care and disposal of the dead, which Jesus will be. Even on this day we see the plan of salvation, which leads Jesus – and so also us by virtue of our Baptism – into death, and through death into resurrection and new life. This is the glorious salvation of the Lord, promised in ages past, and now revealed. Throughout this season of Epiphany, we will hear and wonder again at the glory of the Lord, revealed through Jesus by his life and ministry. And we will do this ever aware that Lent and the journey to the cross are the inevitable end of this glory. Inevitable because it was the plan of God from before the foundation of the world. And it was attested by the prophets. Explained by them over the centuries. And we know, the prophecies of the Lord are as good as done, already completed. And so also we know that God will fulfill the final promise – the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. We will rise and go to be with him. May the Lord grant to each of us this salvation. O Come let us adore him, Christ the Lord. Amen.