Epiphany #5 of 14 : baptism #1 of 5.

Jesus came to the Jordan River to be baptized

(Matthew 3:13)

“Epiphany” means “manifestation” or “appearance”. During Epiphany the church celebrates the appearance of God the Son among us—his earthy life. The Epiphany season begins with the long story of the Magi and the Holy Family’s flight into Egypt—a majestic yet humble appearance. That’s the way with Jesus—glorious yet humble, divine yet human. There’s no showing off or strutting around. Just making his way down the hills from his home town of Nazareth to the Jordan Valley to be baptized by his cousin John who was baptizing folks “for the forgiveness of sins” (Mk 1:4).

John the Baptizer knows enough of Jesus to question the whole idea: “You come to me? I should be baptized by you.” Jesus insist and John consents. One of those wonderful early church fathers explained it thus: “Christ is baptized, not to be made holy by the water, but to make the water holy, and by his cleansing to consecrate the waters of baptism” (Bishop Maximus of Turin, 5^th cent.). When we enter the waters of baptism, we follow Jesus whose epiphany has made the water sacred and precious for us.

Epiphany #4 of 14:

Out of Egypt I have called my Son.

(Matthew 2:15)

We tend to skip over the story of Joseph and Mary and the Christ Child fleeing down into Egypt—refugees. Joseph is the hero of the story. Because of a dream, he “took the Child and his mother by night, and fled to Egypt” (Mt 2:14). It’s such a human story—maybe too human for our liking. I wonder how they put a roof over their heads and food on the table. I suppose Joseph picked up some carpentry work here and there—a few remodels. Enough to survive in a strange land.

After the sojourn into Egypt, God calls Joseph to bring the Child and his mother back home. It will be a scary journey avoiding imperial power along the way: Joseph “was afraid” (Mt 2:22). Later, Matthew tells us that the Holy Family’s flight into Egypt had to do with a prophecy of Hosea: “Out of Egypt I have called my son.” I don’t suppose Joseph knew about the prophecy. He was just doing what needed to be done: protecting and providing, caring and leading. He was a “good man” (Mt 1:19).

That’s the way prophecy works—unbeknownst. If you know it; or, think you know it, you ruin it. It’s an understanding that came to the Apostles “after Christ was raised from the dead” (Jn 2:22). Like all biblical prophecy, it’s both particular (about what Joseph did); and, universal (about what God is doing). The prophecy participates in God’s big story about the rainbow and about Abraham and about how his grandson Jacob and his sons fled to Egypt and about how “a new king arose over Egypt who did not know Joseph” (Ex 1:8). The prophecy had to do with all that and much more until it comes to this particular flight into Egypt of the Christ Child and his mother and of Joseph who did what needed to be done—the protecting and providing, the caring and leading. We never know what our care might bring forth.

Just as God delivered Israel out of Egypt “to bless all people” (Gn 12:3); so, now Jesus will be delivered out of Egypt to bring about God’s big salvation for all people in all places. That’s how the Apostles preached the gospel quoting from another prophet: “I will give you [Christ] as a light to the nations that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth” (Ac 13:47, quoting from Isaiah 49:6).

Epiphany #3 of 14 :

God sent forth His Son, born of a woman,

born under the law, to redeem…

(Galatians 4:4-5)

Maybe what surprises us most about Jesus from Christmastide to Epiphany is just how human he is. There are wonders: angels and dreams, shepherds and magi. Yet, baby Jesus, lies in a manager—so human, so unpretentious, and so seemingly vulnerable. As an eight day old baby, Jesus is taken to the temple “to perform everything according the Law” (Lk 2:39). Jesus is born under the law just like any other observant Jewish boy.

False gospels aren’t happy about this seemingly normal Jesus. So, the Gospel of Thomas, for instances, throws in a magical story about how Jesus caused clay pigeons to fly to the amazement of his playmates. There’s no such trickery in the Gospel story.

During Epiphany, the church celebrates Jesus’ flight into Egypt, his return to his home town of Nazareth, his baptism in the river Jordan, and his first sign at Cana of Galilee. What will surprise us, is how deeply human it all is. Jesus doesn’t pull off any magical tricks, like turning invisible when Herod’s soldiers knock on the door; rather, He flees all the way into Egypt. The Holy Family makes their way through life and “the Child continued to grow and become strong, increasing in wisdom and the grace of God was upon Him” (Lk 2:40).

Those of us who believe in Christ’s divinity, need to take notice of his humanity as well. As one of our early church fathers put it, “That which [Christ] has not assumed he has not been healed, but whatever is united with his divinity has been saved” (Gregory of Nazianzus, 4^th cent.). At Christmastide and into Epiphany, Christ took on the whole of our humanity—our weaknesses and our vulnerabilities. Otherwise, the whole of us would not be redeemed.

Epiphany #2 of 14:

King Herod gave Orders to Kill.

(Matthew 2:16)

Things don’t go well after the magi “return to their country by another way” (Mt 2:13). Their visit, through no fault of their own, turns malice in the hands of King Herod resulting in the flight of the Holy Family from Bethlehem into Egypt to escape the State ordered “killing of all the boys two years and younger in the vicinity of Bethlehem” (Mt 2:16). One can’t help but be troubled. Jesus escapes, but what about the others? Couldn’t they be saved? Why would God have to flee from such earthy powers as King Herod?

Magi comes from the Greek word magos from which we get our word “magic". The Wise Men from the east were not magi (magoi) or magicians in a trickster sort of way. They were scholars and their knowledge seemed like magic. C.S. Lewis calls science “the magic that works.” Like all such magic, it can be used for good or for ill.

Shortly after Christmas, this computer that seems all magical to me, turned malicious—“malware” they told me (From the Latin mal meaning bad from which we get words like “malice,” or “malign,” or “malignancy”). That’s why I’ve missed Morning Fire. It took weeks to get the bad magic out. That’s the trouble with science and technology; people of power, like King Herod, have a way of using science for their own evil purposes. It’s the story of the “One Ring to rule …and in darkness bind them” (Tolkien).

That’s why it is best for such magicians/scholars/scientist, like the magi, to lay their gifts at the feet of the One true King. Knowledge, in the hands of mortal kings, often leads to the kind of malice that results in the massacre of the innocents.

Epiphany #1 of 14:

Magians Arrived from the East.

(Matthew 2:1)

I know, it should be “magicians”, but that’s how D.B. Hart, translates it. Magoi is the Greek word translated “magi” or “wise men” or sung as “We three Kings” from chapter sixty of Isaiah

Arise, shine; for your light has come!

        And the glory of the LORD is risen upon you.
The Gentiles shall come to your light,

        and kings to the brightness of your rising.
And your heart shall swell with joy;

        because the wealth of the Gentiles shall come to you.

Their camels shall bring gold and incense;

        proclaiming praises to the Lord (vss 1,3,5-6).

Who are these guys? Maybe best understood as leading “scholars” or “astrologers”.  They are Ivy leaguers from the East—the brightest and best. Their science leads them to Jerusalem—it gets them close to Jesus; but, they need something more than science to get them to Bethlehem—a word from scripture. And there, in Bethlehem, scripture and science bring them to the Christ Child. A good place for science and scripture to meet.