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.