What is Epiphany?

The Christmas season reaches its final conclusion on the day of Epiphany. After the twelve days of Christmastide, on January 6 the Christian church remembers that Christ was revealed to the entire world as the Son of God. Some people call this Three Kings Day, signifying the account from Matthew 2 when the magi arrived in Bethlehem to worship the infant Jesus. In honor of these first Gentile worshipers of the Messiah, some parts of the world use this day for giving gifts, imitating the wise ones who brought gold and incense. It is appropriate to sing The First Noel and We Three Kings on the Sunday closest to January 6. The refrain of that latter song so beautifully and succinctly links the light of the star with the light that Christ himself bore.

Most scholars agree that Epiphany is actually an older holiday than Christmas. It was established as a way to mark the beginning of the world's awareness of Jesus's sonship. For that reason, Epiphany has also been linked with Jesus's baptism in the Jordan River (read Luke 3). At that moment the voice of the Father and the presence of the Holy Spirit acknowledged who Jesus is, launching his public ministry throughout Galilee and Judea.

On Epiphany we live into the global nature of the Christian faith, acknowledging how God's plan for salvation has been revealed to both Jews and Gentiles. In Matthew's gospel it took both Gentile astrologers and Jewish teachers to find the Christ's birthplace. Today we have our own cultural categories that must be transcended by the Word, and the church is constantly working to overcome barriers of language, status, gender, race, and age. In this season we remember that the gospel message should never be so much at home in a society that it fails to agitate. When the truth is revealed, it takes on cultural forms in order to be meaningful, but at the same time it also works against social norms to drive out sin and oppression.