Words are interesting things. Sometimes all you have to do is look at a word and you can figure out within a few seconds what the word means, even if you’ve never seen the word before. “Christmas” is one of those words. Yes, I know we’ve all heard the word, but take a close look at it written out sometime and it’s very easy to see where the word comes from. “Christmas” is the “Christ Mass” - the day of liturgical celebrations in honour of Christ. That’s easy. “Epiphany” - which on the Western Christian calendar was yesterday - is a little more difficult, because you have to know Greek to see the two connected words, but the meaning is just as clear. “Epiphany” comes from two Greek words, epi and phanos. Literally, epiphany means “at the time of the manifestation.” More colloquially, one might say that epiphany means “the start of the show.” Maybe it’s an appropriate theme for the first service of the new year of 2001. The preliminaries of Christmas are over, we’ve celebrated Christ’s birth and a new year has begun; it’s time for the show to start!
We usually connect Epiphany with Matthew’s account of the visit of the magi to see the Christ child. Now, a lot of legends with no biblical basis at all have grown up around those twelve verses of Matthew that relate this incident to us. Let’s shatter a few myths first. The magi weren’t kings, they were astrologers. The Bible never says there were three of them - it never says how many there were. Nativity scenes aside, the Bible doesn’t say that they visited the Christ child at the manger - Matthew very clearly says they visited a house, and since Matthew also clearly describes Jesus as a child, he probably wasn’t a newborn baby when the visit happened. So we can throw tradition and sentiment out the window as we think of Epiphany. This is serious business here. The story of the magi in Matthew’s Gospel around which the Epiphany usually revolves has a simple and clear point. Christ entered the world not just for the Jewish nation, but for all the world. The magi were Gentiles who recognized that Christ had come for them as well.
I, of course, didn’t share Matthew’s story of the visit of the magi with you this morning. We all know that story. It didn’t need to be read again. I offered you a reading from a very serious moment in the adult life of Jesus. This incident took place after Jesus had entered Jerusalem for the last time; it was, in other words, just before the crucifixion. What does any of that have to do with Epiphany? What is the connection between Matthew’s story about the magi and what we read this morning? Well, in fact, this is John’s epiphany story, if we interpret the epiphany to have been the revelation of Christ to the Gentile world. There are clear differences, of course. Matthew’s epiphany takes place shortly after Jesus’ birth, John’s epiphany takes place shortly before Jesus’ death, but the point is really the same. The context of John’s epiphany account is important. As I said, John’s epiphany takes place just after Jesus had made his triumphal entry into Jerusalem, hailed by the crowds who lined the streets to see him. “Hosanna to the Son of David,” they had shouted. “The King of the Jews,” Matthew’s magi had called Jesus. And the very last words in the story of the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, in the verse just before where I began our reading from John this morning, were from the lips of the Pharisees: “look, the world has gone after him!” And then, to put the fears of the Pharisees into concrete form, appear these Greeks, much like the magi of Matthew’s Gospel, with their plea to Philip: “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” Whatever their troubles, these Greeks - perhaps proselytes to the Jewish religion, but still Gentiles - had come to see Jesus as their source of hope; as their light shining in the darkness. Indeed, the world had gone after Jesus.
A character in a novel once confessed this to her pastor: “there’s just one reason, you know, why I keep dragging in there every Sunday. I want to find out if the whole thing is true. Just true. That’s all. Either it is or it isn’t.” The Greeks in our Gospel reading this morning came seeking truth from Jesus. Each one of us has come here this morning seeking truth from Jesus. Some, like the character in that novel, may have had to drag themselves, others may have come excitedly, but whatever state we’ve come in, we’ve come to seek truth, a truth found in Jesus Christ. And in Jesus - in the light that does indeed shine through even the greatest darkness - we will indeed find the truth.
To Jesus, the arrival of the Greeks to see him was an important sign. John leaves us wondering whether these Greeks ever got to see Jesus. I’d like to think that they did. It’s hard for me to imagine Jesus turning away people who had come to him seeking truth. But for John, whether Jesus actually saw the Greeks or not, and what conversation took place between them, isn’t the important issue. What matters is what the Greeks represented for Jesus. They were a sign for him; a sign that the time had come for him to offer his greatest act of love. Now his ministry is for the world; now he can give himself for all people. He is not just for Israel - he has come for all peoples, all nations, all races - male and female, rich and poor, young and old, black and white, oppressed and free. He will give himself for them all!
In the course of Jesus’ reflections upon the meaning of the arrival of these Greeks, we see Jesus himself go through a struggle between light and darkness. Jesus understands the meaning of the sign. Jesus knows what the coming of the Greeks represents. He is very aware of what he must now do and of what he must now face; of the trial he is about to endure. He doesn’t argue with God, nor does he try to bargain with God. He is accepting of his mission, but he is troubled. As we would discover later in the Garden of Gethsemane, he is very troubled by what lies ahead of him. But he understands that his mission must be fulfilled. He has entered the world for a purpose; the purpose must be completed. And the fulfilment of that mission would be the ultimate defeat of darkness, and the greatest sign of hope for all the world. From perhaps the darkest moment in history (the crucifixion of Jesus) would shine the brightest light of salvation and eternal life. And it would be for all the world. Jesus, who was revealed to the world first by the light of a strange and brilliant star that led magi from afar to come and worship him, would be himself the light of the world, leading all peoples to a joyous reconciliation with God; a relationship with God that, through faith, would never be broken; one that would stand, through faith, against all the darkness that can sometimes come against a human life, and would last for all eternity. And Jesus offered us a challenge. Those who place their faith in him must become themselves light for the world. We who call ourselves Christians must allow the light of Christ to shine through our lives. It is the ultimate challenge, the ultimate responsibility, the ultimate privilege: “whoever serves me must follow me,” Jesus said. “Believe in the light, so that you may become children of light.”
If we place our faith and our trust in Jesus - if we have, indeed, through our faith in Jesus become children of his light - then we surely must accept for ourselves the call to share that light with all the world, to all who walk in darkness. Isaiah said that “those who walk in darkness have seen a great light ...” Many today walk in darkness. Many today need hope. We are the bearers of light and hope as Christians. We are the ones who will allow Christ’s light to continue to shine so that those in darkness today can see a great light - not our light but Christ’s light shining through us. You see, we must walk in the light - which is really just a way of saying that we must live our faith and put our faith into action; that we must not just talk the talk, but that we must also walk the walk. If we stand still and become satisfied and complacent then the light (even the light of Christ) will gradually fade from our lives, and we will find ourselves again struggling against the darkness of doubt and fear and anger and hate. We must keep moving! We must keep walking in the light! If we want to stay in the light of Christ it isn’t an option - we must walk in the light of Christ! The light of Christ pushes us forward, and we have to keep up with it!
It’s very bright in the middle of the day, but no matter how bright the day is, night eventually comes and the light fades away. However, it is possible - in theory at least - to live our entire lives in the light of the sun, if we were simply to keep journeying westward fast enough to keep up with the sun. But because we don’t make that journey west, the day fades into night; light changes to darkness. The journey would be too difficult, it would cost too much, it would be too tiring. It’s easier just to be satisfied with where we are. That’s not a bad analogy for faith. Walking in the light of Christ - continually - is a difficult journey. It carries with it certain costs. It can at times be tiring and discouraging. But it has one great reward: it is a journey that we take with Jesus constantly at our sides, urging us on, lifting us and carrying us when we weary, providing for us when we think we just can’t give any more. There is a great source of strength to see us through this difficult journey of faith - the source of strength is the light of Christ, and it never fades, as long as we continue in faith and continue to trust, and continue to act on what we believe. If we do those things, the light of Christ will continue to shine within us and through us.
So, how do we do all that? How do we shine as lights for those battling darkness? What do we learn from Jesus about how to shine as lights for the world? It’s really very simple. We learn from Jesus that to be a light is to be focused on sacrifice and not self-preservation. We learn from Jesus that to be a light is to be concerned with giving rather than receiving. We learn from Jesus that to be a light is to always think first of others and not ourselves. In doing these things we not only serve Jesus, we follow Jesus. In doing these things, we shine as lights to the world.
Shining as lights to a world often consumed by darkness is tough work, but the strength of God will allow us to do it. Our reading from Ephesians spoke a great deal about inner strength and power, but it is not our strength or power that the passage is speaking of. It is God’s strength and power at work within us - a strength and power made known to us by the light of Christ shining within us. By the strength of this light, powerfully at work within us, God can accomplish through us far more than we can either ask or imagine!
