EpiphanyThe Day of Epiphany focuses on the coming of the magi to see the Boy Jesus and on their presenting their gifts to Him (Matthew 2:1-12), but the Season of Epiphany only begins with that Day and features other revelations of the glory of God in the flesh of the Man Jesus. For example, the Season ends with Jesus’s Transfiguration, the greatest revelation of God’s glory in the Man Jesus Christ. Each and every day of the Season has application for us and for our salvation.

Originally an “epiphany” was a king or an emperor’s showing himself publicly as in an official visit or appearance. But, the word came to be used more specifically of God’s revealing Himself in the flesh of the man Jesus, and especially to non-Jews.

On the Day of Epiphany (January 6), we must admit that we do not know everything about the magi (sometimes called “wise men” or “kings”) who came to visit Jesus, least of all what their names were or how many there were (we usually assume three because of the three gifts). However, we can safely say that the Word of God, the Old Testament Scriptures, led them to God in the flesh (probably not at the manger but in a Bethlehem house some time after Jesus was born). Likewise for us today, God’s Word leads us to God in the flesh, present with His body and blood under the forms of bread and wine in the Sacrament of the Altar.

The First Sunday after Epiphany commemorates The Baptism of Our Lord (Luke 3:15-22). That event is one of the clearest revelations of our Triune God as Father (the voice from heaven), Son (the man Jesus standing in the Jordan River), and Holy Spirit (the dove). And, in being baptized, Jesus sets apart as holy such a washing for our forgiveness of sins. We do not witness the epiphany of the Trinity as did those present there that day, but we have our own epiphanies, as it were, in our baptisms, which connect us to Jesus’s death and resurrection (Romans 6:1-14), and thereby give those who believe the forgiveness of sins and so also eternal life.

The Gospel Readings for the other Sundays in the Epiphany Season this year are as follows:

  • Jesus’s miracle changing water into wine at the wedding at Cana (John 2:1-11)
  • Jesus’s preaching about Himself at a synagogue in Nazareth (Luke 4:16-30)
  • Jesus’s casting out a demon and healing Simon Peter’s mother-in-law (Luke 4:31-44)
  • Jesus’s being transfigured before three of His disciples (Luke 9:28-36)

Read and hear the sermons at Pilgrim from the Season of Epiphany and from every season of the Church Year here. Read a Kilgore News Herald article about Epiphany, quoting Pastor Galler, here.

The banner image at the top of this page includes artwork by an unknown artist from an old Christmas Card found here.