Epiphany
– An Historical Event and a Teaching for Today
Read: Matthew 2
As Easter falls very early this
year, Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent arrive fairly soon
after the observance of Epiphany. What to some is a relatively
unimportant observance (or a mere appendage to the Christmas season)
can have for us a great spiritual significance.
The charming story of the Christmas
star and the magi who followed it is very familiar. All we know of
this event is contained in a few verses in Matthew's gospel. Despite
the universal depiction of three wise men on countless Christmas
cards, we cannot be sure of their number. In the Middle Ages an
entire legend developed from Matthew's brief account. The magi became
three in number (presumably because three gifts were brought to the
Christ Child) and were elevated to the status of kings – even
having been given names.
The word epiphany is Greek for
“manifestation.” In the Eastern Church, the beginning of its
observance even preceded that of Christmas, and was ranked with
Easter and Pentecost. The magi are seen as representative of the
gentiles, or non-Jews, to whom Christ came, though some scholars
believe the magi were themselves Jewish astrologers from Babylonia,
intently following planetary movements for a sign that heralded the
birth of the Messiah foretold by prophets.
King Herod plays a very significant
role in this story, and not merely as a Roman ruler in Judea. What he
represents offers us a lesson even today. Looking for a deeper
meaning in this great story, we find that Herod stands for the ruling
will of the physical (or sense) consciousness in all of us – that
which rules the temporal (as opposed to the spiritual) realm. It can
be called the “ego” for short. It is jealous, fearful, and narrow
in outlook, and does not understand the true origin of our being in
the mind of God. “Herod” rules the physical world and is
threatened by the birth of the Christ consciousness which will
supplant it. Joseph is instructed by an angel (or thought from God)
to take the innocent and fragile Christ Child to a safe place as
Herod is determined to kill this and any threats to his rule.
When the time comes and we choose to
develop our spiritual nature, we must be on guard against the
subtlety of the ego and its deceitful ways. Remember that Herod had
sought to trick the magi into revealing the location of the infant
Christ: “Go and search diligently for the young child, and when you
have found him, bring me word again, that I may come and worship him
also.” Deep within us, past the superficial, which the physical eye
beholds, is an innocent idea or thought of God. We must not allow
this precious, young Christ consciousness to be given over to the
care and keeping of “Herod.”
The
Bethlehem “star” the Wise Men followed on their long journey to
the Christ Child was likely an extremely rare triple conjunction of
the planets Jupiter and Saturn in the part of the zodiac called the
“Sign of the Fish,” or the “House of the Hebrews,” (the first
time this occurred in over 8 ½ centuries!). Yet this “star” can
symbolize the divine light that illuminates the path to that within
us that God created and knows and loves perfectly, forever with Him
and abiding in perfect peace. Let us relinquish the guilt of the past
and not allow worldly attractions of the present delay our rebirth
into the new life God intends for us to live. For the time of Christ
has come, and its gifts of holiness and freedom are offered to us all
for our acceptance. In so doing, the light of Christ will shine out
from within us to all we encounter in our daily lives. This is what
it truly means to present Christ to the “gentiles.” We are all
searching for God and our divine inheritance. Much, if not most of
humanity is not consciously aware of this, and the world's deceptions
and “Herod's” trickery will attempt to intervene. They do not
mean us well. Nevertheless, our hearts are gladdened when we recall
the words of Jesus the Christ: “In the world you have tribulation;
but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”
Doug Dykstra
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