Epiphany Sunday

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“Between the present and the days of the Messiah there is only one difference – Israel’s servitude.”¹ – There is a statement in Holy Scripture that this maxim (re-read) helps to explain. It is a maxim this, as a Gentile, I could understand, but only in half. That scripture is from St. Paul’s first letter to the church in Corinth, 1,20-23. It states: “Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Has not GOD made foolish the wisdom of this world? For since, in the wisdom of GOD, the world through wisdom did not know GOD, it pleased GOD through the foolishness of the message preached, [which is the Gospel of JESUS Christ], to save those who believe [it]. For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness,” — I always pondered this – Greeks, that is Gentiles – that is you and me – we are always asking for ‘wisdom’ – intellectual logic – why something is the way it is or must be.

Seeking from GOD wisdom, this I can understand: “For who hath known the mind of the LORD GOD, that we may instruct Him?” (1 Corinthians 2,16). — Indeed! — And yet, on the other hand, what has always conflicted me, is the sign. Why did Jews need to see a sign when signs abounded in JESUS’ day, such that it should not be doubted, that nearly every day after JESUS’ Baptism by John, until His Ascension into Heaven, a ‘sign’ was done by the Carpenter’s son from Galilee? And these signs were specifically done, we learn from JESUS, that the Jews might believe that He was, is, and ever shall be the Jewish Christ, the Anointed One of GOD, come to redeem the Jews and the Gentiles from their sins.

One example of this can be seen in the Gospel of St. John, chapter 10,23ff, as the Jewish leaders surround JESUS in the Temple and demand He reveal Himself for who He was, or else. The Scriptures tell us: “And JESUS walked in the Temple, in Solomon’s porch. Then the Jews surrounded Him and said to Him, ‘How long do You keep us in doubt? If You are the Christ, tell us. JESUS answered them, ‘I told you, and you do not believe [my words or my wisdom]. The works [and signs] that I do in My Father’s Name, they bear witness of Me. But you [still] do not believe…” –– These signs, revealed in the Bible, not only “refer to miraculous events, signifying GOD’s intervention in human history to authenticate His messengers; [i.e., Moses, Aaron, Elijah, Elisha, etc.]. No, more importantly, these signs carried a deeper spiritual significance, pointing to the truth of GOD’s message and offer of redemption, found [alone], in the authority of JESUS Christ.”² – And yet the Jews could not see the truth of these signs revealed in Christ JESUS, for, as we have explained before, their ideology was preeminent: ‘Between the present and the days of the Messiah there is only one difference – Israel’s servitude.’

What does the Old Testament say about the Jewish Messiah, and why did the Jews in first-century Judea and Jerusalem care not to see JESUS as this promised figure? First, JESUS did not focus His ministry on liberating Israel from her political and military servitude from the Gentiles, important as it was. The Jews in JESUS’ day, from their point of view, believed that the OT foretold the eventual servitude – not of the Jews to the Gentile – but the Gentile to the Jew. — For example, in Isaiah 60,1-3, we read: “Rise, shine [Jerusalem]; for your light has come! And the glory of the LORD is risen upon you. For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and deep darkness the people; But the LORD will arise over you, and His glory will be seen upon you. The Gentiles shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising.”

The challenge for Israel, as the prophets of GOD defined it, was that they knew they were the sons and daughters of Abraham, thus, they believed the ‘glory of the LORD’ was theirs by right, rather than by grace. – As an example, John the Baptist, in the wilderness, in his ministry to prepare the people for the coming Messiah, warned Israel of her haughtiness: “Bear fruits worthy of repentance, and do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I say to you that GOD can raise up children to Abraham from these stones” (St. Luke 3,8).

Israel was chosen, and Israel was blessed, but it was not because of Israel. – Moses reminds the people of this fact when he says to them, just before they entered into their inheritance, given them by GOD, in Canaan: “For you are a people [set-apart] to the LORD your GOD; the LORD your GOD has chosen you to be a people for Himself; a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth. The LORD did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people, for you were the least of all peoples; but because the LORD loves you … Therefore, know that the LORD your GOD, He is GOD, the faithful GOD who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments” (Deuteronomy 7,6-8a & 9). Israel was a treasure unto the LORD for the sake of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and if they obeyed His commandments and statutes, the LORD would bless those who blessed Israel, and curse those who did not.

The ‘glory of the LORD’, rising over Zion described in Isaiah 60, which we read earlier, was a prophetic emblem of blessing that would be given, by GOD, to an obedient people He had chosen, which is Israel. And this blessing would be theirs if they were faithful to His commandments. — The result of this blessing, as Isaiah describes it, would look like this: ‘The Gentiles shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising.’ – Israel’s calling was to be a beacon to the whole world, shining the reflective light of what happens to a people – a nation – when they obey, love, and serve the GOD of all creation. – The Psalmist describes this blessing in faithfulness, like this:

GOD be merciful to us and bless us and cause His face to shine upon us; That Your way may be known on earth; Your salvation among all nations. Let the peoples praise You, O GOD; Let all the peoples praise You … Then the earth shall yield her increase … and all the ends of the earth shall fear Him. (Psalm 67,1-3 & 6a-7b)

Israel was the Church, the assembly and ἐκκλησία of GOD in the Old Testament. For GOD dwelt among them and tabernacled amongst them, first, in the Wilderness & then in the Temple in Jerusalem. Yet, as we have seen, collectively, Israel rejected, sadly, their Great OT Commission. Thus, GOD took matters into His own hands. — YAHWEH GOD’s desire, from the beginning, starting from Adam & Eve, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and ultimately resting with the nation of Israel, was that His chosen people, not just individuals within the Old Testament Church, but the whole Church, make His glory known. As King David describes his heart’s passion in Psalm 108, so was the heart of the chosen people to be for the Most-Highest:

O GOD, my heart is steadfast; I will sing and give praise, even with my glory. Awake, lute and harp! I will awaken the dawn. I will praise You, O LORD, among the peoples, and I will sing praises to You among the nations. For Your mercy is great above the heavens, and Your truth reaches to the clouds. (Psalm 108,1-4).

Yet, the history of Israel did not go as GOD planned, and the light of GOD was growing dim in the world, as darkness was not only overcoming the nations of the world, it was overcoming Israel too. — As Pope Leo the Great said: “For as justice was everywhere failing and the whole world was given over to vanity and wickedness, if the Divine Power had not deferred its judgment, the whole of mankind would have received the sentence of damnation. But wrath was changed to forgiveness, that the greatness of the Grace of GOD would be displayed more conspicuously, it pleased GOD to apply His mystery of remission, to the abolishing of men’s sins at a time, when no one could boast of his own merits.”³ — Thus, the whole world being given over to vanity and wickedness, we can conclude, with the prophets of Holy Scripture, that it was to be a mystery as to how GOD would save the Gentiles who knew Him not, and the Jews, who at worst forgot Him, and at best, misunderstood His will and purpose for their lives.

How would GOD do this? — By providing wisdom to the Greeks and signs to the Hebrews? — Yes, but it would be a mystery to all men, until the fullness of time had come, how this would happen. (cf. Gal. 4,4) — At that time, the curtain of this mystery was pulled back on Christmas morning, being hinted at in the Gospel Lesson today from St. Matthew: “When JESUS was born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem, saying, ‘Where is He that is born King of the Jews? For we have seen His star in the east and are come to worship Him” (St. Matthew 2, 1-2). – To some, it was a glorious revelation of the wisdom of GOD they were looking for – to others, it was a sign from GOD of a challenger, who would disrupt the accepted status quo and presumption that the Day of the LORD, was anything but, ‘at hand.’ — Christ’s arrival, in the form of a little child on Christmas morning, had caused this – peace for some and conflict for others. – What could this mystery mean?

Fifty-some-odd years later, St. Paul the Apostle, was told what this mystery meant, by the Holy Ghost. He says, “For this reason, I, Paul, for you Gentiles … how that by revelation GOD made known to me the mystery … which in other ages was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to His apostles and prophets – that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, of the same body (viz., the corporate, chosen people of spiritual Israel), and partakers of the promises of Christ, through the Gospel…” (Ephesians 3:1,3, 5-6). By the gift of the Gospel, (GOD becoming Man, that man might become like GOD), all who believe this Gospel, become inheritors of the mystery. — As St. John Chrysostom describes it, “This, therefore, Paul calls ‘the mystery of the promise’. Which is, the Israelites were partakers, and the Gentiles fellow-partakers of the same promise of GOD’⁴, which is the salvation of our souls – together – one Body – under one LORD – by one Faith – through one Baptism – this is the mystery of both the wisdom & power of GOD.

‘Between the present and the days of the Messiah there is only one difference – Israel’s servitude.’ — It is very true, Israel is in servitude – that is, the redeemed of Israel, the remnant of GOD, who is the Church, we are in spiritual servitude to the newborn King. He that both Heaven and earth adore, whose vision was by “a Star come out of Jacob”, over two millennia ago. (Numbers 24,7) The lesson for the Church on this Epiphany Sunday, for those who adore King JESUS, is to follow the lead of the kings of the east, who were led by a star, that they might look upon the Christ Child, bodily in Bethlehem. We, the Church, the redeemed of Israel, on the other hand, are ‘being led onwards’ in our Christian journey, not by a star in the sky, but by the Star in our hearts, by the Spirit of Christ, Who leads us by faith.

Our Collect today, as one Anglican theologian has pointed out, is best read in its Latin, not Greek interpretation. In Latin, our Collect would read: “Mercifully grant that we, which know thee now by faith, may be led onwards until we come to gaze upon thy Exaltation [Majesty] by sight…” … This Sunday, the people of GOD make petition for divine assistance so that, after being faithful sojourners and pilgrims here on earth in this evil age, we will experience the full realization of Christian hope and see the Glory of the Father in the face of JESUS Christ in the glorious age to come. But we must first walk by faith in order later by grace to walk by sight! This is the message for the whole of the season of the Epiphany.”⁵

Brothers & sisters of StME, “The guiding star above is bright; yet within us shines a clearer light. It leads us on with power benign, to see the Giver of the sign.”⁶ — Let us be faithful to this leading, that we might be partakers of His Majesty, with our own sight. Amen.

1 Edersheim, Sketches of Jewish Social Life, digital 927

2 BibleHub.com. “Lexicon definition of ‘sign’ from 1 Cor. 1,22”. Accessed 8 January 2025. https://biblehub.com/greek/4592.htm

3 Pope Leo the Great. “Sermon on the Feast of the Epiphany III”. Accessed 6 January 2025, https://www.lectionarycentral.com/epiphany/LeotheGreat%202.html

4 LectionaryCentral.com. A Sermon of St. John Chrysostom on Ephesians 3”. Accessed 6-January 2025. https://www.lectionarycentral.com/epiphany/ChrysostomEpistle.html

5 LectionaryCentral.com. Toon, Rev’d Peter. “Homily on the Season and the Collect”. Accessed 10 January 2025. https://www.lectionarycentral.com/epiphany/Toon.html

6 Book of Common Praise, “What star is this with beams so bright?”, (Newport Beach : Anglican House Media Ministry, 2017),85.