Reflections on Epiphany on Epiphany Sunday, Church of Norway, 7th January 2024. Texts for the day in the Church of Norway lectionary, year II: Isaiah 49:1-7; Romans 15:4-6; and Luke 2:40-52. All quotations follow the New Revised Standard Version of Scripture.
Today we celebrate the feast of Epiphany. Or in the Church of Norway, it will be celebrated mainly tomorrow, as we move the day to the closest Sunday. In Norway, we call the day Kristi openberringsdag (‘The Epiphany of Christ Day’ or ‘The Revelation of Christ Day’), since ‘Epiphany’ means ‘revelation’ (from Gk. epipháneia), or Heilage tre kongars dag (‘Holy Three Kings Day’). This year, however, we do not read the Gospel from Matthew 2:1-12, since we now are in now in year II. We read, rather, the text concerning the twelve years olf Christ in the temple.
There, we meet Christ, His mother (the Holy Virgin Mary), and St. Joseph, as they have been travelling to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover. Maybe Christ came with them also to learn more, though He also came with them to teach more.
He was twelve years old, and still a boy. But the following year He was to become a man after He would be accepted as a full member of the community of faith, as is the custom for Jews (what we now call Bar Mitzvah).
Christ was (and is) not only true God, but also true man, and therefore He had to go through learning processes. He had to learn to crawl, walk, talk, read, write, etc. And one of the things Christ had to learn was to live as a human being in a given culture, with given cultural and social codes. And we see one of the learning processes in this text. Christ learned that you don’t go away without telling. When His parents found Him in the temple, we read that they were astonished. They may not have realised how much wisdom He had. But they naturally also reacted to what Christ had done: “Child,” said His mother, “why have you treated us like this? Look, your father and I have been searching for you in great anxiety” (Luke 2:48). But He answered (Luke 2:49): “Why were you searching for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” Christ was fully aware of his relationship with God, but perhaps had something to learn about social relationships.
The interesting thing here is that the original Greek text does not contain the word ‘house.’ The sentence can just as well be translated like this: “Did you not know that I must be in that which belongs to my Father?” Yes, that includes the temple – the house – but it also included the conversation on the word of God, the communion amongst His people, and much, much more. The centre is our relationship to God. Christ always put God first, and He calls us to do the same, while the text also tells us how important it is to show care and follow the ‘codes.’
Those who sat together with Christ in the temple did not understand this, nor did Mary. But, as was her practice, she “treasured all these things in her heart” (Luke 2:51). The story ends with Christ returning home, together with his parents, and that He “increased in wisdom and in years, and in divine and human favour.” This is important. The text reveals the tension that is in Christ: He is true God and true man. At the same time as He is the eternal, unchanging, all-powerful, and all-knowing God, He had to mature as a human being, increasing in wisdom and in years. He chose to be born into a specific culture and to be influenced by precisely this culture and the social and cultural codes that were in force there. As a human being, Christ probably didn’t know anything about cars, computers, e-mail, or Substack.
And he probably didn’t know anything like all the research that has later been done on ancient cultures. But why should he? The point of Christ becoming human was that He came down and shared our condition. And a part of human experience os to be, in a way, limited. He knew, and knows, all things as God, but in some way, He could still increase in wisdom and knowledge. This is mystery and anything that goes beyond this will be speculation. What we know from Scripture is this, that Christ humbled Himself and had to learn things, increasing in wisdom and in years. As St. Paul reminds us, Christ, “though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness” (Philippians 2:6-7). Christ did not becomes ‘less’ divine but He assumed our condition. He was “born in human likeness.” As God, Christ is “of one Being with the Father” and as man, He is of the same being as us. He is God and man but divinity and humanity is not ‘mixed’ or ‘confused.’ But equally, they can never be separated. This is a paradox, but at the same time is entirely proper. For this gives us all.
We cannot grasp it but we can receive in faith. Christ reveals His mission; to take that which is ours on Himself, so that we can receive that which is His. Through Him, through the union of divinity and humanity in Christ, we are made partakers of salvation. We become one with God and share in His life, His blessedness, His wisdom. This Martin Luther called the ‘happy exchange,’ that we receive all which is good in Christ and He receives all which is evil and sinful in us, so that He can atone for it.
Yes, we get communion with God. When Christ reveals that He is God, at the same time as He is human, and has to live as a human, He also reveals our calling, that we, like Christ, must also stay close to God, that we must have a relationship with Him. We should seek God in the word, in the sacraments, in prayer, in all that God has given us we should live where God has placed us, in community with our fellow human beings. As St. Paul writes in one of the texts for today: “For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, so that by steadfastness and by the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope. May the God of steadfastness and encouragement grant you to live in harmony with one another, in accordance with Christ Jesus” (Romans 15:4-5).
Our calling is to live, to mature and to be shaped according to the example of Christ. We should be conformed to His image (Romans 8:29) and in doing so, we should also increas in wisdom and in years, and in divine and human favour.
But we cannot do so on our own account, seperated from God. The point of Christ and the union of divinity and humanity that Has been revealed in Him, is that we also have a calling to live as followers of Christ, as God works in us. “Let the same mind be in you that was[a] in Christ Jesus,” says St. Paul (Philippians 2:5). And later, he adds that we should “work out [our] own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in [us], enabling [us] both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Philippians 2:12-13).
The core of our calling is therefore to live as fellow human beings and that we, in the Church, should have fellowship in worship, “so that together [we] may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,” as St. Paul continues in one of the texts for today (Romans 15:6). That is the centre, not speculative theology but prayer and worship, which comes from God and is expressed by Him through us. When we praise Him and give Him thanks, He is the one at work.
But it can be a bit overwhelming to have to compare ourselves to Christ. How many of us were involved in deep theological debates when we were twelve? Here I think we can learn a little from Mary. She didn’t understand everything, but she had faith and trust and she “treasured all these things in her heart” (Luke 2:51). She treasured it, she dwelt on it, and she was formed by this by God. When the Angel Gabriel revealed the Gospel to her and told her that she would conceive and give birth to the Saviour, who would be Lord of all, she answered: “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word” (Luke 1:38).
Today, we celebrate Epiphany. We celebrate that Christ has revealed to us who He is, that He continues to do this, but also that He has revealed to us what we are called to be. Our calling is to follow the will of God, to live the Christian life, to seek God where He has promised to be. But we cannot do so except though our participation in Christ, which has been given to us as a gift.
God became man, but not to give us some nice thoughts to warm our hearts in the winter cold. He did so to save us, to unite with us, live in our hearts, so that we can receive His salvation, life, blessedness, wisdom. As the German mystic Angelus Silesius is said to have put it: “If Christ were born in Bethlehem a thousand times and not in thee thyself; then art thou lost eternally.”