How to Have an Epiphany

Introduction

“I’ve just had an epiphany!” What do people mean when they say something like that? Usually they mean that they’ve had a sudden revelation or breakthrough in understanding that seems to strike them from outside, almost as though it came from heaven. The word epiphany just means “appearance,” but it especially refers to a divine appearance or revelation. The holiday Epiphany celebrates God “appearing” or revealing his glory to mankind in Jesus.

So how does one have an epiphany? How do you receive a revelation from God? Well, I’m sorry to disappoint anyone, but this isn’t going to be a step-by-step guide to experiencing miraculous visions of God. What it will be is a look at how the Magi in Matthew 2 arrived at their epiphany. What were the stages in their journey to finding God revealed in Jesus Christ, and what can we learn from each stage of that journey?

Stage 1: Natural Revelation

The first step that the magi took on the journey to their Epiphany is one of the most fascinating parts of the story, and kind of mysterious. What began their journey was a star. The magi say that they saw some kind of star in the sky that somehow told them that a great new king had been born among the Jewish people. This so-called star of Bethlehem has captured the imaginations of people for centuries: What was it? A supernova? A comet? A convergence of planets, stars, and constellations? As fun as it can be to speculate about the star, we can’t really tell for certain, and the more important question is probably who are the magi, and how could they have told from the stars that Jesus had been born?

The word magi probably refers to learned men who served as advisers in the courts of important people in Persia or Babylon. They were experts in things like astrology, dream interpretation, and the occult. Essentially, they were wizards or wise men. Some of their knowledge could come from things that Christians should never dabble in, such as fortune telling practices, consulting spirits, or acts of worship toward false gods. But their knowledge could also come from what might today be called science or philosophy. Many were simply really good at observing the workings of nature. Many likely had experience with what Christians call the “natural revelation” of God. That is, Paul talks in Romans 1 about how God reveals certain things about himself (specifically his eternal power and divinity) through the things that he has made. Have you ever looked at the beauty or complexity of the world, and thought “someone must have made that”? That’s one example of natural revelation. But it can be more than that. Ancient people in general, and that includes ancient Jews and Christians, believed that what happened in the sky was connected with what happened in life on earth. Of course a faithful Jew or Christian would reject “astrology” in the sense that the stars control our destinies. But they did believe that God was in charge of the heavens, and therefore he could telegraph something important he was about to do through signs in the heavens. This would be another kind of natural revelation, and it may have been what told the magi a king had been born.

There is some dispute about how Matthew wants us to perceive these magi: Are they men who are especially wise and perceptive about how God communicates through the natural world, or are they demonic and superstitious sorcerers who need to be converted by the encounter with Jesus? It isn’t totally clear, but in the end I’m not sure it matters that much to the story. Either way, the upshot is that somehow God used the stars to communicate to these men enough about what he was doing to get them to come to Jerusalem to find out more. That’s where their journey starts.

Isn’t that kind of remarkable? That isn’t how we’re used to seeing God operate. No matter how you interpret the star or the character of the magi, the basic fact is still there: somehow God used something that on some level would be called astrology to get a group of pagans to come visit his son. Is he allowed to do that? Well, of course he is. But it isn’t necessarily quite so out of the box as we might think. Actually many people have out of the box stories about how God first put them on the journey to an epiphany of Christ. For some it might be natural revelation like we talked about; they were looking up at the stars one night and suddenly they felt like there must be someone who created all of that, so they started trying to learn more about God. You sometimes hear stories from the mission field of unbelievers having a dream where God reveals himself to them somehow, and they eventually become Christians. Maybe you’ve heard a really wacky testimony, like maybe someone was an unbeliever until one day they saw Jesus’ face in a piece of toast and for some reason that really affected them. There are any number of stories that might make you say, “Really? That’s what did it for you?” And it’s true that none of these things by themselves gets you all the way to the Gospel or mature, saving faith in Christ. There may be misunderstanding and faulty reasoning involved in people’s path to true faith, and even some misguided ways of seeking God. But yet God will use all manner of things to reveal himself to people. Can you tell him he’s wrong? God loves people so much and so desires their salvation that he’ll stoop to using the stars, or dreams, or yes, even burnt toast to begin the process of pulling people to himself. So always be slow to judge someone’s “testimony.” There may be good reason to feel skeptical about how someone’s path to faith started, but what matters is the destination.

Stage 2: Special Revelation of Scripture

So what’s the next stage in the journey of the magi to their epiphany? Well, where would you go at that time if you knew there was a new king of the Jews? Jerusalem, of course! The religious center of Judaism and the historic capital of their nation. That is the interesting thing about the journey of the magi, everyone assumes they followed a star all the way across the desert that told them where to go. But that doesn’t seem to actually be what happened. The star just told them that a new Jewish king was born, they had to set out for Jerusalem to get more information. That’s why when they got there the first thing they ask is “where is he?” The revelation of the star isn’t enough, they need further revelation from God.

King Herod was alarmed that there was a new rival king of the Jews, but he knew where to go for information about the Messiah: the Scripture experts. He got the chief priests and the scribes together, and they had an answer from the promises of the prophet Micah: Matthew 2:6 (ESV)

6“ ‘And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.’ ”

In order to find the Messiah who would graciously rule his people like a shepherd, the star wasn’t enough, the magi needed to hear from the Scriptures of God’s people. Natural revelation wouldn’t cut it, they needed special revelation, the words that God spoke to his chosen people through the prophets.

This illustrates a truth that Christians have long understood. You can understand a lot of things about God from natural revelation. You can get a good idea that he is powerful, that he is infinite, even that he is just and good. But you can’t get the Gospel. Natural revelation does not give saving faith; in fact it only tells you enough for you to be held accountable for your sin. You can’t know the story of God’s love for his creation and what he did to save it purely from observing the world around you. For that, you need what Christians call special revelation, which is when God speaks to his people to tell them something they never could have known or understood in their sinful condition. Scripture is the definitive collection of special revelation to God’s people, so that is what the Magi needed to find Jesus.

If there was any concern before that I was going to say that God reveals himself in lots of ways so we don’t really need the Bible, let me put that worry to rest. In a sense, God can reveal himself however he wants. But he chooses to make his most important revelations by speaking through his prophets and apostles, and those words are only recorded for us in Scripture. No matter how God may have first drawn you toward himself, you always need to be led to Scripture to know the good news of what Jesus has done for you. Scripture has the final say in what God is showing you. All other “revelations” are fallible and can be misleading, so they have to be subjected to what God has told us in the Bible. Every journey to epiphany must pass through Scripture. If you feel like God is telling you something or pushing you in a certain direction, you need to test it against Scripture to know what God actually wants you to know.

Stage 3: Worship of Jesus

Now that the Magi have learned from the Scriptures, it may seem like that should be the end of their journey to epiphany. But it isn’t quite. There’s one more stage in their journey. The magi don’t stop at studying and interpreting the Scriptures. That’s where Herod and the chief priests and scribes stop, but not the magi. Their journey ends with finding Jesus, and kneeling down and worshipping him. That is where true Epiphany is found; Jesus Christ is the fullest and truest revelation of God, and a real epiphany will always lead you to worship him. It is Jesus that the Scriptures testify to.

It is possible to have Scripture and study it, yet still miss out on Jesus. That’s what happens to the chief priests and scribes. They knew the Bible, they even got the message right, that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem, but they don’t worship him. They ignore the message. Herod even rejects Jesus and tries to kill him. The chief priests will do the same later in the story. They don’t have their Epiphany because they don’t find Jesus. Likewise, you today can read and study the Scriptures on your own, you can get the facts right, but you need to know that the facts are for you. Jesus has gifts he wants to offer you in his Church, gifts of forgiveness given in the Sacraments and gifts of comfort and grace through the life of being encouraged by other believers. Jesus wants you to come and worship him.

If you want God to reveal himself to you; if you want to know who he is and how he feels about you, look at Jesus. His birth shows that God loves you so much that he wants to unite himself to humanity and live among us. Jesus’ suffering and death show how commited he is and what he will go through to win forgiveness for you. Forgiveness for our default attitude of judgment and skepticism, forgiveness for the misguided ways that we seek God, and forgiveness for our hardheartedness and our failure to see Jesus in Scripture. Jesus’ resurrection and ascension reveal to us that God has won victory over death and lives to give that victory to us. Jesus is God’s beloved Son, chosen and precious, and when you look to him, you find that you are also God’s beloved child. Jesus reveals God’s heart toward you, a heart that wants to give you gifts of forgiveness and life through the work of Jesus.

That is where Scripture will always lead you by the power of the Holy Spirit. To worship Jesus by receiving the gifts of Word and Sacrament that he has for you and offering your gifts of praise and thanksgiving to him.

Conclusion

So how does one have an epiphany? There isn’t a magic formula, it’s God who does all the work of revealing himself to sinful people. The magi teach us that the journey can begin in many ways, even strange ways. But we need to let all our experiences, the things we perceive in nature, and the circumstances of our lives, drive us to Scripture. Scripture is where God speaks to us, and it is where Jesus can be found. Let Scripture point you to him. Come and kneel before Jesus, the greatest revelation of God from heaven. He is our true epiphany.