Christmas and Theophany
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Christmas and Theophany- by Fr. David Petras
The beginning of the life of Jesus Christ from his birth from a virgin mother is told in the Gospels of St. Matthew and St. Luke. The story of the beginning of the life of Jesus Christ with his public manifestation at the baptism in the River Jordan is told in the Gospels of St. Matthew, St. Mark and St. Luke. St. John does not tell the story of Jesus’ baptism, but it does tell the story of St. John the Baptist’s testimony that he did see the Spirit come upon Jesus (John 1:32-34), and John points him out to the people as “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. (John 1:29)” Moreover, the Eastern and the Western Church celebrate the coming of Jesus into the life of the world in very different ways. The West focuses on the birth of our Lord. On Christmas Day, we see the infinite God take on limited human nature as a small and helpless baby held in the arms of his mother. On Epiphany, the announcement of the Savior is made to all the world as the wise men, not of the chosen people, see the cosmic sign of the star and are led to the new-born King. For the Eastern Church, we see a two-fold birth. The feast of Christmas commemorates God becoming a human being for our sake, giving us, who are also born of a human mother, the hope of deification. The feast of the Theophany, the manifestation of God in the Trinity, celebrates the baptism of Christ, and so also our own baptisms, which are a spiritual re-birth in Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Like Christmas, the feast of Theophany is celebrated on the weekend before and the weekend after the actual day of the feast. The Gospel of the Sunday before remembers the preaching of St. John the Baptist. He points to Jesus as the Messiah to come, saying, “I have baptized you with water; he will baptize you with the holy Spirit. (Mark 1:8)” This tells us about the baptism we have received. It is truly an entrance into the life of God. In order to be fully alive in God, however, we must repent for the forgiveness of sins. Our baptism was the turning away from sin so that we might rise again with Christ. We must make this choice over and over again in our lives. The Saturday and Sunday before Theophany recalls and commemorates our decision to turn from darkness and towards Christ, the true light. For this reason, St. Gregory called Theophany the “feast of light.”
The day of Theophany itself commemorates our baptism into the life of the Holy Trinity. In the Eastern Church, the baptism of Christ was a manifestation or a revelation of God. in the Trinity. When Christ was baptized in the River Jordan, the voice of the Father, unseen by human eyes, witnessed from heaven “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased. (Matthew 3:17)” Te Spirit descended upon Christ in the form of a dove, as explained by Origen, “wherever there is reconciliation with God there is a dove, as in the case of Noah’s ark announcing God’s mercy to the world and at the same time making clear that what is spiritual should be meek and without wickedness, simple and without guile (Fragment 56)” The Spirit is both a purifying fire, as announced by the Baptist and seen in the event of Pentecost, and a gentle reconciler, for the dove symbolizes God’s peace. At our baptism, therefore, the priest says, “The servant of God is baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” It is as if we go into the waters of the Jordan with Christ. And every time we receive Communion, we receive the body of the Lord baptized in the Jordan, the Father accepts us as his child, and the Spirit, who has made the bread and wine the body and blood of Christ, comes upon us and deifies and sanctifies us, giving us the beginning of eternal life and forgiving all our sins.
The feast of Theophany also includes the Great Blessing of Water. Since our Lord, the Son of God, went into the waters of the Jordan, all the waters of the world are blessed. Water signifies our death to sin, for Christ crushed the head of evil in the Jordan River. His baptism is the beginning of his public life and of the proclamation of the good news of his redemption - of life, forgiveness and love. It is the completion of Christmas, for at his birth Christ humbled himself to accept our human nature, and at the baptism, he humbled himself to accept our punishment for sin, though he was without sin, as the Baptist recognized, “I need to be baptized by you, and yet you are coming to me? (Matthew 4:14)” Moreover, there is no more important element than water, which sustains our life and constantly refreshes and cleanses us. When we take home the blessed water on this day, the fact that God permeates our whole existence is proclaimed both in word and action. God enters our homes and all our activities this day, symbolized by the water.
On the weekend after Theophany, the story of Jesus’ temptation in the desert is retold. Since Jesus has entered into our lives, and has taken upon himself the burden of our sins, he also confronts the evil that is present in the world, utterly defeating it, proclaiming what is good news for us but torment to the Evil One, “Get away, Satan! It is written: ‘The Lord, your God, shall you worship and him alone shall you serve. (Matthew 4:10)” We now can overcome the dreariness and death-dealing iniquity of sin, not by our own powers, but in the power of Christ, who has overcome temptation. Victory is in our grasp, as the letter of St. Paul to Timothy tells us on the Sunday after Theophany, “From now on the crown of righteousness awaits me, which the Lord, the just Judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me, but to all who have longer for his appearance (in Greek, for his “epiphany,” the original name of the feast) (2 Timothy 4:8)” The Gospel of the Sunday after Theophany tells us what all of the feasts of both Christmas and Theophany have meant for us: we have seen God, “God is with us.” It therefore proclaims, “The people who sit in darkness have seen a great light, on those dwelling in a land overshadowed by death, light has arisen. (Matthew 4:16)”