Feast of the Circumcision/Feast of the Epiphany - Rector's Ramblings for 1/1 & 1/6, 2021

 

Happy 2021. 

              On January 1st the Holy Communion was celebrated here at for a special Holy Day.  Not “New Year’s Day” (the Church New Year started on the first Sunday in Advent back in November), but the Feast of the Circumcision.

              Jesus, born into a family of the original Covenant with the people of the Hebrews, was circumcised as the outward sign of his membership in that Covenant between God and His chosen people. 

There are several theologically important things happening at this event on Jesus’ eight day of life.

1) Jesus, as the fulfillment of the promise of God to send a Messiah as the fulfillment of the Law, keeps the law by being Circumcised.

2) This covenant, as all ancient covenants (agreements between two parties), was sealed in blood.  An agreement between two parties involved a shedding of blood of some sort as a sign of the importance and long term effect of it.  The shedding of this first blood through circumcision was also a permanent reminder of that membership in as God’s chosen people.   MORE IMPORTANTLY it is a foreshadowing of how the NEW COVENANT would be sealed - by the shedding of Jesus’ own blood on the hard wood of the Cross!

3) On this eight day another very important thing happens in the life of the Jewish male - he officially receives his name!  And of course, the Name of Jesus is not only the name given by the Angel to Mary when she conceived Him by the Holy Ghost (Matthew 1:21), but the Name of Jesus is THE ONLY NAME UNDER HEAVEN BY WHICH WE ARE SAVED! (Acts 4:12).

So while many were recovering from the celebration of the new secular calendar year we have started this year off with a wonderful remembrance of our Salvation through Jesus Christ.

Thanks be to God who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ! 

1 Corinthians 15:57

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The Feast on January 6 has two names, but both mean the same thing.  To have an “epiphany” is to have something made manifest, or to have something shown to you.  In the 1928 Book of Common Prayer the title for today’s feast is The Epiphany, or the Manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles.

In the Christmas story we hear that the shepherds in the fields heard, by the proclamation of the Angelic Hosts, the good news of Jesus’ birth.  The shepherds represent the people of the Jews, since they would have surely been Jews in that region.  They come and adore Jesus.

The Magi (Wise Men or Three Kings) are not Jews, but Gentiles.  We hear in scripture that these wise men came from the East, having seen in the stars an amazing, celestial event which they understood to be the portent of the birth of a new king.

So, they went to Herod, assuming that this would foretell the birth of his heir, but of course there was no baby there.  Herod, whom secular history confirms was a man of great jealously and wrath, tries to convince these men to let him know when and where they have found this king (“…bring me word again, that I may come and worship him”).  Obviously Herod had a poisonous intent; not to worship but destroy him.  However, the Magi were warned of God in a dream and Herod’s plan was thwarted.

As the shepherds represented the people of the Jews coming to worship Jesus, since is the fulfillment of the promise to them to send a Saviour, so the Magi represent the rest of us.  Gentile basically means, “not Jew”.

Jesus’ birth is Good News not only to the Jew, but the Gentile as well.  He is Lord of all, and all are included in the New Covenant sealed in His blood on the cross.  He was made manifest to the Jews in the persons of the shepherds, and to the rest of us through these wise men who also came to worship.

And the wise still come and worship Him!