In the name of God the Father, the Son Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, One True God. Amen.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus
We have begun a new year and a new decade as we begin the year 2020 and the whole world is winding down its festivities by clearing all the decorations, bringing down the Christmas trees, stars and lights that we had put up in our homes, shops, towns and cities and begin to get back to our routine daily life. We also worry about the extra weight we might have gained in our bodies by indulging in all the festive and delicious food we have consumed during the past few days. The Orthodox Church also begins to wind down from the festivities by moving its concentration from the birth of Jesus Christ to baptism of Jesus Christ, which also signifies the start of His public ministry. The Orthodox Church celebrates the Epiphany (or Denaha), the Baptism of our Lord Jesus Christ on January 6th of every year. The feast is also known as Theophany.
The festival season of Nativity, which we started with our looking towards the Incarnation of our Saviour Jesus Christ in a manger in Bethlehem comes to a crux when we celebrate His Baptism, which is also a start of His public ministry of more than 3 years and when He becomes widely known. The celebration of the Nativity of Jesus is intimately linked with the celebration of Theophany (Epiphany) when the God-man was made known to all as our Saviour. St. Gregory says,
At His birth we duly kept festival… With the Star we ran, and with the Magi we worshiped, and with the Shepherds we were illuminated, and with the Angels we glorified Him, and with Simeon we took Him up in our arms, and with Anna the aged and chaste we made our responsive of confession. And thanks be to Him Who came to His own in the guide of a stranger, because He glorified the stranger.
Now we come to another action of Christ, and another mystery, I cannot restrain my pleasure; I am rapt unto God.
Almost like John the Baptist, I proclaim good tidings… Christ is illumined, let us shine forth with Him. Christ is baptized, let us descend with Him that we may also ascend with Him. Jesus is baptized; but we must attentively consider not only this but somehow other points. Who is He, and by whom is He baptized, and at what time?
He is the all pure; and He is baptized by John; and the time is the beginning of His miracles. What are we to learn and to be taught by this? To purify ourselves first; to be lowly minded; and to preach only in maturity both of spiritual and bodily stature.
The feast of Theophany or Epiphany is a Great Feast of the Orthodox Church which celebrates the revelation of the Trinitarian God and the beginning of the public ministry of Jesus Christ. The chief point of this day is the revelation of God, but Who is this God? It is our Triune God. St. Gregory explains the nature of our Triune God as follows:
And when I speak of God you must be illumined at once by one flash of light and by three, Three in Individualities or Hypostases, if any prefer so to call them, or persons, for we will not quarrel about names so long as the syllables amount to the same meaning; but One in respect of the Substance – that is, the Godhead. For they are divided without division, if I may so say; and they are united in division. For the Godhead is one in three, and the three are one, in whom the Godhead is, or to speak accurately, Who are the Godhead. Excesses and defects we will omit, neither making the Unity a confusion, nor the division a separation.
One of the most important truths revealed during the feast is that Theophany is a revelation of God and specifically of God as a Trinity – Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Jesus is shown to be the Messiah, the Christ, as He is anointed by the Spirit of God which descends upon Him in the form of a dove. The voice of God the Father is heard from heaven saying, “This is my beloved Son with Whom I am well pleased”. The belief in God as Trinity is a foundation to Orthodox Christian Faith. It’s what we profess during the Divine Liturgy, in the Nicene Creed. We also need to understand that Jesus Christ does not become the Son of God on the day of His baptism, but in His baptism, the eternal Son of God is revealed to all humanity. The Holy Spirit always rests on Him. In other words, Jesus is not a created God, as the ancient Arians or the modern Jehovah’s witness proclaims.
Second truth that is affirmed during Epiphany is the re-creation of the creation. In the book of Genesis, Chapter 1:1-13 recounts the first three days of the creation. It says that the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters as the Word of God says, “Let there be light”. Today, the Spirit of God descended upon the waters of the Jordan River as Jesus Christ, the Word of God stands in its midst. Modern science teaches us that life began in water as a tiny cell, but today during the Baptism of Jesus, the significance and potential of water as a source of life was revealed and reaffirmed. In a sermon of Theophany, St. John Chrysostom says,
On this day Christ was baptized; through His baptism He sanctified the element of water. There let is all draw of the water and store it in our homes, because on this day the water is consecrated.”
When Adam & Eve were expelled from the Garden of Eden, the ground (and the creation) was cursed (Genesis 3:17), through which Adam would be subject to Creation, and not a master. Yet through Christ and His work of salvation and redemption, the curse was lifted and man and creation was reconciled. Creation was able not only to meet the physical needs of man, but the elements of creation can be, and are, sources of grace and healing as we worship the Lord of Life. Thus, the event of Epiphany is a re-creation of the creation which was tainted and cursed. In a sense, the potter puts on the clay in order to more fully and completely shape the clay in His image and likeness.
The third truth is the connection between baptism and God’s voice or word. We all know from the all four Gospel accounts that Jesus came to John to be baptized (Matthew 3:1-17; Mark 1:9-11; Luke 3:21-22; John 1:31-34). St. Matthew tells us that while John was preaching in the wilderness of Judea and people were coming to him to be baptized, he was hesitant to baptize Jesus and was looking forward to be baptized by Jesus instead. However, on account of Jesus consent to be baptized in order to fulfill all righteousness, John baptized Him. St. Matthew tells that after John baptized Jesus, a voice from heaven said,
This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased”
Matthew 3:17
This connection between baptism and God’s voice or word is very important because baptism is always connected with the preaching of the Gospel. One of the final words of the risen Lord to His disciples was that they should continue His preaching and teaching ministry:
Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. And when they say Him they worshiped Him; but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age.
Matthew 28:16-20
In other words, Jesus first taught His disciples and then expected them to go out into the world and preach the good news of the Kingdom, baptizing all nations. Baptism was a result of the hearing of the good news; people first heard the word of God and then accepted baptism as recalled in the event between the Apostle Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch, mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles 8:26-40.
The eunuch responded to Philip’s teaching in faith and was baptized as an affirmation of this faith. Unfortunately, many people today treat baptism as a social or cultural event rather than an entrance into the community of faith. This entrance requires that we accept baptism as a remission of since but also as entrance into Christs death. According to Apostle Paul, baptism is the acceptance of the death of Christ so that we can walk in newness of life:
What shall we say them? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? We were buried therefore with Him by baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too may walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with Him in a death like His, we shall certainly be united with Him in a resurrection like His. We know that our old self was crucified with Him so that the sinful body might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin. For He who died is freed from sin. But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him. For we know that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again; death no longer has dominion over Him. The death He died He died to sin, once for all, but the life He lives He lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
Romans 6:1-11. (See also Colossians 2:9-15, 1 Peter 3:18-22, Galatians 2:25-28)
We are called to live this new life out in our daily routines of work, study and family. During the Feast of Epiphany, as we commemorate Jesus’ own baptism, we reaffirm our baptism and sanctification as we continue to thank God for all He has done and continues to do for us. At our baptism, we were given a cross to wear around our necks as a constant reminder of our Christian witness to Christ’s own death and resurrection. As we follow our daily life in this busy and often tiresome world, may we never forget this great gift that has been given to us.
May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
Your brother in Christ Jesus
Jobin George
