Epiphany I

 
O LORD, we beseech thee mercifully to receive the prayers of thy people 
who call upon thee; and grant that they may both perceive and know what things
 they ought to do, and also may have grace and power faithfully to fulfil the same; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
(Collect Ep. I)
 
In Christmas Tide, we directed our mind’s eye to the new birth of Jesus Christ in our hearts and souls. Now in Epiphany Tide, our eyes are opening as Christ the Light enlightens us to the character of the new life which God desires for us. Epiphany comes to us from the Greek word epiphaneia, and it means manifestation, revelation, or shining forth. In the East, Epiphany is called Theophany, meaning the vision of God. So, this season is all about contemplating the Light of God, which is the manifestation or shining forth of His vision for us in Jesus Christ. In Christ the Light, then, we are called to discover the pattern for human life that promises to redeem and save us. 
         
On the feast of Epiphany, the vision of God in Jesus Christ was revealed to Gentile Magi, or Wise Men from the East. Today, we find Him in the Temple at Jerusalem. We know nothing of the period between Jesus’ infancy and His sudden appearance in the Temple at the age of twelve, and then between today’s manifestation and the beginning of His adult ministry. St. Luke, alone, chooses to record a singular event from Jesus’ childhood. Yet, what is revealed and shines forth today is an epiphany that helps us to follow Jesus back to His Father’s Kingdom. Today’s revelation teaches us about the need for a youthful preoccupation with the business of our Heavenly Father.
         
So we read that Jesus’ 

parents went to Jerusalem every year at the feast of the Passover. And when He was twelve years old, they went up to Jerusalem after the custom of the feast. And when they had fulfilled the days, as they returned, the child Jesus tarried behind in Jerusalem; and Joseph and his mother knew not of it. (St. Luke ii. 41-43) 
 
St. Luke is in the habit of identifying Joseph by his first name since he was the foster father but not natural father of Jesus. Jesus’ natural Father is God. The Holy Family had traveled up to Jerusalem for the Feast of Passover. When they began to make their journey home, Joseph and Mary did not realize that Jesus was missing. Ancient Jewish families traveled as a tribe and thus the entourage would have been large. The adults often entrusted their young ones to older cousins and friends as they traveled. So, as Mary and Joseph traveled home with the adults, they trusted that Jesus was with the extended family.

Joseph and Mary thought that they knew where Jesus was. But, as we know, it turns out that they did not. They did not know where he was physically. As it turns out, they did not know where he was spiritually either.  Where someone is spiritually is of utmost importance in revealing and shining forth to us the state of Jesus’ soul and the character of His spirit. Joseph and Mary did not yet understand where Jesus Christ must always be inwardly and spiritually.
         
A whole day passed before Mary and Joseph realized Jesus’ absence. We read: But they, supposing Him to have been in the company, went a day’s journey; and they sought Him among their kinsfolk and acquaintance.  And when they found Him not, they turned back again to Jerusalem, seeking Him. (Ibid, 44,45) Jesus’ parents were concerned about His physical whereabouts. Perhaps He had been attacked, beaten, hurt, or wounded. Perhaps He had managed to get Himself lost. Surely if their Son was to be great…called the Son of the Highest…the heir of…the throne of His father David (St. Luke i. 32), they could not afford to lose Him. But then again, if they had had more faith and trust in God, they wouldn’t have worried.
         
As we learn, Jesus, even at the tender age of 12, was not lost. Mary and Joseph returned to Jerusalem and spent three days trying to find their child. Evidently, they were looking in the wrong places. They did not know His whereabouts, because they had not discerned who Jesus is and where He is always spiritually. Finally, after three days they found Him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors, both hearing them, and asking them questions. And all that heard Him were astonished at His understanding and answers. (Idem, 46, 47) Jesus was where a young Jewish boy who was searching for God’s will would be. But Jesus was far more conscientious than most boys his age would have been. After all, He would be called the Son of the Most High. (Idem)To learn of His great vocation, He humbled Himself before the rabbis and theologians in the temple in order to discover His future mission and ministry. He would listen. But he would also question. They would be astounded at the wisdom and stature that informed His character. In Christ, the Doctors of the Temple began to see where this unknown boy from an obscure family and insignificant village dwelt truly and spiritually.
         
The doctors were fascinated with his questions. Mary and Joseph were amazed to find their son with them, but their astonishment did not quell their frustration. Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us? Behold, thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing. (Ibid, 48) Mary and Joseph did not understand that where He was physically was all-important for where He is always spiritually. He chastises them gently but firmly. How is it that ye sought me? Wist ye not that I must be about my Father’s business? (Ibid, 49) In other words, Why were you seeking me? Did you not know that I must be involved with my Heavenly Father’s business first and foremost? Joseph and Mary understood not the word, which He spake to them. (Ibid, 50: Wycliffe) They who were willing to entrust Him to the care of His cousins could not entrust Him to the care of God. And He went down with them, and came to Nazareth, and was subject unto them: but His mother kept all these sayings in her heart. And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man. (Ibid, 51,52)
         
Who is Jesus? Where is Jesus? And where are we in relation to Him? Jesus is always about His Father's business. Where is He physically? is the wrong question to ask. His question to the Doctors of the Temple and to us is: Where are you spiritually? The same question was implied in His answer to His mother: Why did you seek me? For you should know where I am at all times and for eternity! That His parents did not understand His answer is part and parcel of every man’s need to discover who Jesus is and where we ought to find Him. Wherever He is, Jesus is always with our Heavenly Father. Jesus doesn’t move; we do! He is where He has always been, with the Father and doing the Father’s work. He was with God from before all beginnings, as the Creative Word through whom all things were made. (St. John i. 3) He was with God from the moment of conception until His Ascension to the Father, disclosing the Father’s will as the Redemptive Word made Flesh busily working out our salvation. He is with God today in our Gospel lesson, preferring to entrust His life to our Heavenly Father’s business rather than to hurry back to meet the expectations of His earthly parents. He longs for us to see that where He is reveals who He is. (St. John xiv. 3)
         
So where are we spiritually today? Have we left Jesus behind, or have we lost Him? We cannot have lost Him if we have never found Him! And we can never find Him if we are not seeking and searching for Him, like Mary and Joseph. An acquaintance recently told me that he did not get much out of the Christian religion. I responded: How could you? You have never looked for God, let alone His Son, Jesus Christ! You are too busy with other business! If you seek and search for Truth, you will find it. If you look, you will discover that Jesus Christ is the Epiphany of God, the Way, the Truth, and the Life. In Jesus, you will find an Epiphany of the way back to God, and the truth of who He is by the life He leads. In the human life of God’s own Son, we find an Epiphany of the Man who is caught up in His Father’s business for the salvation of all others!
Oswald Chambers asks: 

Are you so identified with the Lord’s life that you are simply a child of God, continually talking to Him and realizing that all things come from His hands? Is the Eternal Child in you living in the Father’s house? Are the graces of His ministering life working out through you in your home, in your business, in your domestic circle? (My Utmost: Aug. 7) 
 
Christ wants us to search for God to discover that we are His children. Christ wants the Father’s Business to become our business! Christ wants our chief occupation to be taken up with God and His desire to bring us back to Himself forever!
         
Dear friends, today let us see that the business of the young Jesus at the Temple in Jerusalem is His relationship with the Father. Jesus wants us to join Him in a youthful contemplation, study, and interrogation of God. Our Father’s business is our salvation. It requires being transformed by the renewing of our minds to find in Christ what is that good, acceptable, and perfect will of God (Romans, xii. 2) for us. The twelve-year-old Christ, who refused to be conformed to this world (idem), is the model and pattern for the life we are to lead. This Epiphany, let us embrace His youthful disposition and habit, that where He is, we might be also. (St. John xiv. 3)  
Amen.
©wjsmartin