Two Epiphanies
January 6 was a big deal. Both of them.
I’m with those who regard what happened on January 6, 2021, as highly significant. It was an epiphany of sorts. The word epiphany means unveiling, revelation, manifestation. January 6 unveiled several things: the true character of our past and upcoming president, the moral fiber of the current Republican Party, the actual colors of some – not all – people who claim Jesus as the Lord of their lives, the spiritual and mental health of our country, and our tenuous relationship to facts and truth. The peaceful transfer of power that occurred in the House of Representatives this week Monday contrasts so dramatically with the events that happened on January 6, 2021, it’s become clear that our country is being governed not by two parties, but by one very ordinary political party and something else that resembles a cult, at least at a national level. I’m not saying that everyone who voted for Donald Trump is a part of this cult. I suspect that most didn’t know what they were doing, just as many don’t know, or refuse to know, what happened on January 6, 2021. I invite you to read this and this to refresh your memory.
Hitler rose to power legally. In January 1933, President Paul von Hindenburg appointed Hitler chancellor. He had the active support of the influential German officer class and of millions of everyday citizens who voted for the National Socialist German Workers’ (Nazi) Party and hailed him as a national savior in gigantic stadium rallies. Hitler promised to make Germany great again.
I suppose Hitler is fresh on my mind because of a beautifully crafted movie Sharon and I saw last night. It’s called White Bird. It's on Amazon Prime. It’s very good.
Yes, what happened on January 6, 2021 was a big deal. Two Republican congressional representatives sacrificed their careers to join Democrats in discerning the facts of what happened. If you watched the January 6 hearings, you know there is little to no doubt about those facts. Almost all the testimony came from Republicans, most of them supporters of Donald Trump. No one knows what the next four years will bring, except almost certainly a lot of chaos. Some people think that’s good. Others of us believe the chaos could put at risk the security of our nation, the world, the lives of millions of vulnerable people, and the health of our current economy.
However, as significant as January 6, 2021 was, I want to highlight the other January 6. January 6 is Epiphany in the church’s calendar, marking the unveiling that ultimately matters: the unveiling to the nations of Jesus Christ as King of kings and Lord of lords. That January 6 is a religious holy day is deceptive. Many people regard Jesus as, at best, a religious or spiritual leader or moral teacher. The word “king” seems overstated and anachronistic. After all, we don’t have kings in this country, and most of us don’t want one. In what universe would Jesus be regarded as a king over every kind of ruler? Look around! If Jesus was Lord of lords or President of presidents, why would he allow people like Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping, not to mention the Hitlers, Stalins, and Neros of history, to have their way? Would Donald Trump have been reelected?
Epiphany doesn’t hide from that question. The biblical story connected to Epiphany is the account of the Magi who traveled what may have been 900 miles to worship or bow before Jesus. Historians have come to call the Jewish king in power at that time Herod the Great, mainly because of his architectural and economic accomplishments. Herod was also treacherously paranoid, even having his two favorite sons executed. He was so narcissistic that when he was on his deathbed, he commanded that many influential Jews be executed so that people would be weeping when he died.
So when the Magi showed up in Jerusalem asking where the new Judean king had been born, Herod was understandably upset. Fast-forward a days or weeks. When Herod realized that the Magi were not going to report back to him, as he'd asked, he had all the boys two years old and younger killed in Bethlehem just in case one of them might be a messiah or king. So how does a ruler who was probably in his mid 60s come to feel threatened by a mere toddler?
More importantly, what difference does it make that Jesus is King if people like Herod and Trump can get away with upending people’s lives at will? If Jesus can’t or won’t stop the carnage happening in Gaza, Ukraine, or Sudan and didn’t prevent 50 million people from dying during World War II, including 6 million Jews who were shot or gassed and incinerated in concentration camps, what good is he as a king?
As I said, the Bible doesn’t shy away from such questions. Pulitzer Prize winner Marilyn Robinson says at the beginning of her recent book, Reading Genesis, that the entire Bible is a theodicy – i.e. a book that explores how suffering and evil can exist if the world was created by an all-powerful, all-loving, all-wise God, and how this good God relates to suffering and evil now that they exist.
My goal is to comprehensively address that question in this post. Just kidding. But there are a couple of things I can say.
According to Genesis 1, suffering and evil are possible because of God’s goodness. We learn in this account of creation that one characteristic of God’s goodness is his generosity and extravagance. We see this not only in the incredible diversity, beauty, and fecundity of the natural world, but in the freedom and agency he gives human beings. We’re told in Genesis 1 that God created humankind in his own image and likeness. In the ancient Near East, that description only applied to kings and sometimes priests. This democratization of God’s image and call to reign was unprecedented in ancient cultures.
What all this means is that God is generous in sharing power with his human image-bearers. Instead of being paranoid and protective of his power like the Herods and Hitlers of history, God generously shares his power, agency, and freedom despite the risks and what he no doubt knew would be the cost, including to himself.
Like undergoing a Roman crucifixion.
No matter what one thinks about Jesus being a king, much less the King of kings, nothing and no one compares to Jesus’ impact on human history, for good and for ill. Some of his screwball followers were part of the riot that turned into an insurrection on the epiphany that happened on January 6, 2021. If you would’ve asked them, they would’ve said they were there because of Jesus. Unfortunately, they’d drunk the MAGA Kool-Aid and were out of their minds. Whatever Jesus they were following, it wasn’t the Jesus of that original Epiphany. Not even close.
What happened on January 6, 2021 was bizarre. Trump’s reelection is also bizarre. But here we are. I’ll admit that the original Epiphany's story is also pretty strange. Magi were part of the priestly caste in ancient Persia and were leading figures in the religious court life of their country, employing a variety of scientific (astrology), diplomatic (wisdom), and religious (magical incantations) means to try to understand present and future life. (All of which were forbidden practices for Jews.) Why they would leave their royal court to pay their respects to a newborn future king in a land 900 miles away is beyond my imaginative or intuitive powers. Granted, as the Roman historian Suetonius reports, “Throughout the whole of the East, there had spread an old and persistent belief: destiny had decreed that at that time men coming forth from Judea would seize power [and rule the world].” But why travel 900 miles to worship a potential future enemy?
And we haven’t even gotten to the star yet. To be fair, almost all the Christians I know have gotten this part of the story at least partly wrong. The typical retelling of the story has these Magi following a star from their homeland all the way to Bethlehem. But that’s not what the Bible says. (Just as the Bible doesn’t tell us the number of Magi – the Eastern Orthodox tradition, for example, claims there were 12.) Matthew writes this: ‘Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, ‘Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.’” This text tells us that the Magi saw the star when it rose, not that they followed the star. That would explain why the Magi went to Jerusalem rather than directly to Bethlehem. They assumed that if a new Judean king had been born, the child would either be in Jerusalem or people in Jerusalem would know where to find him. But after the magi learned from biblical scholars in Jerusalem that the Messiah was supposed to be born in Bethlehem,
... they went on their way, and the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were overjoyed.
So they were overjoyed to see the star they had last seen when it rose – not a star they had followed to Jerusalem. That’s not to say this last 6 miles of their journey isn’t just as hard to explain: whatever they saw moved this time and led them to where Jesus’ family was staying. (Though only Mary and Jesus seem to have been at home. Was Joseph out on a construction job?)
Whatever happened or didn’t happen, this story is intended to tell us at least a couple of things. First, the “unveiling” (Epiphany) or good news (Gospel) of Jesus’ kingship and kingdom is for everyone. This gospel isn’t just for Jews or even those who go by the label of Christian. As absurd as it sounds, Jesus came to make everything right again for all people and all nations, even for all creation.
Second, God intends to use unconventional means to establish his kingdom. He won’t bulldoze his way into people’s hearts or the lives of nations. He’s not even going to go through the typical political or even religious channels or establish any political government. Not only does the holy family not have any kind of bodyguard, when Jesus becomes an adult, he recruits disciples rather than paramilitary members. He told his students to love their enemies rather than knife them. Jesus made clear to his followers several times how his time on earth would end and that he would rise again. Oh, and he said anyone who wanted to follow him would need to take up their cross and follow him.
This latter statement shows how difficult Jesus could be to understand at times. He spoke in parables: short stories, metaphors, and pithy, hyperbolic riddles. Sometimes, he explained his parables to his closest followers, but he often left them on their own to ponder their meaning. Virtually all of his parables were about what he called the kingdom of God, which was basically God’s master plan to heal and restore everything, and about how to live until that happened.
Jesus demonstrated what this new world would look like by performing a variety of miracles. Most were healings, including healing the blind, deaf, leprous, and paralyzed. He raised the dead on several occasions. He walked on water, calmed storms, and, on two occasions, fed thousands of people with a few loaves and fish. Ironically, he also resisted people’s attempts to make him king.
Except for one person: Pilate, the Roman governor. All four gospel writers point to Jesus’ crucifixion as his coronation. When Pilate reluctantly agreed to the demand of Jewish leaders that Jesus be crucified, he decided to ridicule both Jesus and his accusers by having a sign posted at the top of Jesus’ cross that said, “Jesus of Nazareth, king of the Jews.” What he didn’t know was that he was signing the death warrant of the Roman Empire.
Even though the church was likely still extremely small until the end of the first century, tiny house churches, inspired by the example of Jesus and filled with his Spirit, showed humble, self-sacrificing love towards the poor and the sick. They cared for abandoned pagans during times of plague when family members had left town. They rescued newborn children (primarily girls) out of street gutters and provided them with homes. They created communities where women like Priscilla could be pastors and like Julia become apostles, and where widows and orphans were welcomed into a new Family. At the same time, these Christians claimed that the one they served had more authority than the Roman Emperor and would someday return to complete what he and his followers had begun. They worshiped on Sunday, the day of Jesus’ resurrection, to celebrate Jesus' victory over death and what that promised for their own futures.
Rome didn't have a chance.
So, yes, Jesus is Lord. The best kind. As Jesus said, the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. I suspect that I’m wired to be a theologian. I’ve been wrestling with theological issues and problems since second grade. But instead of just thinking about the meaning of Jesus’ birth, ministry, death, and resurrection the last couple of days, I’ve simply tried to bask in the wonder and glory of these events. The Magi knew hardly anything about Jesus and went to incredible lengths to honor what little they knew about him. A person doesn’t have to believe all these things are true to wonder if they might be true, and what it would mean if they were.
Anyway, I’ll take the possibility of a resurrection over an insurrection any day.
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