This word has become quite emotionally charged. Thanks to trends within English-speaking Christian communities for the past two hundred years it has become synonymous with visions and events of the end of the age, of wide-ranging disaster of Biblical proportion, and a feeling of dread and foreboding. This is not nor should it be the primary thing that comes to mind..
Revelation is merely revealing, making known, uncovering, demonstrating, and a whole host of other words that show the act of moving something from unknown to known. The Feast of the Epiphany, the final jewel in the crown of the Christmas season, is precisely about that very thing. The old hymn for Vespers for the Epiphany shows this very thing, commemorating three events central to the Feast:
The visit of the Magi, prompted by an extraordinary astronomical event.
The Baptism of Our Lord in the Jordan River by John the Baptist
The changing of water into wine at the wedding party at Cana.
All of these speak about revealing something. With the Magi, God reveals to non-Israelites that He has come into the world to effect great change. With the changing of the water into wine, God has shown that this Jesus is more than He appears and has command over physical elements. Finally, as noted in today's Gospel passage (which you may read by clicking here), Jesus, to "fulfil all righteousness," (Mt. 3.15) came to His cousin John the Baptist to receive baptism, and with that act received confirmation of His status with the other two Persons of the Holy Trinity bearing witness before all present.
These revelations from God, witnessed by regular people, have over the centuries perhaps lost their immediacy. In fact, many challenge their veracity, but for those who receive these revelations in faith, who believe even though they have not seen, (Jn. 20.29), these revelations are powerful indicators that God indeed took flesh and dwelt among us, for the sole purpose of reconciling us in our estrangement from God and to participate in His life. God, Who was basically unknown to us, has made Himself known to us, and we celebrate that this week.
Comments