Photo by Alessandro Bianchi on Unsplash

Dear First Lutheran,

This week we began Epiphany.  An “epiphany” is “a sudden grasp of reality through a strikingly simple event.”  We’ve heard of “Aha” moments … when the “light bulb suddenly comes on.”  That’s an epiphany … an “Aha” moment.  Today we celebrate the “Aha” moment when we realize Jesus, the Son of God, was born not only to save His own people, the Israelites, but also non-Israelites … Gentiles.

God our Father promised a Messiah to save His people.  However, as the years became decades and decades became centuries, this promise seemed to be for nothing.  But God is faithful to His promises.  Including a Messiah to save His people.  God’s Word tells us about many “Aha” moments leading to Jesus’ birth.  There’s Mary living her life, preparing to become the wife of a man named Joseph.  Suddenly, “Aha!” – the angel Gabriel reveals she’s to become mother of the Messiah.  Then, Joseph, Mary’s husband to be, finds out Mary is pregnant with somebody else’s child.  Suddenly, “Aha!” – an angel of the Lord appears saying, “It’s okay … this child is the fulfillment of God’s promise to send the Messiah to save His people from their sin.”

 Then there’s the Magi, Gentiles who aren’t supposed to know God’s Word.  They’re astronomers who look at stars, God’s creation to bring light into the darkness.  God reveals the birth of the Messiah to them also.  Centuries before, while the Jews were exiled in Babylon, it’s possible these Magi’s distant relatives worked for a Jew named Daniel.  Through Daniel, God exposed them to His Word.  Through this Word and a special star God created another “Aha!” — God led these Gentiles to His Son, who came to save not only the Israelites, but all mankind.

Jesus lived, suffered, died, and rose from the dead to pay the price required by sin … death … and to give all who believe new life in Him.  Yet, despite this miraculous turn of events, many still didn’t believe.  One day a man named Saul was traveling to Damascus to persecute those who did believe.  Suddenly he was blinded by the light of Christ.  In yet another “Aha!” – God selected Saul, who we know as Paul, to be His messenger to the Gentiles.  Paul tells us, “Though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God.” (Ephesians 3:8-9) Through Paul, Gentiles, as well as Jews, received the “Aha!” that all, through faith in Christ, are part of God’s family.

It never ceases to amaze me the lengths our Father goes to deliver His promises to His people.  God uses His Word, proclaimed through many surprising people and events to ensure all can be saved by His grace and mercy through His Son.  By the power of the Holy Spirit, we receive His gift of “Aha!” – faith in God’s promises and belief in His Word that we’re saved from the eternal effects of sin.  We’re forgiven.  We receive His gift of eternal life.  What a glorious epiphany this realization of the truth of God’s promise is for each of us.

                                                                                        In Christ,

                                                                                        Pastor Jim