Epiphany: Jesus Revealed for All
And when Jesus was baptized… he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”
(Matt 3:16-17)
Think about the tension that engulfs the population on the day of elections: who win the vote? Who will be our President? Or our Member of Parliament? The media is always on the lookout trying to draw patterns from polls and incoming results. Whether in the US, UK or in DRC or at home in Uganda, all eyes and ears are always on that Electoral Commission Chairman who is responsible for announcing the result and declaring the elected winner. Such tension also engulfed the Church as we waited to know who the next Archbishop of Uganda would be. A much bigger tension was experienced by the Israelites for a long time as they waited for the fulfillment of the promise of a Messiah, as written in the Law and the Prophets.
The announcement we find in Matt 3:17 took the nation by surprise. It is preceded by a dramatic dialogue between a hesitant John and an insistent Jesus; it could be at this point that John announced to his attentive congregation, ‘Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!’ Then after the Baptism, the Spirit of God descended like a dove and rested on Jesus – a special anointing that no other had received after Baptism; and then a thundering voice from heaven announced: ‘This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.’ That the record of these things was preserved for generations to come is worth celebrating. Even in this way, God revealed His salvation – the Messiah. Epiphany is a season of celebrating the manifestation of the Saviour Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, especially as depicted in the story of the Magi from the East in Matthew 2. By extension however, we more so celebrate the revelation of Jesus Christ to the world.
Unfortunately, even after many episodes of revealing Jesus Christ as Messiah, still many Jews and Gentiles did not believe in Him. Today many need the revelation, and we do well as evangelists to lay bare the message of the gospel so that they may believe who hear and put their trust in Him; but there are some who hear and reject the message! In the just concluded Fusion Youth Camp under the theme ‘Divergent: Walking with God against the Tide of Contemporary Culture’, we saw how those who did not come to God’s salvation provision (the Ark) perished in the flood. This was a warning for us too. As you recall the God’s announcement about the Lord Jesus Christ, how do you respond? In His immense love, God has extended salvation to the entire world – ‘whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life’. Determine to celebrate this revelation with a Renewed Zeal for Gospel Ministry this year.
God bless you all. Happy New Year!