Epiphany is a season of growth represented by the color green which is a fitting way to train the Christian to see this season as a paradigm for discipleship. There is—I believe—a case to be made that different phases of Church life offer us different ways of growing in the faith. But Epiphany clearly establishes a pattern for discipleship. When we consider the gifts of the magi in light of the overwhelming biblical data, we can develop a model of discipleship that is both biblical and practical.
Training our Bodies
Our evangelical churches stress the importance of discipleship. It is good and necessary. But discipleship in broader evangelicalism is often discussed in the context of intellectual learning; a fact-finding mission. I propose there is more to discipleship than facts. Discipleship in the Bible is also the cultivation of bodily postures and biblical manners. The Bible trains us to move and live and to have our being in God. Any model of discipleship that does not include learning to kneel, raise hands, eat, sing, bless, receive, give, sit, stand is dishonoring biblical discipleship. When we formulate discipleship curriculum without incorporating common biblical rituals, we are secularizing biblical formation and turning it into an encyclopedic course fit for the Bible trivia team.
But discipleship is for the little babies and every person whom Jesus claims as his own. If we see discipleship as training in worship, then bodily actions make sense. This is the common thread of the Psalter and other prophetic writings.
Epiphany is training in bodily postures because worship demands our bodies as well as our souls. We have too often looked at worship as only an exercise in listening and gathering data. We want to listen; we want our children to listen and to learn facts about God, but more than that our goal in discipling our children and one another is to worship through bodily habits that form them into God-honoring saints.
Epiphany is the basis of discipleship training.
In the famous Epiphany text in Matthew 2, the magi reacted to the newborn king—to bow and worship him echoing the Psalter, “Come, let us worship and bow down and kneel before the Lord our Maker.” Yes, they were bowing down before the little babe who was also their creator.
Epiphany trains our bodies to worship. Our bodily engagement and participation on the Lord’s Day combined with our actions throughout the week are reflections of how much we desire to grow in our faith. One cannot minimize the bodily implications of the Gospel.
Training our Gifts
But Epiphany also trains us in gift giving.
The prophecy of Isaiah says that “And all from Sheba will come, bearing gold and incense and proclaiming the praise of the Lord.” Matthew says that “Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.” Worship leads to giving.
Epiphany is Discipleship Training. And this training always includes our gifts to God. The gold of the magi represented their possessions.a The gold is the fruit of our labors. The reason you are recompensed for your labors is because God is discipling you through it. Discipleship is tested in how you are using God’s gifts. Our possessions are training us. If our possessions own our affections we are being deformed, un-discipled; but if our affections control our possessions and dispense of it accordingly in charity and self-giving hospitality, we are being formed by our possessions.
Notice also that the magi brought frankincense which is a perfume. The Bible says we are the aroma of God to the world. Our lives offer a new fragrance to our environment. Remember the Christmas carol:
This Flower, whose fragrance tender
With sweetness fills the air, Dispels with glorious splendor
The darkness everywhere.
Does your presence dispel darkness everywhere? Do you bring a fresh hope to those around you? Are you a gift to your community? If our calling is to disciple the nations, how are we discipling those around us with our presence and gifts? When we ask, “What is the chief end of man?” we have to fight hard to say “To Glorify God and to enjoy him forever,” because deep inside we want to say: “To keep everything to ourselves forever; to delight in me forever; to have everyone leave me alone forever.” The problem with glorifying God is that it pushes us to invest and make someone’s life more beautiful than it was before they saw you or met you.
Finally, the frankincense was the magi’s way of saying: “This perfume is like our service to you.” It’s a display of the kind of human being we want to be in the presence of our King. Paul echoing the sacrifice language of Leviticus 1 can say in Ephesians 5:
And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma.
Epiphany is discipleship training…in worship and gift.
The final one of these gifts is myrrh which is an oil. Oil is one of the richest biblical symbols in the Bible.
Anytime someone is sick or in desperate need or facing an uncertain future, they can call the elders and the elders anoint them with oil (James 5). We use oil for food because it contributes flavor and texture. Oil is used in the Bible as a sign of abundance, as the Psalmist says. Kings are anointed with oil. God has anointed us with oil. The last gift of the magi is a gift of abundant life. We need to school our imagination by seeing discipleship more than biblical data, but biblical living. Jesus did not come so that we would know more facts about him. Jesus came so that we would be rightly discipled in his kingdom.
Even the color of Epiphany communicates that. It’s green for nurture, life, and vibrancy. The reason Epiphany exists is to teach you the truth that discipleship is best served through worship and gift.
Discipleship is the art of growing in Christian godliness. And Epiphany is the Church’s New Year exhortation to worship and to give. To quote Jamie Smith: “It isn’t just a matter of information; it’s a matter of habit-formation.” It’s the impulse to be better husbands, better wives, better sons, better daughters not because it will make people like you, but because it will make you better humans and disciples of our true King, Jesus Christ.
- Calvin—though more skeptical than I about giving symbolic meaning to these gifts—asserts that the gold speaks to the “production of the soil.” He is right. (back)
