In case your church calendar is covered up by discarded wrapping paper or New Year’s confetti, can I remind you January 6th is Epiphany?
No shame if you think, “Epipha-what-now?” In most of our church traditions, Epiphany is the shy middle child of holy days, sitting quietly in a corner between loud, first born Christmas and favored baby Easter.
But for those of us who love Muslims and love the God who desires life for them and merits their deepest loyalty, Epiphany rocks.
It celebrates, as you may know, the revelation of Messiah Jesus to the Gentiles (Which is super good news for most of us!). While some eastern traditions pin Epiphany to Jesus’s baptism, which is cool, most of us associate it with the Magi from the East finding and worshiping Jesus.
Talking about this at youth group last night, my super smart wife said the Magi, “Traveled great distance at great cost with great expectation.”
I love that.
It inspires a two-fold hope in me:
- That Muslims, including those who now live on the dirt from which the Magi journeyed, will find Jesus to be so compelling they’ll go great distances (of all sorts) and pay great costs (of all kinds) in order to bow before him.
- That you and I, and many others, would go great distances at great cost, empowered by the great expectation that Jesus came to bring abundant life to Muslims and God desires to be followed by some from every Muslim people group.
Of course I don’t know what that specifically means for you. Heck, I often feel clueless about what it means for me! But as I write, I’m praying God will show us and give us grace and courage. None of us are as wise as we wish, but Jesus is worth the cost and the journey.