Epiph24.   Isaiah 60:1-6.   The prophet is calling upon the first captives who had relatively recently been released from captivity in Babylonia to envision the spectacularly glorious work that the almighty God is performing for them in rebuilding Jerusalem.  What was before the intense darkness of Jerusalem which had been crushed in defeat and all but the most miserable of its inhabitants taken away into slavery was then in the process of being reconstituted as a city and a people by which nations would walk in its shining radiance.

Matthew 2:1-12.   In King Herod the forces of darkness challenge the glorious power of God’s light.  King Herod was so terrified that he could possibly lose power that he previously even had his own wife and sons murdered.  Seeking an opportunity to kill “the newborn king of the Jews,” he tells the magi to “bring me word, that I too may go and do him homage.”  John 1:4-5 says, “Through him was life, and this life was the light of the human race; the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”  In giving the gold, frankincense and myrrh, the magi and through them all humanity that is open to God, show and recognize Jesus as God’s gift.

Ephesians 3:2-3a, 5-6.   The mystery “has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit: that the Gentiles are coheirs, members of the same body, and copartners in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.”  The epiphany is the revelation that Jesus is the Messiah or Savior for all peoples in all times and all places.