EPIPHANY: THE SEASON OF THE REALLY REAL

By James Wilson

            I was visiting two patients at the hospital.  The young man took a bad fall while working at a construction site, landed on his head, and was paralyzed from the shoulders down.  He and his father were waiting for my arrival and his transport to x-ray; the dad asked me what I intended to do.  At that moment – in my heart and in my mind – I knew that I knew that I could pray all day and God was not going to heal this young man; paralysis was the hand he’d been dealt.  Even so I told the father we would pray with authority – as though we possessed the power to heal that God delegates but over which He remains sovereign.  We commanded reversal of the injury process in the Name of Jesus and – after about a ten-minute delay – the young man got up and walked out of the hospital.  At the same time I could literally hear God laughing as He told me He did not care what I knew or thought or felt; He cared only about what I did in His Name.  It was what we call an Epiphany moment.

            The other patient I visited had diabetes.  I had prayed for her many times with no visible result; I had asked her several times if she was willing to accept Jesus as her Lord and she had always politely declined.  She was in the hospital because she had gone blind – a common side effect of her disease.  When I prayed for restoration of her sight – with more confidence this time – her healing was instantaneous.  As we rejoiced together she accepted my invitation to accept Jesus as her Lord.  When I returned to the area six months later the first inquiry I made was about her – had the Lord continued her healing and released her from the diabetes?  I was shocked and a bit peeved at the Lord when her pastor informed me she had died of complications from diabetes.  When I went to the Lord about it He said, “I gave her back her sight; she gave me her heart; now she is at home with me.  Any questions?”  It was an Epiphany moment stretched over six months.

            Epiphany is a traditional Christian season that begins January 6 and ends with a movable occasion, Ash Wednesday.  The word means to manifest or show forth.  It is closely associated with three events in Jesus’ earthly life: His own baptism; the Wedding at Cana; and the coming of the Wise Men.  In the baptism, the Holy Spirit speaks for all to hear the pleasure God takes in announcing His Son; the Son’s credentials are authenticated, per Luke 3:21-22.  In the wedding – when Jesus turns water into wine – He manifests both His concern and His unlimited ability to provide for His people, per John 2:1-11.  And in the visit from the Wise Men – pagan astrologers from Arabia who travel vast distances to honor the Christ of God – He shows forth His capacity to draw all men to Himself.

            The Epiphany moments I describe manifest the reality that my contribution to the life He provides is in obedience, not understanding, as illustrated through the healing of the paralyzed man.  In the matter of the blind diabetic who went home He simply demonstrates once again His sovereignty in all things – and the reality that whenever we obey and accept His authority it always ends well for all concerned – one way or another.  And the fact that He actually speaks to His people in words we can comprehend shows forth the simple reality that the God who created human bodies knows best how to heal them, and the Lord who invented speech knows how best to employ it for good.

            Let’s be clear that the Epiphany season is the season of what my wife, Diana, calls the “really real” stuff.  If God did not really manifest Himself the ways the stories say they have no value whatever.  If He does not literally turn water to wine or re-constitute a failed ocular system – eyesight – then these stories in no way illustrate His provision – or any human potentiality.  If He does it the illustrative qualities abound – but only if He does.  Alternative theories that the Word of God consists of pious yet uplifting legends offer nothing but a false and narcotic sense of peace and wellbeing that is shattered by reality.  But the really real truth of God shatters the shadows that portray themselves as reality.  And all we need bring to the table is a choice – not a feeling – to believe and obey God.