Epiphany 2014

Jan 5, 2014 by

By Andrew Symes

In the last few months I have met a number of Iranian Christians in England. They have almost all ended up here because of persecution in their home country. Some were Christian believers in Iran, and finding it increasingly difficult to survive in a land where the church is under increasing restrictions from the state. Others were Muslim, but have felt complete disillusion with the petty puritan legalism associated with Islam in that country and much of the world. One man told me of the ban on any kind of social or romantic interaction between boys and girls in Iran in the 1990’s. He had a “girlfriend” – and we are talking about holding hands while having a cup of tea together in a café, not sleeping together – and for that he was beaten up and his life threatened. Unable to tolerate the restrictions on freedom, he made his way to Europe, illegally entering Romania, Greece and through to France, getting piece jobs on the way, and finally arriving in Britain where he was held in a detention centre while his asylum application was processed.

This man, Mohammad, heard about Jesus first in Iran, and then again on his travels. In despair in the detention centre, he prayed “Lord if I can be free, I will serve you”. More than 10 years ago he was given leave to stay in Britain, and since then this cultured, educated man has worked in IT and served as a pastor in an Iranian church. He is now studying at a theological college.

At this time of year we remember the Magi from the East who came to worship Jesus. Because of the association with the star over Bethlehem which they followed, many have speculated that they were Zoroastrian priests, pagan shaman steeped in occult astrology, almost certainly from Persia or modern day Iran. The coming of the Magi is full of missiological significance. The Persian emperor Cyrus had defeated the Babylonians at the end of the 6th century bc, allowing the exiled Jews to return and paving the way for the rebuilding of city and temple. At the Epiphany, representatives of the descendants of those powerful pagan idolators are no longer arrogantly determining the fate of God’s people from their thrones and temples, but coming humbly to a Palestinian village, worshipping the Jewish baby, recognizing him as “King”. The prophet Isaiah records God’s promise given centuries earlier that it would be too small a thing for Israel to be saved: God’s intention was for salvation to extend to the farthest lands (49:6), and that nations and their kings would come to the brightness of Zion’s dawn (60:3 – the origin of the “three Kings” idea).

Epiphany is the celebration of the time that God chose to reveal his Son to the world, and those who witnessed it were of another faith, from Iran. More than two thousand years later wise men and women from Iran are still making the hard journey to find Christ and worship him – some literally, as they come to faith as refugees in Manchester, Brighton and Oxford, others as they stay in Iran but make the journey of faith internally. As at the time of Jesus, the locals knew of God and had access to his words, but when the living Word came they did not recognize him and made him stay in the barn; their king tried to kill him. So today, many people living in a country with easy access to the Christian message and freedom to worship are either ignorant of Christ, cannot believe in him or despise him and his followers. Meanwhile those from repressive regimes in the East continue to seek Him.

Titus says “the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people” (2:11). Christ has appeared for the sake of all, and we are seeing evidence that people from all racial cultural and religious backgrounds are responding to Him in faith. But this does not mean an easy-going universalism which claims that Christ blesses everyone and leaves them where they are. We cannot say, to paraphrase the Girl Guides, “follow your own star – every journey is valid”. Instead, Titus goes to say that the now visible grace of God “teaches us to say ‘no’ to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives…eager to do what is good” (2:12,14) while we wait for the second Epiphany, the appearing of the glory of Christ (2:13). Would the Magi have bothered to make the journey to Bethlehem if they could find salvation in their home religion? Was it necessary for Christ to come at all if we can find the truth through ‘facilitated conversations’? The Gospel account of the Epiphany says instead that before the real Christ, like the Magi, we can only humbly bow in worship and submission, offer our gifts and lives in service, and be transformed by the renewing of our minds.

 

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