We Who Sat in Darkness Have Seen a Great Light

Epiphany and the Mission of God

Epiphanytide is fundamentally about evangelism. It is about evangelism because it is about light. The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ marks this luminous reality. Just as the first creation was inaugurated by a shadow-scattering word, in like manner the new creation derives from the invincible Word, the Logos, who is also Light. In the beginning, there was no life without light, and indeed, there never could be. Light is the primal source of all creaturely being, and the first pronounced “good” from which all other goods flow.

So in the fullness of time, God shined upon this tired earth in the Person of His Son. The God who is Light, sent forth His Beloved—the uncreated brightness of Divine Glory—as the Light of the World. And the darkness cannot comprehend such dazzling radiance. 

In Him was life, and that life was the light of men. We who sat in darkness have seen this great Light. When we languished under the shadow of deep darkness, Light dawned over a sleepy Palestinian hamlet. A star rose over Bethlehem, and wise men made a famous journey to find the hand that hung the fiery orb in the heavens. This early light was the first flicker of Easter. Epiphany now seems a dim sight when compared to the dazzling effulgence when the Sun of Righteousness arose with healing in His wings.

As one might expect, such Light illumines everything it touches. Though it is true that, like John, we are not that Light, we bear witness to that Light by being a torch lit by Christ’s own glorious incandescence. Once the Daystar has arisen in our hearts, we become burning and shining lamps; lesser lights to rule the night until the final day dawns.

Who is she that looketh forth as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners? She is the Church, that shining city on a hill. It is given to her to be the beacon of life in a world veiled in the darkness of death. And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars forever and ever.