Resurrection Lutheran Church, St Catharines

The Lord chooses strange ways and strange places in which to reveal Himself: as an infant in the arms of His mother, God revealed Himself to the magi from the East (Matthew 2:1-12); in the waters of the Jordan River, God revealed Himself to John the Baptist and those who were there to hear John testify, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! This is He of whom I said, ‘After me comes a man who ranks before me, because He was before me’” (John 1:29-30); also at a wedding where they ran short of wine (John 2:1-11); and even up in Galilee of the Gentiles, a place more influenced by the pagan world than the culture of the people of Israel.

 

We would expect God to reveal Himself in Jerusalem. That is where the magi first went to find Him, but He was not there. We would expect that He would reveal Himself at the temple, but first He went to the Jordan to be baptized. We would expect Him to reveal Himself at one of the great religious festivals like Passover, but His first sign was done at a wedding feast, the significance of which is easily overlooked.

 

So then there is this guy Paul, or rather, Saul as he was known at that time—not one of the twelve whom Jesus hand-picked out of those disciples who had followed Him, heard His teaching, and witnessed His miraculous signs. No, this Saul did not come from that crowd. But the Lord was certainly revealed to countless people of many different nations through this man, this unlikely and strange place of epiphany.

 

In a letter to the Christians in Corinth, Paul acknowledged that he was an outlier, not an expected place to find evidence of the Lord God at work among His people. After listing how the resurrected Lord Jesus had appeared to many of His disciples at many times and in many places, this apostle then says that the Lord’s appearance to him was like an untimely birth, not expected at all (1 Corinthians 15:8), even like a miscarriage or an abortion (strange places for an epiphany).

 

And so it was that some Christians looked upon him at first. Who is this guy? Never mind, we know well enough who he is. He is the one who kills Jesus’ disciples. He is the one who arrests Christians. He is the one who oversees their executions (kind of like those Nazi officers at the Nuremberg trials who claimed that they didn’t kill anyone). Who is this guy coming into our meetings, preaching the name of Jesus on his lips, writing letters to us as if he has any kind of authority? How can we believe that the Lord Jesus would reveal anything about Himself in this man?

 

Ah, but isn’t that the way that the Lord Jesus does reveal Himself?-in strange ways and in strange places, unexpected, and even unworthy places: the arms of a young woman pregnant before marriage; the filth of the Jordan River; the bottom of empty cups of wine; the fringes of society; and so in this man, a persecutor, a pillager, a murderer.

 

So it is that in the epiphanies of the Lord Jesus, His presence shines brightest from the darkest places. This man had overseen the stoning of the most promising prodigy of the apostles, Stephen. This man had obtained legal warrants from those who had Jesus crucified, that he might arrest His followers and send them in chains to Jerusalem to be condemned and executed, too. Everyone knew who this man was when he came into town.

 

And yet such wonderful words of Jesus came from his lips and his pen. As far as his pogrom had reached, his mission journeys went farther, and his letters reached beyond, not only in distance but also in time, right down to our own time and place. Here, the words of Saul, now known as St. Paul have become treasured and precious to us in our reading, our hearing, and our singing.

 

This is an epiphany of our Lord. As the bright light of Christ shone and knocked him off of his horse, so it has knocked many people down. He asked “Who are you Lord?” and Jesus revealed Himself and answered. And now when we ask, “Who are you Lord?”, the Lord Himself directs us to the words of this man’s epistles to find out just who He is. He reveals the light of His grace and mercy to us in the bright words of Scripture that blaze the truth of our misdirection so that we might also turn and walk in the light of His grace.

 

The people of Paul’s day, struggled to see how this man who once persecuted and pillaged the Church could now be proclaiming the faith he once tried to destroy. And as we read the Bible we are amazed to see that the Church, once persecuted and pillaged, came to glorify God in the very man who had caused them such pain and sorrow. It can be nothing less than an epiphany of Jesus—an epiphany made to Saul to turn his misdirected zeal against the Church into missionary zeal in service to Christ; and an epiphany made to the Church to turn their source of fear of this persecutor into a source of praise to glorify God in him.

 

So what about you? Are you such a strange place for God to make an epiphany? Is it out of the question that God would reveal Himself not just to you but through you? How do you think Saul would have answered that question when first made aware of his sins of persecution and murder, sins against the very person of God Himself?

 

What is it that you have done that makes you a strange place for God’s epiphany? Perhaps it is murder or hate; adultery or lust; pride or lying or vengeance. If anyone else knows about it, if you are infamous for it, like Saul was, you cannot claim that God will not make an epiphany out of you. He has done it before. And if only you know about it, would it make it any less of an epiphany of God revealed His grace and mercy to you alone?

 

If He claimed you as His own despite those sins (known and unknown), would it not be just another strange place for an epiphany? Would not be God doing what He does, as He did with a pregnant unwed girl, and wedding feast run dry, with the dirty waters of the Jordan River, and with a zealous murderer named Saul?

 

God’s greatest epiphany is in the unbounded mercy that He shows to sinners. We get the clearest picture of God when we see Jesus in compassion. He heals the sick and casts out demons, strange places for a God to show up. He goes to lepers and prostitutes and Canaanites and even to tombs. Why would God hang out in these places with these people? Strange, isn’t it? And yet that is where Jesus Christ is revealed to be God in the flesh, where He shows that the merciful heart of God pumps real human blood. Right where we wouldn’t expect Him.

 

And so, yes, as strange as it is, God can make an epiphany of Himself in you—to you so that you believe Him to be the merciful Saviour that you need; and to others so that they will see Him as a merciful Saviour for them as well. At first, they may find it hard to accept. People in Paul’s day found it hard to accept that the man who pillaged the Church of Christ was preaching the very faith he once tried to destroy. But what else could it be? Once they saw that it was not fake, not a trick or a trap, there was only one possibility? This was an act of God, a revelation of His will and grace not just for the man himself, but for the Church of Christ throughout the world and through time.

 

So, what about you? Are you such a strange place for an epiphany of Jesus the Christ? Don’t underestimate your sins, they are just as abominable as Saul’s; but that means that you just as strange a place for God to reveal His grace and mercy. He comes to one so strange as you in order to reveal to you His forgiveness won in that strange sacrifice of the embodied life of God upon the cross. He comes to one so strange as you to forgive those sins of yours so that you will have an epiphany of His love for you. He comes to one so strange as you to fill you with His love and peace so that others will have an epiphany of His work in you and for them.

 

Your family and friends and coworkers and classmates will think it strange, and perhaps difficult to accept, but the Lord Jesus Christ has revealed Himself in you. He has united Himself to you and filled you with His Spirit. He has cleansed and purified you from all guilt and shame and called you to be His own. He has filled you with His love and peace and made you the place of His epiphany. How strange and how just like Him to make an epiphany out of you.