Humility and Glory: Theophany
This post comes from an email in the "Walk Through the Church Year" series which goes out to folks who sign up to receive two emails per month about major feasts and selected commemorations in the liturgical calendar. To receive these emails in your inbox, sign up here.
The original email was sent out in January of 2025.
by Brendan
The light of Christ at Christmas was but a star in the dark night; at Epiphany it appears to us at the rising sun; it will grow and, after the eclipse of Holy Friday, burst forth yet more splendid, on the morning of Easter; and finally, at Pentecost, it will reach its full zenith. (1)
When Thou, O Lord, was baptized in the Jordan, worship of the Trinity was made manifest. For the voice of the Father bore witness to Thee, calling Thee His beloved Son, and the Spirit in the likeness of a dove confirmed the truth of His Word. O Christ our God who hast appeared and enlightened the world, Glory to Thee. – Troparion for Theophany
December has ended; January and the new calendar year have begun. However, the Church’s recounting of Christ’s life has only begun. In the twelve days following Christmas, we move quickly through the thirty years of Christ’s life before his public ministry. So much is packed into this short time, necessarily so, as the march to Holy Week is just a few months away. Among other saints, the Theotokos (December 26) was commemorated as well as the Holy Innocents, those young children killed in Bethlehem by the raging King Herod (December 29). Telescoping the rest of Christ’s ‘invisible’ life before his journey to be baptized, it yet prepares the worshipper for what happened, and by God’s grace, will occur again in the human heart.
The voice of one crying in the wilderness: “Prepare the way of the Lord; make straight the paths of our God.” Isaiah 40:3
To any onlookers of the day, the young man descends to the Jordan from Nazareth as Jesus; he departs as Christ, the Messiah, the Anointed One. His cousin, St. John the Forerunner, greets him and engages in unforgettable conversation in the Gospels. Each word is pregnant with meaning, each phrase declares the initiation of the long-awaited work of reconciliation and resurrection that the Son of Man has come in the flesh to live out.
Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! John 1:29b
While John’s immersion is, in Jesus’ words, “fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness” (Matthew 3:15), what happens next is even more significant. The Holy Spirit descends in the form of the dove and God the Father proclaims, “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased” (Luke 3:22). The testament of the Godhead attests to the Sonship of Jesus and His authority to accomplish what He came to do, in the world and in every human.
In Theophany, we recognize how Christ’s two natures as the God-Man are revealed and work in synergy. We see Him abasing Himself, submitting to the next necessary step of taking on the condition of His creation and mankind. We also see the precursors of His Divine glory already present. St. John sees it. The evil one will pay homage to it in the desert. His first disciples will soon respond to its call. This begins a pattern that He will live out for the next three years in preparation for the power and the glory of His passion.
Every manifestation of Jesus Christ, both in history and in the inner life of man, is simultaneously a manifestation of humility and of glory. Whoever tries to separate these two aspects of Christ commits an error… I cannot approach the glorified Christ without, at the same time, approaching the humiliated Christ… (2)
This combination of humility and glory marks Theophany as a critical signpost on the journey of the Church Year as well as for each of us. Christ inaugurates the public aspect of redeeming His people and all of creation itself that “groans and labors with birth pangs together until now” (Romans 8:22). With the blessing of the Holy Water that occurs in concert with Theophany in every Orthodox church, this redemption and making holy of creation is both symbolized and made evident. Combined with the miracle of receiving Christ’s body and blood during each liturgy and the indwelling of His Spirit, we continue the process of humbly receiving the glory of being and becoming children of God.
Each Theophany is a time to revisit one’s own baptism or even to consider it for the first time. Sung at every baptism throughout the year, the glorious Theophany hymn,
As many of you as have been baptized into Christ, have put on Christ. Alleluia!
reminds all who sing and hear it of the enduring power of Christ’s submission to His Father’s will. This is a call to live out the words of St. John, “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30). May each of us reading (and writing!) this blog receive the grace to renew or initiate the promise of living humbly with our glorified Christ now and in the ages to come.
(1) The Year of Grace of the Lord, By a Monk of the Eastern Church (Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Press, 1971) 84.
(2) Ibid, 82.
All Scripture references taken from the Orthodox Study Bible (Thomas Nelson, 2008).