The Telos of Christmas
The Christmas season is formally coming to a close, and we are now about to enter the season of Epiphany, which begins each year on January 6th. The word Epiphany comes from the Greek word for manifestation and it is a celebration of Christ’s manifestation to the Gentiles, beginning with the visit of the Magi, a sign that God was fulfilling the many prophecies concerning the nations turning to Him (Mt. 2:1–2).
This past week I was reminded again of the evangelical missionaries Jim Elliot and Nate Saint, who with three other brothers were martyred as they attempted to reach the unreached Auca tribe in the jungles of Ecuador. It was right after Christmas 1955 that after multiple contacts with the tribe from the air, they finally set up camp along the river to attempt their first in-person meeting with members of the tribe.
Leading up to this launch, Nate sat down at a typewriter and gave words to why they were choosing to risk their lives in this way, stating that it was in obedience to the Word, specifically the promise that some from every tribe will stand in the Lord’s presence on the last Day.
He then wrote,
“As we have a high old time this Christmas, may we who know Christ hear the cry of the damned as they hurtle headlong into the Christless night without ever a chance. May we be moved with compassion as our Lord was. May we shed tears of repentance for these we have failed to bring out of darkness. Beyond the smiling scenes of Bethlehem may we see the crushing agony of Golgotha. May God give us a new vision of His will concerning the lost and our responsibility.”
Their first contact with the tribe then came a couple days after setting up camp, on January 6th… Epiphany. Here the light of Christ again was manifested to a people living in darkness. And though the darkness at first fought back and blood was shed, many in that remote tribe turned to the Lord, in fulfillment of Scripture.
So as we now leave the celebrations of the Christmas season behind, remember this: Christmas does not terminate on itself. It flows outward into Epiphany and fills the whole earth with the brightness of His glory.
You may not be called to be a missionary or a martyr, but you still have a part to play in this grand story. Your duty begins with your own heart and in your own families, and as you look outward, to whoever else God has providentially placed in your lives to reach, so that through Christ laboring in you, one day all nations will indeed praise the Lord (Ps. 117).