Eastern Christian churches celebrate the mystery of the Incarnation somewhat differently than the western Christian churches. For the western Christian church Christmas is the key celebration. Visually in our western celebrations the Magi come to the stable at Bethlehem after the shepherds.

In the western world the creches are mostly put away, the Christmas trees are down, the carols no longer sung. The popular celebrations of Christ seem to end on Christmas day. The feasts of Epiphany/Baptism seem almost an afterthought in our western celebrations.

For eastern Christians, the feasts of Epiphany and the Baptism are the climax of the Christmas celebrations. Why?

Saint Proclus of Constantinople explains what these feasts mean to the eastern churches:

“The feast of the Epiphany manifests even more wonders than the feast of Christmas. At Christmas the King puts on the royal robe of his body. At Epiphany the very source unfolds and, as it were, clothes the river. On the feast of the Savior’s birth, the earth rejoiced because it bore the Lord in a manger. On today’s feast the sea is glad because it receives the blessing of holiness in the river Jordan.”

The mystery of the incarnation is complete for the eastern churches when the magi return home, the gospel is preached in their lands and their people are baptized. “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,” Jesus says in Matthew’s gospel.

For the eastern church, when Jesus enters the waters of the Jordan he immediately reaches the whole of creation and all its people, represented by the Magi and their gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. This approach strongly promotes God’s plan for the global church and, especially today, an environmental spirituality. The waters of the world are blessed; they share in the mystery.

Maximus of Turin, another early Christian writer, offers this reflection on Jesus’ birth and his baptism:
“Then he was born from a virgin; at his baptism he is born in mystery. When he was born, his mother Mary held him close to her heart; when he is born in mystery, God the Father embraces him with his voice and says: ‘This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased; listen to him.’ The mother caresses the tender baby on her lap; the Father serves his Son by loving testimony. His mother holds the child for the Magi to adore; the Father reveals that his Son is to be worshiped by all the nations.

Some historians of the liturgy see the western emphasis on Christmas and not on the Epiphany and the Baptism of Jesus originating in a fear of adoptianism– the notion that Jesus Christ took on divine status when he was baptized in the Jordan, a belief that might be suggested by the Gospel of Mark. (cf. Advent to Pentecost, Patrick Regan, Liturgical Press, 2012 62 ff )

Though their emphasis in their liturgies differ the two churches are one in their belief in the essential mysteries of faith. “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.” In its reform of the liturgy after the Second Vatican Council, the Roman Catholic Church has emphasized the feasts of the Epiphany and the Baptism of Jesus. There is a new appreciation of the spirituality and liturgy of the eastern churches.