Coming into church this morning, my mind was already awash in details to sort out. It’s rare that a major feast falls on Sunday, but when it does, things get more complicated. So I was being a good lead chanter and reflecting on all things Theophany-related when one of the chanters who’s a recent convert asked, “So everything changes today?”

It stopped me amidships, not only because it accurately summed up how many details in the services get altered for the feast, but also because it seemed to cut to the heart of why we celebrate Theophany at all, why the day commemorating the baptism of Christ by the Forerunner is — alert the media — as big a feast as Christmas.

The abstract answer, for once, was the same as the pragmatic one. “Yes, everything changes today.”

The chants and hymns of the day seem to focus on three things. Three reasons that a world revolution began when the Son of Man entered the waters of the Jordan River. Three ways that everything changed today (though perhaps I should say at least three ways, since a scholar might be able to come up with more than my own humble chant-reading self.)

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1. Theophany = God + appearing

The first is best exemplified by the troparion for the feast, and if you haven’t heard this already 99 times today, then you must’ve stayed home from church:

When Thou, O Lord, wast baptized in the Jordan, worship of the Trinity wast made manifest; for the voice of the Father bore witness to Thee, calling Thee His beloved Son. And the Spirit in the form of a dove confirmed the truth of His word. O Christ our God, Who hath appeared and enlightened the world, glory to Thee.

And also shown by this icon, one of the best-loved by Andrei Rublev. The day when Christ went down into the waters was the day that God revealed something no one had ever known, something so completely intimate concerning Himself that we never would’ve known if He hadn’t chosen to reveal it: This is the day we found out that God was God in Three Persons. That simple but inscrutable revelation has been the source of endless intellectual gymnastics and not a few heresies ever since. But there’s no getting around the facts of the case: God the Son was baptized; God the Father gave testimony in a voice from the heavens; God the Holy Spirit descended in the form of a dove.

We would never be in quite the same darkness regarding the nature of God again. If the doctrine of the Trinity has led many doubters to leave Christendom when like the offended followers in Christ’s time they said, “‘This is a hard saying; who can understand it?’ … and they walked with Him no more (Jn 6:60,66),” it had to be known if we were truly going to enter the Church Age. In that sense, everyone who sings the troparion, who affirms the Triune God, may be a little bit like the disciples who didn’t leave Christ. When He asked, “Do you also want to go away?” Simon Peter answered on behalf of us all: “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.”

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2. The Jordan was turned back

Jordan River, why wast thou astonished at beholding the Invisible naked ? And he answereth, saying, I beheld him and trembled; for how shall I not tremble and fear, when the angels trembled at sight of him, heaven was astounded, earth was encompassed by trepidation, and the sea was bashful, with all things visible and invisible; for Christ hath appeared in the Jordan to bless the waters.

– Second Kathismata of Theophany, Orthros

Consider this hymn which puts a question to the Jordan River and records its (his?) answer. There’s a little more going on here than just poetic license. Though the Jews knew that there was only one God, they were living in the midst of the rampant polytheism of other tribes, not to mention the Greeks and Romans, who as John Mark Reynolds puts it, lived in a god-soaked world. The repercussions of the Theophany, of God making Himself known, was that polytheism would never again occupy the same place as a plausible alternative. All we little people get to talk about what our god or gods are like unless He pipes up and shows us what’s right and what’s wrong regarding Himself (somewhat like God having the last word in the Book of Job). So when God spoke, He put the river-god of the Jordan to flight, as you can see in this icon. The figure at bottom, fleeing the scene of the baptism, is the personified god of the Jordan River. Though many neo-pagans these days would love to argue the point, the truth of it is that that river-god would never return.

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3. He blessed the waters of baptism

And Thou didst consent also to be baptized at the hand of a servant, that by the sanctification of the nature of water, O sinless One, Thou mightest prepare for us a way for the renewal of birth by water and the Spirit, restoring us to our first freedom. Wherefore, as we celebrate the memory of this divine mystery, we beseech Thee, O Lover of mankind, to sprinkle us, Thine unworthy servants, according to Thy divine promise, with purifying water and the gift of Thy compassion.

– 2nd Prayer for the Sanctification of the Waters

Just as Christ told John to baptize Him in order to “fulfill all righteousness,” He sanctified both the practice of baptism and the baptismal waters. Once the River Jordan had received the Son of God, it would never be what it was. Water itself would never be what it was.

And certainly, humanity would never be what it was.

Christ our God, thou hast sanctified the courses of the Jordan, crushed the might of sin, bowed thyself under the hand of the Forerunner, and saved mankind from error. Wherefore, we plead with Thee to save Thy world.

– Third Kathismata of Theophany, Orthros

Quick follow-up

Two things I found out from a little more reading:

1. When I said that Theophany is a big a feast as Christmas, I was wrong. It’s a bigger feast. Pascha is the biggest feast — really, the feast of feasts; Pentecost is second and Theophany is third. Don’t know if that’s important, but it may show up in a SOYO test quiz sometime or something.
2. Speaking of SOYO, this article on the Antiochian Website called “For Teens: What is Theophany?” offers an interesting bit of trivia: “Do you know anyone named Tiffany? It is the anglicized version of Theophany!” Well, live and learn.