A couple months ago, I had my first escape room experience. I went with my sister, brother-in-law, and nieces to an escape room that was Willy Wonka themed. In case you are unfamiliar with escape rooms or have never been to one, the goal is to follow a series of clues so that you can complete the goal of solving the puzzle and being released from the interactive environment before the timer counts down to 0:00. While I was a little familiar with the goal of an escape room, I did not realize that there is also someone who monitors the process who is called a “game master”. This person is outside of the escape room and can moderate the experience by monitoring what is going on inside the escape room and providing hints as necessary to help interpret how to use the clues.

It struck me after my escape room experience that the process is sort of similar in ways to how God has interacted with humanity over the centuries. I don’t know that I would refer to God as a game master, but he has provided humanity with hints and clues about his existence and nature. In fact, Scripture seems to confirm this. In once instance, in the book of Acts, Paul and Barnabas are in the town of Lystra where Paul heals a man who was lame from birth. The citizens of the town, upon seeing what happened, prepare to worship Paul and Barnabas as Hermes and Zeus, respectively, and try to offer sacrifices to them. Paul and Barnabas try to discourage this behavior by stating,

“We are bringing you good news, telling you to turn from these worthless things to the living God, who made the heavens and the earth and the sea and everything in them. In the past, he let all nations go their own way. Yet he has not left himself without testimony: He has shown kindness by giving you rain from heaven and crops in their seasons; he provides you with plenty of food and crops in their seasons; he provides you with plenty of food and fills your hearts with joy” (Acts 14: 15b-17, NIV).

Similarly, in Paul’s letter to the Romans, he extrapolates on this by commenting that

“The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities – his eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse” (Romans 1:18-20).

In the above passages, the early church is explaining to the people of Lystra and to the church in Rome what is known to theologians as general revelation. This is God’s communication of his existence and, to some extent, his character and attributes, through the natural workings of the cosmos. In time, the church would interact and engage with the thought of ancient Greco-Roman philosophers, who had some notions and understanding of God, even though they were not privy to the nature of God as revealed in the Bible. Plato and Aristotle in particular were influential in the thought of early church theologians. But, as just noted, the degree to which God could be known through general revelation was limited.

For that reason, God chose the nation of Israel to reveal Himself and to be a blessing to the nations. However, Israel did not live up to the mandate that God laid out for them and, in the fullness of time, God revealed himself ultimately by becoming incarnate in the person of Jesus Christ. We are about to enter the period of the church year known as Epiphany. It starts every year on January 6, and despite common misconception, it is not just one day that marks Epiphany, but is actually a period of time that continues until Lent. As Fleming Rutledge notes in her book on Epiphany, “Epiphaneia in New Testament Greek means manifestation.” ¹ While Epiphany is often associated with the celebration of when the magi found Jesus Christ, since the celebration is for a season and not just a day, there is actually much more that is celebrated throughout the Sundays in Epiphany than just that event.

In fact, the different Sundays celebrate different manifestations of God’s glory in and through the life of Jesus Christ, celebrating events such as Christ’s baptism, his first miracle of transforming water into wine, and his transfiguration on the mountain. Just as the “game master” provided my family and I with hints on how to see the larger picture and complete the escape room, so God, through both general revelation in nature and his special revelation to the nation of Israel and through Jesus Christ, is designed to help us see the larger picture of how He is at work in our lives and in the world. As Fleming Rutledge later explains,

“This is as close as we are going to be able to come to understanding what the season of Epiphany is designed to be and to teach. From its beginning by the light of a star to its culmination on the mountain of transfiguration, its Sundays are designed to display the glory of Christ who is the likeness of God, shining in and transforming our hearts even now. As the Epiphany hymn quoted earlier puts it, the season teaches ‘God in flesh made manifest.’ What we preach is Jesus Christ as Lord over every hostile power that would enslave his creation.” ²

This Epiphany, I hope and pray that, just like in my escape room experience where we followed the hints and clues of the “game master”, that God would release us from the hostile powers and forces of sin, death, and the devil, that try to enslave and keep us from seeing and experiencing His transforming work in our lives and in the world.

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1 Fleming Rutledge, Epiphany: The Season of Glory (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2023), 12.

2 Ibid., 45.