Incarnation

(Icons, Saints, and Relics, O My! Part 2)

Flesh is a powerful term. It can give me the willies to think about the word—that we are “flesh” meaning bones, muscles, sinews and joints. It is impossible not to be devastated when human flesh is destroyed, blown apart in wars, murdered in cold blood, or seen whole but lifeless in death.

Our human form is precious—so precious that we do not even understand it, and yet we readily recognize as wicked the forces which seek to destroy, mutilate, and abuse it. From the beginning the enemy has sought to destroy that which was made in God’s image, when the prideful, envious, and deceiving one said, “you will not surely die…” (Genesis 3:4), foreshadowing the whole course of history and the carnage that would ensue.

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” (Genesis 1:26-28)

What God made was good and beautiful and full of blessing. When the deceiver came, we were separated from his divine purpose and sin entered the world.

I wrote recently about the feast of Theophany, which is when we celebrate Christ’s baptism by St. John the Forerunner in the Jordan. It was in this feast that I was able to fully identify the Incarnation, and by extension come to grips with how and why it is appropriate for Christians to recognize the image of God in fellow believers who are depicted in icons or whose relics are deemed holy because they are great Saints. In it I recognized the work of love that Christ did by condescending to us to be among us and to renew all things for us. God in his omnipotence could have defeated Satan, sin, and death in myriad ways, but he chose the path of Love.

It brings to mind that time when our children were small, they thought there was nothing better than us sitting on the floor with them, or even better, lying on our stomachs to play toys, build legos, or read books. My daughter would take all of her plastic animals and line them up and say, “Make them talk, Mommy!” I never knew what to make them say, but inevitably she was delighted with my efforts. To my daughter, my “omniscience” and authority, condescending to play with her little animals gave the experience new life and a fuller experience. It is a feeble analogy to be sure, but it helps me wrap my head around what God does for us through his incarnation and earthly life. To my children, coming down to their level and being with them was the ultimate expression of love.

When Christ was born of Mary he took on human flesh. When God descended to Earth to take back what was rightfully his, he did not do it from a throne with arrogant and despotic rage—he gently and humbly came to his children in love and allowed himself to be circumscribed by human flesh. He allowed himself to be contained in that which we could see, hear, and touch, becoming the first icon of Almighty God. In doing this, he restores the image of God which had been broken in the garden of Eden and becomes the second Adam. This human is above all others and is to be worshiped as God Incarnate. When he stepped into the water at the Jordan river, he was revealed as a member of the Godhead, and the One God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, was exposed entirely to mankind at one time. His presence in the water sanctified it for all time, reclaimed it, and redeemed it from its fallen state. When the eyes of the onlookers took in the form of Jesus standing in the Jordan, they were looking at the form of God Himself.

Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves. (John 14:8-11)

In the Gospel account we see the deity of Christ manifested in Theophany and again in his transfiguration. Later in the Gospel, He confirms this by his own word to his disciples who have been with him and know him. There follows a beautiful discourse on what the apostles can expect when Jesus returns to the Father in John 14, beginning with a request by him that the Father send the Holy Spirit in His name. The works he was doing would now be accomplished through his disciples and in even greater measure, but how?

When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. 2And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. (Acts 2:1-4)

Together, they received the same baptism that Christ himself received in the Jordan when the Holy Spirit descended upon them and dwelled within them, empowering them to do things that had heretofore never been seen! They were now as Christ, empowered to do the works that He had done and “even greater. (John 14:12)” They had become living icons of Christ. They became co-laborers with Christ in reclaiming humanity from the death that Christ absorbed, defeated, and destroyed through his work on the Cross, not with a miniature version of the Holy Spirit but with the SAME power from on high that came to him at his baptism! They carried such authority with them that people were healed when Peter’s shadow passed over them or Paul’s handkerchief was passed to them. The power of Christ through the Holy Spirit in them sanctified everything that they encountered, drawing people to become united with them through the same Spirit and carry on the same works. They had become the very Body of Christ, the living stones, the Church. Yet, when anyone mistook them for being gods or deserving of worship, they immediately corrected the error and returned the worship to Christ. (Hebrews 10:10, Acts 14)

As modern, materialist Christians, the implications of the Incarnation are largely lost on us. We have become scientists first, believers second. We want data, evidence, and expertise, with scholarship to back up, validate, and confirm whatever position we have decided to align ourselves with, but we neglect the reality that what has been offered us is the same, unchanged reality that was available to the Apostles at Pentecost, and to Christ in the Jordan. Incarnational reality is not limited to Christ. We are part of Him, and therefore part of the restored image of God.¹ We have been included in this reality. When we die with him in baptism and are raised again with him in His resurrection, when we receive the Holy Spirit through the sealing work of Chrismation, we are now the Church, the Bride, made holy and One in Him. His saving work of the world continues through us. It does not mean that we no longer live in a fallen world or lose the capacity to sin--take one quick look around and see that this is not the case. But as it pertains to us, the world is now a canvas just begging to be touched by the sacramental reality of Christ, which we bear in ourselves. If we view and touch the world as Christ does, we cease doing anything out of defensiveness or jealousy or fear. We see every action against us as an action against God and respond as he does, with mercy. We begin to take on the sins and illnesses of the world with compassion and return them to Him who is able to heal and change and make all things new. We begin to experience theosis,² and with theosis,³⁴ peace, and the “perfect peace (Isaiah 26:3)” of the one whose mind is steadfast and trusting in Him is intractable.

Now through the sacraments, our flesh, bones, muscles, sinews and joints, are sanctified as Christ’s. Now, we are one with him. Now, we begin the march toward wholeness, but let us not be proud. Even Paul the Apostle says that he has not yet attained perfection.

Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ 9and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— 10that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

12Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. 13Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, 14I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. 15Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you. 16Only let us hold true to what we have attained.

(Philippians 3: 8-16)

The incarnational reality of Christ in our bodies and our lives is a mystery, but it bears fruit. It bears the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control. It bears the works that Jesus declares would be “greater than these” by those who have been disciplined to pursue righteousness and oneness with Christ. It is lived out in the lives of God’s people everywhere. By understanding this unique oneness with Christ, the door opens for us to examine why Orthodox Christians value and venerate the relics and icons of Christ, the Theotokos, and Saints, who ultimately are all part of the whole and restored image of God the Father.

1. Jonathan Pageau, On Why we Venerate Images, Feb. 3, 2023. This is an excellent video that will explain on a deeper level the Orthodox veneration of Icons by an artist and icon carver.

2. Theosis: https://orthodoxwiki.org/Theosis.

3. Fr. Jeremy, Understanding Theosis, Orthodx Road. https://www.orthodoxroad.com/understanding-theosis/

4. Archimandrite George, Theosis, the True Purpose of Human Life, 2006. https://orthodoxroad.com/downloads/theosis-english.pdf+++