THE CHURCH TEACHES US the theology of the Scriptures not only with hymns, but also with images. Iconography is one of the “languages” into which Scripture is translated. Thus many of our icons also contain allusions and references to Old and New Testaments. Of particular interest is the icon of the Nativity.
We have touched upon a comparison between the birth and the burial of Christ in the katavasia concerning Jonah. This comparison is made more explicit in our iconography. If you look carefully at almost any traditional Orthodox icon of the Nativity, you will notice that the crib in which the baby Jesus is laid is depicted as a tomb, and the swaddling clothes resemble a burial shroud. We read in the Gospel (Matt. 27:57-60) that Joseph of Arimathea takes the body of the crucified Jesus and buries it in a “new tomb”— in which no one had been laid before. The Church makes a comparison between the virgin womb and the virgin tomb, between the cave in which Christ is born and the grave from which He rises again.
This comparison is made even more explicit in the service of the Royal Hours. At the Royal Hours on Great Friday morning, we chant this hymn of the Passion:
Today, He who hung the earth upon the waters is hung upon a tree.
The King of angels is decked with a crown of thorns.
He who wraps the heavens in clouds is wrapped in the purple of mockery.
He who freed Adam in the Jordan is struck on the face.
The Bridegroom of the Church is affixed to the Cross with nails.
The Son of the Virgin is pierced by a spear.
We worship Your Passion, O Christ.
Show us also Your glorious Resurrection.
At the Royal Hours on Christmas Eve, we chant a hymn that is identical in form and style to that of Great Friday:
Today, He who holds creation in the palm of his hand
is born of a virgin.
He who in His being cannot be handled
is as a mortal wrapped in swaddling rags.
God who of old established the heavens in the beginning
lies in a manger.
He who rained manna on the people in the desert
is nourished with milk from the breast.
The Bridegroom of the Church summons the Magi.
The Son of the Virgin accepts their gifts.
We worship Your birth, O Christ
Show us also Your divine Epiphany.
Why is there such similarity between these two apparently very different feasts—the one a joyful celebration of life, the other a sorrowful commemoration of death? Because in both feasts the Church is inviting us to consider the same paradox. On Great Friday, the paradox is how can God, who is eternal—who has no end—be killed? On Christmas Eve, the paradox is how can God, who is eternal—who has no beginning—be born?
How is He contained in a womb, whom nothing can
contain? How held in his Mother’s arms, He who is
in the bosom of the Father? This is according to His
good pleasure, as He knows and wishes. For being
without flesh, willingly He was made flesh; and He
Who Is, for our sake has become what He was not.
Without departing from His own nature he has
shared in our substance. Wishing to fill the world on
high, Christ was born with two natures. (Matins of
the Nativity, Kathisma after the Polyeleos)
God entered the world in order to take on the fullness of human existence, which means not only the fullness of human life, but also the fullness of human death. He was made in our “image and likeness” in order to die like us and raise our humanity with Him to God the Father, to restore and complete in us His Image and Likeness in which we were made. Thus we cannot remember the Lord’s birth without considering also His death and Resurrection. There would be no salvation for humanity without the Cross, but there would be no Cross without the Nativity.
~Vassilios Papavassiliou, Meditations for Advent: Preparing for Christ’s Birth
