In my last post, I spoke about how the meaning of Christmas is intimately related to the Eucharist, as the Orthodox Church celebrates it. (Click here to read it).
In this post, I want to turn to the icon of the Nativity of Christ.
The western tradition gives us the Nativity set – though I’m not sure how this is rooted in the ancient theology of the Church.
The nativity icon, however, is deeply connected to the theology of the Church, and it presents nothing less than the gospel message!
God became man in the person of Jesus Christ, and through this action, humanity is transformed!
We are saved for God is with us (Emmanuel)!
Let’s take a look!
THE NATIVITY SHOWS US THE SELF-EMPTYING OF GOD
The cave, the manger, and the swaddling clothes all point to the self-emptying of God.
In theology, we call this kenosis, and what we mean is that God willingly set aside his divinity to be subject to creation.
In other words, the king of the world willingly became our servant.
For our sake, God enters into creation and becomes visible.
We can now have a personal relationship with a personal God.
BUT CHRIST’S BIRTH POINTS TO HIS DEATH
This coming Sunday I’m going to dedicate my entire sermon to the cave and why it HAS TO BE A CAVE, so I’m not going to dwell on the meaning of it here (by the way, it’ll blow you away!)
What I will say about the cave is that it mirrors the empty tomb of Christ.
Take a look at the two icons side by side!
It also mirrors Hades, from which Christ raises us. Take a look.
In the Resurrection icon, the cave represents the realm of the dead, but because Christ died on the cross and descended into Hades, it now becomes the cave from which new life arises. The cave of death becomes the cave of birth!
Now take a close look at the manger. Do you notice anything?
It looks a bit like an altar.
Perhaps it reminds you of the altar on which Abraham almost sacrificed Isaac!
Here what the icon is telling us is that Christ is born as the lamb in order to take away our sins (compare Isaiah 53:7 with John 1:29).
He is the son who is sacrificed, which was foreshadowed in the story of Abraham and Isaac (Genesis 22).
In addition, those swaddling clothes look a little familiar! Yes, we’ve seen them used for the burial of Christ!
We’ve also seen them on Lazarus, whom Jesus raised from the dead.
The similarities also point to the fact that Christ, who’s birth we are celebrating, was born to die for our salvation!
So, the depiction of the Christ child, in our icon, foreshadows Christ’s death, then burial in the sepulcher with burial clothes!
THE ANIMALS DEPICTED TELL US MORE THAN THE GOSPELS
In every Nativity icon one will see an ox and an ass.
Why is that?
Well, St. John tells us at the end of us gospel:
“But there are also many other things which Jesus did; were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.” (John 21:25 RSV)
The addition of the ox and ass are one of those things not contained in the gospels…but they are contained in the Old Testament!
The Prophet Isaiah wrote,
“The ox knows its owner, and the ass its master’s crib; but Israel does not know, my people does not understand.”” (Isaiah 1:3 RSV)
Their inclusion shows the fulfillment of prophecy, and it shows that ALL OF CREATION rejoices in the birth of the Savior.
THE POSTURE OF THE MOTHER OF GOD TELLS US EVEN MORE
Moving away from the center of the icon, we see the Mother of God, the Virgin Mary.
Sometimes she is sitting.
When she is shown this way, it is illustrating the absence of the usual sufferings of childbirth, and thus the virginal nature of Christ’s birth, and his divine origin.
This combats the theological heresy called Nestorianism.
Other times she is shown as lying down.
In this case, it emphasizes her state of physical weariness, which reinforces the idea that the incarnation of Christ is not an illusion, which was another ancient heresy.
ANGELS GLORIFY AND BRING GOOD TIDINGS
Near the top of our icon are a variety of angles.
Some of them are looking up.
These angels are filling their purpose of glorifying God for his act of Salvation in Christ.
Other angels are looking down towards the shepherds.
These angels are the ones who bring good tidings.
“And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, ‘Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men with whom he is pleased!’ When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, ‘Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.'” (Luke 2:13-15 RSV)
THE SHEPHERDS REPRESENT ISRAEL AND THE MAGI THE NATIONS
The shepherds, in both scripture and in our icon, represent the sons of Israel who recognized Jesus as the Christ, the messiah, and Son of God.
As such, they represent the Jerusalem (Jewish) Church.
On the other side of the icon we see the magi.
They represent the heathen, or the gentiles, who came to recognize Jesus as the Son of God. As such they represent the Church of the Nations.
In other iconography, Ss. Peter and Paul represent the two halves of the Church. St. Peter represents the Jewish Church, and St. Paul represents the Gentile Church.
WOMAN WASH THE CHRIST CHILD TO SHOW HIS HUMANITY
In the bottom corner of the icon we see women washing the newborn Christ child.
The Gospels of Pseudo-Matthew and Pseudo-James tell of this event.
According to tradition, Joseph brought two midwives to Mary to help her raise the child.
This scene, from everyday life, shows us that Christ was born just like any other baby and was subject to the natural requirements of human nature.
JOSEPH AND THE DEVIL REPRESENT OUR DOUBTS
Finally, in the other corner of the icon, we see Joseph talking with the devil, who is often in the guise of an old bent over man!
The Orthodox Church has passed down this tradition not only in iconography but also through hymnology!
Here we see Joseph doubting that Christ is the Son of God, and we see the troubled state of his soul.
Leonid Ouspensky tells us this:
“Tradition…relates how the devil tempted Joseph telling him that a virgin birth is not possible, being opposed to the laws of nature. …It is the basis of many heresies. In the person of Joseph the icon discloses not only his personal drama, but the drama of all mankind – the difficulty of accepting that which is ‘beyond words or reason’ – the Incarnation of God” (The Meaning of Icons, pg. 160).
MARY’S GAZE
In most icons, Mary gazes at the Christ child. This shows us that she pondered everything in her heart.
“But Mary kept all these things, pondering them in her heart.” (Luke 2:19 RSV)
In other icons, however, Mary gazes towards Joseph.
This is a look of compassion for his troubled state. It shows how the Mother of God takes a tolerant and compassionate attitude towards our fears of doubt and unbelief.
P.S. THE NATIVITY ICON SHOWS US SALVATION!
We covered a lot of ground in this post.
We saw how the cave foreshadows the tomb.
We saw how the manger is an altar on which Christ will be sacrificed for our sins.
We saw how the swaddling clothes are really Christ’s burial shroud.
These three things all point to the fact that the infant Christ was born to be sacrificed for our sins.
We also looked at the rest of the icon and what each part means.
However, if you think the iconography of the Orthodox Church carries a lot of meaning, wait until you hear the hymnology for Christmas!
Come this Christmas season and celebrate with the Orthodox!
St. Elias Services (2001 Asbury Rd, Dubuque, IA)
Sundays, 9:30 am
Christmas Eve, 6:30 pm
Christmas Day, 8:00 am
Or find your nearest Orthodox Church by clicking here.