THE CHRISTMAS VICTORY
Enemy-occupied territory—that is what this world is. Christianity is the story of how the rightful king has landed, you might say landed in disguise, and is calling us all to take part in a great campaign of sabotage. - C.S. Lewis
Jason Caros | December 27, 2023
Happy third day of Christmas! During the twelve days of Christmas we are called to reflect upon the wondrous Incarnation of The Lord Jesus Christ, which began with His Conception and came to fruition in The Nativity. It is hard not to think happy thoughts this time of year, with all of the carols and gifts and joyful images surrounding us. What peace a traditional Nativity scene brings to the man or woman of faith, as it depicts the precious babe lying serenely in a manger. The yuletide is indeed merry and we are called to experience joy this time of year, but there is another aspect of the Nativity to contemplate this season, one that includes joy but perhaps graver sentiments as well.
The oldest of the Nativity icons, replicated above, depicts something else, something deep and theologically rich. In the icon you will immediately recognize some well-known elements of the Nativity story—The Christ Child, the Virgin Mary and Joseph, angels, magi, and shepherds. However, our Lord is not shown as a babe in a traditional wooden stable wrapped in swaddling clothing, but as a child covered in a burial shroud, lying in a sarcophagus, in an animal feeding trough (i.e. a manger), set in a dark cave. It doesn’t seem all that joyful, does it?
You might wonder why Jesus is in a sarcophagus. Simply put, the rich icon expresses the ancient Church’s belief that Christ came into the world to die. Thus, He is not wrapped in swaddling clothes, but in burial shrouds. Notice also that He is not in a stereotypical wooden stable, but in a cave—the site of His birth in Bethlehem. The cave, while historical, is symbolically meaningful in this icon because it shows us that God descended into a tomb—the shape of the cave serves to remind us of Christ’s tomb in Jerusalem. More than that, He is born in a cave that is a manger and it is dark inside the cave; these illustrate how The Son of God condescended and became man in the most humble of circumstances, and that Christ brought light into our dark world, further emphasized by the stream coming from heaven through and into the cave from above. Additionally, there are important prophetic references in the icon that underscore who this Child is and why He is here. One comes from Isaiah 1:3: “An ox knows its owner, and an ass its master’s manger, but Israel does not know, my people do not understand,” hence the animals near Christ. This prophecy conveys the response by some of the Jews—disbelief. The other prophecy is quoted by Saint Paul but found originally in Isaiah 11: “There shall be a root of Jesse; and He who shall rise to reign over the Gentiles, in Him the Gentiles shall hope” (Romans 15:12), referring to the large root or small tree found in the bottom left-hand quadrant of the icon. This prophecy pertains to the awaited Messiah’s earthly descent from Jesse, King David’s father, who was the founder of the line, or its root. This prophecy, like the one from the first chapter of Isaiah, expresses the universality of God’s plan of salvation—that His plan has always been for both Jews and Gentiles to follow Christ.
In this ancient Nativity scene we observe The Light descending into darkness, the dark cave symbolizing a bleak world held captive by sin and death, in need of a Healer and Rescuer. The ancient depiction of the Nativity informs us, subtly through colors and lines, that Christ, The Lord, came into the world to become one of us and to die for us. Put another way, God assumed our human nature so that we could partake of His divine nature, and He descended into death so that we could ascend with Him into life. In fact, you might say that Our Lord came on a divine special ops mission, so to speak, to battle the ultimate enemy, not with a literal sword in hand, fighting flesh and blood enemies, but instead to engage in a spiritual kind of warfare, for He said: “Do not think that I have come to bring peace on earth. I have not come to bring peace but a sword (Mt. 10:34).”
Importantly, Nativity is inextricably bound to Pascha (Easter) and for this reason Christmas is known in the Eastern Orthodox Churches as the Winter Pascha. A few months from now, Christians will celebrate the feast of feasts, Christ’s victory over death. In the Nativity, Christ lands and the mission is begun, and in the Resurrection victory is achieved. In the ancient Paschal icon below, we see His final assault on Death.
The icon is one of the richest of icons. It is named “Anástasis,” commonly translated into English as “The Resurrection.” Without the icon as a guide, one could assume that the word Anástasis refers only to the rising of Christ on the third day, but upon closer inspection there is more to the word than meets the eye. Anástasis comes from ancient Greek. Ana means “up again” and hístēmi means “to stand or rise.” From this we understand Christ’s resurrection. Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ died on The Cross, descended into Hades and rose again bodily. But He didn’t rise by Himself; others rose with Him. This leads me to also look at the word Anástasis as an up/rising or uprising. That is, when the Word became flesh He executed a Divine rescue mission, climaxing in His death on The Cross and His glorious Third Day Resurrection. Whom did He rescue?
The Anástasis Icon illustrates Our Lord and Savior’s work in Hades, the place of the dead spoken of throughout the Old and New Testaments. For this reason the image is also known as “The Descent into Hades,” (Acts 2:27, 1 Peter 3:18-19 & 4:6, Ephesians 4:8-10, 1 Corinthians 15:20). Christ, Who is clothed in shining white garments that are flowing as a result of His heroic descent, stands victorious on the gates of Hades, which He has broken down (notice the setting—another cave). Death, personified, is defeated and chained beneath Christ’s feet while The Lord pulls Adam and Eve from their tombs (it’s important to note that He is pulling them out by their wrists as man could not free himself from the consequence of sin). Directly to the right of Jesus stands John the Baptizer, known as “The Forerunner.” In this depiction we see how John not only prepares the way for Christ on earth but that he also prepares the way for Christ in Hades. Next to John stand some of the Old Testament Kings of Israel such as David and Solomon. On Christ’s left we have the righteous proto-Christ, Abel, the son of Adam slain by Cain (Heb. 12:24 & Mt. 23:35), and a depiction of Moses and others representing the law and the prophets.
It is through The Precious and Life Giving Cross, as through a passageway, that Our Lord takes our sin upon Himself and defeats death, death being the enemy who held humanity captive as a consequence of our sin. Through His great mercy Christ “grants life to those in the tombs,” and as the ancient Paschal hymn proclaims, He arises victoriously on the third day bringing us with Him! Saint Paul echoes this in his Epistle: “O Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory? The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 15: 55-57).
Uniting the themes of the two aforementioned icons, with Christ’s death on The Cross wedged between them, Saint Nicholas Cabasilas (14th century) beautifully expressed the saving work of Christ with a threefold teaching on the barriers between humanity and our Creator when he said the following in his work The Life in Christ: “Therefore, though men were triply separated from God—by nature, by sin, and by death… The first barrier He removed by partaking of humanity, the second by being put to death on the cross. As for the third barrier, the tyranny of death, He eliminated it completely from our nature by rising again. For this reason Paul says, "the last enemy to be destroyed is death" (1 Cor. 15:26).
What a rich tapestry is woven for us through these holy icons! Here, now, we can appreciate and understand why the Word of God, Who created flesh, took on flesh and initiated the crucial phase in the divine rescue mission and martial campaign against the Devil. In light of the ancient icons we can read this passage from the book of Hebrews with clarity: “Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself partook of the same nature that through death he might destroy him who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong bondage (2:14). In the Incarnation, God took up arms against our enemy, to defeat him, once and for all through the Glorious Resurrection.
Christ is Born, Glorify Him!
*If you are interested in reading more about theology through icons, check out my essay, The Saving Beauty of Icons, by clicking on the menu on the top left-hand side of this page.