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The incarnation, the birth of Christ
in Bethlehem celebrated at Christmas, is already an act of salvation.
The Word of God, in taking human flesh and taking up our broken humanity
into Himself, restores us. Christ saves us by experiencing from within,
as one of us, all that we suffer both outwardly and inwardly through
living in a sinful world. But in a fallen and sinful world, His love had
to reach out yet further. Because of the tragic presence of sin and
evil, the work of our restoration by Christ was to prove infinitely more
costly. A sacrificial act of healing was required, a sacrifice such as
only a suffering and crucified God could offer.
The incarnation is an act of identification
and sharing: God saves us by identifying Himself with us, by knowing our
human experience from the inside. The Cross signifies, in the most stark
and uncompromising manner, that this act of sharing is carried to its
utmost limits. Jesus Christ, our companion, shares not only in the
fullness of human life but also in the fullness of human death.
“Surely he has borne our grief and carried our sorrows” (Isaiah
53:4) – all our grief, all our sorrows. Such is the message of the
Cross to each one of us. However far I have to travel through the valley
of the shadow of death, I am never alone. I have a companion. And this
companion is not only a man as I am, but also true God from true God. At
the moment of Christ’s deepest humiliation on the Cross, looking upon
Christ crucified, I see not only a suffering man, but suffering God.
Christ’s death upon the Cross is not a
failure which was somehow put right afterwards by His resurrection. In
itself, the death upon the Cross is a victory. The victory of what?
There can be only one answer: the victory of suffering love. “Love is
as strong as death….many waters cannot quench love” (Song of Songs
8:6-7). The Cross shows us a love that is as strong as death, a love
that is even stronger. And so Christ’s death upon the Cross is truly,
as the Liturgy of St. Basil describes it, a “life-creating death.”
The crucifixion is itself a victory! But on
great and holy Friday, the victory is hidden, whereas on Easter morning
it is made manifest. Christ rises from the dead and by His rising
delivers us from anxiety and terror: the victory of the Cross is
confirmed, love is shown openly to be stronger than hatred and evil and
life to be stronger than death. God Himself has died and risen from the
dead and so there is no more death: even death has been filled with God.
Because Christ is risen, we need no longer be afraid of any dark or evil
force in the universe. As we proclaim each year at the Paschal
Resurrection service in the words St. John Chrysostom: “Let no one
fear death, for the death of our Savior has set us free! Christ is risen
and the angels rejoice!”
- Bishop Kallistos Ware
from his book, The Orthodox Way
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