“For our sake He made Him to be sin Who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Corinthians 5:21)

When we Orthodox Christians chant our Christmas hymns, we are not unlike all other Christians, even if our tunes are not as familiar or popular. We too focus on no room at the inn, the shepherds in the field, the three wise men, and the bright star shining over the manger. And why not, as these details are certainly significant enough to be included in the Gospel narratives and worthy of our attention. Yet the preeminent emphasis for us Orthodox Christians, which is straightforwardly proclaimed in our Synaxarion for December 25 (in the New Calendar), is the Nativity according to the flesh of our Lord, God and Savior Jesus Christ.

We confess the true and essential meaning of Christmas every time we loudly say the real Creed (from the First and Second Ecumenical Councils): “Who for us men and for our salvation came down from Heaven and was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary and became Man.” This Newborn Babe is the Pre-eternal God! Jesus Christ, Who is coeternal with the Father and the Holy Spirit – yes, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, and the Son of God – becomes the God-Man, by the power of the Holy Spirit and the free-will consent of the Virgin Mary. Panagia carries within her womb and gives Birth to the Incarnate God – God enfleshed – while remaining ever-Virgin, becoming the Theotokos, and the All-Holy Ark of the New Covenant – moreover, our Salvation! The Prophet Isaiah foretold of this wondrous Birth: “Behold, a Virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel (God with us).” (Isaiah 7:14)

As a Greek Orthodox Priest for 39 years, I have ministered to countless dying people and conducted more funerals and burials than I can remember. But every time I chant, or more often read, the powerful hymns for the departed, composed by St. John of Damascus, I encounter the reason for our Lord’s Incarnation: “I weep and lament when I ponder death, when I see our beauty, formed in God’s image, lying in the tombs, bereft of form, disfigured without glory.” As a modern-day Orthodox nun wisely observed, “God became Man so that He can enter into this diseased blood, into this diseased body, and free us from this curse.” (Schemanun Siluana Vlad, God, Where is the Wound?)

By taking on the fullness of our flesh and thus our humanity, while remaining fully Divine, our Lord Jesus Christ voluntarily shouldered the consequences of our sins in order to retore fallen humanity and, by extension, His whole created cosmos! Like us He was tempted, but unlike us, He did not sin; He hungered and thirsted; He wept and was in agony; finally, He suffered and was buried. Just as His Death was the passage to His Resurrection, by His holy loving and merciful will, our own death will be, God willing, our new birth and life in His eternal Kingdom! The Orthodox Church intentionally links the Feasts of His Nativity and His Baptism (which we call Holy Theophany). Through our Baptism and subsequent life in the Church, we are united with Christ in the Holy Mysteries and become, in St. Paul’s words, a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:16-17), and participants in the righteousness of God. 

The joy and eternal fruits of Jesus’ Nativity in the flesh are realized in every Divine Liturgy. Where else can we be healed and made whole on a frequent basis? The Lord becomes enfleshed in every Eucharist we celebrate and partake of, and He restores, forgives and sanctifies us, uniting us all to Him in Whose image we have been created. Christ is Born: Let us thank and glorify Him!