Jesus Christ "The Extreme Humility" icon (3)

Jesus Christ "The Extreme Humility" icon (3)

$ 19.00

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English Greek

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Orthodox icon of Christ "The Extreme Humility". (3). Contemporary icon, Greece

In this icon, the nakedness of the body, the closed eyes, the open sarcophagus, the Cross, the instruments of the Passion, the wounds in the hands and the ribs and the hair down, consist the inclusion of the Holy Passion and forewarn the Resurrection.The Cross comprises the symbol of triumph of the Extreme Humility, the victory of immortality and life, and hope and salvation for the orthodox Christian.

The Theological Interpretation: The composition, while it is connected with the element of glory in a way that one illumines and completes the other one. The Humility of Christ is not meant in pietisitic, psychological or moral terms. Christ is not humbled to reach a moral perfection or for His own benefit. • His humility is emptiness, it is the pouring out of Himself and it is understood under the existential terms. He freely takes the human nature, except sin, and reaches the edge of death to heal it and deify it.

The icon of The Extreme Humility is the symbol of the Passion, which leads to the ultimate humility of Christ, with the ignominious death on the Cross, which He endured for the sake of human kind. He thus reaches at perfect condescension, into the absolute self-denial. Death is the ultimate enemy, who entered the life of man because of sin, because of his separation from God. Therefore, Christ comes as the Savior and gives his battle on the Cross as a King. His rule can only be nothing but servitude, since the king has become a servant out of love: "just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Matthew 20: 28)

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Orthodox Icon of the Nativity, the child-Christ and His mother are shown in a cave, surrounded by impossibly sharp, inhospitable, rocks which reflect the cruel world into which Jesus was born. Christ child is shown in a manger in a cave. In this time period animals were not sheltered in wooden barns, but in caves and recesses in the hills, and so this stable is shown in the Icon. In the top center we see the Star representing the heavens and the Holy Trinity which sends down a single shaft towards the baby Jesus. This represents the star that is being followed by the Magi, the wise Persians from the East, who are bearing gifts to the Christ.

But they are shown in the distance, still on their journey. They are not there. Along the top of the rocks are angels bringing the glad tidings of the birth of the world's Savior. On the right, the shepherds who are people not highly regarded by anyone else. They are the first to be given the Good News of Jesus birth. But they are also shown outside of the cave, still by their flocks. They too are not at Christ's side yet. Besides His mother, the only company Jesus Christ has in the first few hours of His earthly life are a lowly ox and Donkey.

The presence of the Ox and the Donkey in the Nativity icon fulfills one of many prophecies in the Old Testament book of Isaiah:The ox knows his owner, and the donkey his master's crib (Isaiah 1:3). Here the animals are also shown providing warmth to Jesus by their breath. in the center bottom is a Jesse Tree.Named after an Old Testament patriarch, the tree's presence is to remind us of another fulfilled prophecy from Isaiah:A shoot shall sprout from the stump (tree) of Jesse and from his roots a bud shall blossom.

The spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him (Isaiah 11:1-2). On bottom right we see a midwife.According to the Evangelium, Joseph brought along two women a midwife and a woman called Salome to help with the birth of Jesus. Salome is identified with a woman who later became a disciple of Christ, was the mother of the Apostles James and John, and was one of the women who discovered the empty tomb after Christ's resurrection. Joseph is found in the bottom left of the icon, away from his betrothed and her Son.

He seen listening to an old man and looks troubled. He is beset with new doubts regarding this birth, and these doubts are delivered to him by satan in the form of an old man. icon also acknowledges, as do the hymns of the Church, the great mystery of this event.

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