Mankind Embodied in Divinity

(Mark 1:1-8) (Sunday before Theophany)

“He became like us, in order that we might become like Him.”

St. Athanasios sums up the great mystery of the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ in this teaching. In the Nativity, which we’ve just recently celebrated, God becomes man – He becomes like us. In the Theophany, which we’re about to celebrate, the second part of the teaching comes into play, as the man, Jesus, is shown to be the Son of God. The baptism of our Lord, and the miraculous events of the Theophany that take place at that time, mark the beginning of His activities to teach and preach, declaring the coming of the Kingdom of God. The revelation of the man, Jesus, as the divine Son of God, culminates at the time of His Transfiguration. We need to understand this. At the Nativity, the divine is embodied in humanity. With the Theophany, we see that mankind is embodied in divinity. “He became like us, in order that we might become like Him.”

“And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness…” We are made in the image of God; and after His likeness. The Fathers tell us that to be made in the image of God means that there is a resemblance to God in each of us; and, to be made “after the likeness” of God is to have the potential to be like God. Some theologians have speculated that our life in the Garden of Eden, where we – in Adam and Eve – dwelt in close proximity to God, was to be one whereby this capacity to be like God would be developed and fulfilled. We know that each of us has been profoundly influenced by our parents; that we are so like them in so many ways, whether we know it or not. Indeed, many times, we must become aware of this connection if we are to be transformed, and not to repeat the errors we have learned from them; otherwise, in our ignorance, we will have no choice but to continue in the ways we have learned. As we learn from our parents, so, too, might we have learned from being close to God in the Garden; but, alas, we failed in the very first test, when we disobeyed the commandment of God regarding the fruit of the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. And what was the temptation? The serpent said to Eve, “God knows that, when you eat of the fruit, your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods…” We tried to take the shortcut; and got thrown out of the Garden, out of the intimate presence of God, as a result.

But what we lost in the Fall, we got back, if you’ll forgive the pun, in the spring: that is, when our Lord was baptized in the Jordan River. The God-man Jesus took our human nature into the waters and was baptized to fulfill all righteousness, regenerating our nature, and restoring the dignity we had lost. We were dead in sins because of our disobedience there; but by His baptism, we are restored to life. And so it is for us in our baptism as well; we are buried in baptism with Christ, and are raised to a new life in Him: not the old life of the flesh, but His life; and we are empowered with the Holy Spirit to bring the potential established in us by this baptism of burial and resurrection into reality in ourselves. To this end, we live the Orthodox life of prayer and fasting and giving and struggling for the virtues; to this end, we partake of the Mysteries of the Church, and especially of His most precious and holy Body and Blood – that we might truly embody Him, and be His presence here and now; and be in His presence in the age to come.

Brothers and sisters: We must not be ignorant of these things. We must recognize that we have been changed from who we were into His likeness. We must labor, therefore, to accomplish what has been started in us by the grace and mercy and love of God. We must also recognize what has been transformed in others, in every other person in the world we may meet. Do you recognize the divinity in them? Do you act towards them as you would act towards God? When we grasp this truth, that each and every person is made in the image and after the likeness of God, it should change how we interact with them. Would you steal from God? Would you speak insultingly to God? Would you seek to make God take a lower place than yourself? I know it’s not easy to see the person who just cut you off in traffic as God. I know it’s not easy to see the person who just insulted you, or ignored you, or ripped you off, as God. I know it’s not easy to see the guy on the street corner with the cardboard sign, or the drunk staggering along as God, or the prostitute, or the politician, or the thief; and yet each of them are no different, by nature, than each of us. If we can teach ourselves to consider everyone else as being better, more worthy, than we are ourselves; if we can learn to see clearly the magnitude of our sins, and be blind to the sins of everyone else – at least, insofar as allowing ourselves to think we are better than they are because of their sins – we can be transformed, our lives will be changed; and so, too, might the lives of others as well.

“He became like us, in order that we might become like Him.” Let us set our will to live like Him, to the glory of God, and the salvation of souls.