THE REVELATIONS OF CHRIST’S FACE
(August 16, Feast of the Image of Christ Not Made by Hands)
“When the days drew near for him to be received up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem. And he sent messengers ahead of him, who went and entered a village of the Samaritans, to make ready for him; but the people would not receive him, because his face was set toward Jerusalem.” (Lk 9: 51-53)
At the beginning of Christ’s journey from Galilee to Jerusalem, where He was to be crucified, He “set his face” in solemn determination to embrace that upcoming suffering. As prophesied by Isaiah, “I did not hide my face from mocking and spitting… Therefore have I set my face like flint…” (cf. Is 50: 6-7). Isaiah compares the stone-hard determination in Christ’s face to “flint” (also known as “flintstone”), which was used to start fires and to make sharp tools, because it was both very durable and easily chiseled into sharp points. What Christ’s face revealed to us, when it was “set like flint,” did indeed start fires and cut through falsehood. It’s a decisiveness we are to learn in communion with Him, although it will not appeal to everyone. It also did not appeal to the people in the village of the Samaritans, which is why they did not receive Him.
As we consistently refresh the living memory of the Church known as Tradition, we remember not only the things the incarnate Lord said and did, but also what He looked like, what His “face” looked like, as He said and did those things. Because face-to-face contact with Him, made possible for us in the Incarnation, and the “memory” of which is handed down to us in holy icons, is an essential part of divine revelation. The “face” of Jesus Christ is part of His divine-human way of connecting with us; of drawing us into Oneness with Him, with all its fire-starting, life-creating consequences.
Thank You, Lord, for “showing up” for us, and blessing us with Your beautiful face. May our own faces be transfigured in the light of Yours, as we look toward Your holy icon today. “You have filled all with joy, O our Savior, by coming to save the world.” (Troparion of the Feast of the Image “Not Made by Hands”)
