Names and Titles
The Scriptures and the Church address Christ by many names, each disclosing something of who He is. "Jesus" (Yeshua, "the Lord saves") is His human name; "Christ" (the Anointed One, Messiah) is His office as the promised King, Priest, and Prophet. He is Emmanuel, "God with us"; the Word (Logos) of God; the Son of God and the Son of Man.
He names Himself in the Gospel of John through the great "I AM" sayings — the Bread of Life, the Light of the World, the Door, the Good Shepherd, the Resurrection and the Life, the Way and the Truth and the Life, the True Vine — each echoing the divine Name revealed to Moses.
The Church further confesses Him as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, the New Adam, the Great High Priest, the Bridegroom of the Church, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, the Alpha and the Omega, the Sun of Righteousness, and Pantocrator, the Ruler of all — the title borne by His great icon in the dome of the church.
Historical Context
Christ was born in the days of Herod the Great, in a Judea under the rule of the Roman Empire, and was crucified under the procurator Pontius Pilate during the reign of Tiberius Caesar. The Holy Land of His time was a meeting of worlds — Roman administration and roads, Greek language and culture, and the religious life of Second Temple Judaism centered on the Temple in Jerusalem and the synagogues of the towns.
The Jewish people awaited the Messiah promised by the prophets, though expectations varied — many looked for a king who would free them from Rome. Among the parties of the day were the Pharisees, who upheld the oral tradition and the resurrection; the Sadducees, the priestly aristocracy of the Temple; and others such as the Zealots and the Essenes.
Christ's ministry moved through Galilee — Nazareth, Cana, Capernaum, Bethsaida, the shores of the Sea of Galilee — and southward through Samaria and Judea to Jerusalem, with journeys to the regions of Tyre, Sidon, and the Decapolis. He spoke Aramaic, knew the Hebrew Scriptures, and lived among a people for whom the Law and the Prophets were the framework of all life.
The Miracles
The Gospels record many signs by which Christ revealed His divine authority and His compassion. He healed the sick — lepers, the paralyzed, the blind, the deaf, the woman with the issue of blood — often by a word or a touch, and forgave sins, which belongs to God alone.
He showed mastery over creation, stilling the storm, walking upon the water, multiplying loaves and fishes to feed thousands, turning water into wine at the wedding in Cana, and drawing a great catch of fish. He cast out demons, freeing those long bound.
He raised the dead: the daughter of Jairus, the son of the widow of Nain, and Lazarus, four days in the tomb. These signs were not displays of power for their own sake but revelations of the Kingdom breaking in, foreshadowing His own Resurrection and the restoration of all things.
The Teachings
The heart of Christ's preaching was the Kingdom of God — its nearness, its hidden growth, and the repentance and faith by which one enters it. In the Sermon on the Mount He gave the Beatitudes and the Lord's Prayer, calling His disciples to a righteousness of the heart that surpasses outward observance.
He taught largely in parables — the Sower, the Prodigal Son, the Good Samaritan, the Lost Sheep, the Talents, the Pearl of Great Price — short stories that conceal and reveal the mystery of the Kingdom. He taught on prayer, forgiveness, almsgiving and fasting, marriage, wealth and poverty, humility, and the love of God and neighbor as the summing-up of the Law.
In the great discourses of the Gospel of John — on the Bread of Life, the Good Shepherd, and the farewell words to His disciples — He spoke most directly of His unity with the Father, the gift of the Holy Spirit, and the new commandment that His disciples love one another as He has loved them.
The Passion, Death, and Resurrection
The center of the Gospel is the Passion. Entering Jerusalem to acclaim, Christ cleansed the Temple, gave His final teachings, and at the Mystical Supper instituted the Eucharist. In the Garden of Gethsemane He prayed in agony, "not my will, but thine, be done," and was betrayed by Judas and arrested.
Tried before the Sanhedrin and condemned under Pontius Pilate, He was scourged, mocked, crowned with thorns, and crucified between two thieves on Golgotha. From the Cross He forgave His executioners, entrusted His Mother to the beloved disciple, and gave up His spirit. He was buried in the new tomb of Joseph of Arimathea.
On the third day He rose from the dead, the tomb found empty and the grave-cloths laid aside. He appeared to the Myrrh-bearing women, to Peter, to the two on the road to Emmaus, to the Eleven, and to many others. His Resurrection is the foundation of the Christian faith and the pledge of the general resurrection: "Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and upon those in the tombs bestowing life."
Theology of the Incarnate Word
The Church's faith in Christ was confessed and defended against many errors. He is one Person in two natures: true God and true man. The union of the natures is real and permanent, yet without confusion or change (against the Monophysites) and without division or separation (against Nestorius). Because the one who is born of the Virgin is God the Word, she is rightly called Theotokos, the Mother of God.
Having two natures, Christ has two natural wills and two energies, human and divine, the human freely conforming to the divine — as the Sixth Ecumenical Council taught against Monothelitism. In Gethsemane this is shown when His human will yields wholly to the will of the Father.
The purpose of the Incarnation is the salvation of mankind. By His death He offered Himself for the life of the world; by His descent into Hades He freed the dead; by His Resurrection He conquered death. The Fathers express this as a wondrous exchange: God became man that man might become god by grace — theosis. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and of His Kingdom there shall be no end.
The Ecumenical Councils and the Defence of Christ
The Seven Ecumenical Councils articulated the Church's faith in Christ against the heresies of their age. The First Council (Nicaea, 325) confessed the Son as "of one essence with the Father" against Arius, who made Him a creature; the Second (Constantinople, 381) completed the Creed and affirmed the divinity of the Holy Spirit.
The Third (Ephesus, 431) upheld the title Theotokos against Nestorius; the Fourth (Chalcedon, 451) confessed one Person in two natures against Eutyches and the Monophysites; the Fifth (Constantinople, 553) clarified this teaching further.
The Sixth (Constantinople, 680–681) confessed two wills and two energies in Christ against the Monothelites; and the Seventh (Nicaea, 787) defended the holy icons, teaching that because the Word truly became flesh, He may be depicted, and the honor given the image passes to its prototype.
The Feasts of the Lord
The liturgical year is built around the feasts of Christ. Pascha, the Resurrection, is the "Feast of feasts," the moveable center from which the whole calendar is reckoned; the weeks of Great Lent prepare for it, and the Paschal season extends to Pentecost.
Among the Great Feasts of the Lord are the Nativity (December 25), Theophany / the Baptism (January 6), the Meeting in the Temple (February 2), the Transfiguration (August 6), the Entry into Jerusalem (Palm Sunday), the Ascension (forty days after Pascha), and Pentecost (fifty days after Pascha). The Exaltation of the Cross (September 14) and the Annunciation (March 25) are also numbered among the Twelve Great Feasts.
Each feast is not merely the remembrance of a past event but the entry of the worshipping Church into its abiding reality, celebrated with its own hymns, Scripture readings, and iconography.
Icons of Christ
Because the Word truly became flesh, the Church writes His image in icons, confessing the Incarnation against those who would forbid it. The honor shown the icon, the Fathers teach, passes to the One depicted.
The principal icon of Christ is the Pantocrator, "Ruler of All," showing Him as Teacher and Judge with the book of the Gospel, crowned in the dome of the church. The icon "Not Made by Hands" (the Mandylion) preserves the tradition of His true likeness. Other types depict the events of His life — the Nativity, the Baptism, the Transfiguration, the Crucifixion, the Resurrection (the Anastasis, His descent into Hades), and the Ascension — as well as Christ the Good Shepherd, the Bridegroom, and Christ Emmanuel.
The Relics of the Passion
Christ left no bodily relics, for He rose from the dead and the tomb was found empty; this distinguishes Him from every saint. What the Church venerates are the instruments and witnesses of His Passion — chief among them the Precious and Life-giving Cross, found by the Empress Helena and celebrated at its Exaltation.
Other objects associated by tradition with the Passion include the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, the Crown of Thorns, the Holy Lance, the Nails, and various shroud and chalice traditions. The Church distinguishes between what is well attested and what rests on later or local tradition, and venerates these things always for the sake of the One to whom they point.
