The Paradox of the Incarnation and the Burial

By the cross, in lowering Jesus, do you know whom you have borne? If you truly know whom you hold, you have now become rich. How then do you perform such a terrifying care for this God-body of Jesus? Your desire is praiseworthy, but your manner is even more praiseworthy.

For do you not tremble, carrying upon hands him whom the cherubim tremble at? With what fear do you strip the soft flesh of that divine body? How do you reverently restrain your eye, not staring and uncovering the nature of the flesh of God, who is beyond nature? Tell me, Joseph, do you bury a corpse toward the east, even the Sunrise of sunrises? Do you close with your death-like fingers the eyes of him whom the spotless finger opened for the blind? Do you close the mouth of him whom the mouth-opener opened? Do you withdraw the hands of him who stretched out the dried-up hands? Do you bind the feet in a death-like way, him who gave walking feet to the motionless? Do you lift upon a bed him who commanded the paralytic to lift his bed and walk?

Do you offer myrrh to him who emptied himself with heavenly myrrh and sanctified the world? Do you dare to shame the side of the God-body of Jesus, still bleeding, who is the God who healed the bleeding woman? Do you wash the body of God with water, he who washed everyone and gave cleansing? What lamps will you light for the true Light who enlightened every man? What funeral songs will you sing to him who is silently praised by every heavenly host? Do you weep for him as a dead man, he who wept for Lazarus the four-day dead? Do you make laments for him who gives joy to all and dissolved the sorrow of Eve?

Yet I bless your hands, O Joseph, having served and having touched even the bleeding God-body hands and feet of Jesus. I bless your hands having approached the bleeding side of God, before Thomas, the faithful-unfaithful and praised curious one. I bless your mouth having been filled without greed and having been united to the mouth of Jesus, and having been filled from there with the Holy Spirit. I bless...

Having set your eyes to the eyes of Jesus and received the true light from there, I bless you whose face approached the face of God. I bless you whose shoulders bore Him who bears all; I bless you whose head approached the head of all, Jesus; I bless you whose hands bore Him who bears all. I bless Joseph and Nicodemus. For they have become gods before the cherubim, having exalted and carried Him within themselves. They have become ministers before the six-winged God, not with wings, but covering the Lord with veils and honoring Him.

Whom the cherubim tremble at, this one Joseph and Nicodemus carry upon their shoulders, and all the ranks of the incorporeal stand forth. For Joseph and Nicodemus came; surely all ran together, even the God-sent of the angels. The cherubim anticipate, the seraphim run together, and the thrones assist in carrying, covering the six wings. The many-eyed ones shake, seeing Jesus the incorporeal in the flesh, and the powers cover Him. The principalities sing, the ranks shake, and all the armies of the transformed ranks stand forth. Being amazed at themselves, they run about, saying: 'What is this fearful word, and dread, and trembling, and awe? What is this great, and paradoxical, and incomprehensible sight?' He who is above us, to us the incorporeal, is as God naked and invisible; but below, to mortals, He is naked and visible.

How Joseph and Nicodemus care for Him with unconcern, while the cherubim stand by with reverence. When did He who does not leave the above descend? How did He who is within go out? How did He who fills all come upon the earth? How did He who eludes all depart? He who is above with the Father as God without ceasing, is below with the mother as a mortal truly without ceasing. He who was never revealed to us, how does He appear to men as God, both human and man-loving? How was the invisible seen? How was the bodiless incarnated? How did the impassible suffer? How did the judge stand at the judgment seat? How did life taste death? How is the uncontainable contained in a tomb? How does He who does not leave the bosom of the Father dwell in a tomb? How does He enter the gate of a cave, having opened the gate of Paradise, but not having breached the gates of the Virgin, but the gates of...