Every year before Christmas the Orthodox Church prepares for Jesus’ birth through forty days of prayer and fasting. On a surface level, this prayer and fasting has its purpose in preparing us to receive Christ in our hearts as we celebrate Christ being born on earth. However, a deeper question still remains: why celebrate Christ’s birth at all? What is special about God’s becoming human?

The answer one hears in Evangelical circles is that Christ’s birth primarily has meaning in reference to his death; that is, Jesus is born simply so he can die for the salvation of the world. But his dying does not require being born; Adam was created out of dust from the earth, and he still died. There is no reason that God the Father could not have done the same thing with Jesus. Thus the question still remains: why does God the Son become human as an infant?

The answer to this question lies in the problem that humanity was facing. Humanity had not only sinned in the Garden, but also they were dying: “for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” (Genesis 2:17). Having separated themselves from God, who is the Resurrection and the Life, humanity handed itself over in slavery to sickness, death, and corruption. This corruption needed to be healed and destroyed from the inside out. This death and destruction not only needed to be healed in the adults who had first sinned in the garden, but in all of humanity at every stage of life who were liable to death.

It is for this reason that God the Son assumes a human body at infancy; to begin to heal the human condition of death and corruption at every stage of life. Christ physically undoes everything that went wrong in the Fall and in the Old Testament. The virgin Eve disobeyed God and brought forth death; the virgin Mary obeyed God and brought forth life. Moses was brought out of Egypt to rescue Israel from slavery to Pharaoh; Jesus was brought out of Egypt to rescue Israel from slavery to death. Israel is tempted in the desert for forty years and sins; Christ is tempted in the desert for forty days and remains sinless. By a tree death enters the world; by a tree life enters the world. By being an infant he redeemed infants. By being a child he redeemed children. By being an adult he redeemed adults. By being a human he redeemed all humanity. All human experience is summarized and completed in Jesus Christ.

The importance of Christ undoing human corruption at every stage of life cannot be understated. Practically speaking, this means that whatever we are going through, no matter how old or young we are Jesus understands because he too went through it all yet remains sinless. If you are struggling to fast, know that Christ struggled to fast in the desert. If you are tempted, know that he too was tempted. If you are suffering and cannot move on, Christ accepted suffering and the cross for your sake. St. Irenaeus of Lyons, a second century theologian, summarizes this idea by these words:

May God grant us a blessed Advent fast as we reflect on the Son of God’s becoming human.