Crushing the Dragons of Theophany

Today marks one of the greatest feasts of the Orthodox year (New Calendar), the Feast of Theophany, Christ’s Baptism in the Jordan river. Across the world Orthodox Christians will gather after the Liturgy to bless the waters: the ocean, a river, a spring, etc.

Every feast day in Orthodoxy is connected to the Feast of Pascha, because Pascha is God’s great act of salvation. However, some feasts show this connection more clearly than others. Three feasts in the year share the same pattern of services: Pascha, Nativity, and Theophany. Each has a Vesperal Liturgy on its Eve and a Vigil the night before (with occasional variances).

The icons of the three feasts are strikingly similar, with Christ descending into a background that is usually rendered with darkness. At Pascha the darkness is the darkness of death and Hell where Christ has gone to raise the dead. At Nativity the darkness is the cave in which he is born. This darkness is the darkness of the world that is caught in sin and death – but it is the same darkness as Hell. At Theophany the icon depicts Christ standing on the waters of the Jordan – but the waters themselves are depicted as dark, or at least highlighted with a dark background. The darkness at this feast is precisely the same darkness as that pictured in the icon of Pascha. For Theophany is the feast of Christ’s baptism – and baptism, St. Paul tells us, is a baptism into the death of Christ. His Baptism is a prefigurement of His death.

Thus the waters of the Jordan are revealed as Hades. Christ’s descent into the waters becomes his descent into Hades where he “leads captivity captive” (Ephesians 4:8) and sets free those who have been held in bondage to death. The vigil of Theophany, like the vigil of Pascha, includes the reading of the book of the prophet Jonah – the reluctant messenger of God who was thrown overboard by his companions and swallowed by a great fish. This book is read because it contains the same image as the icons – the descent into the depths of Hades.

Then Jonah prayed unto the LORD his God out of the fish’s belly, and said, I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the LORD, and he heard me; out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou heardest my voice. For thou hadst cast me into the deep, in the midst of the seas; and the floods compassed me about: all thy billows and thy waves passed over me. Then I said, I am cast out of thy sight; yet I will look again toward thy holy temple. The waters compassed me about, even to the soul: the depth closed me round about, the weeds were wrapped about my head. I went down to the bottoms of the mountains; the earth with her bars was about me for ever: yet hast thou brought up my life from corruption, O LORD my God.

At the Vespers of Theophany we hear this phrase:

Thou hast bowed Thine head before the Forerunner and hast crushed the heads of the dragons. Thou hast descended into the waters and hast given light to all things, that they may glorify Thee, O Savior, the Enlightenment of our souls.

The phrase, “crushed the heads of the dragons,” comes from Psalm 74:

Yet God my King is from of old, working salvation in the midst of the earth. Thou didst divide the sea by thy might; thou didst break the heads of the dragons on the waters. Thou didst crush the heads of Leviathan, thou didst give him as food for the creatures of the wilderness.

In this Psalm, God is recalled both as Creator, but also as the one who has brought order into the chaos of the world. He not only creates the waters, but crushes the heads of the dragons that dwell there. The “dragons” in the Psalm are an old English translation of the Hebrew word for whales. But the word “dragon” is an apt description of the demonic forces that are defeated in Christ’s death and its prefigurement in Baptism.

In the prayer over the waters, the priest says:

Thou didst sanctify the streams of Jordan, sending down from heaven Thy Holy Spirit, and didst crush the heads of the dragons that lurked therein.

This same prayer is prayed over the waters blessed on the day of Theophany. The service for the blessing of the waters usually takes place by a local body of water.. At the very heart of the blessing a hand cross is thrown out into the water three times and retrieved with the singing of the festal troparion:

When Thou O Christ wast baptized in the Jordan,
the worship ofthe Trinity was made manifest.
For the voice of the Father bear witness to Thee,
and called Thee His beloved Son.
And the Spirit in the form of a dove,
confirmed the truthfulness of His word.
O Christ, our God who hast revealed Thyself,
and hast enlightened the world glory to Thee!

The same troparion is sung throughout the homes of the faithful during the season after Theophany as the priest carries the same blessing into our homes. Theophany is a proclamation to nature itself of Christ’s salvation. Our lives have plenty of “dragons,” in all shapes and sizes. But Christ is victorious over everything that would destroy his creation – particularly the people who are His own.

About Fr. Stephen Freeman

Fr. Stephen is a priest of the Orthodox Church in America, Pastor Emeritus of St. Anne Orthodox Church in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. He is also author of Everywhere Present and the Glory to God podcast series.



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15 responses to “Crushing the Dragons of Theophany”

  1. rmdoson Avatar
    rmdoson

    My parish had a Vesperal Liturgy for Theophany last night (1/5). It is one of my favorite services of the year! Thank you, Fr. Stephen for your usual insight 🙂

  2. davidperi Avatar

    Coming out of a Luth background but now Orthodox for the past several years, sometimes it is hard for me to understand this “blessings of the waters”. Any suggestions or suggestive readings that I should study?

  3. Jane Szepesi Avatar
    Jane Szepesi

    David, a suggestion: Father Thomas Hopko’s The Winter Pascha has a chapter on “The Great Blessing of Water” which will probably make clear to you what is going on. And in Of Water and the Spirit, Father Schmemann’s section on “The Blessing of Water”: “Purified and restored to its original nature, water now is to be more: Christ by His descent into Jordan, by His Baptism, has made [the water] into the power of redemption for all men…” (p. 41). May it be so for us all.

  4. Father Stephen Avatar

    Jane,
    Those are the very books I was thinking of, too. In the prayer over the waters (both in Baptism and in the Great Blessing of Waters) we ask that God make the waters to be “the Waters of the Jordan,” that is, to unite them and reveal them to be one with the waters of Christ’s Baptism, and thus united to His death and ressurection. Creation itself is redeemed, and revealed to have its meaning in the event of Christ’s Incarnation.

    I had opportunity to be present at the Great Blessing of the Waters at the River Jordan in the Holy Land a few years back. It is an interesting meditation to watch the actions and prayer that God make the waters of the Jordan to be the waters of the Jordan. It made profound sense (particularly in a one-storey universe).

  5. Jane Szepesi Avatar
    Jane Szepesi

    Dear Father Stephen, Forgive me for jumping in there and thank you for the additional enlightenment!
    With the Feast!
    Jane

  6. fatherstephen Avatar

    Jane,
    You did well to “jump in”

  7. The Orthodox Lady Avatar
    The Orthodox Lady

    Dear Father Stephen-On the week of Theophany, I thought it fitting to tell you that, although you don’t know me, your blog was an important influence in my conversion to Orthodoxy last year. This year will be my first Pascha as a communicant and I am so excited and grateful to everyone and every experience that has led me here. Thank God for you and your many pearls of wisdom. May God bless you richly, as he has me.
    I am no longer “To Be Or Not To Be”, but “The Orthodox Lady”

  8. Mary Holste Avatar
    Mary Holste

    Thanks, Papa! Your article and that amazing photo made me think. It adds a new layer of meaning to the Arthurian legend of the sword. Arthur seeks his magic sword from the waters of the lake and eventually receives it from an outstretched hand, reaching up from the water. Those old legends are full of Christian imagery. The cross is a spiritual sword, and so King Arthur begins his reign, in effect, by taking up his “cross” in baptism.

  9. davidperi Avatar

    Thank you for the suggesting the two readings. Blessings.

  10. dee Avatar
    dee

    When you mentioned that “the waters of the Jordan were made the waters of the Jordan”, this instantly brought to mind (something not dissimilar to St. Maximus’ teachings on how) God’s “suggestions” (for lack of a better word) are ‘hidden’ behind Creation as “potentials”…
    And it is communion with God that makes everything – even lifeless creation – “alive” with being and meaning…
    And in that Spirit of Love (according to Metropolitan John Zizioulas), “from the point of view of ontology, the fall consists in the refusal to make being dependent on communion, in a rupture between truth and communion”.
    Thank you for reminding us of the hidden Truth in so many ways and re-kindling the flame with your posts.

  11. Darlene Avatar
    Darlene

    I am recalling my baptism, in the very waters of the Jordan River in Israel. What a glorious remembrance!

  12. fatherstephen Avatar

    Darlene,
    And through God’s grace, the waters of the eschatological Jordan! Many years!

  13. Andrew Avatar

    Reblogged this on sojourner and pilgrim and commented:
    Theophany – in anticipation of the Feast this week (Julian Calendar) I can recommend this article from Fr Stephen

  14. Andrew Avatar
  15. Catholic facing east Avatar
    Catholic facing east

    Super – it can’t get any better than this. Thank you Father (once again) great post. Wonderful!

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