While
Christ still walked the earth, word about the Word spread far and wide. A
certain Syrian king called Abgar came to hear and believe the works performed
by Jesus and sent a letter to Him begging His presence in the royal court at
Edessa, to cure the king of an illness he had. In some accounts the messanger
was also given instructions to draw an image of this famous man, Jesus of
Nazereth.
When the
messanger got through the crowds thronging Christ and His disciples, the
invitation was declined as Jesus had other plans. Yet the Son of God sent the
messanger back with two powerfully edifying things: His word and His image.
The word
was given in the form of a letter – not written but dictated by Our Lord – and
the image was altogether more special. Amid the bustle, Jesus used a face-cloth
which miraculously bore the image of His face. This was given to King Abgar’s
courtier and, with the letter, was returned to Edessa with the promise that
Christ would send one of His disciples soon.
The image
of Christ preserved on the face-cloth was thus kept in Edessa, and became known
variously as “The Image of Edessa”, the “Mandylion” (Gr. “face-cloth”), or “The
Image Not Made With Hands”. As for Christ’s promise, naturally that too was
kept, and it was Thaddeus, one of the Seventy Disciples who after the Ascension
(and within a year of Ebgar receiving the mandylion) came to explain the true
nature and purpose of Jesus Christ to the King. With the salvation-bearing
words of the Gospel, King Ebgar was cured, and became the first Christian King
in history.
The image
of Christ not made with hands had a remarkable history of its own – allegedly
protecting the city of Edessa from Persian invasion in 544 A.D. The mandylion
was transferred to Constantinople – by then the political centre of Christendom
– in the 10th century. After that it was lost in the sacking of Constantinople
by the Latins in 1204. Although claims have been made as to its whereabouts
since then, it is assumed to have been lost for good.
 |
King Abgar with the Image of Edessa (10th century) |
The
“first” icon of Christ does what all future, “man-made”, Orthodox icons of
Christ do: attest to the reality of God’s incarnation on earth. Beyond this,
the Image of Edessa’s miraculous origins can be seen as a symbol of God’s
authority and centrality to all true worship – because after all is said and
done, the first iconographer was Jesus Christ Himself.
Source: https://iconreader.wordpress.com/2010/07/11/icon-not-made-with-hands/
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