What do we see here? Where are we? We are in the tomb with Christ. The title of the icon is 'the Man of Sorrows', which refers to a famous passage in the prophet Isaiah…

He was despised and rejected by men,
a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering.
He was oppressed and afflicted,
yet he did not open his mouth;
he was led like a lamb to the slaughter,
and as a sheep before her shearers is silent,
so he did not open his mouth.
Isaiah 53:3,7

What does this face show us? We see suffering. This dead face is set in a frown. There are dark shadows under the eyes – the shadow under the left eye is like a bruise. The shoulders are hunched and tense, while the arms are limp and useless.

Then we see an incredible vulnerability here. Jesus has the mouth of a sleeping child, with the lower lip sucked under the top lip, for comfort. The head is bent as if in sleep. We see the openness of Jesus to suffering and death. The sheep silent before the shearers. We see God made poor, weak and helpless. This is a very rare sight – I don't know of any other image which so captures the vulnerability of God in Christ and which expresses so perfectly the gospel truth that 'though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich' (2 Corinthians 8:9).

And yet the image does this without being sentimental. This face has no trace of self-pity, but instead it is full of dignity and majesty. Even after the mockery of the trial, the agony of the scourging and the desperate struggle of the crucifixion, the face of Jesus is still the face of a king. Look at the powerful, arched eyebrows, which are stern without being severe. Look at the hair, which is so full of life – hair like the mane of a lion.

Towards the end of C.S. Lewis's book, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, the lion Aslan submits to a violent death at the hands of his enemies. But before he is killed, he is bound with ropes and his wonderful, thick mane is cut off. Lucy and Susan witness all this, and they see that although his face looks 'small and different without its mane', at the same time it is 'braver, and more beautiful, and more patient than ever'. This is something of what we see here: braver, more beautiful, more patient than ever.

The icon shows us the beauty of Christ in his complete obedience to the will of God, at vast cost to himself, and also in his unconditional love for us. Because it is for us, for our sake, that he is here like this. And this creates longing. The Orthodox liturgy for Holy Saturday has a prayer which is filled with this longing…

O faithful, come, let us behold our Life laid in a tomb to give life to those who dwell in tombs. Come, let us behold him in his sleep and cry out to him with the voice of the prophets: 'You are like a lion. Who shall arouse you, O King? Rise by your own power, O you who have given yourself up for us, O Lover of mankind.'