Is there a need for the icons of saints?

St. John of Damascus responds, “if you make an image of Christ and not of the saints, it is evident that you do not disown images, but the honour of the saints … you reject the saints as unworthy of honor. However, ‘I live,’ says the Lord, ‘and I will glorify those who glorify Me.’ And the divine Apostle says, ‘therefore now he is not a servant, but a son; and if a son, an heir also through God.’ Again, ‘If we suffer with Him, that we also may be glorified’ … The Scripture says ‘God stood in the synagogue of the gods,’ so that the saints, too, are gods … We depict Christ as our King and Lord, and do not deprive Him of His army. The saints constitute the Lord’s army … For if the saints are heirs of God, and co-heirs of Christ (Rom. 8.17), they will be also partakers of the divine glory of sovereignty. If the friends of God have had a part in the sufferings of Christ, how shall they not receive a share of His glory even on earth? ‘I call you not servants,’ our Lord says, ‘You are my friends.’ Should we then deprive them of the honor given to them by the Church? … I worship the image of Christ as the Incarnate God; that of Our Lady ( της θεοτοκου ), the Mother of us all, as the Mother of God’s Son; that of the saints as the friends of God. They have withstood sin unto blood, and followed Christ in shedding their blood for Him, who shed His blood for them.”¹²²⁸