Tag Archives: Resurrection

“The Day of Resurrection…!”

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“Let us purify our senses and we shall see Christ shining in the unapproachable light of his Resurrection. We shall clearly hear him say, ‘Rejoice!’ as we sing the song of victory.” (Paschal Matins) A contemporary stained glass window depicts St. Thomas, who probes the wounds of the risen Christ. (St. Luke’s Church, Forest Hills; photo by S. Morris)

The gospel accounts in which Christ greets the Myrrhbearing Women at the tomb or the apostles in the Upper Room after his Resurrection tell us that his first word was, “Rejoice!” (Alas, too often modern English translations render this as “Greetings!”) This is also the first word Gabriel utters when he greets the Virgin Mary at the Annunciation: “Rejoice!” (We are more familiar with the Latin translation, “Ave!” which in English becomes, “Hail!”) The gospel, the “good news,” begins and ends with the same word and is summed up in this one word: Rejoice!

In the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, when the priest or deacon finish giving Holy Communion to the congregation, one of the prayers they say as they return to the altar is:

“O Christ our God, who art thyself the fulfillment of the Law and the prophets, who didst fulfill all the dispensation of the Father: fill our hearts with joy and gladness always, now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen.”

In this short prayer, we greet Christ as the fulfillment of the law and the prophets, i.e. the entire Old Testament. He is what everyone in the Old Testament was expecting, waiting for, hoping for. As the fulfillment of all that had come before, he fulfilled the dispensation, i.e. the divine plan for salvation (Eph. 1:9-10; 3:9-11; 1 Tim. 1:3-4) which the Father had in mind since eternity. Receiving the gift of Holy Communion, we participate in this fulfillment. Our participation in Christ is the consummation of everything he did. In a real way, everything God did in the Old Testament and in the life-death-resurrection of Christ was in order to share Holy Communion with us. Having received Holy Communion, we are caught up in the divine joy and gladness–the divine love–for us, our neighbors, the entire world.

God is made flesh. Death is destroyed. What else can we do but rejoice?

“Today Hell Cries Out Groaning….”

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This 8th-century panel painting, now at the Monastery of Saint Catherine, Mount Sinai, Egypt, is the oldest known painted depiction of the dead Christ on the cross. We see Gestas, the unrepentant thief, on the left; Dismas, the Good Thief, was probably on the right (which is now missing; we can see the first letter of his name in the space beside Christ). At the foot of the Cross, there are 3 soldiers gambling for Christ’s seamless robe. On the Cross, Christ is wearing a tunic, known as a “stola,” a garment worn by those who had permission to speak to the emperor. Christ has the boldness to speak to God, his Father, on our behalf because of His Incarnation, Death, and Resurrection and his battle with Death on the Cross.

Today, hell cries out groaning: “I should not have accepted the Man born of Mary. He came and destroyed my power. He has shattered the gates of brass. As God, He raised the dead that I had held captive.” Glory to thy Cross and Resurrection, O Lord.

Today, hell cries out groaning: “My dominion has been shattered. I received a dead man as one of the dead, but against Him I could not prevail. From eternity I had ruled the dead, but behold, He raises all. Because of Him do I perish.” Glory to thy Cross and Resurrection, O Lord.

In these hymns from Holy Saturday, we hear Hell cry out in agony as Christ enters and destroys it from the inside out. Truth exposes the Liar. Light shines in the Darkness. Life confronts Death. The gates of Hell are torn down and the chains broken. Only those who want to remain in Hell are still there.

Christ fought Death and the Devil, the Liar, on their own turf. In the ancient world and the figurative language of the Bible, three places belonged to the Death and the demons: deep water, the desert, and the air. Christ went down into the deep water at His baptism and then went out into the desert for forty days. In both places he confronted the enemies of God. But how did He fight them in the air?

Early Christians thought Christ had to die on the Cross because crucifixion was the only way to die in the air. Raised on the Cross, Christ was able to fight the powers of Darkness in their own territory and thus enter Hell. St. Athanasius of Alexandria wrote: “… if the Lord, by His death, broke apart the wall of partition divinding people (Ephesians 2:14) and called all the nations to Him, how could that happen except on the Cross? For it is only on the cross that a man dies with his hands spread out. Whence it was fitting for the Lord to spread out His hands, that with the one He might draw the ancient people, and with the other those from the Gentiles, and unite both in Himself. Furthermore, if the devil, the enemy of our race, having fallen from heaven, wanders about in the air (Ephesians 2:2) … well, by what other kind of death could this have come to pass, than by one which took place in the air, I mean the cross? Being lifted up on the Cross, He cleared the air of the malignity both of the devil and of demons of all kinds, as He says: I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven; and made a new opening of the way up into heaven as He says once more….”

Having slain Christ on the Cross, Death and Hell thought they had won their battle. But once Christ had entered Hell, they discovered their mistake and realized that what they had thought was their ultimate victory was instead their ultimate defeat.

Want to read more about this? Read The Victory of the Cross by James R. Payton, Jr. or On the Incarnation by St. Athanasius of Alexandria.

Resurrecting Easter

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“Christ is risen! Indeed, he is risen!”

In the iconography of the Eastern Church, the risen Jesus grasps the hands of other figures around him. Unlike the Western image of a solitary Jesus rising from an empty tomb, the authors of Resurrecting Easter saw images of the Resurrection depicting Jesus grasping the hands of Eve and Adam, lifting them to heaven from Hades or hell. They discovered that the standard image for the Resurrection in Eastern Christianity is communal and collective, something unique and distinct from the solitary depiction of the resurrection in Western Christianity.

A popular 7th-century homily on the Resurrection tells us

“The Lord rose, then, after three days… and all the descendants of the nations were saved in Christ. For one was judged and multitudes were saved. The Lord died on behalf of all…. [and] He raised up all humanity to the height of heaven, bearing a gift to the Father, not of gold nor silver nor precious stone, but rather that human race which he made according to his own image and likeness.”

In the Eastern images of the Resurrection, Adam and Eve–often with Kings David and Solomon, St. John the Baptist, and other prophets from the Old Testament–represent all humanity exiting an empty Hades. The whole human race shares in the triumph of the Resurrection of Christ and the earth itself is saved from the desecration of Abel’s blood shed by Cain. This is reflected in the hymnography of the Holy Saturday services as well:

TODAY, HELL CRIES OUT GROANING:
MY DOMINION HAS BEEN SHATTERED.
I RECEIVED A DEAD MAN AS ONE OF THE DEAD,
BUT AGAINST HIM I COULD NOT PREVAIL.
FROM ETERNITY I HAD RULED THE DEAD,
BUT BEHOLD, HE RAISES ALL.
BECAUSE OF HIM DO I PERISH.
GLORY TO THY CROSS AND RESURRECTION, O LORD!

Resurrecting Easter reflects on this divide in how the Western and Eastern churches depict the Resurrection and its implications. The authors argue that the West has gutted the heart of Christianity’s understanding of the Resurrection by rejecting that once-common communal iconography in favor of an individualistic vision. As they examine the ubiquitous Eastern imagery of Jesus freeing Eve from Hades while ascending to heaven, they suggest that this iconography raises profound questions about Christian morality and forgiveness.

A fundamentally different way of understand the story of Jesus’ Resurrection, Resurrecting Easter is illustrated with 130 images and introduces an inclusive, traditional community-based ideal that offers renewed hope and possibility.