Proclaiming the Risen Lord in our Time

Dear Parish Faithful & Friends in Christ,

CHRIST IS RISEN!

INDEED HE IS RISEN!

“And when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour.” (Mark 15:33)

“And very early on the first day of the week they went to the tomb when the sun had risen.” (Mark 16:2)

Saint Mark the Evangelist is rather precise when he narrates that the Lord was crucified at the third hour (15:25); that darkness fell over the land at the sixth hour (15:33); and that Christ died at the ninth hour (15:34).  According to the Jewish reckoning of time, that would mean that the Lord hung upon the Cross from about 9:00 a.m. (the “third hour”) until 3:00 p.m. (the “ninth hour”) on that first “Holy Friday.” For the last three hours, then, “there was darkness over the whole land.” 

This is not a weather report from the Evangelist.  Rather, this unexpected darkness was in fulfillment of the prophecy of Amos (read as the Old Testament reading at the Sixth Hour on Holy and Great Friday) that was a “sign” of great significance for the early Church as it began to reflect upon the “scandal” of the Cross:

“‘And on that day,’ says the Lord God, ‘I will make the sun go down at noon, and darken the earth in broad daylight.  I will turn your feasts into mourning and all of your songs into lamentation; I will bring sackcloth upon all loins, and baldness on every head; I will make it like the mourning for an only son, and the end of it like a bitter day’” (Amos 8:9-10).

The fulfillment of this prophecy revealed the cosmic dimension and significance of the Lord’s death on the Cross:  all of creation mourned the death of the Son of God.  Truly this was an awesome mystery! 

Yet, while at the time of the Crucifixion this very darkness may have intensified the solemnity of the Lord’s death, it also intensified the starkness of Christ dying on the Cross seemingly abandoned by all, including His heavenly Father:

“And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, ‘E’lo-i, E’lo-i, la’ma sabach-tha’ni?’ which means, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’” (15:34).

Again, the impression is that there was no one with Jesus in his hours of darkness upon the Cross.  Yet, at the very moment of His death and seeming abandonment, Saint Mark narrates that a Gentile centurion was the first to realize that this was not the case:

“And when the centurion, who stood facing Him, saw that He thus breathed His last, he said, ‘Truly this man was the Son of God!’” (15:39).

In addition, there was actually a silent presence of deeply sympathetic figures within some proximity of the Cross that Saint Mark accounts for:

“There were also women looking on from afar, among whom were Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joses, and Salome, who, when He was in Galilee, followed Him, and ministered to Him; and also many other women who came up with Him to Jerusalem” (15:40-41).

Their role was of further great importance, for their vigilance allowed them to know where the tomb of the Lord was located: “Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses saw where He was laid” (15:47).  The presence of these faithful female disciples of the Lord—the women we now know and venerate as the Myrrhbearers—prepares us for the awesome revelation that will occur “very early on the first day of the week” (16:2).  The account of the discovery of the empty tomb; the angelic proclamation of the Resurrection of Jesus to the women by the angel in the tomb; and the astonishment of the women is narrated in a rather succinct manner by Saint Mark in only eight verses (Mark 16:1-8).

When the myrrhbearing women arrived at the tomb carrying their spices in the hopes of anointing the dead body of Jesus, the darkness that will soon be lifted from their hearts was already being dispelled by another sign from the world of nature, for the women arrived “when the sun had risen” (16:2).  The cosmos had mourned the death of the Son of God; but it will now rejoice by “announcing” the Resurrection of the Sun of Righteousness.  

The movement from darkness to light is a powerful motif throughout the Gospels.  The darkness may represent sin or the final horror of death.  Jesus is the very presence of light, and that light is so strong that neither sin nor death can resist its strength.  This is not simply a literary “symbol,” but a living reality.  

Saint Mark then narrates that the women “were amazed” when, upon “entering the tomb they saw a young man sitting on the right side, dressed in a white robe” (16:5).  This “young man” was clearly an angel.  And it is this angelic being who will first announce the Resurrection of Christ with a definitive clarity that cannot be misunderstood:  

“Do not be amazed; you seek Jesus of Nazareth, Who was crucified. He has risen, He is not here; see the place where they laid Him” (16:6).

The Jesus Who had been crucified is the Jesus Who was now raised from the dead.  The risen Jesus is neither a “ghost” nor a “spirit.”  The Crucified One is now the Risen Lord—Jesus the Christ and King of Israel. The Father had not abandoned His Son, but rather vindicated the One whose resurrection will now be announced to the disciples/apostles, and through them to the whole world.  As the biblical scholar, Francis Moloney has written:  

“The question asked of God by Jesus from the cross, ‘My God, my God why have you forsaken me?’ (15:34) has been answered.  Jesus has not been forsaken.  Unconditionally obedient to the will of God (see 14:36), Jesus has accepted the cup of suffering.  On the cross He is Messiah, King of Israel, and Son of God (see 15:32, 39).  God’s never-failing presence to His obedient Son leads to the definitive action of God:  He has been raised!  The apparent failure of Jesus has been reversed by the action of God, Who has raised Jesus from death” (The Death of the Messiah, p. 11).

Saint Mark and the other evangelists recorded the events of that first and glorious Easter morning. They are witnesses to the Resurrection of Christ. We accept their testimony and proclaim the same “Good News” to the world today through the Church.  And we invite others to share that life—including “harlots and tax-collectors.”  

Yet, like the myrrhbearing women, we need to experience the Resurrection on a deep and personal level. In and through faith, the “stone” that covers the entrance to our own hearts can be “rolled away” by the grace of God, and a new dawn can pierce the darkness of sin and death that leaves us as if living an entombed life hidden from the light.  This is the work of God.  

When the Resurrection of Christ is genuinely experienced in the very depths of our being, we may at first be silent because “trembling and astonishment” lay hold of us (Mark 16:8).  But when we recover our voice we may then joyfully share with others—through our faith and our lives—that CHRIST IS RISEN!

Christ the Conqueror of Hell: A Deep Discussion

Dear Parish Faithful,

CHRIST IS RISEN!
INDEED HE IS RISEN!

We had quite an intense but all-too-short post-Liturgy discussion yesterday on a series of eschatological themes (from the Greek ta eschata or "the last things") - primarily judgment, heaven and hell and the whole issue of salvation (we call this soteriology, from the Gk. word for salvation, which is soteria).  

The discussion arose after I briefly spoke about a book that I am currently reading by Archbishop Ilarion Alfeyev, Christ the Conqueror of Hell - The Descent Into Hades from an Orthodox Perspective.  This is a fine study that reveals just how pervasive this theme is, beginning with the New Testament and permeating early Christian poetry, various apocryphal Gospels, the writings of the Church Fathers and our paschal liturgical texts.  It is a very fine study by an excellent contemporary scholar and theologian.

"Hades" is the Gk. word for the Hebrew "sheol" which refers to the realm of the dead, a shadowy, disincarnate and wholly bleak existence cut off from the grace of God.  This is the Old Testament abode of the dead. Christ entered that realm as its Conqueror - not as its Victim as found later in aberrant Protestant theology - releasing those who were bound there and incapable of saving themselves, raising them up with Himself, and thus "trampling down death by death."

As one of countless examples, from The Odes of Solomon, a 2nd c. collection of poetical theological texts, we read in the expressive Ode 42 of Christ preaching to the dead in Hades:

'Post Pascha Swoon' or 'Revived by Joy'?

Dear Parish Faithful & Friends in Christ,

CHRIST IS RISEN!

INDEED HE IS RISEN!

I began this morning with a question on my mind:   Is there life after Pascha?  This, in, turn, led to a series of further related questions:  Is there meaningful ecclesial/church life following the paschal celebration of only little more than a few days ago?  Is it possible to retain any of the vibrancy and joy of commemorating, participating, and experiencing the Resurrection of Christ?  Can we continue to maintain our ecclesial lives beyond the level of perfunctory attendance once we have passed through Great Lent, Holy Week and Pascha?

Humanly speaking, these may be unrealistic expectations for the following reasons:

• Most everyone is still overcoming a certain level of exhaustion, that is not merely physical.  I think at times that Bright Week may have to be downgraded to Recovery Week!   

• Clearly everyone is back to normal time and routines – work, school, etc. – that may have been temporarily interrupted during Holy Week and Pascha. “Life goes on,” according to a limp cliché, and we may still be catching up with some unfinished business.

• The Paschal/Pentecostal Season does not have the  unique services that characterize Great Lent, Holy Week and Pascha.  The one exception, the services of Bright Week, have not well-attended and are therefore no longer scheduled.

Does our surrounding culture influence us by treating Easter as a “one and done” affair?  Meaning, that when we wake up on Bright Monday, are we already “moving on?”

However, that does not mean that our parish(es) have to empty out and become tomb-like immediately after Pascha outside of Sunday’s Liturgy.  The inevitable “summer slowdown” need not begin before we have even completed Bright Week. The Resurrection of Christ is meant  to be enlivening, not deadening!

The “swoon theory” is a hopelessly absurd idea meant to explain away the Resurrection of Christ.  Yet, how many of the faithful experience a “post-paschal swoon” from which they need to awaken before the entire Season comes to a close.  If such is the case, then what does this say of the over-all impact of the Paschal Season?

Perhaps we need to probe just what each and every one of us means by the term “Pascha.”  It is the Greek form of the Hebrew word for Passover.  Pascha, therefore, is:

The Resurrection of Christ and the Rise of Christianity

"The historical aspect of our Christian faith means that any historical evidence that can disprove the resurrection of Christ would immediately and definitively undermine that faith. But no such evidence exists. On the contrary, it points us toward the genuineness and authenticity of those very claims."

The Myrrhbearing Women encounter the angel at the empty tomb: "Why do you seek the Living among the dead?" (MT 28:1-8, MK 16:1-8, LK 24:1-9, JN 20:1-2, 11-13).

Dear Parish Faithful & Friends in Christ,

CHRIST IS RISEN!
INDEED HE IS RISEN!


Orthodox Christians believe that the New Testament Church and the Christian faith itself appeared at a particular point in history because the crucified Jesus of Nazareth was raised from the dead. The cause behind the emergence of the Church and the Christian Faith was not a crucified, dead and buried Jesus. Rather, that very crucified, dead and buried Jesus was revealed to be both Lord and Christ following His Resurrection “on the third day.” 

God vindicated the messianic claims of Jesus when He raised Jesus from the dead “according to the Scriptures.” Contemporary Orthodox Christians readily agree with the Apostle Paul’s insistence on the absolute centrality of the bodily resurrection of Christ as the foundation of Christian faith in Jesus: "If Christ is not raised, then your faith is in vain and our preaching is in vain” (1 Cor. 15). Among all Christians this has been an overwhelming consensus since the initial witness of the apostles to the Risen Lord.

But since the emergence of critical biblical scholarship within the last two centuries or so, we find Christian scholars and those influenced by them questioning, reinterpreting or openly denying the bodily resurrection of Jesus. This process may be more accelerated today, or simply more prominent and public in its expression. A vivid – if not lurid - expression of this skeptical approach to the resurrection claims of the first Christians can be found in the work of the New Testament scholar Dom Dominic Crossan. In his reconstruction of events, the body of the crucified Jesus was discarded in a shallow grave, there to suffer the further humiliation of becoming the food of ravenous dogs. That is also the kind of counter-claim that will attract a good deal of publicity. 

This threatens to undermine a consistent and long-standing witness among all Christians that points to the uniqueness of Jesus Christ among the great “religious founders” within human history. That uniqueness was articulated by Prof. Veselin Kesich in the following manner in his book The First Day of the New Creation:

For the members of the first Christian community in Jerusalem, the resurrection of Christ was above all an event in the life of their Master, and then also in their own lives. After meeting Christ following his resurrection, they could have said with St. Paul that necessity was laid upon them to preach the gospel of resurrection (1 Cor. 9:16). Christianity spread throughout the Greco-Roman world with the proclamation that Jesus who died on the cross was raised to a new life by God. The message of Christianity is without parallel in religious history in its content and in its demand. (p. 15)

The Risen Christ spoke to His disciples about “belief” in His Resurrection even among those who did not “see” Him as those very first disciples did. This was in response to the Apostle Thomas’ movement from unbelief to belief when Jesus appeared to Thomas and offered him to probe the wounds in His hands and side: “You have believed because you have seen me. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believed” (Jn. 20:29). 

Clearly, the presence of faith is essential in confessing that Jesus has been raised from the dead: “If you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved” (ROM. 10:9). However, in perhaps challenging a misconceived understanding of faith, this does not mean that believing that Jesus was bodily raised from the dead is an irrational leap into the unbelievable and indefensible.

AUDIO PODCAST: Living in the Light of the Resurrection

CHRIST IS RISEN!

In May 2008, Fr Steven gave a two-part talk on the Resurrection, at Holy Dormition Monastery in Rives Junction, Michigan, to a retreat of the Midwest Antiochian Women's Association.

This warm and inspiring, richly developed presentation on the Resurrection of Christ was digitally recorded in excellent quality, and made available as a special podcast on Ancient Faith Radio. We are happy to make it available again here during the Paschal season.

There's a special message right at the start, where Fr. Steven speaks of how easy it is to "miss Bright Week", due to our exhaustion following the rigors of Holy Week. Reflecting on the Resurrection of Christ and how to Live in the Light of that reality is the point of Fr. Steven's talk, so we may hopefully live more fully in the New Life the Lord has given us.

You can play these talks in your browser, or save to your computer, smartphone or tablet. Share the joyful message of the reality and meaning of Christ's Bodily Resurrection with your family and friends!

INDEED HE IS RISEN!


Part 1: Theological and Historical Aspects of the Resurrection
Direct Link - Play in Popup, or Download - Transcript

Part 2: Living in the Light of the Resurrection
Direct Link - Play in Popup, or Download - Transcript