Pascha: Christ is Risen! (2024)

Christ is risen!

Indeed He is risen! 

Wishing everyone a joyous celebration of Pascha. May the risen Christ be Lord of your heart and mind, present in every circumstance of your life.

St Paul tells us that Christ “… is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the first-born from the dead, that in everything he might be pre-eminent” (Colossians 1:18).  A statement that St Irenaeus uses to help us understand the role His resurrection plays in our daily lives:

… the Word of God <become> flesh, that He might demonstrate the resurrection of the flesh and be preeminent (proteuo) in all things.  . . .  the Word of God… calling man back again to communion with God, that by this communion with Him we may receive participation in incorruptibility.  (ON THE APOSTOLIC PREACHING, p 65)

The 5th Century Gospel of Nicodemus, taking into account the words of Matthew 27:51-53 (the saints who arose from the dead at Christ’s crucifixion), reminds us that Christ does not rise alone from the dead, but rather rises with dead:

Why then do you marvel at the resurrection of Jesus? What is marvelous is not that he arose but that he did not arise alone, that he raised many other dead ones who appeared to many in Jerusalem.  (John & Sarah Crossan, RESURRECTING EASTER, p 61)

Christ rises from the dead to show the defeat of death and that life is given to those in their graves.  Christ shares His life and power over death with all of us who have died or will die.

The Gospel of God… concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh and was declared to be a Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness, by resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 1:1-4) . . .  the Greek phrase used by Paul, ex anastaseos nekron, does not mean ‘by Christ’s resurrection from the dead ones,’ but ‘by Christ’s resurrection of the dead ones.’ For Paul, Christ was always ‘God’s Son’ (1: 3), but becomes ‘Son of God with power‘ (1:4) not just by his individual, but by the universal resurrection.  (RESURRECTING EASTER, p 67)

Christ is risen from the dead

trampling down death by death,

and upon those in the tombs

bestowing life. 

Christ’s resurrection is an act of God’s love. It is not self-love, for the resurrection is not Christ’s alone, but rather is fully shared with all of humanity.