The Third Day of Pascha:
Teaching 7
(On the Meaning of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ)
By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko
Teaching 7
(On the Meaning of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ)
By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko
Christ is Risen!
I. “The Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ,” says Saint Philaret, Metropolitan of Moscow, “serves as:
a) proof of the Divinity of Jesus Christ,
b) the beginning of our resurrection.
II. The confirmation of faith in the Resurrection of Christ is a matter of great importance for Christianity and for the Christian.
a) The main strength of Christianity is to recognize the Lord Jesus as the Savior of the world that has sinned against God and is condemned to death by God. And in order to recognize this powerful quality in Him with full hope, we need complete assurance that He is the only begotten Son of God and the true God, because it has been well said, although not by good people: "Who can forgive sins but God alone" (Luke 5:21)? Only the mercy of God the Son can provide worthy satisfaction to the offended majesty and justice of God the Father; only God can return life to those condemned to death by God.
But the strongest proof of the Divinity of Jesus Christ is His Resurrection. He Himself gave this idea. When the Jews, amazed at the extraordinary power that He showed, driving out the buyers and sellers from the Temple, asked Him: "What sign do you show us for doing these things?" that is, by what miracle do you prove that God has given you authority over His temple? Then He, above all His other miracles, pointed to the miracle of His Resurrection. And He said to them: "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up" (John 2:18, 19), that is, on the third day I will rise again. In fact, the miracles that the Lord Jesus performed on others during His earthly life, even the most wondrous of them - the resurrection of the dead, were also performed by the prophets, although not with the same authority as He. Thus Elijah prayed: "O Lord my God, let the soul of this child return unto him" (1 Kings 17:21). But Jesus commanded: "Lazarus, come forth" (John 11:43) from the tomb. However, others might not have noticed this difference, and therefore might have recognized Jesus as a prophet and messenger of God, and not yet recognized in Him the only begotten Son of God. But it has never happened, and it cannot be imagined possible, that a man would resurrect himself: and therefore the self-resurrection of the Lord Jesus gave the most perfect assurance that He is the true God, ruling over life and death, and the divine Savior, having the power to resurrect all men dead by sins.
b) "Christ is risen from the dead, the firstfruits of them that slept" (1 Cor. 15:20), that is: the Resurrection of Christ is the beginning of the resurrection of all dead men, - a resurrection no longer into temporary life, as was the resurrection of Lazarus and others before him, but into eternal life. Before the Resurrection of Christ, dark and unstable opinions circulated among people about the immortality of the human soul, but even those who tried to think more than others thought least of all about the resurrection of the soul with the body. Nor was the view of the chosen people bright on this subject, when Christ the Savior, rebuking the Sadducees, in the name of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob revealed the idea of the resurrection of the dead. Then not only the Sadducees, but also those who thought better than they were amazed at the novelty of this discovery: "When the people heard it, they were astonished at His teaching" (Matt. 22:32, 33). And the less they knew about the future life, the less incentive they had to prepare for it. Christ the Savior, through His teaching, replaced the shaky opinions about immortality with the firm truth of the resurrection and, through His Resurrection, even made this truth experiential. He taught: “The hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear the voice of the Son of God, and will come forth: they who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and they who have done evil, to the resurrection of judgment” (John 5:28, 29). The Apostle adds: “...so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil” (2 Cor. 5:10). (From the words of Metropolitan Philaret of Moscow, “On the Seventh Week After Pascha”, vol. 3, pages 21-23).
The Resurrection of our Lord is in itself the triumph of triumphs and the feast of feasts. It is the highest triumph of faith, for by it our faith is confirmed, exalted, deified; it is the highest triumph of virtue, for in it the purest virtue triumphed over the greatest temptation; it is the highest triumph of hope, for it serves as the surest pledge of the most majestic promises.
III. May the Lord, who rose from the dead, thereby conquering death and appearing as our God and Savior, deliver us, brethren, from death and eternal torment and grant us eternal life and eternal blessedness!
Source: A Complete Annual Cycle of Short Teachings, Composed for Each Day of the Year. Translated by John Sanidopoulos.