Resurrection

“St. Maximus the Confessor describes human beings as a “microcosm,” that is, as the universe (cosmos) made small (micro). This indicates that though we may speak of things outside ourselves (heaven, hell, sin, death, the Kingdom, and so forth), they are also within us. We are not strangers to such things—they are the stuff of which we are made. The narrative of Christ, His Cross, and His death and Resurrection is also the narrative of our inner life. What He is doing for us, He also does within us.” (Father Stephen Freeman)

“The resurrection was not meant to cause us to long for a “pie-in-the-sky” heaven, but to reconnect our life on earth with God’s kingdom. Our behavior on earth is to change as we allow the Kingdom to become part of our daily lives. We live on earth where death continues to happen, but we are to live in the light of Christ’s resurrection, waiting in faith for His return. And as science and technology continue to explore the universe and unlock its mysteries, we will continually have to discern what it all means. The very notion of history tells us that things are changing, and we have to discern how to relate our faith in Christ’s resurrection with our ever-changing understanding of the world around us.” (Fr. Ted Bobosh)

“We should note carefully the difference, at this point, between the promise of ‘heaven’, seen as a post-mortem comfort offered by the wealthy and powerful to the poor and powerless, on the one hand, and resurrection on the other. Resurrection is precisely concerned with the present world and its renewal, not with escaping the present world and going somewhere else; and, in its early Jewish forms right through to its developed Christian forms, it was always concerned with divine judgment, with the creator God acting within history to put right that which is wrong. Only if we misunderstand what resurrection actually involved can we line it up with the kind of ‘pie in the sky’ promises which earned the scorn of many twentieth century social reformers.” (N.T. Wright)

“We dwell in a world of real trouble, real sorrow, real pain. The Lord came down into this world and became a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief, and He felt pain in his heart—on the night in which He was given up, his soul was “exceedingly sorrowful, even unto death”—and pain in his flesh (Is. 53:3; Mt. 26:38). But out of pain, the Lord has brought forth healing; out of sorrow, He has wrought an incorruptible source of joy. He died, but now He lives forever, and He offers us the same hope: eternal life. And the eternal life that He offers is not just an extension of life in this world, with its ups and downs, sorrows and joys, sins and foibles and accidents. Rather He offers us abundant life, true life, by restoring our communion with God, who is the Source of life. This true and incorruptible life, a life of constant trust and love and joy, is not only available in the world to come…we are already, through faith and hope, getting a foretaste of that life—a life without fear of suffering or death, that sees sorrow as a source of joy, since even in sorrow, Christ, the Man of Sorrows, is there, ready to draw near to us in a union of love.” (Metropolitan Tikhon)

“And so having received such great mercy through the Resurrection of the Holy Lord Jesus, we are now called to share that great mercy with those around us. What is that great mercy of the Lord Christ? It is His great forgiveness and the fullness of His love, “for behold forgiveness has shown forth from the grave.” This is why the Church urges us to “forgive all by the resurrection,” to forgive and be forgiven, to love and to be loved, because the Lord is Risen indeed.” (Bishop Alexei)

“... the Lord had emerged from the tomb before the descent of the angel, the rolling away of the stone, and the earthquake which occurred at the same time. The stone was rolled away, not so that the Lord could emerge, but to demonstrate that He’d already done so. It was rolled away so that the myrrh-bearing women could approach, see the empty tomb and be convinced of the Resurrection.” (Elder Epifanios Theodoropoulos)

“It’s true that Jesus’ Resurrection is a real test for human reason. We don’t need to look far: suffice it to examine the entourage of the Lord and we see the suspicion and doubt that had crept into even the select circle of His disciples, as regards this astonishing event. The Twelve shut themselves into the upper room and had very serious doubts indeed concerning the news brought by the Myrrh-bearing women, attributing it to female hyperbole and a taste for exaggeration. But on the way to Emmaus, two disciples had the Risen Jesus with them and were unable to recognize in His face their beloved Master. With his mind working strictly within the bounds of reason, Thomas persistently refused to believe the news of the Resurrection. Coming now to our own times, the teaching on the Resurrection seems even more unrealistic and absurd. This is because our age is one which deifies reason, boasts of the conquests and achievements of human endeavors and has begun gradually to give shape in our conceited brains to the sense of total self-sufficiency and omnipotence. But this omnipotence creates utter confusion, because you see a lot of people today declaring themselves to be Christian while denying the fact of the Resurrection since they can’t understand it. What sort of Christians are they?” (Archimandrite Epiphanios Ekonomou)

“…the Resurrection demands simplicity in the intellect, simplicity of thought, a child-like and therefore pure and unadulterated faith. Christ’s Resurrection marks the victory over death and the consolidation of the hope of immortality. This hope can give courage, provide strength and endurance for people to put up with the problems and pains of this life. The resurrection is the culmination of the Passion, the image which directly succeeds the tragedy of the Cross. It is precisely this that is the hope: the fact that behind the Cross that each person, without exception, bears in this life, there is Christ Who suffers with us, Who gives all of us release, redemption, validation, the resurrection of life and of the conscience, the end of pain and of anguish.” (Archimandrite Epiphanios Ekonomou)

“…without the Resurrection there’s nothing more absurd in heaven or under the heavens than this world, nor greater despair than this this life, without immortality.” (St. Justin Popović)

“Every day, at every moment Christ, who became our hope, gives us the opportunity to pick ourselves up after our lapses and to free ourselves from servitude to sin, which subjects us to the law of sin and occupies our members. Saint Paul rightly cries: ‘Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?’. And answers immediately: ‘ I thank God- through Jesus Christ our Lord!’. Jesus Christ, our Risen Lord, because now there’s no condemnation of his people…Because of Him, the law of the Spirit who gives life has liberated us from the law of sin and death. In this way, the Lord’s Resurrection isn’t just a great or eternal message, but constitutes an everyday event and personal experience in the course of our life on earth. There’s nothing other than the Resurrection that is powerful and timely enough to provide us with comfort, strength, and courage. Nothing else that can give life, happiness and future glory to us and humanity as a whole.” (Archimandrite Elisaios)

“I believe that Christians make a serious mistake when we begin to speak first about God rather than first about Christ and His death on the Cross and resurrection from the dead. It is a mistake because it presumes we know something about God that is somehow “prior” to those events. We do not, or, if we think we do, we are mistaken. The death and resurrection of Christ are the alpha and the omega of God’s self-revelation to the world. Nothing in all of creation is extraneous or irrelevant to those events.” (Father Stephen Freeman)

“Christ’s resurrection only has meaning for us because He rose as a full human being. He was not part man, or half man, but wholly God and wholly man…Resurrection is the restoration of our spirit and soul into a transformed body, an act of God superseding the predictable expectations of the natural world…Resurrection must not be confused with immortality of the soul (life apart from the body), nor with reincarnation into another body, nor with the revivification of this mortal body that decays. Resurrection is much more: God will restore body, soul, and spirit to the state which He intended at creation. Christ took up our flesh, trampled down death by death, and shall bestow resurrection upon us.” (Father Spyridon Baily, Dynamis 8/23/2021)

“Adam failed to bring humanity to its full spiritual potential and left us, his descendants, as biological beings. It is Christ who takes on our biology but then in the resurrection and through the Pentecost event, unites us humans to the Holy Spirit and makes us into spiritual beings.” (Fr. Ted Bobosh)

“…the greatest gift of the Resurrection is the opportunity to know God. Striving for “knowledge of God” (1 Cor 15:34) creates the necessary spiritual environment in which our bodies, like planted seeds, may come alive to Him, for “God gives it a body as He pleases, and to each seed its own body” (vs. 38). “Body” here refers to the self, including the physical body. The apostle is not describing an automatic process, but rather natural growth in Christ – a life which it is possible for us to attain. If we think of our bodies – ourselves – as seeds, we recall that certain seeds will only sprout unless they pass through fire. And as Saint Paul reminds us, “our God is a consuming fire” (Heb 12:29). If we strive to know Christ, braving the searing flames of obedience to follow Him, He will prepare for us “a body as He pleases” (1 Cor 15:38).” (Dynamis 8/24/2021)

“In light of His resurrection, the bodily sufferings and struggles of others appear not as irrelevant distractions, but as invitations to manifest a foretaste of “the life of the world to come.” Regardless of any context or circumstance, to serve others in ways that ease their bodily struggles is to provide a sign of the fulfillment of God’s gracious purposes for all who bear His image and likeness. Because “Christ is Risen!,” we must show our neighbors the care due those who are called to heavenly glory.” (Fr. Philip LeMasters)

“We live in an age whose cynicism borders on hopelessness. Many are skeptical of everything. They question everything but their own opinions, notions based on their own self-interest. In this ocean of doubt, some treat our hope in Christ as a wish that we cast into the future like a message-in-a-bottle is thrown into the sea…our hope in Christ is not an empty wish or a hollow fantasy. It has its basis in belief in Christ. It is grounded in our relationship to Christ and confirmed and strengthened by the peace and joy that are the fruit of faith…The basis of our hope is not a pledge for the future. It is a past event that guarantees our future. Christ has already risen from the dead. He is the “first fruits of those who have fallen asleep [in death]” (1 Cor. 15:20). In other words, Christ’s resurrection is a present reality. ” (Fr. Basil)

“The Christian faith is not primarily a set of doctrines or moral teachings, but a new way of life inspired and made possible by the reality of the resurrection [thus] the Resurrection of Jesus Christ is not merely an abstract doctrine to believe in, not merely an isolated past event to assent to intellectually, but an organic reality to enter into and assimilate into one’s being in Christ’s body, the Church.” (Michael Shanbour)

“…the Apostle Paul tells the Corinthians, “I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified” (1 Corinthians 2:2). His assertion in verse 15:13 complements and fulfills his earlier remark. Materialists scoff at the apostles’ proclamation as an empty, pious delusion (vss. 14-15), but if we agree with them, we strip our faith of its content (vs. 14). We discard all hope for ourselves and for humanity. Instead of a stunning hope, we face the dreary prospect of a terminal physical existence (vs. 15-17).” (Dynamis 8/23/2021)

“…unbelief and faith are equally a part of the death and resurrection of Christ. The death and resurrection of Christ contain the utter and complete emptiness of hell, the threat of non-being and meaninglessness, the absurdity of suffering and of injured innocence. They also contain the fullness of paradise, the complete joy of existence and the ecstasy of transcendent love. Everything is there.” (Father Stephen Freeman)

“Because of the death and resurrection of Jesus, wounds, failure, disgrace, death itself all have a hidden potential for revealing our deepest ground in God. Our wounds bear the perfumed trace of divine presence.” (Martin Laird)

“We’re all going to be resurrected. Sounds good, right? Unfortunately, for many of us it will not be good, but it will be because of our own choice. Christ says on John 5:29 those who have done good will experience the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil will experience the resurrection of condemnation. The disposition of our heart toward God in this life, and how it leads us to love Him and others, or how it leads us to reject Him and others, will be what determines our experience of eternity.” (Sacramental Living Ministries)

“Judgment is an indispensable act of God. In view of the fact that we are endowed with reason, memory, discrimination between good and bad, appreciation of art, scientific skills, and the various attributes of life, certainly we have the ability to learn God's will and to obey it; certainly our responsibility toward His will is no less great than our responsibility toward the endowments which He has bestowed upon us, and certainly there should be a Supreme Author and Judge to hold this responsibility. Intelligence, responsibility, and judgement are interwoven and inseparable. Judgement means award or punishment for both the soul and the body. Therefore, resurrection is for both good and the bad; "they that have done good, into the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of damnation." (John 5:28-29).” (Greek Orthodox Archdiocese)

“Either we become accustomed to the light of God’s love in this life through repentance and self-understanding of our sinfulness (compared to God’s purity), or we will want to flee from His love and light because of the sheer pain it causes us on Judgment Day.” (Father David L. Fontes, PsyD)

"At the end of things, The Blessed will say, We have never lived anywhere except in Heaven. And the lost will say, We were always in Hell. And both will speak truly." (C. S. Lewis)

"God Himself is heaven for the saints and hell for the sinners. We recall in the third chapter of the Book of Daniel the account of the three children in the fiery furnace. They serve as a type for this understanding of the afterlife. The three children who kept the commandments of God were not burnt by the fire but danced in the flames with the Angel of God, while those who heated the furnace out of malice and in wickedness were consumed by that very same fire." (Archimandrite Sergius)

“Jesus did not “cheat” death—He destroyed the power of death. We will not cheat death either. Each of us will eventually die an earthly death, but because the Resurrection destroyed the power of death over us, when we die on this earth, we will be resurrected with Christ. The power “death” has over us will indeed be destroyed.” (Fr. Stavros N. Akrotirianakis)

“I believe that the death and resurrection of Christ are utterly universal in their reality. They are not isolated events, significant only within the Christian belief system. I believe they are the singular moments within space and time (and outside space and time) that reveal the truth of all things, of all people, and of the heart and nature of the God who created all things and sustains them. I believe this is true whether I or anyone else believes it. The death and resurrection of Christ are the most fundamental and foundational facts of reality.” (Father Stephen Freeman)

“Christ’s death and resurrection set us free from the fear of death because death has been defeated. Every person must die, but death is not the end; instead, it is the doorway to a new life. All who dread death should have the opportunity to know the hope that Christ’s victory brings.” (Life Application Study Bible, Hebrews 2:14-15)

“Our life is a series of small deaths and resurrections. In a sense, daily life is training for death. We experience many, many small deaths. For example, when we go to sleep at night, we lose it all. We lose our awareness, our possession of our mind, our memory, and our consciousness of our relationships. Sleep is a form of death. Awaking in the morning, though it may be slow, is a new day, a resurrection.” (Albert S. Rossi)

“After the resurrection, when our bodies will be re-united to our souls, they will be incorruptible; and the carnal passions which disturb us now will not be present in those bodies; we shall enjoy a peaceful equilibrium in which the prudence of the flesh will not make war upon the soul; and there will no longer be that internal warfare wherein sinful passions fight against the law of the mind [nous], conquering the soul and taking it captive by sin. Our nature then will be purified of all these tendencies, and one spirit will be in both...and every corporeal affection will be banished from our nature.” (Saint Gregory of Nyssa)

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