The Resurrection and Appearances (c. 30 AD)

On the third day, Christ rose bodily from the dead, for “of death: because it was not possible that he should be” (Acts 2:24, KJV). The grave could not contain the Author of Life, nor could corruption touch the One through whom all things were made. His Resurrection is the cornerstone of the Christian faith: “if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins” (1 Corinthians 15:17, KJV). By rising, He conquered death not only for Himself, but for all who are joined to Him. Through His victory, He reversed the ancient curse laid upon Adam, restoring creation to its intended harmony.

The prophets and patriarchs of Israel foreshadowed this mystery in manifold ways. “But this I confess unto thee, that after the way which they call heresy, so worship I the God of my fathers, believing all things which are written in the law and in the prophets” (Acts 24:14, KJV). When Moses lifted up the bronze serpent in the wilderness, those who looked upon it were healed of the venom that brought death, “that if a serpent had bitten” (Numbers 21:9, KJV); this prefigured the lifting up of the Son of Man upon the Cross, that all who behold Him in faith, though sinners (bitten by the serpent), might receive life. “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:14 to 15, KJV).

When Moses raised his staff over the Red Sea and the waters divided, Israel passed through from bondage into freedom, an image of Baptism through which believers pass from death to life: “be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; And were all baptized unto Moses in” (1 Corinthians 10:1 to 2, KJV).

Jonah’s three days in the belly of the great fish foretold the three days Christ would spend in the heart of the earth, emerging in glory as the firstborn from the dead: “as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth” (Matthew 12:40, KJV).

Even the ark of Noah, resting upon Mount Ararat after the flood, foreshadowed the Resurrection, the emergence of a new world cleansed from sin and sealed with a covenant of peace: “the ark rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of” (Genesis 8:4, KJV).

The Psalmist proclaimed beforehand, “neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption” (Psalm 16:10, KJV), and the Prophet Hosea cried, “After two days will he revive us: in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight” (Hosea 6:2, KJV). The entire Old Testament was thus a shadow preparing for the dawn of the new creation, when Christ, the Sun of Righteousness, would rise with healing in His wings: “But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall” (Malachi 4:2, KJV).

When the tomb was found empty, the myrrh bearing women stood in awe before the angel who said, “Why seek ye the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen: remember how he spake unto you” (Luke 24:5 to 6, KJV). The disciples at first doubted, but the Lord appeared to them in various ways: to Mary Magdalene near the garden tomb, restoring her from sorrow to joy; to the two on the road to Emmaus, who recognized Him “them in breaking of bread” (Luke 24:35, KJV); to the eleven in the upper room, and even to Thomas, who was invited to “reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side” (John 20:27, KJV), so that doubt might be transformed into faith, and disbelief into adoration. Breathing upon them the Holy Spirit and granting them peace. After the Lord had appeared to His disciples, the Lord Jesus Christ “was seen of above five hundred brethren at once” (1 Corinthians 15:6, KJV). This Resurrection is not a mere return to mortal life, as with Lazarus, but the transfiguration of human nature itself. St. Athanasius famously wrote, “He was made man that we might be made God; and He manifested Himself by a body that we might receive the idea of the unseen Father; and He endured the insolence of men that we might inherit immortality.” (St Athanasius the Great, On the Incarnation 54, NPNF 2nd series, vol. 4), and this is highlighted by the words of Christ Himself: “Is it not written in your law, ‘I said, “You are gods”’?” (John 10:34). Christ rose never to die again; He inaugurated a new and incorruptible mode of existence. In His rising, He has made all things new: “he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful” (Revelation 21:5, KJV).

The chains of Hades were shattered, the tomb became a doorway to eternal life, and mankind was restored to communion with God: “according as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust” (2 Peter 1:3 to 4, KJV).

The assembly of God, therefore, is not founded upon imagination or human reasoning, but upon the living Christ who conquered death and remains “am alive” (Revelation 1:18, KJV). Each Pascha, she proclaims with radiant joy: “Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and upon those in the tombs bestowing life.” In Him, the darkness of the old world has passed away, and the new world dawns. As the Lord Himself states, “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away” (Matthew 24:35, KJV).