👉🏽👉🏽👉🏽 #How Did Our Lord #Jesus Christ #Rise from the #Dead?
Part 1
Beloved of God, grace and peace to you in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who has trampled down death by death and granted life to those in the tombs. Let us now, with reverence and trembling, reflect upon the mystery of our Lord’s Resurrection not according to the imagination of man, but as it has been revealed through the Holy Scriptures, the words of the prophets, the testimony of the apostles, and the divine teachings of the Orthodox faith.
Christ Rose by His Own Power and Authority
He who is the Word made flesh, He who from the beginning was with God and was God (John 1:1), laid down His life not out of compulsion but from the sovereign freedom of His divine will. Hear, then, the majestic words He Himself spoke:
"I lay down my life, that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have power to lay it down and I have power to take it up again." (John 10:17–18)
What king speaks thus? What mortal boasts of such dominion over death? None, my brethren, but the King of kings, who is Himself Life and Resurrection (John 11:25). This power is not borrowed; it is not given to Him by another. It is His own, being of the same essence as the Father and the Holy Spirit.
The prophet Isaiah foresaw this glorious act when he proclaimed:
"He was oppressed and afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth; He was led like a lamb to the slaughter" (Isaiah 53:7).
Even in His silence, He reigned. He chose to suffer. He chose to die. And likewise, He chose to rise.
He Rose as God: In the Unity of the Holy Trinity
Now some, in their ignorance, say: “The Father raised Him, so He did not rise by His own power.” O folly! Do you not know that the name “God” in Scripture often refers specifically to the Father? Yet the Son is also God (John 1:1), and the Holy Spirit is God (Acts 5:3–4). The Trinity acts with one will and one essence. Thus, though the Scripture says, “God raised Him,” it does not exclude the Son nor the Spirit from this divine act.
Indeed, His flesh, though buried, was never severed from His divinity. Even in the grave, He remained the Lord of Glory. Therefore, it is right to say, “Jesus Christ rose because He is God.”
And the Psalmist, clothed with the spirit of prophecy, cried out:
“Then the Lord awoke as from sleep, like a warrior overcome with wine.” (Psalm 77:65)
This is no ordinary waking. This is the bursting forth of divine power, defeating the dominion of death.
Why a New Tomb?
Why, you may ask, was He buried not with the bones of saints and patriarchs, as was the custom of Israel? Did not Joseph say to Israel, “Carry my bones with you”? (Genesis 50:25). Was it not the hope of many prophets to rest with their forefathers?
Yet Christ, the Lord of the prophets, was buried in a new tomb (Matthew 27:59–60), where no man had ever lain. Why? So that none could say that He rose by touching the bones of another holy one. Remember the man in the Old Testament who sprang back to life upon touching the bones of Elisha (2 Kings 13:20–21). Would not the unbelievers have said, “He did not rise by His own power, but by proximity to the bones of saints”?
But no, His tomb was new, hewn from virgin rock, just as His mother’s womb was a virgin womb. He alone entered it, and He alone came forth.
He Rose from a Sealed Tomb
Marvel also at the way of His rising. The tomb was shut, sealed with a great stone, guarded by Roman soldiers (Matthew 27:63–66). Yet from within the sealed darkness, the Light of the world rose. The stone did not roll away to let Him out—it was removed to let the women and disciples in, so that they might witness the truth.
As Saint Cyril teaches, the divinity remained united to His body in the tomb. The same Lord who passed through crowds unseen (John 8:59) and entered a room with locked doors (John 20:19, 26), rose from the grave without breaking the seal, for the Word was united with the body, and the body with the Word.
Continues 👇🏽