The Power of the Resurrection and Its Effect
The Resurrection of the Lord Christ from the dead was the greatest event that shook the entity of the Jews, so they tried to resist it by all means, even saying about the Resurrection that this last deception would be stronger than the first deception, which is the preaching of Christ.
So what was the power of the Resurrection, and what was its effect?
The Power of the Resurrection and Its Effect
Christ had proclaimed His Resurrection before He was crucified…
He told His disciples that He would be crucified and would rise. If they weakened at the time of His crucifixion, their faith would be revived at the time of His Resurrection.
They would see in His Resurrection His power, as they would see in it His truthfulness.
And the Resurrection would confirm faith in Him, especially because He rose alone, without any external power raising Him… therefore the leaders of the Jews feared this Resurrection and wanted to hinder it by all means, so that the way of Christ, which they fought and still fight, would not be proven…
They went to Pilate and asked him to seal the tomb and guard it with guards, lest His disciples come and steal Him and claim that He had risen!!
And behold, the measures taken against the Resurrection became evidence for it, a witness to it and a proof of it.
The presence of the seal on the tomb, and the presence of the guards, along with the empty tomb, were all proofs of the Resurrection of Christ, of His coming out of the tomb while it was closed, just as He came out of the womb of the Virgin while her virginity was sealed, and just as He entered upon the disciples while the doors were closed.
And the disciples went everywhere preaching the Resurrection of Christ…
His Resurrection was proof that He is stronger than death, and therefore He is also stronger than every power of humans that kills and causes death…
He was stronger than the injustice of the wicked, and all their conspiracies and authority. They did all they could, until they judged Him, nailed Him to the cross, and challenged Him mockingly, and thought that they had triumphed, especially because Christ remained throughout the period of His trial and their challenges silent: “like a sheep led to the slaughter, and like a lamb silent before its shearer.”
But the Resurrection showed that the silence of Christ was not weakness…
The power of the Resurrection is the strongest response to those who accuse Christ of weakness, or who think that the crucifixion of Christ is proof of His inability!!
By the Resurrection, it was established that the silence of Christ had its lofty purposes.
He was silent because He wanted to offer Himself for us. If He had spoken, He would have silenced His hearers and convinced them. And if He had defended Himself, He would have surely won the case. How many times did He respond to the leaders of the Jews and their elders and their priests, and they found no answer. They even witnessed the power of His speech when He was still a boy of twelve years old. And the people who heard Him testified that He spoke with authority.
The silence of Christ in His trial is proof that He died by His own will.
And He said about Himself that He lays it down of Himself; no one can take it from Him. He has authority to lay it down, and authority to take it. He presented it at the hour of crucifixion, and took it at the hour of Resurrection.
Christ delivered His spirit in love and giving, not weakness and inability.
And as He rose in power, we do not forget that He died in power…
He cried out with a loud voice when He delivered the spirit, while the body was in deep exhaustion, and its water and blood had been drained, and it was worn out by scourging, walking, beating, bleeding, and hanging on the cross…
And He died in the flesh, but in His divinity He was alive and does not die…
In His death He was able to preach to those who were asleep in Hades in hope, and He was also able to open the closed Paradise, and bring into it the thief with Adam and his sons from the saints of the Old Testament.
And He was also able to rise, and His Resurrection mocked the guards and the seals, and the great stone placed on the tomb.
It has never happened that anyone—other than Christ—defeated death by His authority alone, and rose by His will, and came out of a closed tomb, upon which was a huge stone and guarded by armed soldiers…
As for the bribe that the chief priests gave to the soldiers, to say that His disciples stole Him while they were asleep, it was a trick too weak to stand before the power of the Resurrection and the power of preaching it…
How did they know, while they were asleep, that the disciples came and stole Him?!
And how could the disciples steal Him, while there was a great stone on the tomb, and rolling this stone must awaken the soldiers if they were asleep. Moreover, the process of entering a tomb, taking out a body, and moving it outside must awaken the guards…
And what interest did the disciples have in stealing His dead body? And what interest did they have in claiming a Resurrection for which they would die in preaching it, while they do not believe in it…
It is a trick of a weak evil mind. It found acceptance from no one, and showed the corruption of those priests in their lying, their claims, their bribery, their misleading of people, and their clinging to self…
And just as the story of the Resurrection showed the corruption of the priests of the Jews, it also showed the righteousness of Christ, and the falsity of the accusations they directed against Him, and He remained silent and did not defend against them…
Because if He had been condemned, it would not have been possible for Him to rise…
The miracle of the Resurrection does not only indicate His righteousness, but even more His divinity, because it is something beyond the capacity of all humans.
Therefore the Jews feared: because if the Resurrection indicated the righteousness of Christ, then on the other hand it indicates their injustice. Therefore they asked the disciples to stop their preaching, “lest you bring this Man’s blood upon us!!”
The Resurrection of Christ terrified them, as His presence troubled them and exposed them, and they rejoiced when they thought that they had gotten rid of Him and killed Him…
The phrase (the living Christ) is a phrase that troubles sinners, even if it rejoices the righteous… many, like the priests of the Jews, want to get rid of Christ, because His presence reproves them. And by His presence, their sinful existence disappears…
The Resurrection was saddening to the priests of the Jews, and very joyful to the disciples…
He said to them, “I will see you and your hearts will rejoice,” and we celebrate with the joys of the Resurrection, which make us feel that Christ is alive with us, and that it is not possible for a tomb to contain Him, He who contains all in His heart…
The disciples rejoiced in the Resurrection of the Lord; they rejoiced when they saw Him. And His Resurrection was a turning point in the history of their lives, and in the history of Christianity.
By the Resurrection, the fear of the disciples turned into boldness and courage, and disregard for all the powers that fight the word of God… thus Peter after the Resurrection was able to say, “We ought to obey God rather than men.”
The disciples no longer feared anything in the spirit of the Resurrection…
The utmost that their enemies could do was threaten them with death. And what is the value of the threat of death to one who believes in the Resurrection, and has seen it?!
Thus Christianity believed that death is merely a transition, and that it is gain, and that it is very much better. And no one feared it…
And by the Resurrection, the disciples felt that they were under the shadow of a powerful God…
The One in whom they believe “has the keys of Hades and death.” In Him is life, rather He is the Resurrection and the Life… whoever believes in Him, even if he dies, shall live… and He is the source of life, not only on earth, but eternal life also…
And the Resurrection gave Christians hope in the other world, so they focused all their desires on it, and renounced this world…
All that Christianity spread of ascetic life, renunciation, monastic life, and death to the world, all this is based on faith in the Resurrection, and attachment to the other world before which every earthly desire becomes small. Thus the Church repeats in our ears in every liturgy the saying of the apostle: “Do not love the world, nor the things in the world, because the world passes away, and its lust with it”…
The Resurrection granted Christian preaching confidence and faith…
Confidence in Christ risen from the dead, with whom the disciples lived forty days after His Resurrection, “showing Himself alive by many proofs,” and “speaking of the things concerning the Kingdom of God” (Acts 1:3). So much so that John the Apostle, when he spoke of Him: “that which we have heard, that which we have seen with our eyes, that which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled” (1 John 1:1).
And as they trusted in Christ risen from the dead, they also believed in all His promises, and in all that He told them, and they believed that He will come also, and they rejoiced in His second coming, to take the Church to Himself…
Thus they trusted and rejoiced in the saying of the Lord Christ: “I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also”…
Thus the Resurrection gave us hope in the continual fellowship with Christ.
The joy of the Resurrection is not merely that we rise, but rather that we rise with Christ, to live with Him, where He is…
Thus the Resurrection became a means, not an end in itself:
A means for life with the Lord, and enjoyment of Him, in a joy that is inexpressible and glorious, with the company of His angels and His saints.
The Resurrection became the desire of all, and the faith of all, as a path leading to eternity with God, which is the goal of our life on earth…
And what increased the power of the Resurrection is the spiritual luminous body with which we shall rise,
“according to the likeness of the body of His glory.” This gives us an idea of the beauty of the other life and its spirituality, and the joy of release from matter and all its constraints, with all the abilities of the spirit and its gifts…
An article by His Holiness Pope Shenouda III – in El-Keraza Magazine – Eighth Year (Issue Fifteen) – 15-4-1977
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