A Few Thoughts on Pascha
by Brother David
And the Word became flesh.
The One, who is the express image of the Father and came to be in the image and likeness of God our creator, this same one, who is the author of the law, became sin for our sake so that, in his fulfillment of the law, we might be made righteous in God. (2 Cor 5:21)
Today Golgotha has become Eden. In this risen Christ, the cross of crucifixion, the cross of judgement, has become the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and the cross of death has become the tree of life. The heart of Jesus, stilled in death, has become the living human heart beating in the heart of the Trinity, and the new tomb in which no one had been laid has become the virginal womb of the new Adam. And so, he who was raised from death by God as man raises us from the death of sin to life in himself as God and walks with us towards divinity as our brother while being, himself, the destination of our journey as our God.
The Christ, who never ceases being human, this Jesus, who never ceases being God, stands before us with his two natures undiminished, unconfused, undistorted, undivided, yet intimately bound in his single personhood, completely integrated. This mystery of personhood is as close to us as our own identity and is, at the same time, utterly beyond comprehension and inexhaustible.
He is never more divine than in his crucifixion and never more human than in his resurrection.
The apprehension of the risen Christ is the apprehension of the human as the human was created to be. The apprehension of the risen Christ is the apprehension of God as God has chosen to reveal God’s self to us. The risen Christ is both the fulfillment of God’s creative call to us to be in God’s image and likeness, even as the risen Christ is the one who calls us out of the nothingness of sin and death to be in his own image and likeness. In him we are neither male nor female, Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, gay nor straight, conservative nor liberal, believer nor unbeliever, but rather we are all one in Christ. (Gal 3:28)
He is the image of the unseen God, the first-born of all creation; for in him all things were created. In heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or authorities – all things were created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the first-born of the dead, that in everything he might be pre-eminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.
And we, who were once estranged and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present us holy and blameless and irreproachable before him, provided that we continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel which we heard, and which has been preached to every creature under heaven. (Col 1:15-23)
We tend to worry over whether we are worthy of God – over whether God can or will love us in our sinfulness. Let us not be dejected in our sin or concern ourselves with being worthy of God’s love. Let us not fear rejection from God on account of our failings. We, all of humanity who have ever been, who are now, and who will ever be, are the reason for the birth, the teaching, the crucifixion, and the resurrection of Jesus the Christ that we might be raised to new life. It is in our sin that the love of God is most made manifest.
We are the sheep who continually wanders off in search of greener pastures, deluded that the next thing will bring happiness. The shepherd continuously seeks us out and, at our slightest call, rushes to us to rescue us from the wolves of error and sin and death. We are the prodigal who continually rushes off in our hungering for comfort and lusting after riches in a land far from God. The father stands continuously scanning the horizon for us and, at the slightest turn of our head towards home, rushes to us to embraces us and bring us back to safety. We are the criminal who continually descends to a life of violence, pride, and vanity and who hangs on the cross of judgement, who has only to look towards the one who hangs with us and ask for remembrance, and we are continuously granted paradise.
It doesn’t matter that the world condemns us or even that we condemn ourselves. Christ says, “This day you will be with me in paradise.” Christ says, “This child of mine was dead and is come back to life.” Christ says, “Come and rejoice with me because I have found my lost sheep.” We are continuously forgiven, continuously raised, continuously drawn back into life by the inexorable love of the one who was raised from death and who raises us to life, because this Jesus – this Christ – is a jealous lover who refuses to allow the advances of death and sin to lay claim to us. Nothing, absolutely nothing, can separate us from the love of Christ. (Rom 8:38-39) This is the source of our faith and steadfastness in the good news.
The Word became flesh and flesh became bread given to us unto the remission of sin as the sign of this love, this promise. This bread is the burning coal which touches our lips so that our guilt is removed and our sin is forgiven. (Is 6:7) And we consume the one who consumes death – our death and our sin – with the result that not even the very cells of our body are closer to us than he is.
And so, let us stand naked before our God, having put off from us the covering of fear and shame. Let us stand naked before the one who stands naked before us: naked in his birth, naked in the Jordan baptized by John, naked in the degradation of his crucifixion, and naked in his resurrection clothed only in the innocence of the new Eden and girded in the power of God. And in our nakedness, let us allow ourselves to be drawn away from the embrace of the false gods who would destroy us, into the embrace of a loving God: an embrace nailed to a cross, an embrace raised from the dead, an embrace given to us in bread, an embrace that we give to each other as we are raised in him unto life eternal.
Christ is risen.
And the Word became flesh.
The One, who is the express image of the Father and came to be in the image and likeness of God our creator, this same one, who is the author of the law, became sin for our sake so that, in his fulfillment of the law, we might be made righteous in God. (2 Cor 5:21)
Today Golgotha has become Eden. In this risen Christ, the cross of crucifixion, the cross of judgement, has become the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and the cross of death has become the tree of life. The heart of Jesus, stilled in death, has become the living human heart beating in the heart of the Trinity, and the new tomb in which no one had been laid has become the virginal womb of the new Adam. And so, he who was raised from death by God as man raises us from the death of sin to life in himself as God and walks with us towards divinity as our brother while being, himself, the destination of our journey as our God.
The Christ, who never ceases being human, this Jesus, who never ceases being God, stands before us with his two natures undiminished, unconfused, undistorted, undivided, yet intimately bound in his single personhood, completely integrated. This mystery of personhood is as close to us as our own identity and is, at the same time, utterly beyond comprehension and inexhaustible.
He is never more divine than in his crucifixion and never more human than in his resurrection.
The apprehension of the risen Christ is the apprehension of the human as the human was created to be. The apprehension of the risen Christ is the apprehension of God as God has chosen to reveal God’s self to us. The risen Christ is both the fulfillment of God’s creative call to us to be in God’s image and likeness, even as the risen Christ is the one who calls us out of the nothingness of sin and death to be in his own image and likeness. In him we are neither male nor female, Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, gay nor straight, conservative nor liberal, believer nor unbeliever, but rather we are all one in Christ. (Gal 3:28)
He is the image of the unseen God, the first-born of all creation; for in him all things were created. In heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or authorities – all things were created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the first-born of the dead, that in everything he might be pre-eminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.
And we, who were once estranged and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present us holy and blameless and irreproachable before him, provided that we continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel which we heard, and which has been preached to every creature under heaven. (Col 1:15-23)
We tend to worry over whether we are worthy of God – over whether God can or will love us in our sinfulness. Let us not be dejected in our sin or concern ourselves with being worthy of God’s love. Let us not fear rejection from God on account of our failings. We, all of humanity who have ever been, who are now, and who will ever be, are the reason for the birth, the teaching, the crucifixion, and the resurrection of Jesus the Christ that we might be raised to new life. It is in our sin that the love of God is most made manifest.
We are the sheep who continually wanders off in search of greener pastures, deluded that the next thing will bring happiness. The shepherd continuously seeks us out and, at our slightest call, rushes to us to rescue us from the wolves of error and sin and death. We are the prodigal who continually rushes off in our hungering for comfort and lusting after riches in a land far from God. The father stands continuously scanning the horizon for us and, at the slightest turn of our head towards home, rushes to us to embraces us and bring us back to safety. We are the criminal who continually descends to a life of violence, pride, and vanity and who hangs on the cross of judgement, who has only to look towards the one who hangs with us and ask for remembrance, and we are continuously granted paradise.
It doesn’t matter that the world condemns us or even that we condemn ourselves. Christ says, “This day you will be with me in paradise.” Christ says, “This child of mine was dead and is come back to life.” Christ says, “Come and rejoice with me because I have found my lost sheep.” We are continuously forgiven, continuously raised, continuously drawn back into life by the inexorable love of the one who was raised from death and who raises us to life, because this Jesus – this Christ – is a jealous lover who refuses to allow the advances of death and sin to lay claim to us. Nothing, absolutely nothing, can separate us from the love of Christ. (Rom 8:38-39) This is the source of our faith and steadfastness in the good news.
The Word became flesh and flesh became bread given to us unto the remission of sin as the sign of this love, this promise. This bread is the burning coal which touches our lips so that our guilt is removed and our sin is forgiven. (Is 6:7) And we consume the one who consumes death – our death and our sin – with the result that not even the very cells of our body are closer to us than he is.
And so, let us stand naked before our God, having put off from us the covering of fear and shame. Let us stand naked before the one who stands naked before us: naked in his birth, naked in the Jordan baptized by John, naked in the degradation of his crucifixion, and naked in his resurrection clothed only in the innocence of the new Eden and girded in the power of God. And in our nakedness, let us allow ourselves to be drawn away from the embrace of the false gods who would destroy us, into the embrace of a loving God: an embrace nailed to a cross, an embrace raised from the dead, an embrace given to us in bread, an embrace that we give to each other as we are raised in him unto life eternal.
Christ is risen.
