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Introduction

Christ is risen! Truly, He is risen!

As we celebrate Christ’s resurrection during the forty days of Pascha, we repeat the words “Christ is risen!” countless times. We greet fellow Orthodox Christians with this phrase, we sing it in the Paschal Troparion in church, and we venerate Christ’s resurrection depicted in icons. Yet in this repetition of “Christ is risen,” we can often lose sight of what we are really saying when proclaiming that Christ rose from the dead. To explore this, we need to examine what it means to die, what it means to live, and what it means to be brought out of death and into life.

Before we begin our discussion, let’s begin with 120 seconds of silence. It’s been a long day. Take this chance to come into the presence of God and his saints as a group. Sit still. Breathe slowly and deeply. Say the Jesus prayer.

Part 1: Deny Yourself

Reflection

In death no one remembers You, and in hell who will confess You? –Psalm 6:6

Humans are terrified of death. Whether you have experienced the tragic death of a friend or family member, have nearly died yourself because of an illness or an accident, or even just come across a dead deer or other animal while driving, we all instinctively recoil at the thought of death. Because we fear death, we avoid the reality of death as much as possible. We try not to think about death, we try to ward death off by keeping our bodies healthy and going regularly to the doctor, and every year funeral homes are paid thousands of dollars to pump chemicals into the corpses of the deceased so that they look “alive” when it comes time for the funeral. We are terrified of death, and we are terrified because we know that we were not meant to die.

Christianity affirms this human intuition about death being unnatural. We know that we are meant to exist, and that the loss of relationship we experience when a loved one dies, when they fade away into non-existence, is truly horrible and evil. The Book of Wisdom teaches, “God did not create death, nor does He delight in the destruction of the living. For He created all things to exist.” We were created not for death, but for life.

Questions for Discussion:

  1. Why is death tragic? Is there a reason beyond mere physical decomposition?
  2. Can you think of some daily actions that are motivated by the fear of death?
  3. What would life look like if we did not fear death?

Part 2: Life

Reflection

Behold, I have given before your face today life and death, good and evil. […] Choose life so that you may live. –Deuteronomy 30:15, 19

If humans were not created for death, then we know that we must be created for life. But what does it mean to live? While part of living is our continued physical and biological existence (namely, the continued functioning of our physical bodies), we know that life is much more than this. To truly live is to be in love and in relationship with the people around us, to know others, and to be known by others. Christianity has historically called this concept communion, being in common union with others. When we suffer the loss of love and relationship with someone we care for – when we cease being in communion with them – we experience this loss of communion as death and separation, even if the other person remains biologically alive and geographically nearby. To truly live, to truly exist, is to be in a loving relationship with others.

Questions for Discussion:

  1. Why are the concepts of life and communion linked?
  2. What does it feel like to stop being friends with someone?
  3. How does the idea of life as communion relate to our reception of Christ’s body and blood in Holy Communion?

Part 3: From Death to Life

Reflection

I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this? –John 11:25-26

The reality we are born into is a reality of death, yet we know that we were created for life. How do we escape from the death that surrounds us into the life that God created us for?

Even though we desire life, we realize (if we are honest with ourselves) that each of us has chosen death in one way or another. When we choose to be angry at someone who has wronged us, when we choose to ignore someone who needs us, and when we choose to not be in communion with our friends and family, we are choosing death. St. John the Theologian says, “He who does not love abides in death. Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.” We are unable to rescue ourselves from the death that we exist in and perpetuate by our actions. In order to be saved from the death that we are enslaved to, we need something – or Someone – outside of ourselves to save us.

This is the meaning of Christ’s resurrection. The Son of God, by becoming human and taking on all of the infirmities of the human race – yet without sin – has shown us a new way to be human. He showed us how to love and be in relationship with others by loving his own people, even when his own people hated him and rejected him. He entered into death, into our hatred and lack of love, in order to fill it with his love and his life. St. Peter writes about Christ, “When He was reviled, He did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten; but He trusted to Him who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By His wounds you have been healed.” By his death on the cross and his resurrection from the dead, Christ has given us new love and life, even to the extent of raising our physical bodies from the dead at the end of time. No one needs to fear death, hatred, and isolation, for Christ, by willingly experiencing the full force of death, hatred, and isolation, has exhausted death of its power and granted us eternal life. 

Questions for Discussion:

  1. Why does St. John the Theologian say that not loving means abiding in death?
  2. How can we love others in the face of the death that is all around us?
  3. What are ways you have experienced love through Christ’s resurrection?

Closing Prayer

Doxastikon of Pascha, Plagal 1st Mode:

It is the day of the Resurrection. Let us shine brightly for the festival, and also embrace one another. Brethren, let us say even to those who hate us, “Let us forgive everything for the Resurrection.” And thus let us cry aloud, “Christ is risen from the dead, by death trampling down upon death, and to those in the tombs He has granted life.

The post Christ is Risen: Conquering Death with Life! appeared first on Orthodox Christian Fellowship – OCF.