The Meaning of the Resurrection

This past Sunday marked the celebration of Easter in the Western churches. In Orthodoxy and other Eastern Churches, this coming Sunday is Easter, or more appropriately,  Pascha (The English transliteration of the Greek transliteration of the Hebrew word for "Passover," because originally this feast was known as the "New Passover" when we passed from death to life).

Why this difference in time tables? Without getting off into the weeds, the simple answer is the West adopted the Gregorian calendar while the Orthodox remained on the Julian calendar. Currently, those two calendars are 13 days apart, so depending on when the new moon is means our Pascha can fall on the same Sunday, one week later as it is this year (because it has to happen after the Jewish Passover), or even almost a month later.

Anyway, that is just by way of explanation, not the focus of this devotional. Would be a pretty dry one if it were.

What I want to focus on this Holy Friday is the following verse:

That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death; if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead. (Phil. 3:10-11)

The question I hope to answer is this: Is the resurrection simply a celebration to us, or is it a life-modifying reality?

For St. Paul, it was the driving force of his existence. He was ready to even be made "conformable to His death." That's how important it was to St. Paul. Is it that important for us? Are we ready to throw our prosperity-laden sub-theologies under the bus in order to have "fellowship of His sufferings?" Is the faith really all about "Sunshine and Roses, only a thorn now and then?" Not according to St. Paul. The resurrection is so powerful, it enables us to conform to the sufferings of His death. It enables us to pick up our cross and follow Him.

Not for any kind of abstract happiness, but that we too might attain to the resurrection from the dead, when we will know what divine joy is really all about. As St. Paul also says in Romans 6, we must die with Him if we expect to be raised to new life with Him. You can't have only the resurrection without also going through the suffering of death, both metaphorically as well as literally.

That is why in our Friday service called the Lamentations of Christ, we sing in hope, not despair. Because we know how the story ends, and we know we too, through Christ's death, can attain to His resurrection from the dead for ourselves. Amen.