"...He Is Risen from the Dead" (Matthew 28:7)
After the Sabbath, after the first day of the week began to dawn a "great earthquake" took place (Matt. 28: 3) indicating the removal of the things which are being shaken and the entering into the remaining eternity "that the things which cannot be shaken may remain." (Heb. 12: 27) If you are making something in a mold; after you are finished you shake the mold to break and remove it and bring out the product which you have made that will remain.
St. Matthew the apostle says, "After the Sabbath" that is after its end, and he used the plural form "Sabbaths" (Sabbaton), and not the singular "Sabbath", to denote that it had completely ended. The Sabbath of the law has ended so that the Sunday of the Lord may come; the day of the Lord in which there is the true rest. The day of the resurrection is called, as St. Augustine says, "The first day of the Sabbath." (Mt. 28:1, Mk. 16: 2). The first day is the eighth day at the same time because it is the day of the
eternity. The first because it is a new beginning and the eighth because we will not start once again in the cycle of turning in the time through the seven days of the week, but we enter the eternity which is above time and be with God with whom there is no "shadow of turning." (Jam. 1: 17)
The angel, the archangel Michael descended and rolled away the stone to declare that the law, "by the direction of angels" (Act. 7: 53) written on stone tablets is no longer the law of letter but the law of the Spirit written on the "tablets of flesh, that is, of the heart." (2 Cor. 3: 3). He declared that by the resurrection of Christ from the dead, the burden of
the law no longer exists as it was in the raising of Lazarus from the dead; for they had to lift away the stone.
The tablets of flesh, that is, of the heart that feels God and the neighbor means the law of Love for the heart is the part which loves. God said, "My son, give me your heart" (Prov. 23: 26) to write His spiritual law on it; and consequently, "...the eyes of man would observe His ways." When the women, came unto the sepulcher at the rising of the sun and said among themselves, who shall roll us away the stone from the door of the sepulcher? And when they looked, they saw that the stone was rolled away. (Mk. 16:3)
The resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ is the end of the life and pursue through faith and the beginning of the opening of the eternal life in which we behold the glory of God, for being the Son of God nevertheless he emptied Himself from the Glory of the Divinity and pursued like us through faith, "For we walk by faith, not by sight" (2Cor.5:7) during his life on earth. But when He finished this pursue, "...Jesus the author and finisher of
our faith" (Heb 12: 2), He became in another plane, that is walking by sight. Therefore, His meetings with His disciples were in particular times and in particular places, not limited, for he became above time and place after the end of the period of emptying Himself.
His apparition was to some of the disciples and not to all the people and even some of those disciples did not know Him at first. One of them said to Him, "Are you only a stranger in Jerusalem..." (Luke 24: 18)
Who is the one that reach the resurrection from the dead and who is he that is not absent from the Lord Christ? St. John the apostle says, "We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren." (1John 3:14) This is a basic matter, for love is the fulfilling of the law, "therefore love is the fulfilling of the law." (Rom. 13: 10)
In another word, it is the fulfilling of the concept of the law, or it is the concept of the law. "...for he that loves another has fulfilled the law." (Rom. 13: 8) "For this, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not kill, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness, you shall not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, you shall love your neighbor as thyself." (Rom. 13:9) The concept of all the commandments is love. Therefore the fulfillment of the law is through love. Reaching the purpose and concept of the law brings us close to God and transfers us from death to life, and thus we would experience resurrection and behold the Lord Who is risen from the dead. "For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death." (Rom. 8:2)
One of the saints said that if a man walked toward a city which he intended to enter, but his pursue was short, by one mile, of reaching it, then he would not reach his goal. In the same manner if we fulfilled all the deeds of righteousness but without love, which is the second mile, we would not reach resurrection. And if our righteousness did not exceed that of the scribes and the Pharisees who have the law of righteousness, if our righteousness did not exceed, to be through love; we shall not reach resurrection; as the lord said, "For I say unto you, that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven." (Matt. 5:20) Therefore the apostle Paul, who is "a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee" (Acts 23: 6) was struggling, after his meeting with the Lord Jesus and his baptism, and saying, “If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead." (Phil. 3: 11)
We talked previously about truth that leads us to resurrection. Thus we know that this is the way we love, and our love should be in truth. "My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth." (1John 3:18) Every virtue or righteousness without love is not virtue or righteousness at all. "...though I have all faith, ...and though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not love, it profits me nothing." (1Cor. 13:2, 3) Therefore our way should be, "...faith which works by love." (Gal. 5: 6)
Love is the rod of the crossing by which Moses the prophet divided the sea and they were saved from death. Love is carrying the yolk of Christ (Matt. 11: 29) and the reproach of Christ (Heb. 11: 26) as the priests carries the ark of the covenant of the Lord of the whole earth and crossed the Jordan to the rest. (Josh. 3: 11)
St. John the apostle knew the Lord at the sea of Tiberias when he said to St. Peter the apostle, "It is the Lord." (John 21: 7) St. John says to us in his epistle, "Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loves is born of God, and knows God." (1John 4: 7) We also know that he use to call himself "the disciple whom Jesus loved" (John 21: 7, 20) although the Lord Jesus loved all the disciples, but St. John the
apostle felt and tasted this love in person and responded to it.
"Yet, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us." (Rom. 8: 37)
Copyright © 2005 Saint Antony Coptic Orthodox Monastery, California, U.S.A. The above article may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of Saint Antony Coptic Orthodox Monastery, California, U.S.A.
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