Glory to God For All Things

Pascha – Risen with Christ

“If you then be risen with Christ…”

With these words, St. Paul introduces an encouragement to his fellow Christians:

“If you then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.” (Colossians 3:1–4)

All that Christ has accomplished, He accomplished with us. It strikes me as important that, in the original Greek, the word we translate as “risen with” (συνηγέρθητε) is a single word. It describes something happening in us and with us. As such, it describes the nature of the Christian life.

This reveals the very nature of Christ’s teaching and commandments. We forgive debts (for example) because Christ is risen in and with us and holding debts (exercising power over others) is incommensurate and alien to the nature of the resurrection.

God grant us grace, in small ways and great, to live in the resurrection. As the hymn bids us:

“Let us call ‘brothers’ even those who hate us and forgive all by the Resurrection.”

Christ is risen!

 

About Fr. Stephen Freeman

Fr. Stephen is a retired Archpriest of the Orthodox Church in America. He is also author of Everywhere Present: Christianity in a One-Storey Universe, and Face to Face: Knowing God Beyond Our Shame, as well as the Glory to God podcast series on Ancient Faith Radio.

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11 responses to “Pascha – Risen with Christ”

  1. Ivona Avatar
    Ivona

    Indeed, He is risen!

  2. ZISIS PAPANIKOLAOU Avatar
    ZISIS PAPANIKOLAOU

    CHRIST IS RISEN!
    ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ ΑΝΕΣΤΗ!

    GOD bless you Father Stephen. I love your thoughts

  3. Keith Shafer Avatar
    Keith Shafer

    Truly, He is Risen!

  4. Russ Mangiapane Avatar
    Russ Mangiapane

    Indeed He is risen in and with us!
    May we have the courage and desire to live according to this Reality!

  5. Dee of Sts Herman and Olga Avatar
    Dee of Sts Herman and Olga

    Dear Father! Christ is Risen! Glory to Him and to His and our Pascha! Glory to Him for the ministry in this blog!! The gates are broken!! Amen, Amen, and Amen!!

  6. Dee if asts Herman and Olga Avatar
    Dee if asts Herman and Olga

    All! Christ is Risen!
    This is one of my favorite YouTube videos of our Pascal Chant. First in Georgian (I believe) then in English.

    I have listened to it many times. It brings tears of joy!

    https://youtu.be/lEjfKJYsVXw

  7. Jenny Avatar
    Jenny

    Father,

    In the first year of getting to know the Lord, I would go for long walks while listening to Handel’s Messiah.

    At that time, we lived in a blue collar cul de sac close to the military base where Keith was stationed. We hadn’t adopted yet, I had no job and Keith was working long days training lieutenants on live tank drills. My days were long and quiet.

    There was a small state park just outside the neighborhood that must have been built in the fifties or earlier and was slowly sinking back into a state of nature, such that picnic tables were sunk into the ground up to their tops and entire eating areas that were low lying became reflection pools after a rain.

    In the spring, almost every other tree turned out to be a red bud or a dog wood, so that as the young leaves uncurled, they were richly layered in with shades of white and purple blooms. The water ran in thin sheets over slabs of rocks.

    When I began my walk at the cul de sac, I would be hearing, “Comfort ye, comfort bye my people… say unto her that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned…”

    The presence of the Lord was so vivid that I felt He must certainly be walking along beside me. Many times it seemed that if I reached out my hand, I could have grasped His own.

    Many times tears would fill my eyes. I felt as though this passage were being spoken about me, about the conclusion of a long season of abject failure and ravaging sin and apathy, certainly because the presence of the Lord was comforting to my soul, and because I was coming to know that He really had forgotten me.

    By the time I reached the pond at the far end of the park with the standing yellow pines, I’d be hearing a chorus of “Goodwill, goodwill toward men…” and tears would be filled my eyes because of the wonder of it.

    But I never liked to listen to part 2 of Handel’s Messiah, because it was painful to be drawn that deeply into His Passion in His presence.

    Occasionally, I would find the courage and listen to it with Him. I learned that if I could do this, the joy at hearing the tenor air sing out, “But Thou didst not leave His soul in hell, nor didst Thou suffer Thy Holy One to see corruption,” was worth all the pain to get to that point of soaring joy and relief.

    One day, I was listening to the second part and hearing the chorus singing, “Lift up your heads, oh ye gates, and be lifted up ye everlasting doors and the King of glory shall come in,” and Jesus said to me, I carried you with Me through those gates.

    I thought that was the most beautiful thing I’d ever heard, haunting beautiful in its implications, in the imagery that it evoked, but I hadn’t ever heard anything like that before, so I tucked it away to ponder over time.

    Because, Father, I was a Protestant, I weighed everything I heard the Lord say to me by what I knew of the Scriptures. As that was scant, I was frequently at a loss to understand something He had said and had to wait for confirmation or further understanding.

    Well, one day after this, I came across the passage of Scripture which you have quoted, that we have been raised with Christ. The pieces came together in my understanding and I was filled with awe and worship of the Lord.

    Thank God that in everything He did, He does with us and in us, even to bringing us with Him, that we might be with our Lord Jesus where He is! God is so good to us.

  8. Matthew Avatar
    Matthew

    He is risen indeed!

  9. Dee of Sts Herman and Olga Avatar
    Dee of Sts Herman and Olga

    Yes Father as we are taught to sing: “Let us call ‘brothers’ even those who hate us and forgive all by the Resurrection.” May this be also the true and authentic hymn in my heart.

  10. Amy Avatar
    Amy

    Jenny, what a beautiful, beautiful story. Thank you for sharing that. Christ is Risen!

  11. Fr. Stephen Avatar
    Fr. Stephen

    Jenny,
    Wonderful. Thank you for sharing this.

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