The Tomb and the Cross by Rev Christopher P Foustoukos

By the time you receive this month’s bulletin and sit down to read it, I suspect that Pascha will have already occurred. So it is with this assumption that I write to you my dear brothers and sisters in Christ.

Orthodox Christianity’s foundational principle and daily outlook is singularly focused on the Empty Tomb. St. Paul also has this same perspective. What is amazing about St. Paul in his view of the Christ’s life and the resurrection is his perspective. Most of us, influenced by the Gospels, are inclined to look at the life of Christ chronologically, that is, in historical sequence. St. Paul, on the other hand, does not look forward from the In- carnation (the birth of the Lord) to the Cross-and then to the Resurrection. He looks back from the empty tomb to the Cross. I suspect that this is due to the fact that he never knew Christ in the flesh but only after the Resurrection.

The significance of the Cross of Christ can be understood only when looking out from the empty tomb towards Golgotha. St. Paul is able, therefore, to preach a joyous doctrine – the doctrine of triumphant Love. There is a basic difference in looking forward to the tomb from the Cross and viewing the Cross from inside the empty tomb. Looked at in chronological sequence, the betrayal, the denial, the cowardice, the torment, the crown of thrones, the nailing, the lance, and the dying are all very ugly and almost intolerable. Viewed from inside of the empty tomb all these things are transformed in the glow of the Risen Christ; and, all tragedy is blotted out in the victory of Life over Death.

My dear friends, the stone was not rolled back from the tomb to let Christ out; He was alive and unconfined by matter. The angels rolled back the stone to let the disciples and the myrrh-bearing women IN! It was only from within the tomb that they could ever fully understand the significance of the Life of Christ, their Master, who died in order to destroy Death.

Christ is Risen!

+ Fr Christopher P Foustoukos