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This is the appointed and holy day, the one Saturday is king and lord: the holidays are a holiday and a celebration is a celebration: in it we bless Christ forever. The legislator of the Old Testament, establishing the holiday of Passover for the Jewish people, repeatedly instilled in the Jews the special importance of this holiday, and ordered it to be celebrated with all solemnity. “It is lawful,” he says, “celebrate it forever.” A soul that violates the holiness of this holiday “will be destroyed... from the assembly of the sons of Israel” (Ex. 12:14, 19). The Lawgiver of the New Testament, our brethren, the Lawgiver, despite the fact that He Himself became for us the Passover, slain on the cross, did not command His disciples to inscribe in the sacred books of the Gospel the law on the celebration of Easter. Only one of His apostles noted that Christians should celebrate Easter “not with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but without the leaven of purity and truth” (1 Cor. 5:8). Meanwhile, the Jewish Passover, so many times prescribed by law, protected by the fear of the death penalty, was more than once celebrated illegally, and was even completely abandoned and neglected by the Jews. On the contrary, Christian Easter has always been celebrated with all solemnity. Even Christians did not have churches, still persecuted by pagans, they hid their worship in dens and abysses of the earth; but the remembrance of the Resurrection of Christ was already the cause of a triumph so bright and long-lasting that one of the ancient defenders of Christianity (Tertullian) said in the hearing of all pagans: “Your holidays, taken all together, cannot be compared in their continuation with one Christian Easter.” Why, brothers, is the fate of the Jewish and Christian Passover so different? Because, without a doubt, the basis of the first was a temporary good - the liberation of the Israeli people from Egyptian slavery; and the basis of the latter is eternal good - the liberation of the entire human race from the slavery of sin and death. It is difficult to remember forever a temporary, long-past benefit; It is impossible not to remember the eternal benefit that is always felt. In fact, brothers... it is absolutely impossible for a Christian not to be filled with joy today. The Resurrection of our Lord, without any law, command or institution, is in itself a triumph of celebrations and holidays. Let us reveal this comforting truth. What is the basis of all sacred festivals? – Some express predominantly the firmness and purity of faith; in others the benefits of love and virtue are especially revealed; in others the height and holiness of the Christian hope is most palpably manifested. But the Resurrection of Jesus Christ combines all these qualities to the highest degree. It is the highest triumph of faith, for by it our faith is confirmed, exalted, deified; is the highest triumph of virtue, for in it the purest virtue triumphed over the greatest temptation; is the highest triumph of hope, for it serves as the surest guarantee of the most majestic promises. This is the appointed and holy day, the feast of holidays and the triumph of celebrations! 1. The Resurrection of Jesus Christ is the highest triumph of faith Who knew, brethren, more than the whole essence of our faith, if not the Apostle Paul, one of the first preachers of the faith? – But do you remember what he once wrote to his Corinthian disciples? “If... Christ does not rise,” he wrote, “our preaching is in vain, and your faith is in vain” (1 Cor. 15:14). That is, if Christ is not resurrected, then all the truths of our faith lose their power, the Gospel and preaching no longer have dignity, all Christianity is an idle name. The thought is striking, but absolutely true, undeniable! – For on what is all our faith based? “It was created,” answers Saint Paul, “on the foundation of the Apostle and Prophet, the cornerstone of Jesus Christ Himself” (Eph. 2:20). The risen Jesus is the cornerstone of our faith; He is “the Apostle and Holy One of our profession” (Heb. 3:1). But why, brethren, did this stone, neglected by those who built it, become for us “the head... of the corner and... marvelous in our eyes”? (Matthew 21:42). Why, when the entire Jewish people rejected and are rejecting the Lord Jesus, we recognize in Him “Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God”! (1 Cor. 1:24). – We have a lot of evidence for this; but all of them would have been insufficient without the Resurrection of our Lord. To see this truth more clearly, let us imagine, brethren, that we belong to the number of those people who followed the Lord from the beginning to the end of His earthly ministry, heard all His conversations, saw all the deeds He accomplished. As long as He opened the eyes of the blind and raised the dead, we, of course, would calmly follow Him - we would exclaim along with the apostles: “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God!” (John 6:69). But then comes the terrible hour of suffering: the disciple betrays Him; the mad synagogue rejects him as a flatterer; the unreasonable Pilate condemns him as a troublemaker; Jesus - our hope - ascends to the cross along with the villains; The Father himself leaves Him; He dies in agony and is buried; His very tomb is sealed with the seal of Caiaphas. What would have happened to us then, to our faith, if He had not risen? Behold, we hope that this One is the One who will deliver Israel; but also over all these” He remained in the tomb (Luke 24:21): this is what each of us would say, and would go to his house to wait for another Messiah. In fact, brothers, it is impossible to think that our faith would then be stronger than the faith of the apostles. But what happened to them after the death of the Lord? Didn't they all waver in their faith in Him? Were not all, as He predicted, scattered like “sheep without a shepherd”? (Matthew 26:31). How difficult it was for the Risen One Himself to convince some of the disciples that He had really risen! But without this confidence, would they have gone out to preach worldwide, and would they have given their lives for its truth? And without their preaching, would the world, immersed in the darkness of paganism, turn to the Christian faith? What would the apostles begin to preach without the Resurrection of their Teacher? How would they say: “Believe on the Son of God, you will have eternal life” (John 3:36), when the Son of God Himself would remain dead? How would they say: “Christ is yesterday and today, the same forever” (Heb. 13:8), when everyone knew that He was first alive, and then died and was not resurrected? How would they call Him the way, the truth and the belly, if everyone knew that He promised to rise from the grave, and did not rise? Thus, without the Resurrection of Christ, His tomb would have been at the same time the tomb of the Christian faith: because everyone who had previously believed in Him would have ceased to believe, because no one would have taken the trouble to preach faith in someone who died and was not resurrected; because, finally, this sermon in itself would not be worthy of trust. But now the tomb of Jesus Christ is a sanctuary in which the triumph of the Christian faith took place. It was not in vain that Jesus Christ Himself, when the Jews demanded new miracles from Him to certify that He was the only begotten Son of God, answered that no other sign would be given to them, “except the sign of the prophet Jonah” (Matthew 12:39), that is, the resurrection; It was not in vain that when He departed to suffer His sufferings, He said that the time was coming when the “Son of Man” would be glorified (John 13:31). In His resurrection He was truly glorified; - and became glorified, according to the remark of the Apostle Paul (Rom. 1:4), no longer as a prophet, below as the Son of Man or the Messiah, but as the Son of God, in whom “all the fullness of the Divinity dwells” (Col. 2:9). Who does not recognize the Son of God in the risen Jesus? The Pharisees and scribes will no longer demand a sign from heaven: now the whole heaven has opened before them, so that they can see that the Son of Man is again “ascending there”, “from where he came” (John 6:62, 8:14). And the high priests will not say: “If there is a King of Israel, let him now come down from the cross” (Matthew 27:42). The Crucified One, and without leaving the cross, showed that He is the King of earth and heaven. The devil himself will not now dare to say: “If you are the Son of God, look down from below” (Matthew 4:6). The Son of God returned to the bottom - on the cross, and - the order of nature changed! Now it is clear to everyone that the resurrected Jesus, as the Lord of life and death, “has the power to lay down His soul and to receive it again” (John 10:18). He wanted to betray her for the salvation of the world, and he did; wanted to accept again, and accepted. Elijah did not come to save Him; He saved Himself. “Do the gates of death open to you through fear,” God once asked Job, in order to prove to him his insignificance and his omnipotence, “but the gates of hell, having seen you, were afraid?” (Job 38:17). They open up, we can now answer, they open up to our Redeemer, Who captivated and destroyed hell. In what splendor the very Cross of Christ now appears, on which, one might say, faith itself was crucified together with Jesus! Whoever does not see that this sign of damnation for others, for Jesus was the altar on which the universal sacrifice was offered - that God accepted this sacrifice in the stench of fragrance - “worthy... The slain Lamb to receive... honor and glory!” (Rev. 5:12). After this, what can shake our faith, when death and hell itself have not overcome it in the person of the Author and Finisher of faith? “I know,” the Apostle Paul once exclaimed, “I know in whom I believe, I know that my Savior is God, who is able to keep the guarantee of my salvation until his glorious coming” (2 Tim. 1:12). Let the sons of destruction now arise with their doubts, objections to the Lord and to His Christ, let them blaspheme our faith: we will not argue with them, we will only say: “die and rise again, as our Savior died and rose again, and we will believe you.” 2. The Resurrection of Jesus Christ is the highest triumph of virtue Virtue, persecuted on earth, never, brethren, completely left the face of the earth, appearing among God’s elect, who shone “like lights in the world” (Phil. 2:15). But what was the fate of virtue? - “I was stoned, I was despised, I was tempted, I died by murder with the sword: it happened in misery... deprivation, sorrow, embitterment” (Heb. 11:37): this is the history of virtuous people, written by the Holy Spirit himself! – God’s holy men worked in the garden of the Lord not for the payment of earthly blessings: but the justice of the heavenly Master demands that there be more than one end for “good and evil... the one who devours and the one who does not” (Eccl. 9:2). And how many times has the voice of complaint and sadness been heard: “Because the way of the wicked is sung” (Jer. 12:1), but the righteous are reaped themselves, like the grain? Providence sometimes apparently justified its ways; more than once, in the face of the whole world, which regards the life of the righteous as “a joke” (Wis. 5:3), virtue triumphed over vice; More than once, when thrown into the furnace of temptation, the righteous emerged from it as pure gold, not only in the eyes of God, but also in the eyes of their enemies. But the triumph of virtue always remained incomplete; On the crown with which the righteous were adorned, thorns were always noticeable: since the virtue of the sons of men is always imperfect and unclean. Meanwhile, in order to disgrace the triumphs of the vain world, it was necessary to demonstrate the complete triumph of virtue. This required the purest virtue, the greatest temptation and all-perfect glory. This is the Resurrection of Jesus Christ! – What was His whole life if not one continuous service to God and his neighbors? The Jews, considering Him to be a resurrected prophet, were not in vain wondering what kind of prophet was resurrected in Jesus. For in Him, one might say, all the prophets and righteous people were resurrected. In Him, the faith of Abraham was combined with the ascetic life of Jeremiah, the zeal of Elijah was clothed with the meekness of Moses, the purity of Joseph was combined with the patience of Job. Meanwhile, what was the lot of these virtues? – Which righteous person was put to shame, despised, or tortured more than Jesus Christ? On Golgotha ​​alone, in His person, all virtues were desecrated. Holy devotion to the will of God has been violated; “I trust in God, that He may deliver Him now” (Matthew 27:43). Love for neighbors is desecrated: “He can save another, but he cannot save himself” (Matthew 27:42). Humility is desecrated: “If there is a King of Israel, let him now come down from the cross.” The truth is desecrated: “let us remember that he speaks like a flatterer” (Matthew 27:63). But behold the triumph of piety! – Which of the virtues is not now crowned in the person of the Risen One? - He “humbled himself by being obedient... unto death... godmothers”: and behold, “God has exalted Him, and given Him a name... above every name, that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth”! ( Phil. 2:8–10 ). He, “who is rich,” became poor for us (2 Cor. 8:9), did not have “where to lay his head” (Matthew 8:20): and behold, “all authority in heaven and on earth” (Matthew 28:18) was given to Him! Out of love for his neighbors, He gave His soul: and now the souls of all the sons of men are given over to His power, as the Redeemer and Judge! And these are still only traces of the triumph of the invisible, visible to us. If we, according to the Savior’s promise, saw “heaven open” (John 1:51): what a triumph of virtues would be revealed in His face before our eyes! There we would see the Son of Man “crowned with glory and honor for accepting death” (Heb. 2:9), sitting “at the right hand of the power of God” (Luke 22:69); they would have seen “twenty-four elders” casting down their crowns before the slain Lamb (Rev. 4:10); they would see hosts of Angels, no longer “ascending and descending” over the Son of Man (John 1:51), but covering their faces from the unapproachable glory of His face. What heart that loves virtue could not rejoice at such a triumph of the Son of Man? This celebration is truly global, in which even the most pagan can participate. Let him not believe in the Divinity of Jesus Christ; it is enough if he believes in God and virtue in order to rejoice that the holiest of the sons of men is now so majestically rewarded by heaven itself. The Just God showed in the Resurrection of Jesus Christ how He glorifies those who love Him, showed before the entire human race that He never forgets the “labor of love” raised “in His name” (Heb. 6:10), and that all the triumphs of the world are nothing before the triumph of the righteous. So, Christian, now boldly walk the path of temptation and do not shy away from Golgotha: it is a ladder to heavenly glory. If Providence on earth does not crown your patience in the same way that the sufferings of the risen Jesus are now crowned, it is because you are destined for heaven, where all rewards are hidden. And His triumph apparently only began on earth - as a consolation to all sufferers - but continues entirely in heaven. 3. The Resurrection of Jesus Christ is the highest triumph of hope For the mortal human race, oppressed by all kinds of disasters, nothing could be more necessary than the insight of the eye of hope in the direction where there is no illness, no sorrow, no sighing! – And indeed, human thought and desires at all times and among all peoples rushed beyond the boundaries of this life. But who could dispel the darkness of the tomb? - to overthrow this barrier? -The sages appeared; but, coming “from the earth” (John 3:31), they spoke about the earth; They boasted that they “brought philosophy down from heaven,” but not a single person was raised to heaven. Prophets came, instructed, denounced, consoled; but then they themselves died without accepting the “promise” (Heb. 11:39), and tears flowed over their graves and sighs were heard. Only Enoch and Elijah soared above the abyss of corruption; but they soared like solitary eagles, whose traces are invisible to human eyes. Death reigned over the rest of the human race with such ferocity that during the time of Jesus Christ, not only many of the wise men of the pagans, even a great part of the people of God rejected all hope of immortality, saying “there will be no resurrection” (Matthew 22:23). It was necessary to restore fallen hope and demonstrate in the face of the whole world that only a person’s body returns to earth, but the spirit returns “to God who gave him” (Eccl. 12:7). And now in the Resurrection of the Savior the triumph of hope takes place! The celebration is wonderful. The omnipotence of God could proclaim out loud to all people the promise of an eternal life, as the law was once proclaimed out loud to all the Israelites: it could create “winds” with His angels and “burning fire” with His servants (Ps. 103:4), so that mortals would understand that after an earthly, temporary fatherland, a heavenly, eternal fatherland awaits them. – But what does the wisdom of God do? – The coffin and death were the fault of human fear and despair: it turns the coffin into a source of hope, death forces one to be a preacher of immortality. For what else is the tomb of Jesus Christ now serving, who alone will not give up his dead on the resurrection of the dead, if not as proof that all the tombs will one day be empty and give up their dead? – What did the death of Jesus Christ serve for, if not for the assurance that death is only a guardian who guards what is given to him, keeps it as long as the Lord wills life, and that in the power of this guard is only our mortal frame, and not the spirit, which is completely ignorant of the grave and death? The celebration is touching. If God, in order to free us from the fear of death, had commanded some great righteous person to die and rise again, then we would have no reason to fear the darkness of death: for it is impossible for a just God to subject a righteous person to death if it were real evil. But now the Son of God himself has deigned to taste the most painful death for us: after His tasting, can the cup of death be too bitter for us? And could the love of the Heavenly Father more touchingly console our hope? The most true celebration. It must be said decisively that all the proofs of immortality used by reason do not have as much force as the Resurrection of Jesus Christ alone contains. To believe this resurrection and doubt our resurrection is a complete contradiction. “Even if...Christ...has risen,” the Apostle Paul once wrote to the Corinthians, “how do some people say...that He brings the resurrection of the dead? Unless there is a resurrection of the dead; neither does Christ rise” (1 Cor. 15:12–13). Indeed, Christ is the head of believers: when the head has risen, how can the other members remain dead? Christ is King; over whom will He reign if his subjects remain in their graves? The celebration is complete. Hope for the immortality of the human spirit, although weak, was previously in the human race. The Resurrection of Jesus Christ, confirming this hope, expanded its scope, showing that not only the human spirit does not die, but also the body will once become immortal - that the day will come when this “perishable will be clothed with incorruptibility” and this “dead life will be consumed” (1 Cor. 15:53, 2 Cor. 5:4). The celebration is finally majestic. What is greater than the glorified humanity of Jesus Christ? But, according to the assurance of the apostle, the time will come when He will “transform the body of our humility, so that we may be conformed to the body of His glory” (Phil. 3:21). O brethren, what cold heart will not rejoice at this and will not be imbued with the fire of love for the Risen One! Much was promised when He said that at the resurrection those who believe in Him will be “like the angels of God in heaven” (Matthew 22:30). For can a man be an angel? But after His resurrection, the Lord is even more generous: He Himself does not want to have anything other than divinity, which He would not share with us. His most pure body earned glory through suffering. Our body will be like His body: it will not have only the ulcers that remained on His most pure flesh; this one advantage remains with Him. May “blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ...according to His many mercy He begat us for a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (1 Pet. 1:3). The Lord, the Lord Himself, created this day: let us “rejoice and be glad on it!” (Ps. 117:24). Truly, it is a celebration of holidays and a triumph of celebrations: a triumph of faith, virtue and hope. Let us all triumph before the face of the risen Lord! But, brothers, while we are triumphant, we must, according to the word of the Apostle, remember that “our Easter,” sacrificed for us, is Christ Himself; and therefore we must celebrate “not with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but without the leaven of purity and truth” (1 Cor. 5:7-8). About the Old Testament Passover it was said in the law that the uncircumcised should not eat it (Ex. 12:48). And those who are not circumcised in heart and given over to vices will not taste the true Christian Easter. It is in vain that such a person will repeat: “Christ is risen!” “So,” the Lord will tell him, “I have risen, but not in you; in your heart I am still dead; the stone of your bitterness overwhelms Me; guards—evil habits and passions—surround and watch Me.” In vain will such a one give and receive the kisses of love and peace: the risen Savior will say to him: “Have you betrayed the Son of Man with a kiss?” (Luke 22:48). O brethren, we will not betray the risen Savior with our sins and vices: He already suffered a lot for us! If He appeared now and asked each of us, like Peter: “Do you love Me?” - without a doubt, everyone would answer: “Indeed, Lord... I love You” (John 21:16). But “if you love Me,” He said to His disciples, leaving to suffer, “keep My commandments. Keep My commandments, that is he who loves Me” (John 14:15–21). Amen. You might be interested in: