After the High Holiday of Easter, in a period, where we have six consecutive Sundays before the very Pentecost Sundays, these Sundays are traditionally called the second, the third, the fourth and so on Sundays, the last one is called the seventh Sunday of Easter, thus we have not a single Holiday of Easter but a full Easter season.
This season is the Christian counterpart of the Jewish season called Counting the Omer.
The Counting of the Omer begins on the second day of Passover (the 16th of Nisan) and ends the day before the holiday of Shavuot, the 'fiftieth day.' Of course that the Christian counterpart of the Shavuot is the Pentecost, which also means Fifty. The origins of the "omer" count, which means sheaf, are from the Bible passages on the offerings for the start and end of the yearly grain harvest, with the 50th day marking the official end with a large feast and celebration.
In the Christian framework the Easter season is comprised of seven weeks after the Easter Sunday when it is worth to meditate on and to clarify some notions expressed in the Gospels and the church tradition, regarding the phenomenon of the resurrection.
The word became flesh, so says the Gospel of John, in its famous very first chapter:
“ The Word became flesh, and lived among us. We saw his glory, such glory as of the one and only Son of the Father, full of grace and truth. John testified about him. He cried out, saying, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me, for he was before me.’” From his fullness we all received grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses. Grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ.”
The Gospel reads that the spiritually eternal divine entity, called the Word (of God or Logos), through incarnation became fully human. For the first long centuries in the history of the universal Christian church there were almost endless debates regarding the very nature of Jesus Christ like how his divine and human natures related to each other in Him. The debating fractions tried hard to create the dogmas of the faith facing a couple of theoretical questions, like :
Did Jesus have one and divine nature only? If yes, did he have it since his conception, since his birth, since his Baptism, since his death in the cross, since his resurrection or since his ascension?
Did Jesus have a human nature only, but was selected, elected, chosen and adopted by God at the time of the Baptism or at the time of any other life event of him?
Did Jesus have a double nature, divine and human in the same time?
If yes, are his two natures separated from each other, or are his two natures united in him?
The general and traditional answer of the church is this latter one, expressed in many Christian Catechisms, that Jesus Christ’s divine and human nature are /were united in Him, without any separation and division.
However this concept led to the popular view which usually completely forgets Jesus’ human nature, his humanity, and this blind spot is indeed a major misconception.
That might be a major mistake if we forget that he is not only divine in his nature, but he is also fully, not a little bit, but fully human as well, according to the Catechisms and to the tradition of all established Christian churches, those who accept the ancient and universal Christian creeds, sanctified by the Roman Emperors.
There are some astonishing treasures in the meditation, if we pay attention to some mind blowing equations of the Christian math, regarding the full human nature of Jesus.
Even if his divine and human nature in him were / are united and inseparable, we should not downplay the role of his humanity, because if we do it, we will downplay also the value of our own human nature and its God created purpose.
Somehow it became an almost Christian but definitely widely accepted perception that we humans are like the fallen “angels”, excluded from the Paradise, sinners for life, and almost hardly any good in us. Especially strong this view among the protestants, Lutherans, Calvinists, Presbyterians and alike. Often theology and we too, are occasionally talking about the Christian Faith on that way that we become adopted children of God only for the sake and by the grace of Jesus, otherwise we are good for nothing. The Biblical account is however a bit more complex than that.
The level of the human dignity eventually is not from our “fallen” nature, but it is from God, and it is a creation order as it is written in the book of Genesis in the very first chapter that
“God created man in his own image. In God’s image he created him; male and female he created them. God blessed them. God said to them, “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the sky, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
At the very moment of our creation God blessed us. Maybe we fell, but God’s ordinations and his blessings are infallible, never changing and they last for ever.
We must never forget that we are made after God’s image. It is a stamp on us and it is also inside us, it is our inner and sometimes hidden nature. Genesis chapter two continues on this unbelievable marvel:
“ The Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.”
God is the ultimate source of life and the life force in the universe, which means that man became a living entity only, because God gave us life from his own, he breathed into our nostrils his own breath, thus we are not only bodies with some movements, but we are living souls with incredible capabilities according to the spark of God inside us, as it is written in the Psalm 8:
“ When I consider your heavens (O God), the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have ordained; what is man, that you think of him? What is the son of man, that you care for him? For you have made him a little lower than the angels, and crowned him with glory and honor. You make him ruler over the works of your hands.”
Thus the origins of the human nations can not be revealed by the very controversial theory of evolution which otherwise completely contradicts the so called and factual Cambrian Revolution if someone feels some compulsion to take a look into it. And this marvel even goes further.
In the very genealogy tablet of Jesus in the Gospel of Luke, the chart starts with Jesus and goes back in time via King David, via Abraham, via Noah, it arrives to the very first man, Adam, who is supposed to be the last person in the family tree.
However the Gospel does not stops at Adam but it goes further as it is written : “ … the son of Shem, the son of Noah, the son of Lamech, the son of Methuselah, the son of Enoch, the son of Jared, the son of Mahalalel, the son of Kenan, the son of Enosh, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God.” We have to be stunned by this reading. Seth was the son of Adam, and Adam was the son of God.
The Gospel acknowledges that the human nation originated from God, the Father, as he is our ultimate Parent, where the Father in Heaven term, used by Jesus himself, does not have a biological gender, of course.
So. Regarding resurrection. It is even more marvelous. God can not die, therefore God can not resurrect. Thus if Jesus died, he died according to his human nature, and if he was resurrected, he resurrected according to his human nature. God ordered the resurrection of course, but as death belongs to the body so the resurrection belongs to the human nature, if God makes us resurrect.
Sometimes we also think that the resurrection of Jesus was an extraordinary event. It was one of a kind, but he was not alone who has been ever resurrected.
The Gospel acknowledges that the human nation originated from God, the Father, as he is our ultimate Parent, where the Father in Heaven term, used by Jesus himself, does not have a biological gender, of course.
So. Regarding resurrection. It is even more marvelous. God can not die, therefore God can not resurrect. Thus if Jesus died, he died according to his human nature, and if he was resurrected, he resurrected according to his human nature. God ordered the resurrection of course, but as death belongs to the body so the resurrection belongs to the human nature, if God makes us resurrect.
Sometimes we also think that the resurrection of Jesus was an extraordinary event. It was one of a kind, but he was not alone who has been ever resurrected.
The Bible recorded in the Old Testament that prophets Elijah and his disciple Elisha they both resurrected people. Jesus himself resurrected people. In the New Testament even the Apostles resurrected people. Resurrection, if not that often, but happens.
And this line still does not stop here. Ascension as an event, also belongs to the human nature. God is already in Heaven, there is no need for God to be ascended. Thus ascension happens to humans. Not quite often, but it happens, like in the case of Enoch, Moses, Elijah and others.
And this might be thrilling. As the miracles and wonders are considered extraordinary events, we tend to think that these are all belong to the divine nature of Jesus. Thus, because we are so human and lacking divinity, in general we feel separated from Jesus exactly because of his divinity, even in the times when we call upon his help and intersession.
However Jesus calls us not only to pray for help and redemption, but also to follow him, and just right after his resurrection he made an astonishing statement in the Gospel of Mark chapter sixteen: “17 And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; 18 they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well.”
As at the very creation God gave us life force from his own so Jesus calls us into a companionship with him, where by Faith and Grace he shares the powers of his Lordship with us, as our Master, our Teacher, our brother and friend.
In this World and society there left only a little space for Faith, as they say faith is not a Rocket Science. In order to take on what by Grace Jesus shares with us, Faith must grow in us.
Once a father went to Jesus with his very sick child. He turned to Jesus because the disciples were not able to heal the kid. Jesus got annoyed, and he had to rebuke his own disciples:
“ Unbelieving generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you? ”
The father asked Jesus that “if you can do anything, have compassion on us, and help us.
… Jesus said to him, ‘If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.’
… Immediately the father of the child cried out with tears, ‘I believe. Help my unbelief!’ ”
As we can see the whole world is sick, not only physically, not only mentally, we are sick in our soul as well, as a humanity we lost our ways, we lost meaning and purpose, and our straying from the right path is global and almost universal.
Still we have the chance to return to the right path, to return to God with a simple but powerful prayer: O Lord, help our unbelief.
By grace and faith on Earth we can find the Blessing of Easter, we can revive humanity by the divine guidelines regarding how to live righteously, how to achieve enduring happiness as a person and as a society, how to establish long standing harmony and peace by finding the divine purpose and meaning of the human life.
May the Easter Season be as a Blessing upon our prayers.
May our prayers be heard in Heaven, as we plead for healing and as we bless the name of the Holy One, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, now and always,
Amen.
