The Cross and the Resurrection in the Orthodox Church

minatasgeel

In a closed discussion, some mentioned that "That the East emphasis the Resurrection and the West emphasis the Cross" and posted the following sermon for HGB Rafael:

Since the discussion is now closed, there can't be any more comments added to it so I thought opening a new discussion just for this topic is a good idea and satisfactory for anyone who asked me to reopen it :-)

katanikhoros

As Orthodox we do not emphasize one over the other. They are both intrinsically related to eachother. If you preach the Cross you preach the Resurrection and if you preach the Resurrection you preach the Cross because you can't have one without the other.

The Cross is powerful because it is the Life that dies and thus gives us Life (aka Resurrection). The Resurrection is powerful because it is preceded by the Cross. That is why we often hear the claim that the Gospel started with the central message that Jesus rose from the dead. And yet Paul tells us that the heart of the Gospel is the Cross which is preached. We seek to preach Christ crucified (a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Greeks) and Him only.

God Bless

Remnkemi

Last year around Good Friday on Facebook, I saw lots of posts showing the Cross in a black background, artistically showing sadness at one half and a white background with the resurrection on the other half with the captions like "Earth's saddest day and gladdest day were three days apart". This is what drives me nuts. Protestant theology creates a false dichotomy between the Crucifixion and the Resurrection. Protestant theology plays out like Hollywood. It needs a plot and a happy ending when one accepts salvation in a moment.  It's imperative that we know that the Crucifixion was also the gladdest day for the Earth. It's imperative that we know, as Minasoliman said in the closed thread, salvation begins from the Incarnation, to the Crucifixion, to the Resurrection, to the Eucharist, to the eschatology. 

katanikhoros

We should not see any of the events in the life of Christ's redemptive work as isolated from the rest, but it is as Fr. John Behr puts it, like holding a prism to the light and all the different coloured lights are diffracted to show us each individual events from the one Life of Christ offered as a Sacrifice from the moment of the Incarnation in the womb of the Theotokos.