Did Jesus truly rise from the dead?
In short: This is what all of Christianity stands or falls on. Saint Paul says it bluntly, if Christ is not risen, then our faith is in vain (1 Corinthians 15, 14). So it is not a nice detail, it is the very foundation. And the strange thing is that fearful men, who had all run away, suddenly came to die without fear for one single thing, the fact that they had seen Him alive.
The Orthodox nuance
Think about the facts, not feelings. The disciples, after the crucifixion, were crushed, in hiding, devastated. Their leader had died like a criminal. And yet, a few days later, these same men go out into the street and say they saw Him risen, and they do not back down even under the whip, nor facing death. People will die for a lie they believe in, yes. But you do not gladly die for something you know you invented yourself.
Then there is the empty tomb, which even the enemies could not deny, they only explained it away differently. And there are the appearances, not to one single exalted person, but to many at once. Paul writes that Christ appeared to over five hundred people at once, many of whom were still living when he wrote (1 Corinthians 15, 6), meaning "go and ask them."
For Orthodox Christians, the Resurrection is not just a past event you believe in. It is something you enter into. Every Easter we do not say "Christ rose two thousand years ago," we say "Christ is risen," in the present tense, and we embrace each other like people who have had a weight lifted from their souls. His Resurrection is the promise that our death is not the end of the road either.
Sources
- 1 Corinthians 15, 14 and 15, 6 (if He is not risen, all is in vain
- the appearance to over five hundred people)
- The four Gospels, the accounts of the empty tomb and appearances