Resurrection: Interpreting the Easter Gospel

This, then, appears to be the Gospel’s final word upon the new life that is given at Easter: that with it comes the possibility of seemingly impossible reconciliation, the healing of wounds that normally could never be healed, and the hope of beginning anew precisely when all hope would seem to have been extinguished.

This, then, appears to be the Gospel’s final word upon the new life that is given at Easter: that with it comes the possibility of seemingly impossible reconciliation, the healing of wounds that normally could never be healed, and the hope of beginning anew precisely when all hope would seem to have been extinguished.

the strong pressure to accept a ‘heavenly power’ model is repeatedly resisted in the name, initially, of the need to affirm without ambiguity the vulnerability of Jesus to suffering

By confessing the resurrection, we insist also that we will live our lives as if death is not the last word, as if pain and evil cannot be the denouement of the story, as if death even for us is not an evil or a disaster but simply part of God’s gracious will for us and for our loved ones.

By confessing the resurrection, we insist also that we will live our lives as if death is not the last word, as if pain and evil cannot be the denouement of the story, as if death even for us is not an evil or a disaster but simply part of God’s gracious will for us and for our loved ones.

the identity of Jesus as human sufferer and the further identity of that suffering with the divine action are never eclipsed in the language of Christian Scripture.

Out of the chasm of hell—the middle space—we are pulled. We are pulled into the mystery of this miraculous rescue, whereby our new life will not be divorced from the death of godforsakenness. Instead, it will bear the marks of death. In Heart of the World, Balthasar describes this new life: “All of your past is like a dream which one can no longer