Looking like Christmas

Mikhail Nesterov, Holy Russia

Strangely, as we head towards Christmas, the feast of the Lord's Nativity, His enanthróposis, ‘being made man,’ it seems I am not the only one whose thoughts are being filled with His resurrection—Pascha in mid-winter! Father Stephen has posted this essay which touches on some of the same thoughts, in a different way perhaps, that I just wrote and posted this evening. [Italics and bolding, mine.] Here is how he begins…

One of the most striking features of the Gospels is the frequent response of the Disciples after the resurrection of Christ: doubt.
I have always been sympathetic to the doubts and hesitations that accompanied their ministry during the ministry of Christ. They are almost endearing in their inability to grasp what Christ is all about. However, the same inability to grasp things after the resurrection seems to carry with it all kinds of difficulties. What was it about the resurrection that they could not or did not believe? A man dies and is buried. Then he is not buried and is not simply a resuscitated man, but manifests an entirely new form of existence. Call it resurrection or what have you – but apparently Christ had mentioned this coming reality more than once before it happened. What was the problem for the disciples?

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