We do not say: my body is sick, we say: I am sick. Since the body dies and the soul is separated from the body, the personality is destroyed. Did this happen to Christ? No. Why? He had only one "I." Whose? God. And God – is He limited by something, place or time? He is omnipresent. That is why we sing in hymns that He was in the grave in the flesh, in hell He was in soul as God, in Paradise with the thief, on the throne He was with the Father and the Spirit – at the same time. Death tried to destroy.

You see, she has always done this, she destroyed the personality, her main task is to destroy the personality of a person. And death broke its teeth. The first time death broke his teeth. She could not destroy the Personality, the body was not subject to decay, the first thing. Why do many saints now leave incorrupt relics? They gain incorruption from the power of Christ. Before that, there was no incorruptibility of grace.

And moreover, the soul was not separated from the body. After all, in space they separated, but the Personality was one. Through the Person of Christ, the divine, the body and soul remained united. And as the Apostle Peter says in his famous sermon on the day of Pentecost: "God raised Him up, breaking the bands of death, because it was impossible for it to hold Him" (Acts 2:24).

The meaning of his speech is as follows: death was tormented by labor pains, it could not endure the life that was inside it. Death exploded, indeed, explosives were planted inside death. And the explosives exploded. On the third day, Sunday night, Jesus rose from the dead by the power of His own divinity. His body was reunited with His soul, His body was transformed, it remained a body, but it acquired new properties that we will have after the Resurrection.

He went through the shroud, burned His image on it. He went through the stone and invisibly passed through the guards. He no longer needed food, although He could take food. He could no longer die, He became immortal in body, He became immune to any disease, He became the Conqueror of death. Death was killed. We sing in hymns on Pascha, do you know what words?

We sing thus: "We celebrate the mortification of death, the destruction of hell, the beginning of another eternal life." Why is the Easter holiday the most amazing holiday for us? Even people of little faith, when they come to church for a feast, see Pascha, even they feel joy. Why? Because the power of the Conqueror of death extends even to unbelievers. This power of the Resurrection is so great that it will resurrect all people, believers and unbelievers, at the end of time.

Only unbelievers will not be able to use it for their souls for good. And the body will be resurrected in all people. That is why He is called the Firstborn of the dead, that is, the first. Of course, other people died before Him. But with Him began the process of Resurrection from the dead. He is the first, and all mankind follows Him. The harvest begins with Him. And after that, the Angel committed a crime against the state.

He broke the seal, he did not look at the cohort of guards, he did not look at the seal, he grossly violated all the laws and, as the Scriptures literally say: "And behold, there was a great earthquake, for the angel of the Lord, who came down from heaven, came and rolled away the stone from the door of the tomb, and sat on it" (Matt. 28:2). The stone was large, weighing two tons, and the Angel threw it to the top of the rock and sat on it.

For some reason, the guards did not resist, but ran away in fear, scattered through the bushes. And the first to come were the women who received the news of the Resurrection from the angel, and then some of the women met with Christ, and He said to them, "Rejoice." And to Mary Magdalene He said: "Do not touch Me, for I have not yet ascended to My Father; but go unto my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father and your Father, and unto my God and your God" (John 20:17). Why did he say that?

Because she wanted to relate to Him simply, in a human way, but His power was already glorified, it was necessary to treat Him in a godly way. After this, Christ was seen many times by His disciples, Peter saw Him, more than five hundred people saw Him, James and the other apostles saw Him, two disciples saw Him, who went to Emmaus, where they recognized Christ in the breaking of bread; saw Him in the evening eleven, or ten, to be exact, when they were given authority to bind and decide, when the Sacrament of the priesthood also appeared. And Christ blew on them. Why did he blow? Do you remember how man was created?

God breathed the breath of life into man's face. And now the risen Christ restores God's breath in man. Man has become permeated with a new breath of life. By the way, why did the Lord rise on Sunday? On this first day of the week, what do you think? "The beginning of a new life—" The end of creation came on Friday. As on the Sabbath God rested from His works, so the Lord rested in the tomb.

And on Sunday, a new universe began. The fact is that a new universe begins on Easter night. Just as on Sunday God created the world out of nothing, so on Sunday God renewed it. And why do you think Mary Magdalene took Him for a gardener? Those who have read the Gospel should remember that Mary Magdalene at first took Him for a gardener. Because He brought back Paradise. Where was the Lord's sepulchre? In the garden.

As there was a fall in the garden, so man was restored in the garden. Why did the Lord first appear to a woman? Whoever first heard the curse was the first to hear joy. Indeed, from this moment begins the era of great joy, the era of the Resurrection of the Lord, the era of eternal life, the era of Pascha. Easter – what does this word mean? Transition. And from this moment begins the transition from death to life, from decay to incorruption.

And for forty days the Lord appeared to His disciples, ate bread with them, ate honey and fish with them, in order to show that He was the same Man, that He could be touched, so that no one could say later that these were hallucinations or something like that. More than five hundred people saw Him at one time. He taught His disciples the mysteries of the Kingdom of God. What are the mysteries of the Kingdom of God?