The cross and the resurrection

In a minute

The creed slows down at this point: Jesus "suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried… the third day he rose again from the dead". This is the centre of Christian faith.

Christians believe that Jesus' death on the cross was not a defeat but the greatest act of love: God in Christ taking the world's wrong, pain and death on himself, so that people could be forgiven and reconciled to God. And they believe that on the third day God raised Jesus to new life. The empty tomb on Easter Sunday is why there is a Christian faith at all. The plain cross became its symbol, a sign of execution turned into a sign of hope.

What it is and how it's lived

The last week

The Gospels give more space to Jesus' last week than to anything else. He entered Jerusalem to crowds waving palm branches (Palm Sunday). He shared a last Passover meal with his disciples, washed their feet, and gave them bread and wine as his body and blood (Maundy Thursday). That night he prayed in the garden of Gethsemane, was betrayed by Judas, arrested, and put on trial before the high priest's council and then before Pilate, who sentenced him to death.

The cross

On Good Friday Jesus was crucified outside the city walls, a Roman punishment meant to shame and terrify. The Gospels record his words from the cross, among them a prayer for those who killed him: "Father, forgive them, for they don't know what they are doing" (Luke 23:34, WEBBE), and the opening of Psalm 22: "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (Mark 15:34, WEBBE). In John's Gospel his last word is "It is finished!" (John 19:30, WEBBE). His body was laid in a rock tomb before the Sabbath began.

The empty tomb

Early on the Sunday, women disciples, led by Mary Magdalene, came to the tomb and found the stone rolled away. In Luke's account two men in dazzling clothes asked them: "Why do you seek the living amongst the dead? He isn't here, but is risen" (Luke 24:5–6, WEBBE). Over the following weeks, the Gospels and St Paul say, the risen Jesus appeared to Peter, to the disciples and to many others. Then, forty days after Easter, he ascended to the Father (Ascension Day).

How it is lived

Christians remember the cross and resurrection every Sunday, the "first day of the week", the day of resurrection, and above all in Holy Week and Easter. Many make the sign of the cross, wear a small cross, or keep one at home. Every baptism and every Communion service is, in different ways, a sharing in Christ's death and rising.

Its inner meaning

Christians have many ways of speaking about how the cross brings people back to God, and the New Testament uses many pictures: a ransom paid, a sacrifice offered, a victory over evil, a debt cancelled, an example of self-giving love. Churches have stressed different pictures at different times, and no single explanation is "the" Christian one. What they share is this: "God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself" (2 Corinthians 5:19, WEBBE), and he did it out of love. "But God commends his own love towards us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8, WEBBE).

The resurrection means that love is stronger than death, and that the worst thing is never the last thing. Christians believe it is the "first fruit" (1 Corinthians 15:20, WEBBE) of a new creation: what God did for Jesus, he will one day do for all who belong to him.

Key texts

"For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures," (1 Corinthians 15:3–4, WEBBE)

Written by St Paul in about 54 CE, this is one of the earliest written Christian statements of faith; Paul says he had himself "received" it.

"He said to them, 'Don't be amazed. You seek Jesus, the Nazarene, who has been crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him!'" (Mark 16:6, WEBBE)

Greek (Mark 16:6): ἠγέρθη, οὐκ ἔστιν ὧδε — ēgerthē, ouk estin hōde, "he has been raised; he is not here".

"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only born Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life." (John 3:16, WEBBE)

"But now Christ has been raised from the dead. He became the first fruit of those who are asleep." (1 Corinthians 15:20, WEBBE)

From the Christian tradition

The Easter sermon of St John Chrysostom (4th century), read in every Orthodox church at Easter, calls out to death: where is your sting? Christ is risen, and life reigns (paraphrased; Paschal Homily).
The Easter Vigil in Catholic, Anglican and many other churches begins in darkness with a single new fire and the lighting of the Paschal candle, carried in with the words "The light of Christ" (liturgical practice; wording varies by church).

Common misunderstandings, answered gently

"The cross means God is angry and needed to be paid off." Christians differ on how to express the meaning of the cross, but all agree that it begins with God's love, not his reluctance. "For God so loved the world" comes first.
"The Jews killed Jesus." This accusation caused terrible suffering for Jews across centuries. The Gospels are clear that Jesus, his disciples and the first believers were all Jews, and that he was crucified by Roman authority. The churches have rejected the charge of collective Jewish guilt (for example Nostra Aetate 4, 1965). Christians believe Jesus gave his life freely, for everyone.
"The resurrection just means his memory lived on." For the churches, the resurrection means Jesus was truly raised, bodily, to a new kind of life, not simply remembered.
"Easter is really about eggs and bunnies." Eggs became a Christian symbol of new life and the sealed tomb breaking open; in Orthodox tradition they are dyed red. The heart of Easter is the resurrection.

Across the churches

Catholic and Orthodox churches often display a crucifix (a cross with the figure of Christ), recalling his suffering; many Protestant churches prefer a plain empty cross, emphasising the resurrection. Orthodox Christians, and some Eastern Catholics, keep Easter (Pascha) by a different calculation, so it usually falls a week or more after Western Easter; in 2025 the dates coincided. Orthodox believers greet each other at Easter, "Christ is risen!" and answer, "He is risen indeed!"

Reflection

Has there been a time when something that looked like an ending turned out to be a beginning?

In the other traditions

Judaism: Jesus' last supper was held at the time of Passover (Pesach), when Jews remember their liberation from slavery in Egypt; Jewish tradition does not see the Messiah as one who dies and rises, and many Jews believe in the resurrection of the dead at the end of days.
Islam: the Qur'an says of Jesus that "they slew him not nor crucified him, but it appeared so unto them" (Qur'an 4:157, Pickthall); Muslims believe God raised Jesus to Himself and that he will return before the Last Day.

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