Here are a few fantastic quotations about the Resurrection from Wordsworth Gospel commentary (download the PDF for free here).
Wordsworth Gospels Mt 28:2 (1:91)
Our Lord, who is one and the same person, both Son of God and Son of Man, according to His two natures, at one time shows signs of His greatness, at another of His humility. As Man He is crucified and buried, enclosed in a tomb sealed with a stone; but the deeds done in the outer world prove Him the Son of God. The sun hiding his face; the darkness covering the earth; the earth itself rocked by an earthquake; the veil torn; the rocks rent; the dead raised; the ministry of Angels. Angels attended Him at His birth. An Angel was sent to Mary, to Joseph, to the Shepherds. He is tempted in the wilderness, and after His victory Angels minister unto Him. Now an Angel comes to guard His tomb, and by his white raiment intimates the glory of His triumph; and at His ascension two Angels appear to the Apostles and give a promise of the second coming of Christ, when He will appear with legions of Angels. (Jerome.)
On John 20:22:
“[Jesus] breathed on them.” They felt His presence, as well as saw Him present. He Who breathed into the first man, and he became a living soul (Genesis 2:7), now breathes on His Apostles, and thus reminds them that His own Resurrection is the beginning of the new Creation; that the breath of Christ risen from the dead is the origin of our new Life, and the pledge of Life Everlasting; “for as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all are made alive” (1 Corinthians 15:22); “and as the first man Adam was made a living soul; so the last Adam was made a quickening Spirit,” (1 Corinthians 15:45). The act of breathing was a proper preparation for receiving the Holy Spirit; and for the exercise of that power by which, in consequence of Christ’s Death and Resurrection, the Soul, dead in trespasses and sins, is raised from death to life.
Wordsworth, Gospels (John 20:22) 1:283
More from the same:
Christ rose from the dead on this day; He appeared twice in succession on this day; He gave special evidence of His Resurrection on this day; He gave the spiritual power to His Apostles, by which the soul is raised from the Death of Sin (v. 23). He gave the earnest of the Spirit on this day (v. 22), and, finally, He sent the full effusion of the Holy Ghost to His Church on this day (see on Acts 2:1).
Hence it appears, that the proper exercise of this Day is to “rise more and more from the death of sin to newness of life.” “If ye he risen with Christ, seek those things which are above” (Colossians 3:1); to “reckon ourselves dead unto sin, and alive unto God through Jesus Christ” (Romans 6:9-11): to be “in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day” (Revelation 1:10). Every Lord’s Day ought to be a Day of spiritual Resurrection. Every succeeding Lord’s Day ought to prepare us for the Day of the Lord. Then “when Christ, Who is our life, shall appear, we shall also appear with Him in glory” (Colossians 3:1-4).
(Wordsworth 1:283)
Our Lord might have erased all marks of His wounds from His Body risen and glorified, but He has preserved them there; He showed them to Thomas, who would not believe unless he saw, and so convinced him; He will show His wounds to those who will not believe, and will convict them, and say, Behold Him Whom ye crucified, behold the wounds ye inflicted, see the side which ye pierced. (Augustine) Our Lord arose with the marks of His crucifixion imprinted in His Body, in order that we might believe that He arose with the same Body as that in which He suffered. (Chrysostom)
Observe, that the wounds which Satan inflicted in malice and scorn on our Lord’s crucified Body, have been converted by His controlling power and wisdom into proofs of His Resurrection, and marks of His personal identity. They have become indelible evidences of His Power, graven, as it were, with an iron pen on the Rock of Ages, to be read by eyes of angels and men for eternity; and are glorious trophies of His victory over death and sin, and over Satan himself.
(Wordsworth, 1:283)
Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!
PrBW
Here are a few fantastic quotations about the Resurrection from Wordsworth Gospel commentary (download the PDF for free here).
