Catechesis · Inquirer
The Passion
Catechesis · Inquirer
The Passion
The cross is the place where God, in the Person of His Son, entered the full depth of what it means to be human and fallen — suffering, abandonment, death — and transformed it fro…
Question
What did the cross accomplish?
The cross is the place where God, in the Person of His Son, entered the full depth of what it means to be human and fallen — suffering, abandonment, death — and transformed it from within. The cross is not God punishing His Son in our place, though forgiveness is real. It is God, in His Son, absorbing and destroying the power of sin and death by entering them personally.
The Fathers use multiple images for what the cross accomplished: victory over death and the devil, sacrifice and reconciliation, ransom, the destruction of sin's condemnation, the healing of human nature through the perfect obedience of the Last Adam. No single image is complete. Together they describe one event seen from many angles.
The teaching
The cross — victory, not defeat; offering, not payment
The Orthodox cross is the cross of victory. The Church does not linger at Golgotha in grief. It moves immediately to the proclamation: "We worship Thy Passion, O Christ. Show us also Thy glorious Resurrection." The Passion and the Resurrection are one movement. The cross is the path to life, not its opposite. This is why the Orthodox cross often shows Christ not in agony but reigning — the King upon His throne.
The descent into Hades — the period between the death and resurrection of Christ — is a crucial but often overlooked element of the Passion. Christ descended to the dead, not as a defeated victim but as a conqueror. He preached to the souls imprisoned there (1 Peter 3:19) and opened what death had closed. The icons of the Resurrection show Christ pulling Adam and Eve from the tomb — the definitive act of liberation.
He who is Life itself tasted death — and by tasting it, destroyed it. He descended into Hades and spoiled its treasure, leaving it empty.
This is the Paschal logic: death was destroyed not by avoiding it but by entering it. The Author of life entered death, and death could not contain Him. His resurrection was not an escape from death — it was the destruction of death from within. The tomb is empty not because Christ left but because He emptied it of its power. This is the gospel.
After St. John Chrysostom
Paschal Homily · c. 400 AD
Holy Scripture
"He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By His wounds you have been healed."
1 Peter 2:24
"For our sake He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God."
2 Corinthians 5:21
The Descent into Hades
What Christ did between Good Friday and Pascha
Between His death and Resurrection, Christ descended to Hades — the realm of the dead. He went not as a defeated victim but as the conquering King. He preached to the souls held there. He broke the doors of death. The Anastasis icon shows Him pulling Adam and Eve from their tombs — the definitive image of liberation. This is the hidden chapter of the Passion that the Church contemplates on Holy Saturday.