By Stu Taylor

After my mum died last year, a Greek Orthodox friend pointed me to the icon of the resurrection. Also known as the Anastasis (“resurrection”) or Harrowing of Hades, there are variations, but the basic elements remain the same. Christ has descended into Hell and its gates are broken under his feet. Hades is bound and Christ is raising Adam and Eve from their graves. There are a few reasons that this icon gives me hope and strength.

The first is defiance. Having watched my mum diminish and then finally slip away from us, woolly and confused notions of souls floating up to heaven did not jibe with reality. Being with her as she died, along with my dad and sisters, was profound and sacred, but broken. Death is the enemy, and there was something freeing in being able to name it so. The smashed doors, the scattered hardware (I love that this icon includes hardware!) and the bound figure all speak to the triumph of Christ’s victory over death. In a culture that is uncomfortable with death and would rather not talk about it, this picture is unapologetic in its vivid depiction of death’s reality and death’s destruction. As Christians, we don’t deny death; we defy death.

The second is the very physical nature of the resurrection. Adam and Eve are rising in body. When my mum passed away, we spent some time with her physical body, which had not suddenly become an empty husk as I might once have believed. This was her. She was dead. She will rise again with Christ. There is both an acceptance of physical fact and a tactile simplicity to that thought. Last year in Sunday School, we were talking about the resurrection. When I spoke about the physical resurrection of the dead, I could see the mix of scepticism, fascination and horror in the children’s faces. “You mean like my grandma will actually come out of her grave?”.

“Yep”.

“Creepy”.

“Uh huh”.

Finally, I love the fact that Christ is grasping both Adam and Eve by the wrist to pull them from their graves. They are doing nothing to raise themselves. Christ has taken ahold of them and will not let go. I picture his firm, sure hand around my mum’s wrist, pulling her to light and life. The resurrection is defiant, physical and entirely Christ’s doing.

When he was writing to me about the icon last year, my friend noted the words of the hymn they sing during the 40 days of Easter: Christ is Risen from the dead, by death trampling death and to those in tombs bestowing life.

Amen.