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"After the death of Jesus, we are given a new possibility to face death. Death can be seen as something very passive on one hand, because we have no choice at all over the time, place, and condition. It just happens. But some theologians say that death is also something very active. It’s the supreme moment of our life, the supreme event. The German theologian Karl Rahner has a beautiful reflection on the theology of death. He says that death is the most personal act each one of us has to accomplish, the supreme moment. That can be also seen if we compare our life as a long letter written to God—the daily conversation, surrender, dedication. The moment of death is like a signature. I affirm. I sign the whole letter of love for my whole life. That’s the supreme moment. Who gives us the possibility, the right to do this? I think it’s the death of Christ as total surrender to the Father. Christians, or those who follow Christ, are able to appropriate the death of Christ to the moment of our own death."

--Joseph Wong

"...We understand that Christ went through death, and in the agony in the garden said, 'May this cup pass from me.' Some interpretations of those words have been that Christ wanted to be able to live through the crucifixion. The death struggle had already begun in the agony of the garden, and he didn’t want to burn himself out and die prematurely before he went through the crucifixion and then into the resurrection. Finally, footnotes are very important in writings. Even Ray Brown in his book, The Death of the Messiah, talks about one of the last words on the cross, 'My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me.' It is not always accepted that 'forsaken' is the term that Christ actually used. There is a tradition that the sentence should really be interpreted as, 'My God, my God, why hast thou glorified me?' Ray Brown mentions this and that interpretation has certainly been part of a tradition. It’s worth thinking about that subtle distinction between being forsaken and glorified."

--Gene Gollogly

"On the lack of recognition of Jesus after resurrection: The resurrection of Jesus in the New Testament is clearly not simply the resuscitation of a corpse. It’s not like Lazarus coming back to life where he is going to die again. The disciples have to go through a whole process of learning to see, which is not solely the experience of Mary or the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, but representative of a broader process in the whole Christian community. It’s especially dramatic in the story of the road to Emmaus, where the disciples hear the stories of hope, know the tragedy of history, and are in between. That’s exactly where the early Christian community was. The figure of the risen Lord in the story teaches the early disciples how to understand the scriptures, and then they recognize Jesus in the breaking off the bread. As soon as they recognize him, he is gone, which is similar to him saying to Mary Magdalene, 'Don’t touch me. Don’t grasp me. Don’t cling to me.' The resurrection of Jesus is not a possession that we can hold onto."

--Leo Lefebure

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