What a discovery! You mean this man who is hanging on the cross is a king? The cross is his throne? The thorns his crown? This shattered body is a kingly body? A naked body, covered with the robes of a king? Glory overcame the despair of this criminal. And the king said, "Don't you wait for long. Today, you and me are going to share paradise."
He was buried and he resurrected. What does that do? The death overcame the guilt and the sin and the separation. What does the resurrection do? My goodness, it delivers! The last enemy of mankind is death. It makes men tremble; it makes clever men weep. It is the point of departure, the dead end of the road. Jesus entered the realm of death: three days in battle down there. And in the grip with that terrible enemy of mankind, he killed death, disarmed it, opened the grave.
Jesus came out of the grave triumphant, glorious. Do you think he came alone? Not a bit! He came with you! The head came out, and so the limbs came with him. You are there! I know you say, "Bishop, I am not that type." Jesus knows very well he died for that type! The kind of you, with all the things that make you tremble, with all the limitations of the human being. Jesus took you when he rose from the dead, because when he died, he gripped you.
(Selections from Festo Kivengeri, in his sermon The Triumph of God's Glory)
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