“He who hung the earth is hanging. He who fixed the heavens in place has been fixed in place. He who laid the foundations of the universe has been laid on a tree. The master has been profaned. God has been murdered. The King of Israel has been destroyed by an Israelite right hand.
For when the people did not tremble, the earth shook. When the people did not fear, the heavens were afraid. When the people did not rend their garments, the angel rent his own. When the people did not lament, the Lord thundered from heaven, and the most high gave voice.
The Lord clothed himself with humanity, and with suffering on behalf of the suffering one, and bound on behalf of the one constrained, and judged on behalf of the one entombed, rose from the dead and cried aloud:
’Who takes issue with me? Let him stand before me. I set free the condemned. I give life to the dead. I raise up the entombed. Who will contradict me?’
’It is I’, says the Christ, ’I am he who destroys death, and triumphs over the enemy, and crushes Hades, a and binds the strong man, and bears humanity off to the heavenly heights.’ ’It is I’, says the Christ.
’So come all families of people, adulterated with sin, and receive forgiveness of sins. For I am your freedom. I am the Passover of salvation, I am the lamb slaughtered for you, I am your ransom, I am your life, I am your light, I am your salvation, I am your resurrection, I am your King. I shall raise you up by my right hand, I will lead you to the heights of heaven, there shall I show you the everlasting father.”
He it is who made the heaven and the earth, and formed humanity in the beginning, who was proclaimed through the law and the prophets, who took flesh from a virgin, who was hung on a tree, who was buried in earth, who was raised from the dead, and ascended to the heights of heaven, who sits at the right hand of the father, who has the power to save all things, through whom the father acted from the beginning and forever.
This is the alpha and omega, this is the beginning and the end, the ineffable beginning and the incomprehensible end. This is the Christ, This is the King, this is Jesus, this is the commander, this is the Lord, this is he who rose from the dead, this is he who sits at the right hand of the father, he bears the father and is borne by him. To him be the glory and the might for ever. Amen.”
— St. Melito of Sardis, On Pascha, 190 AD Entries 96, 100-105
