Why Seek the Living Among the Dead?

There's a line that tends to come up a lot in hymns celebrating the Resurrection of Christ in the Orthodox Church. Like most things Orthodox, it comes directly from the scriptures. It's something the Angel that was at the tomb of the risen Christ said to the myrhh-bearing women who came early on that first Easter morning to anoint the Lord's body. To their surprise, He wasn't there. But an Angel was, who asked them, "Why do you seek the living among the dead?" I've sung that line hundreds of times since coming into the Church, but last Saturday night it jumped off the page. It was as if I was being addressed rather than the myrhh-bearers. "Why do you seek the living among the dead?" I'm not sure of all the ramifications of that question to me, but many things popped into my head all at once. Why do I try to find peace in things that agitate me? Why do I try to find contentment in things that inflame me? Why do I try to find sweetness in things that are bitter? I don't know, exactly. Like the myrhh-bearers, I tend to assume death has the upper-hand over everything. In a way, I've grown so accustomed to death that I find life a little difficult to believe in. But believing in death is the same as believing in nothing, and there's no future in that.