Where Was Our Lord?
HOLY SATURDAY
AM Psalm 95; 88 • PM Psalm 27
Job 19:21-27a • Heb. 4:1-16 • Rom. 8:1-11
Today the Episcopal church commemorates not a person but a day, Holy Saturday. This day bridges Good Friday, which didn't seem “good” at all to Jesus’ followers, and Easter, which became the happiest day in Christian history.
But where was Jesus between times? The Apostles’ Creed, one of Christianity’s oldest professions of faith, used to state that he descended into hell and opened heaven’s gates for the just who had gone before him. This “Harrowing of Hell” became a major subject of the visual arts, the poetry, and the drama of the middle ages, proving irresistible to painters like Hieronymus Bosch and his school, who showed Jesus breaking down the door of hell onto a pit of gruesome monsters and broken humans, and to Dante, who, on a more positive note, wrote that the whole universe “trembled with the love” which Jesus exerted in breaking down hell’s doors. The Hallowing of Hell, in fact, holds the claim to being the earliest dramatic work in Britain, having been originally composed at Lindisfarne.
There’s scant Biblical evidence for this idea of Jesus’ descent into hell. In truth, Jesus’ own words to the Good Thief contradict it: “Today you will be with me in paradise.” Whether Jesus meant, “You will be in paradise with me this very day” or “You have secured a place in heaven because of your repentance today,” we cannot know. But it was good news either way. I like to think that the hosts of angels that ministered to Jesus after Satan tempted him in the desert were there waiting to minister to him from Friday to Sunday.
The words “Jesus descended into hell” have been removed from our creed, and I'm glad. I prefer to think that on that Sabbath, Jesus was finally allowed to rest after all his labors so that he could burst forth revived and replenished in body and spirit on the third day.
Written by Kay DuVal
Kay wishes everyone a Holy Saturday of rest and refreshment and a blessed Easter Sunday of peace and joy.