Many women were there, watching from a distance. They had followed Jesus from Galilee to care for his needs. Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of Zebedee’s sons.
As evening approached, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who had himself become a disciple of Jesus. Going to Pilate, he asked for Jesus’ body, and Pilate ordered that it be given to him. Joseph took the body, wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, and placed it in his own new tomb that he had cut out of the rock. He rolled a big stone in front of the entrance to the tomb and went away. Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were sitting there opposite the tomb.
The next day, the one after Preparation Day, the chief priests and the Pharisees went to Pilate. “Sir,” they said, “we remember that while he was still alive that deceiver said, ‘After three days I will rise again.’ So give the order for the tomb to be made secure until the third day. Otherwise, his disciples may come and steal the body and tell the people that he has been raised from the dead. This last deception will be worse than the first.”
“Take a guard,” Pilate answered. “Go, make the tomb as secure as you know how.” So they went and made the tomb secure by putting a seal on the stone and posting the guard.

• Matthew 27:55-66

Why do the nations conspire
    and the peoples plot in vain?
The kings of the earth rise up
    and the rulers band together
    against the Lord and against his anointed, saying,
“Let us break their chains
    and throw off their shackles.”
The One enthroned in heaven laughs;
    the Lord scoffs at them.
He rebukes them in his anger
    and terrifies them in his wrath, saying,
“I have installed my king
    on Zion, my holy mountain.”
I will proclaim the Lord’s decree:
He said to me, “You are my son;
    today I have become your father.
Ask me,
    and I will make the nations your inheritance,
    the ends of the earth your possession.
You will break them with a rod of iron;
    you will dash them to pieces like pottery.”
Therefore, you kings, be wise;
    be warned, you rulers of the earth.
Serve the Lord with fear
    and celebrate his rule with trembling.
Kiss his son, or he will be angry
    and your way will lead to your destruction,
for his wrath can flare up in a moment.
    Blessed are all who take refuge in him.

• Psalm 2:1-12

After being made alive, he went and made proclamation to the imprisoned spirits—to those who were disobedient long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water,

• 1 Peter 3:20

“What is [very] much more important is that the ancients may have been right. The N. T. always speaks of Christ not as one who taught, or demonstrated, the possibility of a glorious after life but as one who first created that possibility-the Pioneer, the First Fruits, the Man who forced the door. This of course links up with 1 Peter 3:20 about preaching to the spirits in prison and explains why Our Lord ‘descended into Hell’ (= Sheol or Hades). It looks [very] much as if, till His resurrection, the fate of the dead actually was a shadowy half-life mere ghosthood. The medieval authors delighted to picture what they called ‘the harrowing of Hell’, Christ descending and knocking on those eternal doors and bringing out those whom He chose. I believe in something like this. It [would] explain how what Christ did can save those who lived long before the Incarnation..”

• C.S. Lewis, The Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis, Volume III (28 April 1960)

Boilerplate

First, the concept of Lent is the preparation for what is to come, the anniversary of Christ’s death and resurrection between Good Friday and Easter Sunday.  But in some denominations, the entire time from Advent, the anticipation of Christ’s coming (remembrance of His birth but preparation for His return) to Easter (Christ’s resurrection from the dead)…  This bracket of time is a celebration of the entire life of Jesus Christ on earth.  Christ’s conception to His ascension and on to the Holy Spirit coming upon the Apostles at Pentecost can be presented and celebrated from early December until Pentecost Sunday.

Many denominations only focus on Christmas and Easter, or maybe the entirety of Holy Week from Palm Sunday to Easter, and then may or may not focus on Pentecost.

But for those that recognize Lent, the Lenten season in many denominations has an element of fasting.  Sadly, this is done as Jesus teaches us not to do.  They make a big deal out of it when we should do it in private, something just between us and God.  But that tradition stems from the forty days of fasting that Jesus did in the wilderness after His baptism and before His ministry started.  The Lenten season is kicked off on Ash Wednesday.  And after forty days, we reach Palm Sunday, the beginning of Holy Week.  The concept of ashes is symbolized by at least one denomination having a cross painted on their forehead in ashes, sometimes from burning the palm fronds from the previous Palm Sunday the year before.  Again, that draws attention to the fact that they have started their fast.  But they are also announcing that they are Christians.  There is good and bad there.

So, when we are in the Lenten season, what should we focus on?  It depends.  We should focus on Jesus, but we might want to focus on our service to God.  What can we do better?  How can we spread the Gospel?  From Conception to Pentecost…  His mission was completed on earth, but He left us with something to do.

As for the Lewis book, it comes from a compilation of Lewis’ writings, edited by Zachry Kincaid.  In the book, there is a devotion, of sorts, from Ash Wednesday through Easter Sunday, the Lenten Season.  Each devotion contains suggested Scriptures and a writing of C.S. Lewis.

I am going to use my free time posts, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday afternoons (EDST) to correspond with that day’s devotion in the book.

Discussion

This is the last entry in this series until the next Lenten season.  It touches a bit of controversy.

I wrote about how I was part of a Thursday night Bible Study when I was on the ruling body of the church.  Another elder was reading the Apostles’ Creed from the Heidelberg Catechism printed in the Book of Confessions.  Since this was a book published for our denomination, he wondered why we omitted “descended into Hell” from the Creed.  He did his research, coming up with the verses in 1 Peter 3.  The “President of the Corporation”, namely because he was the head of the finance committee, a money man, vehemently objected to changing how we recited the Apostle’s Creed.  Showing his true liberal ways, he successfully intimidated enough of the less-biblical elders (sadly, a vast majority of them at the time) and the subject was buried in committee, never to ever be discussed again.  Fast forward about a year, we had a new pastor and the first Sunday that he used the Apostles’ Creed, we stumbled, but we said, “descended into Hell.”  We have had that phrase in the Creed ever since.

When the subject came up in that Thursday Bible Study, I remembered my Dad discussing such changes over the dinner table, being a permanent member of the ruling body in a small Presbyterian Church.  In the sixties and early seventies of the last century, a lot of those kinds of changes were made, making it optional to say the phrase.  My Dad’s view was that if the people that originally wrote it, and those that put it into the catechism had their reasons, those reasons had not changed.  God does not change; thus, where God has gone does not change.

But to correct C.S. Lewis, the Scripture from 1 Peter 3 is talking about Sheol or Hades, and it refers to those naughty angels that were doing horrible things with people on earth.  Think Nephilim.  They were imprisoned on earth in Sheol or Hades.  Everyone else at that time was wiped out by the flood, except for the eight on Noah’s Ark.  Jesus went to them to show them that He had died to save those who believed from their sins, and Jesus had conquered death.  He was there to proclaim a curse upon them, with no chance of redemption.

Now contrast that to what some denominations think about those who passed away before Christ paid the penalty for their sins.  They think that Hades or Sheol was a holding place for those people.  But these denominations think that upon Christ’s death and resurrection, those like Moses, Joshua, and King David rose from the dead to glory.  Maybe that is why we get so many images of dead people standing in line or waiting in a waiting room with an assigned number.  My wife had a dream of her father standing in line, soon after his death.  In the dream, he told her he was okay.

I like the assurance that when I die, my eyes will open, and I will see the glory of my Savior.  I will be looking into His face.

But I think the idea is absurd of Jesus walking through that waiting room saying, “You are mine.  He is mine.  No, sorry, not you.”

We will all face judgment someday.

But in the meantime, we forget that the location of God is outside time and space.  When we go to be with Him, we become outside time and space.  Time and space absolutely have no meaning at that point.  We are either in no time at all, or we are in all time.  The idea of a death sleep is not biblical, and it only makes sense to people who are trapped in time and space.  If you think – hmm, death sleep and then judgment day – then that is your way of giving the subject closure.  Or you can have hope that when you open your eyes, you will see Jesus.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.