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“Saturday: |
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The week was pretty exciting – and scary –
all at the same time. On Sunday, Jesus staged a political demonstration by
riding on a donkey into Jerusalem. It was a kind of counter-parade to one the
Roman governor and the wealthy and the politically elite had on the other side
of the city. On Monday, Jesus went to the temple and created enough chaos to
temporarily shut down the temple. On Tuesday, Jesus returned to the temple,
preached and taught openly to the crowds, and in a confrontation, made the
temple rulers look pretty foolish. On Wednesday, the temple rulers decided that
they could not arrest Jesus because he was drawing sympathetic crowds and was so
popular that his arrest might start a riot. And then, that same day, Judas
volunteered to betray Jesus to them. On Thursday, Jesus celebrated the Passover
feast with the disciples, and he gave bread and wine a new meaning. He called
them his body and his blood. Sometime that night, Jesus was arrested. On Friday, the day after Passover, everything changed. For us, it was the most solemn day in all of history. It was the day that Jesus was executed as a rebel – a subversive threat to Roman law and order – executed by the Roman governor. At 6:00 in the evening, as the sun was going down, Joseph of Arimathea asked for Jesus’ body for burial. All the gospels agree: Pilate released Jesus’ body so that he could be buried. The day ended with a death shroud – and in the terrible silence of a tomb. Mark, the gospel that has so carefully told the story of Jesus’ last week – day-by-day – sometimes hour-by-hour, is uncharacteristically silent. His next sentence begins: “When the Sabbath was over …” (Mark 16:1a) Jesus was buried on Friday evening and then Mark jumps forward to Easter morning! Mark skipped Saturday (the Sabbath)! What happened on the Sabbath? What did Jesus do on the Sabbath? Did he simply lie in the tomb on Saturday? What does a dead man do on this Sabbath? The belief of the Jews of Jesus’ day in an afterlife was heavily influenced by the Greeks. As the first Christians were also Jews, their belief in an afterlife was the same. The Greeks believed in a place called Hades, where one’s soul lived on as a vague shadow of the self. It was a dark, shadowy place under the earth. We might think of it as a “place of nonexistence.” (Borg and Crossan, 2006, p. 165) The Jews called this place “Sheol.” The concept of hell as a place of eternal punishment was not a belief of the very early church. That idea developed at a later time. So – what did happen on the Sabbath – the day after Jesus died? Where was Jesus? Did he simply lie in the tomb on Saturday? Did his soul make the journey down into the underworld called Sheol like the Jews believed? What does this dead man do on this particular Sabbath? Mark is silent about the day because no one knew what happened on Saturday. In the view of the Jews (and therefore, the early Christians), the soul of every person went to Sheol when he or she died. Those same Jews (and Christians) also believed that it was possible to be a “righteous” person. This was a person who remained faithful under persecution and was ready, if necessary, to die a martyr for his or her faith in God.” (Borg and Crossan, p.166) Those same Jews and Christians were a little fuzzy about how God would save those “righteous ones.” Perhaps God would save them before they died, like God rescued Daniel from the lions’ den (Daniel 6:22). But clearly, God did not snatch every “righteous one” from death’s horrible grasp. How would God save them after they had already died and their souls had gone to Sheol? Could they be vindicated after death? Did the early church think that the “righteous ones” in Sheol needed to be rescued? Yes they did. Marcus Borg and Dominic Crossan, in their book, The Last Week (2006), say that the early Christian Jews believed that “Jesus descended into hell, or Hades, or Sheol (or whatever you want to call it), to liberate all righteous ones who had lived for justice and died from injustice before he himself had lived and died a similar destiny.” (p. 174) That is what they believed Jesus was doing on the day between crucifixion and resurrection. In 1st Peter, a letter written a short time after the gospel of Mark, there are two possible references to what the early Christians believed Jesus did on the day after he died. In chapter 3, it says this: “For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, in order to bring you to God. He was put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit, in which also he went and made a proclamation to the spirits in prison …” (1st Peter 3:18-19) And then, in the 4th chapter, it says this: “For this is the reason the gospel was proclaimed even to the dead, so that, though they had been judged in the flesh as everyone is judged, they might live in the spirit as God does.” (1st Peter 4:6) Jesus as the visitor to hell and deliverer of the “righteous ones,” has been portrayed in Christian stories, hymns, and paintings. The theme of these depictions has come to be called “the harrowing of hell.” The word “harrow” means to plunder something – the plundering of hell! The icons and paintings show the triumphant Jesus standing before the gates of hell. The gates are thrown open wide as if wrenched apart by a strong force. (Borg and Crossan, pp. 180-181) This idea of Jesus going down into hell and rescuing the martyred and righteous ones lost its appeal quickly in the early Church. As Borg and Crossan state it in their book: “How could Jesus arise at the head of the martyred and righteous ones and then appear to his disciples to give them their apostolic mandate?” The gospels tell us of a risen Savior who stays among us, appearing multiple times to his disciples before his ascension into heaven. ‘Such a corporate resurrection” (of the martyrs and righteous ones – as the “harrowing of hell” suggests) “would have demanded … (an) immediate … ascension” (by Jesus and all he had liberated from Sheol) (Borg and Crossan, p. 182) – and we know that was not the case. For Mark’s gospel, the Kingdom of God has already begun. Mark 1:14-15 says: “Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God has come near.’” Mark’s gospel testifies that Jesus, the Son of Man, has already arrived. And with what happens to Jesus on Easter morning, the bodily resurrection has already started. (Borg and Crossan, p. 185) So – what did happen on the Sabbath – the day after Jesus died? Where was Jesus? Did he simply lie in the tomb on Saturday? Did his soul go down into the underworld called Sheol? What does this dead man do on this particular Sabbath? We do not know because Mark is silent about the day. Mark is silent because no one knew. What we do know is this: “For Mark, Jesus as the Son of Man has been given the anti-imperial kingdom of God to bring to earth for God’s people, for all those willing to enter it or take it upon themselves.” (Borg and Crossan, p. 186) That is what we do know. Is that enough for you? Let us pray. O God, we will probably never know what Jesus did between the time of death and resurrection. There is no need for us to know. Thank you, O God, for not letting his death be the end – but rather the beginning of all else that truly matters. We thank you in Jesus’ name. Amen. |