saturday – to hell and back
“Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one; I died, and behold I am alive for evermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hell!” Revelation 1:10-18
Not a great deal is written about Saturday – the day after His crucifixion, the day before His resurrection – in the gospel accounts.
Luke gives us a single sentence…”On the Sabbath they rested according to the commandments.” Luke 24:56b
Luke, the only known Gentile author in the New Testament, makes an observation here that speaks volumes for me. “They (the Jewish followers of Christ)…they (the Jewish disciples of Christ), rested. They rested! According to the commandments! Please understand, the exclamation points here are mine, and mine alone. But, as a Gentile believer myself, I was amazed when this statement sunk in to my thinking. On that Saturday, ‘they’ were grief stricken, confused and without a shepherd…trapped somewhere between their religion which had bound them for a lifetime before Jesus came along and said “follow me!” – and “he whom the Son sets free, shall be free indeed.”
We recently heard a Jewish rabbi who is a believer in Yeshua the Messiah say, “some modern day Jews go to extremes in following the commandments.” There’s an ancient Jewish tradition which says tearing is considered work. The commandments forbid work of any kind on the Sabbath. Apparently a couple of millennia or so ago when the question ‘what is work?’ arose, some ancient genius came up with the idea of using any occupation connected with the construction of Solomon’s Temple as the yardstick. Maybe, during construction, it was necessary to tear the fabrics used for wall hangings? So…tearing is classified as work! Today these extreme followers of the Jewish tradition tear enough toilet paper on the day of Preparation to prevent the need for the work of tearing on the Sabbath! Things weren’t so terribly different on the Saturday after the cross. Remember the accusations of the religious community when Jesus healed on the Sabbath? Luke 14:1-6
Jesus had just spent the last three years teaching them what it meant to be free from the demands and dictates of a dead religion, then suddenly a dark cloud comes over their lives, and it looks like he’s gone. What do ‘they’ do? Turn right back to their old way of thinking…right back to their religious traditions. Am I guilty of doing the same thing? Do I so easily turn my back on his teaching when a dark cloud appears on my horizon and it looks like he’s not there shepherding, prodding me along the way I need to go? I wonder?
Mark’s record skips straight from Friday to Sunday. “they laid Jesus in the tomb…and when the Sabbath was past…” Mark 15:46 – 16:1 John’s gospel is the same. “as the tomb was close at hand, they laid Jesus there. Now on the first day of the week…” John 19:42 – 20:1
It is Matthew who tells us that on Saturday, “the next day” – the day after the day of Preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered before Pilate and said;
“Sir, we remember what that deceiver once said while he was still alive: ‘After three days I will rise from the dead.’ So we request that you seal the tomb until the third day. This will prevent his disciples from coming and stealing his body and then telling everyone he was raised from the dead! If that happens, we’ll be worse off than we were at first.”
Pilate replied, “Take guards and secure it the best you can.” So they sealed the tomb and posted guards to protect it. Matthew 27:62-66 NLT
‘Seal it the best you can!’ This is key! Remember it…
In his letters to the new believers, Paul writes of what was really going on Saturday. The Jewish converts were resting, according to the commandments of Moses. The religious sects who had schemed for years to destroy Him continued to posture and plot against Him. The pagans, Pilate, the Roman guards and the rest of the idol worshiping world, were by now bored with the whole thing and had moved on to yet another round of politico and debauchery.
“Seal it the best you can… don’t bother me with it again…it bores me…. That was Friday, this is a new day. What can it matter?”
But Paul…by revelation, through the Holy Spirit…tells me what Christ was doing on the Saturday that would change the world forever. To the church at Ephesus Paul writes: “When he ascended on high he lead a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men.” (In saying, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is he who also ascended far above all the heavens the he might fill all things.)” Ephesians 4:8-10
Into the lower parts of the earth…? What does that mean for me? In one translation King David, a man after God’s own heart called that place Sheol. The King James Bible translates it another way, ”If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there.” Psalm 139:8
Twenty-first century ‘religious’ teachers tend to skip smoothly past Saturday in their Holy Week sermons. “He was crucified! He is Risen!!! Hooray!” This type of teaching leaves us assuming Christ died, was laid in the tomb, stayed there until Resurrection morning, and then walked out to show himself to Mary and the disciples. Uh huh…Lovely! Happy Easter!
To the crowds of followers Jesus said, “Now my heart is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour. Father, glorify your name!”
Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it, and will glorify it again.” The crowd that was there and heard it said it had thundered; others said an angel had spoken to him.
Jesus said, “This voice was for your benefit, not mine. Now is the time for judgment on this world; now the prince of this world will be driven out. But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself.” He said this to show the kind of death he was going to die. John 12:27-33
As they walked toward the garden of His betrayal Jesus told the disciples, “But a time is coming, and has come, when you will be scattered, each to his own home. You will leave me all alone. Yet I am not alone, for my Father is with me. I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” John 16:32-34
John, the revelator, by the power of the Holy Spirit, saw the bigger picture. Christ was crucified. His followers rested. The religious Jews and the Romans turned away and for the most part forgot about Him, thinking they had dealt with the situation once and for all. But on that long ago Saturday, Jesus Christ, the Son of God was not waiting patiently in Joseph’s tomb for Sunday morning. He went instead straight into satan’s realm, conquered him, and set his captives free. Jesus, the conquering King, placed His foot on the neck of the defeated foe and took away the keys to the realm. Rev. 1:17-18
Christ descended, not only from deity to humanity, and from humanity to infamy and death, but also into the lower parts of the earth. Into hell itself. There He took back what Adam allowed satan, the prince of this world, to steal in the dawn of man’s existence. Jesus conquered death, hell and the grave. He liberated captive souls from satan’s grasp. He established His absolute authority on the earth forever more.
Because of what Christ has done I am free! I rejoice in my freedom from the past; from the powers and principalities of the enemy’s conquered realm, from fear, and all things common to those who do not believe in His victory over death, hell and the grave.
Between the crucifixion and the resurrection Jesus went to hell and back.
“Now the prince of this world will be driven out…take heart! I have overcome the world.”
