He descended into hell. Did He? Although only alluded to in scripture, I believe He did this in so many words. What is hell? Life without God. Not life totally void of a god, a supreme being, a ruler and controller. But life without that being. Life spent apart from and unable to reach toward goodness and freedom. Bondage. He descended to our fate, our ultimate end because of our sin that He took on. He not only took on sin but He took on our end, the utmost punishment. Sit in that thought for a second. Can you imagine the torture, the pain that hell must be? We sometimes focus on how horrible it must have been to be beaten and nailed to a cross but that was only a few hours of torture. We're talking days in hell here. He willingly did that for you. He willingly did that for me. The amazing thing is, above all the other amazing things, that He created the world in such a way that He would have to die for us. He created the world not only knowing but making it so that He would have to come down, live among us, teach us His ways and then take our place. He loves us that much.
The third day. 3 days in hell. I can hardly imagine three hours of torture and life without God, much less three days of it. Even as someone not yet saved, the capacity still exists to be so if the said person still exists here on earth. But Jesus endured 3 days of life devoid of any semblance of the comfort, authority and alms that He deserved. I don't even know what else to say- 3 days, that's a long time when you're in pain.
He rose again from the dead. We're conveniently surrounded by people here in the south that know about Jesus. I read a statistic the other day that said 94% of Americans believe in God and 46% are Christian. I think I might a "claim to be" in the later but that's my skepticism talking. Have you ever sat back and thought about what it looked like for Jesus to die and then come back to life? When Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead I believe He made a distinct decision to wait a few days before going there. Jesus wanted Lazarus good and dead. Dead so that he's beginning to smell and rot, leaving no one suspicious that maybe he's just in a comma and looks dead. Now I'm no history buff but I've heard that they used to put bells in caskets because some people got buried alive. They knew this because when they excavated some graves they found fingernail scratchings and other indications that people tried to get out. How terrible would that be? Anyway, that's not the case here. No desperate attempt to look dead or act dead so He could come off the cross. He was dead. They pierced His side, they embalmed him, they set him in a tomb and rolled a really heavy stone over the entrance. But against all odds, against all faith, against everything that made sense to humanity He rose. He, because He is God, picked himself up and decided to live again. He couldn't be beat. We don't know how and the more we try to rationalize it the more it doesn't make sense. Jesus was dead for too long to be considered logical and He not only started to live again but in that moment all blame, all punishment, all pain and torture that we should have endured vanished for those who love Him.
He ascended into heaven. I've always wanted to fly. I think, however, what amazes me most about this picture (can you see it?) is Jesus' humble attitude throughout the scene. I would have been going nuts, I'll be honest, throwing around a few "I told you so's" and "why didn't you believe me, stupid" and "haha I was right". I would at least have wanted to go back to everyone that laughed at me and pointed and laughed at them. But luckily I'm not god. He continued this amazing ability of communicating love and grace to those that still didn't truly understand. He didn't taunt them with His amazing abilities, He hoped they'd realize they could do the same. He hoped they'd do even greater things. He hoped they would draw strength from His strength and seek not themselves but Him and thus get to the Father. He ascended to His rightful place, His place that He never had to leave but chose to leave. He flew to be back in bodily form with a God He never left spiritually.
