St John 19: 31 – 42
Since it was the day of Preparation, the Jews did not want the bodies left on the cross during the sabbath, especially because that sabbath was a day of great solemnity. So they asked Pilate to have the legs of the crucified men broken and the bodies removed. Then the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first and of the other who had been crucified with him. But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. Instead, one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once blood and water came out. (He who saw this has testified so that you also may believe. His testimony is true, and he knows that he tells the truth.) These things occurred so that the scripture might be fulfilled, “None of his bones shall be broken.” And again another passage of scripture says, “They will look on the one whom they have pierced.”
After these things, Joseph of Arimathea, who was a disciple of Jesus, though a secret one because of his fear of the Jews, asked Pilate to let him take away the body of Jesus. Pilate gave him permission; so he came and removed his body. Nicodemus, who had at first come to Jesus by night, also came, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, weighing about a hundred pounds. They took the body of Jesus and wrapped it with the spices in linen cloths, according to the burial custom of the Jews. Now there was a garden in the place where he was crucified, and in the garden there was a new tomb in which no one had ever been laid. And so, because it was the Jewish day of Preparation, and the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there.
In the Apostles’ Creed, we recite the lines concerning the dead Christ:
Was crucified, dead and buried,
He descended into hell,
The third day He rose again from the dead….
This credal statement, framed in the language of poetry and mythology, tells us that Jesus descended into hell. The ancient world believed in a three-tier universe: heaven above, earth in the middle and hell below. But, for us today, the message powerfully shows that there is no depth to which Christ will not go to be with us, to reach out for us. This is captured beautifully in the poem by Ruth Etchells, ‘The Ballad of the Judas Tree’:
In Hell there grew a Judas Tree
Where Judas hanged and died
Because he could not bear to see
His master crucified
Our Lord descended into Hell
And found his Judas there
For ever hanging on the tree
Grown from his own despair
So Jesus cut his Judas down
And took him in his arms
‘It was for this I came’ he said
‘And not to do you harm
My Father gave me twelve good men
And all of them I kept
Though one betrayed and one denied
Some fled and others slept
In three days’ time I must return
To make the others glad
But first I had to come to Hell
And share the death you had
My tree will grow in place of yours
Its roots lie here as well
There is no final victory
Without this soul from Hell ‘
So when we all condemn him
As of every traitor worst
Remember that of all his men
Our Lord forgave him first.
Let us pray.
Into the very depths of human suffering and misery,
the broken, pierced Christ comes,
not to condemn again
but to raise us,
lift us, and
renew us.
In the hells that we endure,
let us look for Jesus:
He is there.
Amen.