Good Friday. We hear again, in simple, unadorned form, about the pain and suffering that Jesus endured. And then it’s over. He’s dead. There is a sense of calm, of quietness, of finality.
Of course we know this is not the end. It is a time of waiting. We know, we believe, that in three days something truly extraordinary will happen. But now, this Friday, that is in the future.
So, what of today, and tomorrow? Is it like the tape has simply been paused? We wait until the third day, for reasons that are not entirely clear to us, and then the story continues?
There is a piece of the story in between. We don’t tend to focus on it much these days, but in medieval times it was considered very significant. In the Apostles Creed there is that phrase “(Jesus) died, descended into hell, and on the third day …” The Nicene Creed doesn’t say anything about Jesus descending into hell, and it’s not entirely clear where the idea comes from, although it is found quite early in Christian writings.
The medievals called it the “Harrowing of Hell” and that’s where the pictures originate of Jesus going down into hell (or the underworld), and freeing the virtuous who had already died. We tend not to get as hung up on what happened to the people that lived before the time of Jesus but it’s not unreasonable to wonder how they fit into the scheme of salvation. The recognition that Jesus turned everything upside down, even the foundation of time itself, is powerful – and has a clear basis in the start of John’s Gospel, where Jesus is described as existing outside of time: He was in the beginning with God (John 1:2).
All this discussion of time may sound too philosophical to have any practical impact for us. So let’s link it back to our starting point. Jesus has died. But something does happen before the resurrection. Jesus’ conquering of death is not just escaping from death – in fact it’s not escaping at all, it’s changing it.
How can death be changed? It seems like the ultimate “it is what it is”.
We can’t know about our own death but we do experience death in many forms: the death of a friend, of a parent, the death of a relationship, of a dream. Yes, we can, and should, and must move on from these deaths. But if that’s all we do, move on, leave the death behind, then we may find it’s not really left behind at all. Death needs to be confronted – recognized, and overcome. We may succeed well or not so well in doing this, but we can recognize that those who are at peace with the experience of death around them have succeeded in some way.
So Jesus doesn’t just wait until Sunday morning to arise as a new creation, he is active and working against the power of death during this time. Whether we see this as overcoming death for those already dead or in some other way doesn’t really matter. And clearly Jesus doesn’t need a particular period of time to do this. He could do it in any time or no time. But it does reveal to us that there is something between death and resurrection, something we also have to work at, whether it takes three days or many years. Conquering death is not just getting past it, but battling with it, getting underneath it, on top of it, getting the better of it.
When we do go into battle with death, our own or any other, the crucial thing is that we know we are not doing it alone. We are doing it with someone else, someone who has already won that battle.