Saturday, Day 40:
SABBATH – DAY OF SORROW & DESPAIR FOR THOSE WHO LOVED AND FOLLOWED
JESUS
Countdown
– 1 day!
Reading for today:
Mark 16:1
Luke 23:43
Ephesians 4:7-10
It was ‘over’ for Jesus – but not for His disciples and followers. They hid – out of public view – and grieved. They were wounded, confused, guilt-ridden, devastated. Sabbath ended at 6 p m – and Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome went and bought spices to apply to Jesus’ body on Sunday morning.
Perhaps they didn’t know that Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus had encased Jesus in 75 pounds of myrrh and spices the night before when they buried him in Joseph’s unused tomb. But they loved Him, and whether or not He met their expectations as Messiah, they loved the gentle person that He was – and they were going to honor him by giving him a proper and decent burial – and that meant spices....
Meanwhile, while Jesus’ body was wrapped in a linen cloth and lying on a stone cold slab in Joseph of Arimathea’s tomb, all the Bible tells us about where Jesus was – from 3 p m on Friday until the pre-dawn hours of Sunday morning – is what Jesus told the thief on the cross, “Today you will be with me in Paradise.”
Paul talks in 2 Corinthians 12:2-4 about being caught up to Paradise....
Where I am going with this is: where did we ever get the idea that Jesus descended into hell and ‘preached to the captives.’
When I was a kid I heard preachers say that Jesus went to hell, wrestled with the devil, and took the keys of death, hell and the grave away from Satan. The Apostles’ Creed says He descended into hell...and I memorized that in college when I was at Northwest College (now University). But I can’t find it in the Bible.
(I had already figured out that I don’t agree with some of the Apostles’ Creed. It takes Jesus out of creator status – and yet, John 1:1-4 says ‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men.’ I believe in a triune God as Creator, and that God represents Himself in 3 distinct persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.)
So here’s where I am stuck for now: Jesus said he was going to Paradise. Paradise is not synonymous with hell. When He was on the cross he said, “It is finished.” That doesn’t sound like an ‘except for this one final thing.’ All evidence points to His going to Paradise and speaking with those held there until His redemptive work on the cross was completed. The lambs slain for years were only substitutionary until the real came. Jesus was the real deal. His sacrifice reached back into all of man’s history and forward for as long as man would walk in metered time.
Mark 16:1
Luke 23:43
Ephesians 4:7-10
It was ‘over’ for Jesus – but not for His disciples and followers. They hid – out of public view – and grieved. They were wounded, confused, guilt-ridden, devastated. Sabbath ended at 6 p m – and Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome went and bought spices to apply to Jesus’ body on Sunday morning.
Perhaps they didn’t know that Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus had encased Jesus in 75 pounds of myrrh and spices the night before when they buried him in Joseph’s unused tomb. But they loved Him, and whether or not He met their expectations as Messiah, they loved the gentle person that He was – and they were going to honor him by giving him a proper and decent burial – and that meant spices....
Meanwhile, while Jesus’ body was wrapped in a linen cloth and lying on a stone cold slab in Joseph of Arimathea’s tomb, all the Bible tells us about where Jesus was – from 3 p m on Friday until the pre-dawn hours of Sunday morning – is what Jesus told the thief on the cross, “Today you will be with me in Paradise.”
Paul talks in 2 Corinthians 12:2-4 about being caught up to Paradise....
Where I am going with this is: where did we ever get the idea that Jesus descended into hell and ‘preached to the captives.’
When I was a kid I heard preachers say that Jesus went to hell, wrestled with the devil, and took the keys of death, hell and the grave away from Satan. The Apostles’ Creed says He descended into hell...and I memorized that in college when I was at Northwest College (now University). But I can’t find it in the Bible.
(I had already figured out that I don’t agree with some of the Apostles’ Creed. It takes Jesus out of creator status – and yet, John 1:1-4 says ‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men.’ I believe in a triune God as Creator, and that God represents Himself in 3 distinct persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.)
So here’s where I am stuck for now: Jesus said he was going to Paradise. Paradise is not synonymous with hell. When He was on the cross he said, “It is finished.” That doesn’t sound like an ‘except for this one final thing.’ All evidence points to His going to Paradise and speaking with those held there until His redemptive work on the cross was completed. The lambs slain for years were only substitutionary until the real came. Jesus was the real deal. His sacrifice reached back into all of man’s history and forward for as long as man would walk in metered time.
I believe that it is very possible that all who had been
‘saved’ were waiting for Him in Paradise – and that after he defeated death he
led them to heaven. I don’t know
for sure – but it is plausible…. I
obviously have some more research to do on this….
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