Focus: The Passion Week Of Christ (Pt.6)

Text: Act.1:3

"To whom also he shewed himself alive after HIS PASSION by many infallible proofs…"

Today is solemn Saturday, the day of His silence or absence. He has gone through the deadening pain of the crucifixion, and now He is in the region beyond the earth. Interestingly, two members of the Sanhedrin were involved in His burial - Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus.

It is a Saturday of grieving. The women close to Him are in great pains, trying to make sense of what had just happened to them, and feeling the pain of losing such a man as Jesus Christ - the incomparable man. His disciples are sobbing and feeling totally devastated and hopeless. Two of them said, "We trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel" (Lk.24:21). For them, it is now a forlorn hope. No one looking at the cross could see any sense in it. The only logic behind the crucifixion is the resurrection. 

Dr. G. Campbell Morgan made a great point where he said, "If we approach the cross for examination, it will evade us. If we approach it for contemplation, it will bewilder us. The only way to approach and understand the cross is by identification. That is my place. He died for me and took my place in His death."

Now that He is dead and His body lies in the tomb, where is He? When He cried out, "My God, my God…," His SOUL was in agony as He atoned for the sins of all men. When He said, "I thirst," His BODY was getting dehydrated. When He said, "Into thy hands I commit my spirit…," and He "gave up the ghost," He was referring to His inmost self, His SPIRIT. His BODY has been laid in the tomb, and He has handed over His SPIRIT to His Father, but where then is His SOUL? Did He go back to heaven? No, not at all, for He said to Mary after His resurrection, "I am not yet ascended to my Father" (Jh.20:17). So it is obvious that He didn't go back home to His Father yet, and He is no where to be found on earth. The only conclusion is that His soul is now in Hades or Shoel, an unseen world beyond the grave (Mt.11:23; Act.2:27; Rev.1:18). Hades or Shoel is an unseen world of two compartments, which then consisted of the abode of the righteous, the place known as paradise or Abraham's bosom, and the abode of the unsaved or the lost (Lk.16:22; 23:43). Between these two abodes was a great gulf, and no one could move from one side to the other (Lk.16:26). It was a place of total consciousness. Everyone there had his senses intact and everyone had a sense of self-recognition and could feel pain or peace, depending on which side he or she was (Lk.16:19-31).

We know that after His resurrection, Jesus took paradise to heaven (2Cor.12:1-4). Paul says in Eph.4:8, that "when he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive." The souls of the saved now go to heaven at death.

According to Peter, Jesus Christ went to the region of the dead, to preach to the spirits in prison (1Pet.3:19). I believe that He proclaimed deliverance to the saints in "Abraham's bosom." He secured the release of the saints and sealed the doom of the lost.

In this silent Saturday, the Master Jesus is taking care of His Father's business in a place beyond the grave. He is Lord everywhere in the universe, in seen and unseen places. Wherever He is, He makes His presence felt. The forces of nature bow to His lordship. Everything He created acknowledges His sovereignty and supremacy. He is both Savior and Lord.

We now await His resurrection come Sunday morning. Peter announced in Act.2:24, "Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that he should be holden of it." Yes! It is impossible for death or the grave to hold Him back. He didn't deserve to die, but He died anyways. His death was part of the plan. He had to die to end death and set man free from the sting of sin, which is death. Man has been plagued, tormented and enslaved by death for as long as he has existed on planet earth. The death of Jesus Christ was never in vain. His death was meant to terminate death and free humanity from its grip. As they say, it's never over until it's over. One thing is sure: resurrection morning is coming for all of us. Our resurrection is connected to His. Our hope is sure and solid.

by Bishop Moses E. Peter