Christ Dead and Buried—A Holy Saturday Reflection

“The Body of the Dead Christ in the Tomb”

                I invite you to spend a moment contemplating the Hans Holbein the Younger painting “The Body of the Dead Christ in the Tomb” (1521-1522). The painting hangs in the Kunst Museum Basel. It pictures Jesus in the tomb, lying dead and not yet prepared for burial. It depicts the body of Jesus as it might have appeared on Holy Saturday. Even looking at it on a computer screen can be unsettling. To see it in person, as I had the opportunity in 2019, is even more unsettling. It is said that when Fydor Dostoevsky saw it in 1867, he said to his wife: “One could lose one’s faith from that picture.” I am again posting the picture on Holy Saturday to invite us all to ponder the moments between death and resurrection. What took place during those moments?

                Tradition suggests that Jesus descended into Hades/hell, where he preached and rescued the souls of those imprisoned there. It’s called the Harrowing of Hell. The Apostles Creed speaks of the descent into hell: We declare that Christ “suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried; he descended into hell; he ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.” The creed doesn’t tell us what happened there, but tradition has filled in the gaps. As for Scripture, two primary references are drawn upon. One is found in Acts 2 and the other in 1 Peter 3.

                The key Scripture references are found in Acts 2, where Peter as he proclaims the message of Christ’s resurrection, draws on Psalm 16:10 to affirm the resurrection of Jesus, and in doing so, speaks of Hades:  “For you will not abandon my soul to Hades or let your Holy One experience corruption (Acts 2:27). The other key passage is found in 1 Peter 3:

 ¹⁸ For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, in order to bring you to God. He was put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, ¹⁹ in which also he went and made a proclamation to the spirits in prison, ²⁰ who in former times did not obey, when God waited patiently in the days of Noah, during the building of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight lives, were saved through water. ²¹ And baptism, which this prefigured, now saves you—not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, ²² who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers made subject to him. (1 Peter 3:18-21).

The reading from 1 Peter 3 is open to many interpretations, though it has been seen as the foundation for the doctrine of the Harrowing of Hell. The question that has been up for debate is who is it that Jesus released from Hades. Is it the saints of the Old Testament? Might include others deemed righteous though not among the Old Testament saints, such as Plato and Aristotle, and others like them? Or could it be more? Might Jesus have proclaimed that he is the means of salvation for those who died without having the opportunity to hear the good news? Could it be that the offer continues to be given even today? That is, could it be that it’s never too late to say yes to Jesus?

                The Russian Orthodox theologian and bishop Hilarion Alfeyev writes that 

“Christ descended into hell not as the devil’s victim but as conqueror. He descended in order to ‘bind up the powerful’ and to ‘plunder the vessels.’ According to Patristic teaching, the devil did not recognize in Christ the incarnate God. He took him for an ordinary man and, rising to the ‘bait’ of the flesh, swallowed the ‘hook’ of the Deity. However, the presence of Christ in hell became the poison that began to gradually hell from within. Hell’s final destruction and the ultimate victory over the devil will happen in Christ’s second coming when ‘the last enemy to be destroyed is death,’ when everything will be subjected to Christ, and when God will become ‘all in all’” [Alfeyev, Christ the Conqueror of Hell, pp. 211-212]. 

The message here is that hell is already crumbling from within and cannot win victory. It also gives the possibility that salvation could occur even after death, that is, if we allow for Christ’s descent to take place more than once. That is Christ dwells continually in hell drawing all humanity to Christ’s self. But the point here is that it is during Holy Saturday that the process of the conquest of hell began while Christ’s body lay in the tomb.

                I’ll add one more thought, this time from Jürgen Moltmann, concerning Christ’s presence and experience of hell that began on the cross:

Because Christ was in hell and endured its torments, there is hope in hell for redemption. Because Christ was raised to life from hell, hell’s gates are open and its walls have been broken down. “Though I make my bed in hell, you are there.’ And then hell is not hell any longer. “O hell where is thy victory? But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Cor. 15:55, 57).  [Moltmann, Jesus Christ for Today’s World, pp. 144-145].

                As we ponder this image of Christ lying dead in the tomb, may we prepare ourselves for Christ’s victory over death, such that on Easter morning we can proclaim the good news that Christ has risen from the dead and that he pulls us out of death’s grip that we might enjoy eternal life in the presence of God.