Christus Victor - Holy Saturday

Day 39 of our Lent journey brings us to Holy Saturday. We’ve recognized the Lord’s Supper on Maundy Thursday; we’ve gone to the cross with Jesus on Good Friday and heard his last words. Now we await the beautiful words of Easter Sunday where we proclaim our Lord and Savior risen from the dead, a victory like no other. What happens today? What happens in that time that Jesus was in the tomb, dead and buried? Is he just lying there, waiting for day 3 so he can roll that stone away? No! There is so much more at work. There is so much more happening to show that God has victory over death. As we profess in the Apostles’ Creed immediately following his burial, we say that we believe he descended into hell. What? That sounds terrible! Why would the son of God have to endure that? However, this was important. What does this show? It shows he holds the power of death and the devil. This is a display of what he can do that no other human can, and why he is the true God.

Many theories can be named for why Jesus descended into hell. Peter definitely gives us food for thought when he talks of Jesus proclaiming to the spirits in prison. While as humans we’d like to present this as the spirits receiving a second chance, we should instead look to this as Jesus' proclamation of victory over sin and hell. For those of you who enjoy the “light” reading of the Book of Concord (joke intended), you can look at the Solid Declaration Article IX on Christ’s Descent into Hell. Referencing Martin Luther’s 1533 sermon at Torgau it states, “we believe simply that the entire person, God and human being, descended to hell after his burial, conquered the devil, destroyed the power of hell, and took from the devil all his power.” From this we can take heart that, “neither hell nor the devil can capture or harm us.” Hell has no power over us. We can speculate about what all happened between burial and resurrection, but we know this. Our God is more powerful than sin and death. He provides everlasting life. For today, we sit and meditate on this. We keep vigil because resurrection day is coming.

Prayer: Heavenly Father, through Jesus, your Son, you have conquered death and the devil. As we wait for resurrection day, both Easter and the final day, may we be reminded of how sin has no hold over us because of our faith. Strengthen us in that faith that we may be strong against that which assails us. We praise your Holy name, Amen.