Hell hath NO fury!

The Harrowing of Hell and Holy Saturday

Christ in Limbo, Hieronymus Bosch 1575 PD

As a little boy, these moments leading to Easter did not hold the kind of joy it did for others. A few extra days off of school were spent helping my father -who was also my pastor- to prepare for Maundy Thursday worship services, Good Friday Tenebrae, and in preparation for the Resurrection of our Lord that Sunday. It isn’t like I didn’t have spare time in the midst of all these preparations though. I would often spend much of the day on Holy Saturday in the woods behind my house. I would sit by a campfire and reflect on the day. We didn’t have an Easter Vigil service, because my father’s attempts to introduce such a service were seldom well received. 

These things were not a burden to me. I didn’t always enjoy being a pastor’s son. To be honest I didn’t like it much at all, which is why it is odd I am a pastor now. What I did value was gaining a deep relationship with what many consider to be the dark side of Christianity. A side of Christianity my father embraced and pushed me toward. A dark side of Christianity we find on Holy Saturday, when we remember Christ’s true mortal death; the harrowing of Hell. 

Christ's Descent into Limbo, Andrea Mantegna 1470-1475 PD

It is probably pretty controversial to talk about in light of so much discomfort around hell recently, but hell symbolizes a true death, a true sense of hopelessness and defeat. There is an old saying “nothing lost, nothing gained,” which could certainly be applied to Christian faith today. We like to think of Jesus as just another member of the Star Trek crew being beamed up by Scottie into the heavens. We avoid this true death, this descent into hell. 

As usual, I will be told this is dark and brooding. This won't bring people to the church or to the message of hope we receive on Easter when the pastel eggs are being snatched up and three hundred pound bunnies are posing for pictures with young children. It may just be me, or it may be the wife sitting beside her husband watching his body decay from the chemotherapy keeping him alive. It may just be me, or it may be the father who only held his baby in his hands for a few minutes before that child breathed its last breath of that five minute life. It may just be me, or it may be that elderly neighbor whose children have vanished and spouse has long since died. It may just be me, or perhaps Jesus’ true death means something to you too. 

It may not mean much. You may skip Maundy Thursday and Good Friday altogether. You may, on the other hand, hold onto those two holy days then sit around aimlessly on Saturday waiting for the resurrection. Perhaps today is the day that you may consider reflecting on what today represents though? The Christian faith is special to me, because on this day I am reminded that God offered a sacrifice to us all in the form of Jesus Christ. In that moment God experienced the true reality of death that we will all face one day, and defeated that power. 

This year is the year in which we read Mark’s Gospel account. I love Mark’s telling because there isn’t anything in that tomb, it's empty and…that’s it! Many who question this Christian practice will deny any kind of resurrection as mysticism and superstition, but when I see those who have followed Christ as the living Body, the Church, I see the resurrected Body and so did Rome as the early Church rose before their very eyes. 

Harrowing of Hell, 11th Century Artist unknown PD

Good Friday and Holy Saturday mean something very special to me because of my father, but also my own defeat. One Good Friday in 2005, I was deployed as an infantry Marine in the Al Anbar province. I was on post that evening, guarding over our firm base when I witnessed an explosion. Little did I know that explosion signaled the death of a friend. A friend who I had taken a radio operator’s class with. A friend who I had shared heartache and joys with. A friend who had shared the same with me. He died that night after the humvee he was riding in had struck a landmine. I learned of his death just as I was leaving my post. The chaplain for our Battalion was staying with us that evening and he was planning for an Easter worship service, but I remember the day between that Good Friday on March 25, 2005 and that Easter Sunday. I remember sitting, waiting, reflecting, writing, crying, and dying. He was the first, and we all wondered if we would be next. We all wondered when we could inflict death on those responsible. I stewed in hate and fear. I descended into hell. 

There are many things that have changed my faith, but the one consistent remains Jesus Christ who is at the center of my faith. Especially on this day of all days. Because today is the day that Christ goes to hell with us all, and if you haven’t been there or faced the prospect of going there, I hope you will reach out for faith when you do. Today is the day that changes the way we face death, fear, hate, and anxiety. It is that scene when the boxer we are all cheering for hits the mat before slowly climbing to his feet and refusing to be knocked down for good. Bad news is, he won't get up until tomorrow. So will you stand by and cheer on this fighter as he bleeds on the mat in defeat, or will you throw your hands up in the air and leave the arena before seeing the most impossible comeback ever?

Our lives exist in the midst of Holy Saturday, and he paved the way out for us all. Today is a reminder that he experienced the same defeat we all have and if you haven’t, you will. That may be dark and brooding, but that is the harrowing of hell, that is the Christian faith, and that is the assurance that we can look it in the eye and never fear it again. 

Descent into Hell, icon from Ferapontov Monastery 1495-1504 PD

Glory fit for a King

Mark 11:1-11

Entry of Christ into Jerusalem, Jan van Orley 1716-1730 (PD)

The finest example of how a conquering king would enter into an Ancient Near Eastern city is not found in our Gospel today. 

All the accounts of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem are but a shadow of what was experienced throughout the Middle East from 336-323 BCE. 

This was the time of Alexander the Great. 

A king who changed borders, cultures, war, and pushed the very boundary of what was considered the known world. 

Alexander was a brilliant military tactician, but he was also a brilliant conquerer. 

He crushed armies but then he took in their nations and people as his own. 

Over generations of rising and falling empires, the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Persians, and now the Greeks, the people of the known world had realized the benefit of welcoming in the conquering hero. 

Bending a knee and welcoming in an invading force was a way to avoid being enslaved, abused, looted, or wiped out completely. 

It is hard for us to imagine the notion of welcoming an invading army, but this had become the common practice of building empires. 

The intention was to make the people of other nations and cultures the loyal subjects of the invading force. 

This assured continued trade and revenue, expanding lands and military outposts, and it discouraged resistance, if the conquering king showed mercy. 

In many instances, these conquests even hinted at the hope of peace, an end to all war. 

Alexander was a flamboyant and glamorous showman following his victories. 

He was well known for riding into capital cities on a large white war horse, with elaborate armor and a helmet with large plumes. 

By most accounts, he was a sight to behold. 

His entry into Jerusalem was no less of a spectacle than was his entry into Babylon. 

It was common to raise palms, waving them in the air, throwing them down upon the ground before the new king and his army. 

Laying down palms in the road assured that the feet of these armies didn’t stir up dusty roads choking the crowd or causing discomfort for the invading force or the new king. 

Most conquered cities followed suit as Alexander worked his way throughout the known world, offering up a hero’s welcome to invading armies and kings, in submission, in exchange for mercy. 

Praising, cheering, and begging the new king to save the people all the way to the city’s center, where the king was to be anointed and announced before the people. 

For Alexander, this city center was the temple in Jerusalem. 

For Alexander, he probably heard cries as he rode through the street towards the temple. 

Cries of Hosanna, a word that is used to cry out for mercy. 

A word used to ask a new king to save the people. 

Entry of Alexander into Babylon, Charles Le Brun 1665 (PD)

Today is the start of Holy Week, and I’ve been wrestling with the significance of this text. 

How we hear this story and how it impacts the rest of this week is significant for us. I would argue that it is no less significant than Maundy Thursday or Good Friday. 

The story we have all been told of this joyful parade is almost like a “pre-Easter” celebration. 

Jesus’ triumphal entry signifies a new era of peace, the announcement of a new king. 

It is easy to see the joy of this day for many of us, but it hints at a problem we’ve addressed for several weeks now. 

For the past two weeks, the texts and the sermons influenced by those texts from Pastor Stephen and I, have illustrated how what we see as glory, is not the glory of God revealed in the Christ. 

The cross; not glorious.

The seed that is planted in the earth to die; not glorious.

It’s been the typical old fuddy-duddy doom and gloom Lenten sermons.

Maybe that’s why attendance has been down?

We can just blame March Madness. 

But today, we get a shot at the GLORY that we all want!

It is the triumphal entry of our Lord, and in he rides on a colt, a direct reference to scripture from Zechariah 9 

“Rejoice greatly, O daughter Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter Jerusalem! Lo, your king comes to you; triumphant and victorious is he, humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”

Sounds like Jesus, right?

Why don’t we hear a little bit more about this savior of Israel that Zechariah wrote about?

“Then the Lord will appear over them, and his arrow go forth like lightning; the Lord God will sound the trumpet and march forth in the whirlwinds of the south. The Lord of hosts will protect them, and they shall devour and tread down the slingers; they shall drink their blood like wine, and be full like a bowl, drenched in blood like the corners of the altar.”

THAT may not sound like Jesus so much. 

At least not to us, but to the crowds who gather, and more importantly the priests who look out from the temple and see this commotion as Jesus rides down the Mount of Olives. 

Today, you can still look out on that hillside and see that path that Jesus trod. 

When you look out on that path from high up at the Dome of the Rock, a path that is now paved over for tourists traveling from Bethany to the Garden of Gethsemane, you can envision just how much of a spectacle this would have been for the high priests and city officials. 

You can imagine how the Roman soldiers envisioned such a sight. 

These were the days leading to the Passover, a day that commemorates throwing off the yoke of one’s oppressor, and watching that oppressor’s army destroyed in the Reed Sea. 

If we really consider what this means in the eyes of these people, the people watching this triumphal entry from the temple, the Roman posts, and those along the side of this long winding road leading to Jerusalem, waving palm branches and shouting “Hosanna!”  “SAVE US!”, this is a story that screams of a new revolution. 

A revolution that will be, as Zechariah once claimed; “drenched in blood.”

Triumphal Entry of Constantine in Rome,
Viviano Codazzi and Domenico Gargiulo 1638 (PD)

As I was working through the text this week, I came home one evening and flipped on the television. 

2013’s Man of Steel was on, a movie I have seen a number of times because it always seems to be on in the evenings I get home late. 

I sat down just in time to see the scene leading up to Superman’s surrender to the United States Army. 

Prior to his surrender he enters into a church and talks to the pastor there. 

In the midst of his visit, he has a flashback to his childhood. 

He sees himself being bullied, pushed down into a fence, threatened, and challenged to fight back. 

A young Clark Kent just looks away from his attackers in the scene, refusing to take action against the bullies. 

After the bullies realize Clark’s dad is watching this whole thing take place, they quickly walk away and Clark’s father asks him if they hurt him. 

This scene and the exchange between the two, drew out exactly what the purpose of this event is in Jesus’ ministry, EXACTLY what makes him the Christ. 

Clark responds to his father’s question with an obvious answer, “No, they can’t hurt me.”

To which his father responds, “That’s not what I meant. I meant are you alright.”

Clark then confesses how badly he wanted to hit the bully, and his father confesses right back, that there was even part of him that wanted Clark to hit him, but then he explains to Clark why his choice not to fight back was so important. 

He says, “You just have to decide what kind of man you want to grow up to be, Clark. Because whatever kind of man that is, good character or bad, he’s gonna change the world.”

In the scene that follows, we see Superman walking down a narrow hall with soldiers on either side of him, wearing -ironically enough- a pair of handcuffs he could effortlessly break out of at any moment. 

Triumphal entry of Henry IV in Paris, Peter Paul Rubens 1627-1630 (PD)

Most people don’t understand non-violence versus violence. 

Non-violence is only a choice if you first have the capacity or the means to commit violence. 

This is what makes the triumphal entry such a powerful scene for us as we head into Holy Week. 

Jesus has the choice. 

Jesus has gained the power to direct the masses against Rome, against the temple authorities. 

He now has his own authority to direct an insurrection, use force, and take a worldly throne for himself.

This is exactly how he has grasped the attention of the powerful, because they realize that his power has grown to such an extent that it can now be inflicted upon them, to remove them from their place over the people. 

And the masses who have crowded the streets believe this is exactly the kind of king they have come out to support, a worldly king that follows their own definition, our own definition of GLORY. 

Much like Alexander and other conquerers of their day, they believe he will ride right into the temple to be anointed as the king of Israel. 

They believe he will walk out of the temple and be announced by heralds as the king of a new Israel, free of the Romans or any other abusive authorities. 

But Mark’s Gospel today ends in a far different tone than any of the other gospel accounts. 

This is the most powerful piece of Mark’s telling of the triumphal entry. 

Jesus walks in to the temple, he looks around, and then he just leaves. 

You see?

Jesus presents to us all the greatest virtue the powerful can possess, relinquishing that power for the sake of mercy and justice directed to the poor, the meek, the lowly, the POWERLESS. 

Rather than being anointed by the high priests in the holy of holies, he will be anointed by Mary in the presence of the lowly with a jar of nard and her hair. 

Rather than being proclaimed king by heralds announcing his reign, he will be announced by a lone centurion who will only murmur in shock,  “Truly this was God’s son,” as the Lord breathes his last on the cross in the shadow of that temple. 

This is not a triumphal entry for our kind of glory, our kind of power, our kind of king. 

But sisters and brothers, it very well could have been. 

It was out of love for this world, not out of love for power that this choice was made. 

So, it should go without saying that we, the powerful, must ask ourselves honestly, what are we called to do with our power?

Who will that power serve?

And where would that have left us if He had made that same choice?

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord and heard our cries to have mercy, our cries to save us all.

Hosanna!

Triumphal entry into Jerusalem, Nikolay Koshelev 1890-1918 (PD)

Sources

Culpepper, R. Alan. Mark. Smyth & Helwys Bible Commentary. Macon, GA: Smyth & Helwys Pub, 2007.

Lenski, R. C. H. Interpretation of St. Mark’s Gospel. Minneapolis, Minn.: Augsburg Fortress, 2008.

Snyder, Zack. Man of Steel. Warner Brothers, 2013.

 

Hope Lifted Up

Numbers 21:4-9 and John 3:14-15

Moses and the Brazen Serpent, Augustus John 1898 PD

During the age of exploration, secret wars were waged on the high seas. 

Naval vessels served on the front lines for various European powers who wanted to avoid committing ground troops to long and drawn out battles and wars. 

In an effort to hide the identities of the vessels that fought in these secret wars, monarchies hired privateers, private sailors who served as mercenary soldiers, preying on vessels that were tasked with shipping gold, timber, and other resources back to Europe. 

Eventually, the practice became frowned on and privateers were no longer utilized as naval warfare ended up being waged openly during the Napoleonic Wars. 

This left a void for the privateers who now lacked the resources that were once provided by European powers. 

Privateers turned to the only thing they knew; preying on merchant vessels transporting goods between South, Central, and North American Colonies back to Europe. 

Lacking the ammunition, vessels, rations, and financial backing those European powers once provided, these privateers ended up using faster and smaller ships, known as sloops. 

They also found that their most powerful weapon did not require resupply or private funding. 

Lacking plentiful supplies of powder and shot, or even the skilled marksmen and sailors they once drew from, they relied on their reputations as pirates. 

The image most associated with piracy to this day, is the image of the Black Flag, also known as the Jolly Roger. 

The symbol has been incorporated into everyday life, most often depicted in one of the most commonly known manifestations of the flag:  the skull and crossbones. 

You can find it on poisonous substances around your home and in your garage, symbolizing the warning of possible death. 

The skull and crossbones was but one version of the many flags pirates flew. 

Some portrayed an arm wielding a sword, while others portrayed skeletons and demons wielding a lance being thrust into a heart with an hour glass in the other hand which signaled that time was running out. 

The Black Flag became the most powerful tool for piracy, because the cruelty of the pirates became legendary. 

Any vessel that did not surrender under a white flag allowing themselves to be boarded and raided by the pirates upon seeing the Black Flag, would then face no quarter or no mercy when the Red Flag was raised. 

The red flag was rarely raised, because most merchant vessels feared the Black Flag, even vessels whose crew had never seen a pirate. 

It wasn’t really the pirates they feared, it was the Jolly Roger, the Black  Flag. 

File released to Public Domain from openclipart.org 

~

Our first lesson and our gospel today both reference the raising of another symbol. 

A symbol that signifies the exact same thing as the Jolly Roger; Death. 

For the Hebrew people wandering in the wilderness, they have become overconfident in themselves and doubtful about the leadership of Moses, and what is worse, the power of God. 

In Chapter 21 of Numbers the first three verses briefly describe their defeat of the Canaanites in Hormah. 

Coming down off this victory, a victory that should be accredited to God, they become impatient and instead of going around Edom they would rather go through Edom. 

Again, waging senseless war and destruction, inflicting death upon the Edomites. 

The Hebrew people are not only becoming arrogant, but they are forgetting that they themselves are meant to serve as a symbol of life and light to all the world, not a symbol of death and destruction. 

It really is human nature that when we become confident in our place as the powerful, as the victors, we forget what death and destruction really looks like. 

We see it as a useful tool in serving our own needs, rather than a last resort that leaves lasting scars on lands and on people. 

So the response is uncomfortable for many of us. It is why so many will probably hear a much more popular verse from John 3:16 in most congregations this morning, rather than the direct connection between verses 14-15 of our gospel and the first lesson. 

But the response from God is an important one. 

God responds by sending poisonous, sometimes even referred to as “fiery”, serpents upon the Hebrew people. 

Because they have not only forgotten the power of God, but they have forgotten what it means to be vulnerable and susceptible to death, they have forgotten the value of LIFE!

So God reminds them of the fragility of life. God reminds them of its value, but God is merciful and God is abounding in steadfast love, so just as God shows the people a valuable lesson in the law, God also shows the beauty of God’s grace. 

Following the confession of the Hebrew people, God instructs Moses to take a serpent, a symbol of fear and death, and raise it up on a pole. 

It seems odd, maybe even a bit dumb to us, but that is because for most of us we don’t have to live in fear of snakes or the cross. 

Perhaps this is the reason we keep seeing and hearing about the decline of the church in our society, 

Because the Christian faith is actually growing rapidly in places like Africa and Asia, where people long  to cling desperately to a message of life in the midst of death. 

Places where people cling to the waters of life in the midst of deserts of death. 

God’s remedy is to look upon death, without fear or reservation, confident that through any power, including the power of sin and death, God can and will bring life. 

Moses fixes the brazen Serpent on a pole
from Figures de la Bible, Illustrated by Gerard Hoet 1728

Upon returning from Eagle Eyrie, the Baptist Conference Center where our 5th and 6th grade synod youth retreat was held last weekend, I began to think about all the time I have spent there for retreats and gatherings. 

As I said, Eagle Eyrie is a Baptist Conference Center and there are a couple crosses found planted in the ground in select locations around their campus, but it is hard to find any crosses inside the buildings there. 

I realized this once when I led worship and I found myself frantically searching for a cross to place on the altar. 

I never found one. 

Driving home Sunday night, it made me think about all the different expressions of Christian faith and where the cross is placed in the midst of worship. 

Many protestants have distanced themselves from the cross and most have removed the crucifix and the Christus Rex from their sanctuaries for fear of being “too Catholic,” and even claiming it serves as an idol.

Even for Lutherans in the United States it is a symbol seldom seen, in spite of our own strong connection to the crucifix, encouraged by Luther himself. 

We rarely see that image in Lutheran churches today. 

As I reflected on this, it reminded me of a good friend and classmate of mine from years ago. 

She is a pastor in Richmond, at First African Baptist Church, where the cross is found prominently displayed throughout their sanctuary. 

She helped me grow a lot in our time together during seminary, and she still does today. 

Black Theologian, Dr. James Cone, was required reading during our studies at Union. 

Oftentimes a controversial figure, his views discouraged and angered many of my classmates and I. 

I remember talking to my friend Jess, now the Reverend Jessica Townes, about the cross and the reverence for the cross in many African American faith traditions. 

I even called her this past week to talk with her about it and as we talked about it, Dr. Cone’s words came flooding back to me. 

Cone claims that in black theology the cross is associated with the violence inflicted upon slaves and their descendants throughout American History. 

And while public lynchings are a painful piece of history, that most Americans avoid, it is a powerful symbol for Cone and many African American Christians. 

He says that for most Christians “The cross has been transformed into a harmless, non-offensive ornament that Christians wear around their necks. Rather than reminding us of the “cost of discipleship,” it has become a form of “cheap grace,” an easy way to salvation that doesn’t force us to confront the power of Christ’s message and mission.”

What Cone proposes in his book, The Cross and the Lynching Tree is that we learn to “see the cross and the lynching tree together” as a more tangible reminder of what the cross signifies. 

Dr. Cone was a tough pill for me to swallow, probably pretty tough for many of us here today, so I will let Reverend Townes take the edge off a little bit. 

She said it to me this way, “Yeah, the cross is everywhere for us. You can’t avoid it. Because he didn’t do anything, he was innocent, he was condemned, and he was killed. And for us, that was and is the reality of our history for many of us. We know that this life is between Good Friday and the Easter Resurrection. So, we don’t run away from the cross or the pain of our history. We see it for what it is, and that is death but it is also the beauty and hope in that death. We don’t have to be scared of it anymore, even if we see it burning on our front lawn.”

As you can tell, Jess is a beautiful and gifted Pastor, but what makes her particularly beautiful and gifted is that she is so willing to share that beauty and gift of the cross with me and now with you today. 

Ku Klux Klan members and a burning cross, Denver 1921 PD

Jesus obviously points back to our first lesson as he is being visited by Nicodemus when he proclaims “just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so too must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life”

Just as the Jolly Roger, the lynching tree, and the serpent all symbolized death, so too does the cross. 

But unlike those symbols, the cross is changed because of what we see through the man who will be raised on it, because through Christ we see a hope and a promise.

This word, lifted, that is used in John’s Gospel is used again (John 12:32), when Jesus describes himself being lifted up from this earth, drawing all people to him. 

Lifted up on the cross, so that we too may be lifted up with him into a new reality. 

A new reality that is eternal life. 

A reality that isn’t promised in some distant future but right here and right now, if we can look upon that cross and accept the beauty of its bitterness, the joy in its pain, the hope in its hopelessness. 

But if we use the cross to condemn, we are lifting up death not life. 

This is why the figure of the Christ is so important. 

It is why the bronze serpent became an idol much later on in 2 Kings when King Hezekiah breaks the bronze serpent into pieces, after the people began making offerings to it. 

We aren’t called to worship or value death, not the death that is inflicted on us or the death that we can inflict upon others. 

We are called to worship and value life. 

Death divides us but the life we see up on the cross, the hope we find in that promise invites to celebrate LIFE, even while death looks us squarely in the eye. 

In Christ, we don’t have to surrender under a white flag when we see the Jolly Roger. 

We also don’t need to raise a red flag signaling no quarter out of fear and anger. 

We are called to lift high the cross, proclaiming the love shone to the world through Christ by the One who first loved us. 

Amen

Sources

Cone, James H. The Cross and the Lynching Tree. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2011.

Cordingly, David. Under the Black Flag: The Romance and the Reality of Life among the Pirates. 2006 Random House trade pbk. ed. New York: Random House Trade Paperbacks, 2006.

Luther, Martin, Jaroslav Jan Pelikan, and Helmut T. Lehmann. Luther’s Works. Vol. 22 [...]: Sermons on the Gospel of St. John: Chapters 1 - 4 [...]. Saint Louis, Mo. u.a: Concordia Publ. House u.a, 1957. 

Luther, Martin, Jaroslav Jan Pelikan, and Helmut T. Lehmann. Luther’s Works. 40: Church and Ministry: 2. American ed. Saint Louis, Mo.: Concordia Publ. House [u.a.], 1958.