30^th April 2014

Rev Dr Max Champion at St John's UCA Mt Waverley Good Friday 18 April 2014

Lessons - Psalm 22:1-18; Romans 5:6-11; Matthew 27:27-54

'For our sake he suffered under Pontius Pilate; was crucified, died and
was buried; he descended to hell.' (Nicene Creed & Apostles' Creed)

In the Creeds, what is said about the crucifixion is brief, blunt and bewildering. That the Son of God who is of One Being with the Father should die in a manner thought to be cursed by God is, to say the least, puzzling.
We might have expected him to defeat pagan rulers, but not be condemned to death by a Roman official! It is in keeping, though, with Jesus' cry of dereliction: 'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?'
(Matthew 27:46)

Since all seems lost, it seems impossible to find hope in the terrible death of the One who is truly God and truly human.

Strangely, hope is found in the fact that he was crucified, dead and buried at a particular time and place! In what seems hopeless, the One who was condemned and hanged as the enemy of God and all things human, is revealed as the very embodiment of love for those responsible for his demise. It is a sign of hope that 'Christ, the only Son of God, the radiance and light of God on earth, has entered into our suffering, in all its fullness and terrifying measure' (from A Schmemann, Celebration of Faith p85).

This is emphasised in the 4th Century addition to the Apostles' Creed. Not only was he God-forsaken on the Cross, he also 'descended into hell' or 'descended to the dead'. This makes it absolutely clear that Jesus experienced the full horror of death, including separation from his 'Father' on earth and in the 'underworld', where it was believed the 'departed' were condemned to go after death.

This affirmation counters the view, held by Barbara Thiering et al today, that Jesus only appeared to die and later regained full consciousness in the tomb. This was not the Church's experience of the depth of God's suffering love 'for us'. Nor did it account for the reality of Jesus' resurrection. Such a view cheats the world of hope!

They believed that hope is to be found in the crucified, dead and buried Jesus who suffered hell.

It is a pity that, in the text of the English Language Liturgical Consultation (1987), it is translated 'descended to the dead'. It does not convey the full horror and meaning of Jesus' death. The cry of desolation: 'My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?' expresses the horror of being abandoned by priests and politicians, Jews and Gentiles, family and friends and, worst, by the one whom he had faithfully served. He experienced hell on earth!

In Scripture Sheol (Old Testament) and Gehenna (New Testament) express the horror of being separated from God at death. But this does not mean that 'hell' only has to do with the other side of death.

'Hell' best describes what is wrong - in life and death. We speak of 'hell on earth' to describe events of unimaginable evil. 'Hell is present in the cries of injustice, the screams of the tortured and the gasps of the dying. (B Barber, The Apostles' Creed, p31.)' It is no mythical 'place'  but a shocking ever-present reality - a destructive form of life separated from the purposes for which we have been created.

In Jesus' ministry, 'heaven' and 'hell' are not future 'places' about which to speculate, but present realities. When the Gospels say that, in the coming of Christ, the 'Kingdom of heaven' is at hand, they are saying that the 'assault on hell' has already begun. So, when the Apostles' Creed says Jesus 'descended into hell', we glimpse the depth of God's self- giving love which has been displayed in his earthly ministry and which, remarkably, continues after his barbaric death as a condemned man. We see 'heaven' in the One who experienced 'hell' and identifies with our separation from God - in life and death.

It is a pity that, unlike Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox and other churches, we do not worship on Holy Saturday. Easter Vigils solemnly reflect on the period when the crucified Jesus was 'dead and buried and descended into hell'. They stop us skipping too quickly from crucifixion to resurrection and missing the sign of triumph of love and hope that is present in the grave.

Russian Orthodox priest, Alexander Schmemann, speaks movingly of the Vigil. The centre of the church is dominated by a wooden coffin covered by a shroud depicting the dead Christ. From this tomb, which confirms the power and inevitability of death, a light begins to radiate and transform it into the 'life-giving tomb'. In the liturgy, the question is posed to the entombed Christ: 'O Life! How is it that you die and are contained in a tomb?' In response to the bewilderment of his mother and disciples, Jesus answers: 'Do you not understand that I had two friends on earth, Adam and Eve. And when I came to them I did not find them on the earth which I had given them. And loving them, I descended to where they were, into the darkness and horror and hopelessness of death.'

This means, 'He who is Life itself descends to death out of love and co- suffering, descends to a death which He did not create, which had taken over the world and poisoned life. Death strangles the breath out of life, but here, in the death of Christ, it is itself strangled by Life.' In the darkness, a light begins to flicker as the congregation sings 'Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal' ... 'Life sleeps and Death trembles ...
Alleluia!' (Schmemann, pp 87-89)

The stark reality of Jesus' God-forsaken suffering - crucified, dead and buried - is the occasion for hope! The heavenly assault on earthly hells that began in Jesus' ministry is not defeated by his hellish death.

Although we have separated ourselves from God, God does not separate himself from us - even in death. As the Nicene Creed puts it, the 'incarnate Son of God' who is of 'one Being with the Father' has been 'crucified under Pontius Pilate ... for our sake and our salvation'.

Signs of God's gracious salvation are conveyed in Matthew's account of the crucifixion where we see that it is not beneath God's dignity to be reckoned with the damned.

Jesus is not crucified between saints but hardened criminals.

He also takes the place of the notorious prisoner Barabbas (which means 'Son of the Father'). One 'Son of a Father', who had chosen to 'descend into hell', lives. The other 'Son of the Father' dies in his place and 'descends into hell', 'for us'.

In this hellish event, the depth of God's love for deeply flawed human beings is stunningly displayed.

The theological link between Jesus' cry of dereliction (Matthew) and his descent into hell (Apostles' Creed) is beautifully expressed by an unknown 4th Century African preacher:

'He, so merciful and blessed, mercifully visited the region of our misery, so as to escort us to the region of his blessedness.' (JND Kelly, Early Christian Creeds, p382.)

The close connection between Jesus' crucifixion and burial is also expressed by the poet Donna Henderson:
And Were the Damned Glad? (First Things, vol 57, Nov 1995, p7):

- and when he'd breathed his last,
Jesus bounded down to hell.
They thought they'd known the worst,
stewing and burning alone in the outer darkness - Still, they'd been secure in their fate, its familiar misery snug as a nest.
He entered this,
not cruising the rim like a tourist,
sorry but separate
- dropped straight
into their deadness instead
with his oozing sores, and relentlessly
loved them there -
each wretch in each foulness that was torment.
And it seemed to the damned an eternity
before he left, tearing a hole in the seal between hell and sky as he rose,
and the hole remained -

The One who, in the brief, blunt words of the Creeds 'was crucified, dead and buried and descended into hell', is the Son of God who also bewildered his disciples when he 'rose again' - an astonishing and equally unexpected turn of events that we shall joyfully celebrate on Easter Sunday.

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Rev Dr Max Champion is the minister of St John's Uniting Church, Mt Waverley, Victoria, Australia. Dr Champion is a member of the Council of the Assembly of Confessing Congregations within the UCA.