************ Sermon on Heidelberg Catechism Q & A 44 ************
By: Rev. Adrian Dieleman
This sermon was preached on April 14, 2006
Q & A 44
Matthew 27:45-56
"He Descended to Hell"
Good Friday 2006
Introduction
On this Good Friday we confess with the church of all ages that "Jesus Christ descended to hell." Because it is in the Apostles' Creed, this means Christ's descent is part of true faith. This is part of what we need to believe in order to be comforted, saved, washed, cleansed, and redeemed.
This clause of the Apostles' Creed is easily the most controversial and least understood of all the clauses and lines in the Creed. Not only was it a late addition to the creed (A.D. 390), but it has also been understood in radically different ways by various branches of the Christian church. The Heidelberg Catechism does not address such problems but concentrates, instead, on the amazing comfort that Christ's descent to hell brings believers.
Let's get to the heart of the controversy by asking a couple of questions. "Where was Christ between Good Friday and Easter Sunday?" Does Christ's "descent to hell" answer this question? Does the church of all ages believe that the "descent to hell" was a descent into a place? Or, is the "descent to hell" a condition, a state, an experience rather than a place?
Reformed churches say the "descent to hell" clause of the Apostles' Creed is figurative language. That it describes a condition rather than a place. That it says nothing about the whereabouts of Christ between Good Friday and Easter Sunday.
I Scriptural Support
A No passage in the Bible specifically says that Christ "descended to hell." Yet, the footnotes at the bottom of the Catechism's answer point to a multitude of biblical passages. Let me recite them for you:
-Isaiah 53:10 states, "it was the Lord's will to crush him and cause him to suffer" and to make "his life a guilt offering."
-Matthew 26:36-46 describes Christ's struggle at Gethsemane.
-Our Bible reading for today reports Christ's anguished cry from the cross, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (Mt 27:45-46).
-Luke 22:44 tells us of the anguish Christ experienced when "his sweat was like drops of blood."
-And in Hebrews we read that Jesus "learned obedience from what he suffered and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him" (Heb 5:8-9).
B I want you to notice that the Catechism does not appeal to two passages from Peter that many Christians consider the key to understanding Christ's descent. Roman Catholics, Anglicans, and Lutherans appeal primarily to:
-(1 Pet 3:18-19) For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit, (19) through whom also he went and preached to the spirits in prison ... (THIS, THEY CLAIM, REFERS TO THE DESCENT)
-(1 Pet 4:4-6) They think it strange that you do not plunge with them into the same flood of dissipation, and they heap abuse on you. (5) But they will have to give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. (6) For this is the reason the gospel was preached even to those who are now dead (THIS, THEY CLAIM, REFERS TO THE DESCENT), so that they might be judged according to men in regard to the body, but live according to God in regard to the spirit.
Reformed Christians say both verses refer to the preaching Christ did through Noah and the Old Testament prophets to unbelieving and unrepentant people who were still alive. These verses do not speak of Christ between Good Friday and Easter. And, they do not tell us that Christ preached in hell or sheol or hades to people who had been dead for eons already.
To conclude this Biblical summary, there is no agreement on which passages of the Bible speak to the "descent to hell" clause. It is not surprising, then, that there are different interpretations of the clause.
II The View of the Non-Reformed - Jesus Went to Hell
A The Roman Catholic Church views the descent to hell as part of Christ's exaltation. In other words, Christ's descent says nothing about His suffering, His shame, His humiliation. In fact, Christ's descent to hell is discussed in the same section of their Catechism as Christ's resurrection. Christ's descent to this location is viewed as a triumphant visit.
In the Roman Catholic Church, Christ's descent is considered a literal descent to a specific geographic location, a "secret place" where the souls of the Old Testament dead were kept. Christ descended to hell to liberate these holy souls who waited in the bosom of Abraham for the expected Savior. Christ descended to hell to proclaim His power and authority over every knee in heaven and on earth and under the earth (cf Phil 2:10).
B The Eastern Orthodox Church has no official interpretation of the doctrine of the descent to hell. I say that because neither the Apostles' Creed nor the Athanasian Creed has been officially accepted by the Eastern Orthodox Church.
However, there is an Eastern Orthodox catechism that includes this explanation as to why Jesus Christ descended to hell: "To the end that he might there also preach his victory over death, and deliver the souls which with faith awaited his coming" (Q & A 215). This explanation echoes the official Roman Catholic position.
C During the time of the Reformation the Anglican Church of England accepted the Apostles', Nicene, and Athanasian Creeds and therefore also the descent clause found in both the Apostles' and Athanasian creeds. During the early years of its acceptance, there was an official explanation of the clause as well: "That the body of Christ lay in the grave until his resurrection; but his spirit, which he gave up, was with the spirits which were detained in prison, or in hell, and preached to them." Ten years later, this official interpretation of the descent clause and the appeal to 1 Peter 3:19 was dropped. Therefore, the Anglican Church no longer has an official interpretation of the descent to hell clause.
At the time of the American Revolution, the Episcopalian Church expressed its independence from the Anglican Church in one of several ways. For instance, they retained the Apostles' Creed but omitted the clause on the descent to hell.
D The Lutherans regard the descent to hell as the first stage of the exaltation of Christ. Christ went into the underworld to reveal and consummate His victory over Satan and the powers of darkness, and to pronounce upon them a sentence of condemnation. Some Lutherans place this triumphal march between the death of Christ and His resurrection; others, after His resurrection.
E The common thread that runs through all of these views is that Jesus went to a place called hell or hades or sheol or purgatory. He went there and preached to the dead and pronounced judgment on Satan. The descent to hell, in other words, was part of Christ's exaltation.
III The Catechism - Hell Came to Jesus
A "He descended to hell." The Reformed understanding, as we find it in the Heidelberg Catechism, is quite different. Instead of Jesus going to a place called hell, hell came to Jesus. Instead of being part of His exaltation, the descent to hell is part of Christ's humiliation.
B "He descended to hell." What does this mean? "That during his whole life on earth, but especially at the end, Christ sustained in body and soul the anger of God against the sin of the whole human race" (A 37). Christ descended to hell "by suffering unspeakable anguish, pain, and terror of soul, especially on the cross but also earlier" (A 44).
"Unspeakable anguish, pain, and terror of soul." The Catechism wants us to think of "Gehenna" here. In the Bible, Gehenna is the place of the eternal punishment of the wicked. That place receives its name from a dump near Jerusalem – a place of constantly burning fires, of maggots and worms, a place for lepers and the deformed, a place of suffering and pain. On the cross, but also earlier, Christ suffered the unspeakable anguish, pain, and terror of soul that is experienced by the damned in Gehenna.
C What, specifically, is in mind here? Which sufferings of Christ is the Catechism thinking of?
In mind here is the increasing hatred, anger, and bitterness of Jesus' own people against Him. Jesus wept when He thought of the hardness of their hearts (Lk 19:41ff). What anguish this caused Him.
In mind here is Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane when He "began to be deeply distressed and troubled" (Mk 6:33). "My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death," He said (Mk 14:34). Luke tells us that "being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground" (Lk 22:44).
In mind is His betrayal by Judas (Mk 14:43ff) and His denial by Peter (Mk 14:66ff). It cut Jesus to the heart that a close friend, someone He trusted, someone who shared His bread, would betray Him. And it hurt even more when a close friend, someone He trusted, someone who shared His bread, would deny knowing Him.
In mind is His treatment in front of the Sanhedrin: the lies and false witnesses, the spitting, the blindfold, being struck with fists (Mk 14:64ff).
In mind are the jeers and shouts of the crowds. One week before they were waving palm branches and yelling,
(Mk 11:9-10) "Hosanna! " "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!" (10) "Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David!" "Hosanna in the highest!"
But on Good Friday they were yelling, "Crucify him!" "Crucify him!" "Crucify him!" (Mk 15:13ff).
In mind is the cruelty and torture by the Roman soldiers: the purple robe, the crown of thorns, the mockery, the spitting, the hitting (Mk 15:15ff).
In mind is the crucifixion.
D Especially in mind, though, are those three awful hours of darkness while Jesus hung alone upon the cross. Jesus, experiencing hell's deep agony, cried out, "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?" – "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (Mk 15:33).
Imagine the scene for a moment. Jesus was forsaken by the crowds that had greeted Him so jubilantly a few days before. His disciples were scattered like sheep without a shepherd (Mt 26:31). He assigned His own mother to the care of another (Jn 19:26-27). His clothes were stolen, and one soldier got His undergarment with a lucky throw of the dice (Jn 19:23,24). He lost His friends, His family, His dignity.
Then the sunlight was taken from Him – "At the sixth hour darkness came over the whole land until the ninth hour" (Mk 15:33) – and He lost even His heavenly Father: "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?" – "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (Mk 15:33). At that point Jesus experienced the full terror of hell.
Jesus Himself had said that the Father stands at the road looking and waiting for when the lost son comes home (Lk 15:20). He had said that the good Father always answers when His children ask for bread or an egg or the Spirit (Lk 11:9-13). But on the cross Jesus sought and could not find; He called, and He received no answer. It was dark, and God was distant. All ties between Jesus and God were removed; God totally separated Himself from Christ. This is hell. "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?" – "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (Mk 15:33). For three awful hours Jesus experienced the curse of God. For three awful hours the eternal union between the Father and the Son was broken. For three awful hours the holy Creator of the universe visited upon His one and only Son all of His anger against the sin of the human race.
It was upon the cross, during those three awful hours of darkness, when God had forsaken Him, that Jesus especially experienced hell. Notice, though, that Jesus did not go to a place called hell. Rather, hell came to Jesus. On the cross – especially on the cross during those three hours of darkness – but also earlier, hell came to Jesus.
IV The Comfort of Christ's Descent to Hell
A The Catechism finds comfort in this teaching that hell came to Jesus. There is comfort for God's people in Christ's descent to hell. To see this comfort we need to realize something, my brothers and sisters. We need to realize that you and I should be going to hell. You and I should be experiencing the curse of God. You and I should be experiencing the anger of the holy God against the sin we are born with as well as the sin we actually commit.
You and I should descend to hell. Instead, hell came to Jesus. There is comfort for us in this greatest act of humiliation and degradation suffered by Christ. There is comfort for us because Christ suffered in this way. You see, Christ suffered this in our place. Therefore Christ "has delivered me from the anguish and torment of hell." Christ has delivered me from the anguish and torment of hell because he suffered the anguish and torment of hell in my place.
B Perhaps you are worrying about the fires of hell because of a losing battle with some sin. Perhaps you are worrying about the fires of hell because of some dreadful sin of your youth. Perhaps you worry about hell because you think your faith is not real and your commitment is not heart-felt. Perhaps you are so preoccupied with your sin and misery that you think you feel the fires of hell on the soles of your feet. In such times of personal crisis and temptation you have the assurance, if you believe, that you will not go to hell because hell has gone to Jesus. Of course, this benefit is for all times, not just in times of personal crisis and temptation.
C Do you see the comfort, the benefit, of Christ's descent to hell, if you believe? The benefit is heaven instead of hell! The benefit is comfort in place of misery. The benefit is life instead of death. The benefit is citizenship in heaven rather than membership in Satan's death camp.
Conclusion
I believe ... in Jesus Christ ... who ...
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried;
he descended to hell.
These are all steps in our Lord's humiliation but the worst is hell. He deserved none of them. We deserve all of them.