Prophecies fulfilled, Holy Saturday

Sermon for the Vigil of Easter

Christ is arisen! We begin our celebration of His resurrection already tonight, which is already the beginning of the third day, according to Jewish reckoning. But there is one more prophecy about the Christ that we should consider before jumping all the way into the joy of the resurrection tomorrow morning. It’s that somewhat obscure prophecy that’s referenced so briefly in our Apostles’ Creed. He descended into hell.

The Old Testament prophecies about this are few. Only two, as far as I can tell. First, from Psalm 16: For You will not leave my soul in hell, nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption. The apostles cite that verse several times with regard to the Christ’s resurrection, the fact that His body would not see decay, because He would rise from the dead. But if His soul—that is, His whole self, according to Hebrew meaning—was not left in hell, then He must have descended there first. So the Christ would descend to hell before rising from hell and death.

Then there’s a verse from Hosea 13: I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death. O Death, I will be your plagues! O Hell, I will be your destruction! Pity is hidden from My eyes.

Tonight, let’s let Martin Luther guide us briefly through this wondrous prophecy and article of faith. We hear portions of his sermon on Christ’s descent into hell:

Before Christ rose and ascended into heaven, while He still lay in the grave, He also descended to hell, in order that He might also deliver us out from there who should have lain captive therein. It was for this same reason that He also had gone into death and was laid in the grave, that He might bring His own out from there. But I do not want to treat this article in a lofty or detailed manner—how it was done, or what it means to go to hell. No, I want to stay with the simplest understanding, as one would describe it to children.

This is also how one finds it often depicted in murals, how He descended with a choir cape and with a banner in His hand. He comes before hell and strikes down and slays the devil with the banner. He storms hell and brings out His own (not as if the souls of the believers were in hell, waiting to be brought out, but in that hell before had a claim on all people, and now it no longer has any claim on those who believe in Jesus).

For such a picture demonstrates well the power and the benefit of this article. This is why the article exists and is preached and believed, to show how Christ has destroyed the power of hell and has taken away from the devil all his might. If I grasp that, I have the proper knowledge and understanding of it and shouldn’t investigate or speculate further how it happened or is possible.

We should very simply bind our hearts and thoughts to the word of the Creed, which says: “I believe in the Lord Christ, the Son of God, who…descended to hell.” That is, I believe that Christ, who is God and man in one person, went to hell, but did not remain there. As Psalm 16 says of Him: “You will not abandon My soul to hell nor allow Your Holy One to see decay.”

Christ went as a conquering hero and personally broke into hell and bound the devil. Whether the banners, gates, door, and chains are made of wood, iron, or of nothing at all, it doesn’t matter at all, as long as I grasp that which is demonstrated through this picture, what I should believe about Christ, that neither hell nor devil can take me or harm me or any who believe in Him…For although hell remains hell, per se, and holds the unbelievers prisoner—as also death, sin, and all misfortune hold them, too—so that they must remain and perish therein; and although it still terrifies and threatens us, too, according to the flesh and the outer man, nevertheless, all of that is, by faith, destroyed and torn apart, so that it can no longer harm us at all. Now all the devils must run away and flee, even as death and its venom and the whole of hell with its fire must be put out before Him, so that no Christian has to be afraid of it anymore.

But our Lord Christ has not left it at that, that He died and descended to hell, (for that would not yet have helped us in the end), but He also left death and hell again, brought life back again and opened heaven wide and thus publicly demonstrated His victory and triumph over death, the devil, and hell, that He, according to this article, rose again from the dead on the third day. For by rising from the dead, He has become a mighty Lord over death and everything that has the power of death or that serves death, so that it can no longer consume or hold Him. Sin can no longer fall upon Him or drive Him to death. The devil can no longer bring a complaint against Him, nor can the world or any creature trouble Him or harm Him.

This boast now belongs to the Lord Christ alone. But He did not do it for Himself; He did it for us poor, miserable people who otherwise would have had to be eternal captives of death and the devil. For prior to this, He, for His own part, certainly did not have to die or go to hell. But since He clothed Himself in our flesh and blood and took up all our sin, punishment, and misfortune, He also had to help us out of these things by coming back to life and becoming a Lord of death, in order that we, too, might also finally come out of death and all misfortune in Him and through Him.

Here a strong faith is needed, which holds this article up powerfully and writes this saying upon the heart in large letters, “Christ is arisen,” making this phrase as large as heaven and earth, so that faith sees, hears, thinks, and knows nothing else but this article, as if nothing else were written in the whole creation. As St. Paul writes to the Romans: “Who will bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who will condemn? It is Christ who has died, yes, much more, who has risen from the dead.”

Let us hold to this truth and dwell upon it daily, for all our wisdom, salvation, and blessedness depend on it. To that end, may God help us through His own beloved Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, who is blessed forever. Amen.