The singular truth that guides our Easter celebrations is this: if there is no death there can be no resurrection. Too often we want to skip Good Friday, making our way to the bunnies and the flowers and the chocolate without facing the ugliness of that terrible day. When we do that we miss Easter, we miss the power of the story to change us, to take the worst in your life and mine and transform it into something new and wonderful.
This truth guides us in our life and our actions. God’s love carries us through death by the power of grace. How can we remember this? We need to stay close to the cross.
Pastors and spiritual directors who help people live their faith will remind them that when we are standing in the shadow of the cross it is much harder to be ungracious and unkind to others. It is hard to refuse to forgive others when we stand in front of the cross and hear Jesus say, “Forgive them…”
This promise tells us that the resurrection can transform the ugliest part of us and turn it into something new. Easter faith can take whatever is dead in you and bring it back to life. Resurrection has the power to transform Hell and turn it into a sanctuary where there is grace for the soul.
Even Hell cannot stop the power of God’s amazing grace. A common question in the first 100 years of the church was this, “Where was Jesus during the days between his crucifixion and his resurrection?” He was in Hell preaching to the souls there.
Peter is the one who tells us this in his letter at the end of the New Testament. Jesus descended into Hell and preached to the psuches there. Psuche is the Greek word for souls. Jesus was in Hell preaching to the souls there.
This story tells us the church, since its earliest days, has proclaimed there is no place, there is no corner of creation, not even Hades where God has not gone. There are no forgotten people, no overlooked valleys or mountains.
Jesus has gone before us, he has faced death and suffering, loneliness and abandonment. He has gone to Hell and will go again and again, to bring us, all of us, to the gracious presence of God.
Grace and peace to you,
