Day #36
Larry Trotter
Words of Love
52 Going to Pilate, he asked for Jesus’ body. 53 Then he took it down, wrapped it in linen cloth and placed it in a tomb cut in the rock... Luke 23: 52-53a NIV
He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit. 19 After being made alive, he went and made proclamation to the imprisoned spirits.
1 Peter 3:18b-19 NIV
Overcoming the Barrier
I commuted form Knoxville to Atlanta each week while I attended seminary at Candler School of Theology at Emory University. I stayed in an upstairs bedroom in an old house owned by a precious 91-year-old (when I moved in) gracious southern belle. She had been renting rooms for $50 per month to help seminarians since her husband’s death 35 years before my arrival. Her home was like walking onto the set of Driving Miss Daisy with lots of antiques-heck, everything was an antique-heavy curtains, and beautiful hardwood floors. The rooms were large and fully furnished with a bath across the hall that served all three bedrooms. The biggest drawback was no air conditioning to mitigate the oppressive early-September Atlanta heat that finds its way upstairs and smothers you with an unwanted hug all night. The excitement of getting my undergraduate degree and starting my theology classes carried me through the drive down, moving in, and the first day of school. But that night, trying to read with sweat trickling down my back and the pungent smells of an old house full of old furnishing overheated from the 90-degree day wafting up my nose, all I could think about was my wife saying bedtime prayers with and tucking in our two little girls (in our air conditioned house). I got up from the mohair wingback chair with lace doilies on the arms to cool off and decided to finish unpacking one last box of odds and ends. There, in the bottom, carefully hidden under a bundle of gel pens and mechanical pencils and a tin of homemade Toll House cookies were beautiful new pictures of Lynn and the girls. As I literally held them to my chest I thought about how they had been there in the box all day just waiting for me so they could share the love that would see me through the long, hot night.
You may or may not be aware that early versions of the Apostles’ Creed included the phrase, “He descended into hell,” in its description of what we believe about Jesus. The creed was originally part of early church baptismal liturgy and dates back to 337 A.D. The first version to include the “descent into hell” appeared around 359 A.D. American Methodists dropped the phrase in 1792 only for it to reappear in the 1989 hymnal with the words, “descended to the dead,” which is a slightly more accurate description. The idea is that Jesus descended to the place where the souls of the dead await the judgment, not the lake of fire reserved for Satan and his minions (not the little guys from the movie, by the way). The passage from 1st Peter can be interpreted to mean that while Jesus’ body was in the ground his spirit descended to those awaiting the judgment to preach the good news of his kingdom. Some find the image off-putting. For me, it all came together when one of my favorite professors, Dr. William Mallard, explained in a lecture-turned-sermon that Jesus had gone to the very worst part of life and death and planted a flag claiming both as his own and that we could find comfort in knowing that no matter what manner of hell in which we find ourselves, Jesus has already been there and will meet us. While finding pictures of my family may seem trivial by comparison, perhaps it points to this profound truth. Jesus loves us desperately and is unafraid and wholly willing to meet us wherever we my find ourselves, even in an upper room in Atlanta; even in death.
Prayer
Lord Jesus, though I cannot comprehend your love for me, I am grateful for the depths into which you are willing descend to let me know that I am never alone.
In your name, amen.
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