Lent day 46 - Where did He go?

I haven't really given a massive amount of thought to Easter Saturday before.  I suppose I imagined Jesus going down into Satan's territory to take the keys of death and hell from Him ( possibly doing a modicum of gloating whilst Satan was doing a modicum of withering and screeching and despairing).  And then I think I envisaged Jesus toddling off to find those people who drowned in the great flood - who didn't have the time to repent of their sins etc , and Jesus preaching to them and most of them repenting and believing, thereby qualifying them to get to heaven.

But yesterday I did a bit of reading around the whole subject of what Jesus was doing during the day and a half He was dead.  And it appears that it's not quite as simple as I imagined.  😊

There seems to be some debate about the various scriptures which mention Easter Saturday.  There is agreement that the concept of ' hell' is a relatively modern one and that the better translation is that He descended to the place of the dead.  Possibly a ' holding bay' for souls before judgement.   Then some people think that the spirits that he preached to were not people at all but angelic spirits - those angels who fell and intermarried with people around the time of Noah.  And yet others point to the fact that Jesus told the thief on the cross ' Today you will be with me in paradise'  ie  Jesus was in paradise at least on Friday.      It's all very interesting , you should read up on it.

But the thing that I really wanted to know was why did God wait so long to raise Jesus from the dead?   If Jesus was pronounced dead sometime on Friday afternoon and was in a tomb before sun down on Friday evening then why didn't the resurrection happen on Saturday morning?   If you've got the best news in the history of the universe ever why wait an extra 24 hours to deliver it?  If I was God I'd have been itching to play my ace and roll the stone away.

Here's something I read yesterday which sheds a whole new light on the three days.

According to Jewish tradition, a person’s soul/spirit remained with his/her dead body for three days. After three days, the soul/spirit departed. If Jesus’ resurrection had occurred on the same day or even the next day, it would have been easier for His enemies to argue He had never truly died. Significantly, Jesus waited several days after Lazarus had died before He came to resurrect Lazarus so that no one could deny the miracle (John 11:38–44).

I didnt know that that's what Jews believed about death.  It makes perfect sense of the delay in getting to Lazarus and the distress of Mary and Martha ( Lord if you had only come earlier..... even two days after he had died and his soul would still have been here and you could have done something but now it is too late, his spirit has gone)  It also makes perfect sense of the resurrection.  To the Jewish mind by the Sunday Jesus's spirit would have departed and He would have been truly and eternally gone.  A resurrection miracle is only possible when all possible hope of life is completely extinguished.

Three days also fulfilled Biblical prophecy

 He has torn us to pieces but he will heal us; he has injured us but he will bind up our wounds. After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will restore us, that we may live in his presence.  (Hosea 6:2)

Jesus died on the day the Passover Lamb was traditionally slaughtered.  His resurrection happened on the first day of a new week.  Perhaps even in that there is symbolism of the perfect sacrifice leading to a new beginning.

Maybe we wont fully know what it was that Jesus was doing on Easter Saturday and why, until we get to heaven.  All I know is that God never does anything by accident.  There was a perfect reason and purpose behind the ' down time' in the resurrection story.   When it looked to the disciples and the world at large as though nothing was happening there were things of eternal significance going on.  In the moment of greatest despair and hopelessness God was working on His most spectacular move.  Jesus had told His friends what was going to happen but even in the middle of it they couldn't see it and didn't believe it!   The surface looked like death and irreparable tragedy.  Underneath resurrection power was building.