Many years ago when I was only a first year ministerial student, the minister I was serving with assigned me the challenge of preaching on the phrase "he descended into hell" from the (old style) Apostles Creed, at our Good Friday service, as part of a series we were doing on the creed at the time. It took me down a whole rabbit hole looking at medieval theories of the "harrowing of hell" which has stuck with me down through the years because of their poetic power. And there is also a part of me that finds it hard to shake off the medieval imagery of hell that you find in the attached picture of "Christ's Descent into Hell" by a follower of Hieronymus Bosch (mid 16th cent.) from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY.
However, when I look back at the text of that sermon (yes... I've surprisingly still got it though, for good reason I have never preached it again) I didn't major on that idea. That's because the original Greek text of the creed refers to Hades, which is not analogous to Hell as a place of punishment (let's get into that another time), but is more equivalent to Sheol, the Hebrew place of shadows, the realm of the dead. Hence, more modern versions of the creed tend to say "he descended to the dead."
It was in my early years as a probationer that I first heard anyone suggest that because of what Jesus has done that "hell is empty". Back then it was a retired minister and former Methodist President, Cecil Newell, but the late Pope Francis also famously made the same suggestion.
However, I first came across that phrase when performing "The Tempest" where Ariel re
ports Ferdinand's despairing cry of:
However, I first came across that phrase when performing "The Tempest" where Ariel re
ports Ferdinand's despairing cry of:
“Hell is empty,
And all the devils are here.”
There are times that I genuinely believe that, and share Ferdinand's despair.
And all the devils are here.”
There are times that I genuinely believe that, and share Ferdinand's despair.
I have tried to refrain from comments about the words and actions of President Trump of late, because frankly, who cares what a Northern Irish Methodist minister thinks on such matters? And I don't really want him living in my head... he and his ilk have already largely driven me from social media and watching the news. But I found yesterday's Easter morning Truth Social post, threatening Iran's civil infrastructure and promising that they would "live in hell" totally and utterly abhorrent, particularly on the back of Paula White's deranged and blasphemous description of him in Christ-like terms earlier in the week. I wasn't going to allow them to pollute my Easter messages yesterday, especially as they were my last in my current circuit, but they have sat with me like toxic sludge, and this is the result.
Do we believe in a harrowing of hell,
where the Messiah descends
from the cross to the grave,
and goes deeper still to defeat
the forces of death and evil
and to liberate the tormented?
Or do we believe in a Messiah
from the depths, who greets
the Easter dawn with profane threats
to bring down destruction
on the heads of his enemies
condemning them to hell?
In my better moments
I believe that hell is empty
because love ultimately wins.
But there is a dark part of me
that wants a gilded hell for
those who create hell on earth.
on the heads of his enemies
condemning them to hell?
In my better moments
I believe that hell is empty
because love ultimately wins.
But there is a dark part of me
that wants a gilded hell for
those who create hell on earth.
Selah
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