Christ is risen from
the dead
Trampling down death
by death
And upon those in the
tomb bestowing life
- Paschal Easter Hymn
 |
| "Resistance is Futile" - the Borg |
Contrary to the boasting of most fictional alien invaders,
resistance is not always futile. In
truth, sometimes resistance is fertile.
Case in point, a new friend was resisting the idea—even the
possibility—that at the point of death, there may still be hope. Is death a
locked door beyond which there is no further opportunity to hear and respond to
the good news? My friend is sure of this. He cited the two classic texts, long known
as deal-killers for any hope of a ‘second-chance’ at salvation:
“… it is appointed unto men once to die, but
after this the judgment [κρίσις]”
(Hebrews
9:27).
And of course from the mouth of our Lord himself,
25 But Abraham said, Son,
remember that thou in thy lifetime received thy good things, and likewise
Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented.
26 And
beside all this, between us and you there
is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot;
neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence (Luke 16:25-26).
That should just about wrap up the
conversation, right? But resistance is fertile!
I suggested that early Christians—in proclaiming
‘the harrowing of
hades’—believed and taught that on Holy Saturday, Christ descended into
hell (or hades), preached to the dead, and conquering death, led a parade of
captives out of the grave. This idea was originally drawn from Ephesian 4:8-10,
1 Peter 3:19-21 and 4:6, then affirmed in the Apostles Creed. Jesus too
proclaimed that “the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God; and they who
hear shall live” (John 1:25-26). This reality is written beautifully into the Eastern icon of the Harrowing of Hades, where Christ has descended to find Adam and Eve, his lost children, and to lead them out from the hades into paradise.
