“And I, if I be lifted up will draw all men unto me”
It might seem to be the exact opposite of being lifted up. Christ lies in the grave, a borrowed grave at that, it seems, (but as Alan Carmichael quips, he is only borrowing it for the weekend!). Yet, not only does the Son of man have no place to lie his head, he has no place of his own to lie his body. This is the theological counter to the tendency to collapse God into the categories and assumptions of our world and agenda. Joseph Arimathea begs the body of Jesus from Pilate and “wrapped it in a clean linen cloth and laid it in his own new tomb” and secured it with a rock. Done and sealed, it might seem. But what about us on this Holy Saturday? Where are we? We are to be like Mary Magdalene and the other Mary, waiting at the grave of Christ in mourning. Waiting for we quite don’t know what. Are we like closed tombs, dead in the face of death?
But Matthew also tells us about the fears of the chief priests and Pharisees that “his disciples might come by night and steal him away, and say unto the people, He is risen from the dead.” In other words, a conspiracy theory to which the Gospel already alludes and counters. It is the idea of the spiriting away of his body in order to claim the miracle of resurrection. It leads to securing the tomb and setting a watch.
But these forces set in motion for good and for ill conceal the greater motion that belongs to the quiet and peace of Holy Saturday morning. It has to do with the credal teaching of the Descent into Hell. Hidden from view and necessarily so, this is alluded to in the readings from Zechariah and from 1st Peter appointed for Mattins and Ante-Communion; today and Good Friday are the only two times when the Eucharist is not celebrated.
What is the meaning of the Descent into Hell? “He went and preached unto the spirits in prison,” Peter tells us the Epistle reading, and alludes to the story of Noah and the flood as symbolic of baptism; hence, death and life. Zechariah, too, reminds us of the covenant theme of Israel’s mission: “I will set your captives free from the waterless pit,” an image perhaps of the Hebrew Sheol, the place of the dead. The lesson at Mattins from 1st Peter reminds us of how Christ in his suffering for us has provided us with an example but also that “by his wounds [we] have been healed and have been returned to the Shepherd and Guardian of [our] souls.”
The radical meaning of all this has to do with the divine will to be reconciled with the whole of his sinful creation. Such is the extent of the return of all things to God. “Christ hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God.” “Put to death in the flesh,” Peter says, “but quickened by the Spirit: by which he also went and preached unto the spirits in prison.” This gives rise to the wonderful icon in the Eastern Orthodox Churches of Christ drawing Adam and Eve out of Hell. The radical idea here is the gathering of all things back to God. This is the meaning of Christ’s statement that in being lifted up on the Cross he “will draw all things and all people to [him]”. The truth of our humanity is found in God. “The glory of God is man alive,” Irenaeus says. Thus Holy Saturday celebrates the fullest extent of God’s will for our humanity, recalling us out of the grave of darkness and death, bringing us to life through the power of his word, preaching to the spirits in prison. Bringing all things to God.
This is our hope, our hope for all who have hope. “Return to your stronghold, O prisoners of hope,” Zechariah says, a hope that is grounded in what he calls “the blood of my covenant with you.” God’s covenant with us has its ultimate expression in Christ’s Passion in the outpouring of his life for the whole of our humanity. The radical meaning of his being lifted up is the gathering of the whole of our humanity back to him. Such is the divine love that overcomes sin and death. It changes the nature of our waiting at the tomb. We await in the hope of God’s love that seeks our restoration. Our waiting turns to Vigil, our waiting in hope upon the vision of God’s restoration of our humanity.
“And I, if I be lifted up will draw all men unto me”
Fr. David Curry
Holy Saturday 2024