Raising Adam

How far did Jesus go to save us? Where did he have to journey in order to gather us from the farthest reaches of our separation from his Father? Simply, he went farther than most of us have dared imagine. Jesus entered our mortal frailty and made his way faithfully through this world not only with us, but as one of us. He engaged the dire effects of our sin in his healing work as he undid the ravages of illness, judgment and demonic oppression. But more, Jesus undertook to receive in himself the fatal wounds of our betrayals, the cruel punishment of the cross and the horrifying cry of God-forsakenness. He went to the farthest extreme of human existence. All this he did on our behalf. Jesus came down in order to bring us up. He lived, and died, fully as man in order to reconcile humanity entirely to God. Every time we proclaim the gospel, this is at the heart of the story we tell. One man gave his life for the many. Jesus descended fully into our death in order to raise us fully into his life. Now, we can tell this news of Christ’s saving journey through this world for us by starting with any event in his life and teachings. His every word and gesture leads us to his larger mission. But one neglected episode in particular can take us to the depths of his redeeming work. Though often overlooked, the events of this stage of Jesus’ life, death and rising for us can fill us with renewed passion for Christ. They can give us a fresh way to share the ancient story with our culture. In the center of the gospel sits the silence of Holy Saturday. Jesus has slipped from the world’s view. His body lies sealed away in the tomb. His soul has departed to the realm of the dead. Meanwhile, his disciples hide in fear. Their Lord has died. The revolting sounds of Good Friday keep spilling into the eerie quiet of this dark Sabbath. Jesus concluded his crucifixion with the cry, “It is finished!” (John 19: 30). But his disciples do not yet know that this declaration means anything good but the end, at last, of Jesus’ excruciating physical torture. Otherwise, Saturday marks total defeat. For them, it seems the very end of the world. Evil seems to have triumphed while it appears that God, if he exists at all, has abandoned them. On this barren seventh day, those who love Jesus despair. We’d like to skip this day, passing speedily from bleak Golgotha to bright Easter dawn. But the Father did not raise his Son directly from the cross. The Triune God inserted this dramatic pause into the event of our redemption. He insisted that we linger over the realization that Jesus descended fully into a human death. In dying, Jesus’ soul separated from his body. The two were not immediately rejoined. Jesus entered the state of being dead, this unnatural rending of our embodied existence that is nevertheless, since the Fall, our common lot. Though we never would have written the story this way, in God’s providence this day of his...