I Peter 3:18-4:3-6 (NIV) 18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit. 19 After being made alive, he went and made proclamation to the imprisoned spirits— 20 to those who were disobedient long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water, 21 and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also—not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a clear conscience toward God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, 22 who has gone into heaven and is at God’s right hand—with angels, authorities and powers in submission to him. 3 For you have spent enough time in the past doing what pagans choose to do—living in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing and detestable idolatry. 4 They are surprised that you do not join them in their reckless, wild living, and they heap abuse on you. 5 But they will have to give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. 6 For this is the reason the gospel was preached even to those who are now dead, so that they might be judged according to human standards in regard to the body, but live according to God in regard to the spirit.
From the early church through the church of the Middle Ages “descended into Hell” was taken quite literally. Descended into Hell meant that between the Friday of His death and the Sunday of His Resurrection Jesus preached the gospel to those who had died, to the spirits in prison. Martin Luther believed that between the Friday of His death and the Sunday of His Resurrection, Jesus completed His work of salvation by defeating the power of evil. John Calvin understood this passage differently, that the descent into Hell was not so much a place as a condition of the soul. Hell was the condition of the soul cut off from God.
All interpretations say something to us about hope. To feel ourselves trapped in a situation, whether in a job that is suffocating us, or a relationship that is harmful, or a destructive habit we cannot shake, to feel ourselves trapped is by definition a belief that we have been abandoned by God. That Jesus descended to the dead or into Hell tells us that “trapped” is never the right conclusion, that in the midst of our “trappedness” God is invading our life to deliver that spirit that is in prison.
“He descended into Hell” tells us that God is at work in the hells made for us and also that God is at work in the hells we make for ourselves. Indeed, to recognize that our misery is of our own doing, and recognizing that God can and will do something about it is the beginning of our salvation. It is also a call for us to abandon ourselves to this God who pursues. When we experience misery, it is almost always a call to abandon something. And sometimes we need help from the Christian community to find out what that something is. In abandoning our life to God we discover that God has not abandoned us, and we are delivered. We are given freedom, peace, and life.
From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope July 16, 1995
© Rhonda Hinkle Mithchell
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