Welcome To Gehenna

"You have heard that it was said to your ancestors,

You shall not kill; and whoever kills will be liable to judgment.

But I say to you, whoever is angry with his brother

will be liable to judgment,

and whoever says to his brother,

Raqa will be answerable to the Sanhedrin,

and whoever says, 'You fool,' will be liable to fiery Gehenna."

Welcome to Gehenna!  How do we interpret this passage of scripture?  I think it is relatively simple.  Jesus says that if you hate your brother, well, you can go to hell.  But, the news is even worse than that.  You may not hate your brother, you might just be angry with him, or you might call him a fool. In either case, you would become a citizen of Gehenna.  

The listeners did not have to think metaphysics when they heard these words of Jesus for they could go to Gehenna any time of the day or night that they wanted to.  Gehenna lay outside of the walls of Jerusalem and was a place where the, using the polite term, garbage was burned.  The fires burned day and night just under the surface the process of decay aided by the worms, flies, and maggots continued both day and night.  To be sure, Gehenna was not a place that the local Chamber of Commerce put into their brochures as an enticement to visit the city. 

As nasty as this place is, it is the place we are invited to move to by Jesus if we just call our brother a fool.  It is not easy to be a follower of Jesus, it never has been, and it never will.  What He proposes runs counter to the way we think.  When we are offended by someone, our natural self-wants to go on the offensive and strike back at the person or persons that have offended us.  

In order to avoid Gehenna, we must wage a war not against those who offend us but against that part of our soul that is reaching for the sword.  Our war should not be against our brother but against ourselves and the defects in our nature that cause us to respond with hate instead of love. 

This is not easy nor is it natural for us to do.  Yet, throughout our life, we should learn to practice forgiveness of those who offend us because there is no good neighborhood or good neighbors in Gehenna. 

Holy Saturday - He Descended Into Hell...What's That All About?

The Chief Priest and his cronies were now satisfied. This latest messiah, one in a long line of pious fakers, a fraud from Nazareth that had been stirring up the crowds was now dead. They had seen to that. They watched him die a bare three hours after the Romans had nailed him to the cross. His death was faster than some whom the Romans crucified, some of them lasted several days. But he was gone now and the only two things were left to do. First they had to make sure that rumors of his rising from the dead did not occur. To do this Caiaphas, the chief priest, was very clever indeed. Instead of sending temple guards, he enlisted the hated Romans and Pilate assigned a Roman guard detail to watch the tomb and to let no one in or strangely, no one out. The Romans now had an interest in what was surely under normal circumstances an issue for the Jews. They would see to it that there would be no theft of the body and proclamations of Jesus raising from the dead!

The second thing that needed to be done was to scatter the disciples of this faker to the four winds. A couple of threats and maybe a scourging or two would send the men back to their boats and the business of fishing. Yes, everything was under control now, or so they thought. 

It has to be emphasized that Jesus truly died on the cross. He did not go into some state of suspended animation, he was truly dead. The Apostles Creed uses the curious words, "He descended into hell..." What on earth can that mean?  This is another example of why we should be careful in interpreting ancient words using our modern minds. We think of hell as the place of the damned, a place of fire, demons, sulfur, and pain. That is truly a good picture of what hell is. But that is not the hell of the Apostles creed. The hell that Jesus went to after his death was not the hell of the damned, Gehenna. It was instead a place where the just waited for their redemption. Recall the story of Lazarus and rich man. The Bible points out that the destination of the two men were different. Lazarus died and was carried to the bosom of Abraham while the rich man was carried to a place of torment.  The story Jesus told shows that there is an immense gulf between the place were Lazarus was and the place were the rich man was. The place where Lazarus was bears the name of Sheol and is the place where Jesus went to. There he preached the good news to all of the just and opened the gates of heaven for them which had been closed since the time of Adam because of the sin of our late and great ancestor. 

So the redemption that Jesus brought to mankind was for all of mankind, those that came before us, those that were alive during the time he was alive, and those that came after him. 

So on this Holy Saturday we can commemorate the visit of Jesus to the souls waiting in Sheol. The redemption that Jesus brought was for all and we can be happy that he did "descend into hell."  

God bless you this day as you and your family busy yourselves with the preparations the coming of Easter brings. Thank you Jesus for going to the Cross for me.  Thank you for destroying sin and death.  May I live the rest of my life worthy of your great sacrifice.    

I believe in God the Father almighty creator of heaven and earth
I believe in Jesus Christ His only Son...