A Good Weekend indeed. This Easter season, I indulged myself in the truth of what Jesus Christ did for us during that fateful time in history that we commemorate today. In the past, I would think about the crucifixion, perhaps I would watch Passion of the Christ – whatever it took to become mindful of the occasion and not be desensitized to it. On Easter Sunday mornings, I would dress really pretty and cheer because, yay, He has risen. Yay, He is alive.
This year, I find myself contemplating more the time in-between the Christ’s death and His resurrection. The thought was brought on by the second verse of the song “Forever” by Kari Jobe. It says, “The Son of God was slain in darkness. A battle in the grave, the war on death was waged”. Wow. So what really happened during that dark time – the time in between when Jesus Christ was murdered and the moment He lived again?
I imagine a heavenly kingdom. Perhaps it is spiritual; perhaps it is just as physical as the keyboard I am typing on. Perhaps it exist as separate a realm – I imagine it being something like <i>Asgard</i> in the film <i>Thor</i>. Either way, it exists and from what I have read in the Bible, heavenly inhabitants can come here <i>(Genesis 6:1-4, Genesis 18:1-2, Luke 1:26, Matthew 17:3…)</i>, but with the exception of a couple people <i>(Genesis 5:24, 2 Kings 2:11)</i>, it was not in our “order of operations” to go there. For whatever reason God made the decision to create us and He did so out of the muck and mire <i>(Genesis 2:7)</i>, so it is no wonder that we humans turned out to be so evil <i>(Genesis 6:5)</i>…so in need of a Savior <i>(Romans 3:23-24)</i>. I thought for a moment about what existence after death was for us before Jesus. We would perish, be forsaken to an abyss… darkness. Darkness. Darkness. I imagine. And our consciousness would probably be aware of it – our souls condemned to wandering in darkness forever <i>(Matthew 22:13)</i>. Whatever that existence, it is devastating enough that we need saving from it. And so came Jesus. Born into this world as a human <i>(John 1:14)</i> to suffer and bleed for our evil and to die <i>(Isaiah 53)</i> and end up in the place where we humans are condemned to after our soul separates from our physical body through death. Jesus was there, stripes and all, with the weight of our sin on his shoulders. And then, He did something amazing. Somehow, He opened a “portal” between the abyss and the heavenly kingdom. He made the pathway out for us who accept Him <i>(John 3:16)</i>. So that we who pass through his blood and are made perfect and can cross into the heavenly realm where Jesus and God and the angels reside instead of wandering in the ever-dark abyss <i>(1 Corinthians 15:42-44)</i>.
But, I find it even more interesting that Jesus did not die and return to heaven in spiritual form and then descend again to earth to appear to His disciples (It was not a circular cycle – if I may use that illustration). He reversed death! He came back from the abyss, reentered His physical body and then ascended into heaven <i>(Luke 24)</i>. Perhaps that is that path that we will take. Christ made it possible to come back to this earthly realm from death’s abyss. He took possession of the keys of death and Hades <i>(Revelation 1:18)</i>. He opened the <i>“gate”</i> making it possible for us to come back. He tore the veil to the Holy or Holies <i>(Matthew 27:51)</i> so that we all who believe can have direct access. (Note, however, that although we all have access to the “Holy of Holies”, the standard to enter into the presence of the Holy One is not lower. The standard is still the same – perfection). God made it so that if we believe in Jesus Christ and what He has done, we are made pure enough <i>(Colossians 1:22)</i> to enter through the gate and spend our eternity existing in the heavenly kingdom instead of the abyss that our evil nature earned us. Thank you, Jesus, for what you did from start to finish.
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