"The Exalted Christ"
1 Peter 3:13-22
If you look at today’s Epistle reading, especially the last
half of it, you can almost see the outline of the Apostles’ Creed hiding in
there:
Christ... suffered under
Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried. He descended into
Hell. The third day He rose again from the dead. He ascended into Heaven and is
seated at the right hand of God the Father Almighty.
And this is not an accident.
For the Apostles’ Creed summarizes the teaching of the apostles,
including St. Peter, here.
But more than a biography, the Second Article of the Creed
shows forth the most important elements of Jesus’ saving work for us, his
people. In fact the Gospels themselves
are less concerned with Jesus as a historical figure, or in telling us all the
pertinent details of his resume, his backstory and his personal preferences. They barely mention anything about the
majority of his life – with only one of the four Gospels telling us the story
of his nativity.
They do however, spend a great deal of time on his public
ministry – the three years of preaching and miracles that preceded his death,
resurrection and ascension. For most of
that time, if we were to consider Jesus’ life and ministry as a whole, he
seemed to be fairly well like us. Apart
from an angelic message to some humble shepherds, and a star that brought some
wise men from the East a couple of years later, his origins appear fairly
mundane. He is born in humility, of a
woman, just like us, and placed even in a manger. He is raised by loving parents of no
particular fame or wealth. As an adult
he also lived in relative poverty, relying on the kindness of others, many of
them women, to support his ministry. He
once remarked, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son
of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” (Luke 9:58). He rode in to Jerusalem not in the
magnificent opulence of a king on a grand steed, but humbly, on a donkey, and a
borrowed one at that. Even in death he
had to borrow a tomb from a rich man.
So much of Jesus’ life on earth among us was marked by
humility. Humble service in washing feet
and welcoming the least, the outcasts, the children. Humble suffering and death, even death upon a
cross. And of course all of this, he
does for you. He humbles himself to
raise you up.
We describe the first phase of his work – from his
conception to his death and burial, as the Savior in the “State of
Humiliation”. That is to say, that
during this time, he generally set aside his divine power, majesty and glory
and humbled himself intentionally, and voluntarily.
But humility doesn’t really cover or adequately describe all
of Jesus’ work.
Beginning with his resurrection and descent into Hell, he
enters a new chapter, or phase – his “State of Exaltation”. And it is this that today’s reading from 1
Peter 3 really helps explain.
First of all a word about the timing. If you take the Creed on its face, it would
seem that the timeline after Jesus’ burial continues with his descent into Hell
and then his resurrection after that.
But 1 Peter 3 seems to indicate otherwise, mentioning the resurrection
first: “being put to death pin the flesh but made alive in the spirit, in which
he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison.” But this really isn’t a
problem. For one, there’s nothing that
tells us the Creed means to be taken as a literal timeline. And secondly, since Jesus’ descent into Hell
was “in the Spirit”, there’s a certain amount of mystery surrounding how it
happened anyway. When dealing in
spiritual things we are sometimes too quick to shackle them with the bonds of
time and space – which may not be fair.
Best not to get bogged down in these questions and rather focus on the
point Scripture and the Creed are both making about this.
It’s easy to see how Jesus’ victory over death and bodily
resurrection are part of his exaltation.
In showing his power over death, he begins to take back and exercise his
Divine rights, his glory and power. The
conquering, victorious and exalted Christ shows death who is boss. Thanks be to God! This is our Easter joy!
But what of his descent into Hell, or as Peter puts it, his
“proclaiming to the spirits in prison”?
What do we make of this? We can set aside two false ideas of the descent
into Hell from the outset.
Jesus did not descend into Hell to suffer. He made that much clear with his word from
the cross, “it is finished”. Though he
did suffer the torments of hell while on that cross, even crying out to show us
when the Father had forsaken him. For
what is the worst of the suffering of Hell, but that God would turn his back on
you. And the Father did that to the Son
in the great mystery of Jesus’s crucifixion.
He suffered Hell, there and then, in your place. But when he died it was finished. His subsequent descent into Hell was for
another purpose.
He also did not descend into Hell to give the condemned a
second chance. He was not emptying Hell
out, or freeing the prisoners there as some have taught (and even as some
iconography depicts). It is appointed
for a man to die once and then the judgment.
Those who died in the faith, even in the Old Testament, did not go into
death apart from God, but rather to paradise, to Abraham’s bosom. Elijah and Enoch and Moses and Abraham and so
many other Old Testament believers – went to be with the Lord. It is the unbelievers that constitute the “spirits
in prison” mentioned here, along with the Devil and all his demons. It is to these forces of evil that Jesus
proclaimed his victory over death and sin and hell, and therefore also, over
them.
And so the descent into Hell, is really part of Jesus’ work
of exaltation. It is part of the
glorious victory celebration that his saving work is complete, and effective,
and can never be undone. It is a sort of
a dancing on death’s grave, in triumph, for you and me.
Our Lutheran Confessions put it this way:
“It is enough if we
know that Christ descended into hell, destroyed hell for all believers, and
delivered them from the power of death and of the devil, from eternal
condemnation and the jaws of hell. We
will save our questions and not curiously investigate about how this happened
until the other world. Then not only
this mystery, but others also will be revealed that we simply believe here and
cannot grasp with our blind reason.” (FC Ep IX 4).
Somehow Peter then works from the disobedient souls
consigned to hell and brings us to the topic of baptism. The connection is that hell is filled with
all manner of unbelievers, even going as far back as the flood. But even then, God was busy saving – Noah and
his family, 8 souls in all, through the flood.
That saving through a flood corresponds to Baptism, where and how God
now saves us. And by the way, many
baptismal fonts like ours have 8 sides, the shape of an octagon, to commemorate
Noah and his 7 family members who were saved through the flood – 8 souls in all.
We will save the more complete sermon on Baptism for another
day – but today it’s enough to show that Christ’s Baptism – bestowed on the
church, and by which we make disciples of all nations – this too is part of his
exalted work. For now, from Heaven’s
high throne, he continues to send his Spirit, calling new believers to
salvation through the water and the word.
The Lord of the Church, reigning over all, exalted once again – still
saves sinners through the washing of rebirth and renewal. Just as he also, exalted on high, still meets
us at the altar under the bread and the wine that he gives as his body and
blood.
So, If all angels are now beneath him. If death and hell are trampled under his
victorious foot. If all powers and
authorities and governments and rulers are made subject to the King on his
glorious throne a the right hand of the Father – if Christ is exalted on high –
that is good news for you, Christian.
For he rules all things for your good, and for the good of the church to
which you belong. What can sin or death
or devil do to you, when the exalted Christ is your savior, your champion, your
king?
Christ’s state of humiliation, his state of exaltation,
these aren’t just esoteric doctrinal categorizations for theologians in ivory
towers. They’re simple ways of helping
us see all that Jesus has done for us, and continues to do for us. Humbled for us, even unto death, even death
on a cross. And now exalted for us, even
to Heaven, to the highest throne. Thanks
be to God. In Jesus Christ our
Lord. Amen.
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