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Weekly Devotional

February 22, 2010

God’s Peace be with you all.

Ephesians 4:4-10   There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling,  ⁵ one Lord, one faith, one baptism,  ⁶ one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.  ⁷ But each of us was given grace according to the measure of Christ's gift.  ⁸ Therefore it is said, "When he ascended on high he made captivity itself a captive; he gave gifts to his people."  ⁹ (When it says, "He ascended," what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower parts of the earth?  ¹⁰ He who descended is the same one who ascended far above all the heavens, so that he might fill all things.)

            Last Wednesday, on Ash Wednesday, we began two things.  First off, we began Lent.  Second, we began our Lenten study on Luther’s Small Catechism.  Last week, we looked at Luther’s explanation of confession and how it ties into our baptisms.  As we journey through Lent, we will look at the Creed, the Lord’s Prayer, and the Ten Commandments. 

            For our devotion this week, I wanted to touch on a part of the creed that we normally don’t think about.  As we profess the creed on Sunday mornings, we say the line “He (Jesus) descended into Hell.”  You may have noticed the footnote at the bottom of the text that reads “or “he descended to the dead.”  The Latin word inferos can be translated as either hell or dead.  (The Greek translates verse 9 as “He had also descended into the lower regions.”)  When the creed was written, the author(s) had the biblical texts as sources.  It is possible then that the author(s) used this text above from Ephesians justify the inclusion of this statement. 

Paul makes a great case, in that if God has reconciled everything to himself through Christ, then Christ would have indeed descended into hell and reconciled it as well.  However you want to look at it, that phrase is mainly talking about the three days between death and resurrection.  The Gospels give us this glance of Christ being not on earth or in heaven during those three days, but instead in the place where the dead go (perhaps this is where the Roman Catholic church gets purgatory from…that may be another devotion at another time as I need to do my research).  So what does all this mean?  Is there really a difference between the two phrases?  That’s something we will discuss on that Wednesday night.  Hope to see you there.

In our prayers this week:  Ann, Lisa, Catherine, and Diane