04.19.2025

40°F NW10mph SR0613(0513) SS1951(1851)

Morning Offering given

Jesus, take me as I am
Summon out what I should be
Set your seal upon my heart
Holy Spirit, dwell in me

Village peaceful and waking

Coffee good

Today… “Harrowing of Hell”
The word “harrow” originally comes from the Old English hergian, meaning “to harry or despoil”, and is seen in the homilies of AElfric of Eynsham, c.955-c.1010 monk. [b] The term ‘Harrowing of Hell’ refers not merely to the idea that Jesus descended into Hell, as in the Creed, but to the rich tradition that developed later, asserting that he triumphed over inferos, releasing Hell’s captives, particularly Adam and Eve, and the righteous men and women of the Old Testament period.

The Harrowing of Hell is mentioned or suggested by several verses in the New Testament:

• Matthew 12:40: “For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster, so for three days and three nights the Son of Man will be in the heart of the earth.”
• Matthew 27:50–54: “And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit. Then, behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth quaked, and the rocks were split, and the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised; and coming out of the graves after His resurrection, they went into the holy city and appeared to many. So when the centurion and those with him, who were guarding Jesus, saw the earthquake and the things that had happened, they feared greatly, saying, ‘Truly this was the Son of God!'”
• Acts 2:24: “But God raised him up, having freed him from death, because it was impossible for him to be held in its power.”
• Acts 2:31: “Foreseeing this, David spoke of the resurrection of the Messiah, saying, ‘He was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh experience corruption’.”
• Ephesians 4:8-9: ” When he ascended on high, he took many captives and gave gifts to his people. In saying, ‘he ascended’, what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower regions, the earth?”
• Colossians 1:18: “He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything.”
• 1 Peter 3:18–19: “For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, in order to bring you to God. He was put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit, in which also he went and made a proclamation to the spirits in prison, …”
• 1 Peter 4:6: “For this is the reason the gospel was proclaimed even to the dead, so that, though they had been judged in the flesh as everyone is judged, they might live in the spirit as God does.”

Theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar sees parallels with Mark 3:24: “If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but his end has come. But no one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his property without first tying up the strong man; then indeed the house can be plundered.” That and Matthew 16:18 (“And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.”) speak to Jesus’s power and the impotence of Satan.

Know you are prayed for.