The Pulpit Commentary — Luke — Volume 2 — Section 238

recorded in vers. 60-53. And, in connection with it, we light on a word which is need at the hour when we should least have expected to find it. One of the Sanhedrists-a man universally esteemed for piety nnd prudence-Joseph or Arim11threa-had not consented to the counsel and deed of his colfoagues, Hitherto he had never dared to avow tbe nUraclion which he felt. Why should he now risk his reputation, it may be his life, by nn acknowledgment which he had ,vithheld in his earlier days? Every dictate of worldly wiAdom bade him be wholly silent. What do we read in Mark xv. 43? It i8 the death of Christ that dispels the fear, that nt last prompts to decision. He goes in 'boldly to Pilate, and craves the body of Jesus. And the demand of the senator i,i granted. And as he bears away the sacred frame, he is joined by another (John xix. 30), the Nicodemus of whom we read at the beginning of the ministry (John iii.), who brings with him a princely offering of myrrh o.nd aloes. The reverent and loving hantls thus joined together wrap the body (ver. 53) in linen, and hastily and partially embalm it, laying it in the tomb which Joseph had scooped out for himself as his own last resting-place. What happened between this time and the third, the appointed day? Let us o.sk, first, What, as it concerns our Lord 1 secondl_v, What, as it concerns the disciples 1 and, thirdly, What, as iC concerns the world which crucified him 1 I. WHAT HAPPENED AB IT CONCERNS OUR LORTl? Two or three words give UB some hints concerning our Lord after his death and before the Resurrection. First, his own assurance ii;iven to Mary on the resurrection-day (John xx. 17), "I am not yet ascended to my Father." 'l'he place and condition into which he passed, in dying, were intermediate between the life on earth and the life in glory. He was not then, as the Man Jesus, in the glory of the Father. And, as bearing on this, we further recall the promise to the dying malefactor (ver. 43). "Lord, remember me," he had said, "when thou comest into thy kingdom." "To-day," was the reply, "shalt thou be ll"ith me in Paradise." Paradise, then, received the soul of Christ. Thither he bore with him the one who, in penitence and faith, had cast himself on his mercy. And Paradise meant the region in the under-world of the dead set apart for the faithful as their rest WJtil the resurrection-a blessedness real, though incomplete; a ~arden with the tree of life in it, but uot the full enjoyment of the beatific vision. 'l'his is the manning of the clause in the Apostles' Creed, "He descended into hell," i.e. into Hades, the state of the deatl. It is true that this clause has not the antiquity which may be claimed for other clauses; but it expresses the belief of all times that our Lord sub- mitted to the conditions of the holy dead-that he was truly aud verily numbered among them. 'fhe soul was actno.lly in Hades, or Sheu!. What part in the great redemptive work wo.s fulfilled by this descent? Had he a ministry in this short hut significant period? 'l'here is a passage in 1 Peter too obscure to allow of being pressed as an answer to this question, but suggestive of interesting lines of thought (1 Pet. iii. 18-20). To many it has seemed that the preaching to the spirits in prison men- tioned there was the work of the Hades-state; that he proclaimed his gospel to thosti who were kept in ward-not the righteous only, but those who were disobedient, e.g. the antediluvian generations to which Noah had preached in vain. And the inference drawn from this view of the passage has appeared "to throw light on one of the darkest E"nigmas of Divine justice-the c:1Ses where the final doom seems infinitely out of pro- portion to the lapse which has incurred it." No argument can be built on a passage whose interpretation is doubtful; but the exposition hinted at falls in with convictions which have been cherished from the time of the apostles. We are, at all events, on solid Scripture ground when we suppose that, in the world of the dead, the triumph over him that had the power of death, i.e. the devil, was completed. The tlescent was the following of the enemy into his innermost citadel; it was the spoiling of the principalities 11nd power of darkness; it was the opening of the wo.y throu~h death into lifo by him who bas the keys of Hades. Is not Paradise all the sweeter that Christ has been there? le ,oot the inheritance all the surer that through death he went to the Father? Is not this the symbol of our faith and hope-that" the Lord has set his cross in the midst of Hades, which is the sign of victory that will remain to eternity"? II. WHAT HAPPENED AS IT CONCERNS THE DISCIPLES. But what of those who weep and lament whilst the world is rejoicing-the sorrow-stricken, orphaned company  THE GOS!'tL ACCORi:HNG TO ST. LUK~. [en. h.ttt.1-M.