The Harrowing of Hell

I’ve recently started incorporating St. Patrick’s “Breastplate” into my morning liturgy. If you’re not familiar with it, it’s a great prayer to start your day with. This morning, one line particularly stuck out. It comes early on the prayer, in a passage that roots the one praying in the life of Christ. I’ll give you the whole passage and I’ve highlighted the line at the end that stuck with me:

I arise today, 
In the strength of Christ’s birth with his baptism,
In the strength of Christ’s crucifixion and his burial,
In the strength of Christ’s resurrection and ascension,
In the strength of Christ’s descent for the judgment of doom.  

A crucial part of the story of the gospel is that in Jesus’ dying on the cross, being buried, and being raised, he destroys Death. As my ten-year old puts it, “He put death into itself and it died.” As the author of Hebrews framed it, he defeated the devil – who holds the power of death – and in doing so, set us free from slavery to the fear of death (Hebrews 2:14-15).

In other words, in dying and descending into death, Jesus brought about the judgment of doom because even death stood powerless before the love of God. And so, Paul taunts death:

Death has been swallowed up by a victory. Where is your victory, Death? Where is your sting, Death? (Death’s sting is sin, and the power of sin is the Law.) Thanks be to God, who gives us this victory through our Lord Jesus Christ! (1 Corinthians 15:55-56)

Or, when Jesus writes a letter to the church at Smyrna, warning them of trials, hardship, and even martyrdom in their future, he begins by saying, “Do not be afraid.” And, don’t miss this, in that letter he identifies himself as “the One who was dead and is now alive” (Revelation 2:8-11).

One of my favorite pieces of Christian art is an ancient icon sometimes called The Harrowing of Hell. It pictures Jesus on Easter Sunday, astride the entrance of Hell, pulling the dead from its depths, while Satan lays to the side, defeated and bound with chains.

He descended for the judgment of doom.

Praise be to God.