What Jesus did in Hell, Why He said Why thou had forsake me? QUESTION from Solomon August 23, 2001 Dear Bro JPI,
I'm very happy to meet you in life. I'm very honour to your wisdom that you have. I'm very delight with your answer. I'm very impress with your sense of humor.
Here the Q. When Jesus died for our sins, why He said why thou had forsake me Is that mean 'Our Father' had left Him because of our sins that He washed away for us? The blood that He poured out from His body was because of washing away the sins of the people in this earth as He was not a 'virgin' anymore.
After Jesus died, what He did Three days in Hell? 'Negotiations'
How come He then resurrected? Very mysterious!
I'm not against any of those, but I just need to get the right answer. ^_^ Thanks You!
ANSWER by John-Paul Ignatius, OLSM on August 29, 2001 Dear Mr. Solomon:
Thanks for the kind remarks. Hopefully, with God's grace, I can live up to them.
On your question: The hell that Jesus went to between his death and resurrection was the portion of what the Hebrews called Hades known as Abraham's Bosom. Abraham's Bosom was the place where the Old Testaments saints (those in the Old Testament going to heaven) went to when they died and remained until Christ came to get them. He set the captives free... These are the captives he set free. Christ went to Abraham's Bosom (that place of the dead where the Old Testament Saints resided) and brought those Old Testament saints out of that place and brought them into heaven.
On the issues of Jesus' cry from the cross, Why have you forsaken me, these words, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? (My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me? was not a complaint against Gods plans.
The words were the fulfillment of prophecy. It was a quotation of Psalms 22:2.
Christ's words here are to show the physical and moral pain he was suffering. While being fully God, Jesus was also fully human and thus felt human pain. This was a cry out in pain; he was also the paschal lamb who took the sin of the world on his shoulders. This was the moral pain. In this physical and moral pain, Jesus cried out as would be normal to do. But as Fray Luis de Leon remarks:
Suffering does not consist in not feeling since that is proper to those who have no feelings; no does it lie in not showing that one feels pain: rather, suffering means that in spite of pain one does not set aside the law or obedience to God. For feeling is natural to the flesh, which is not like bronze; and so reason does not remove it, because reason gives to everything what its nature demands; and our sensitivity is very soft and tender; when it is wounded it of necessity feels, and when it feels it has to cry out. Thus Jesus, who was in very human pain, cried out and did so by quoting Scripture: Psalms 22:1, the great Psalm of abandonment. Jesus had been abandoned by his disciples and his friends. Only Mary and John were at his side at the Cross. He had been abandoned by God only in the sense that God allowed this to happen. Jesus volunteered and God the Father abandoned his Son to do what he must do voluntarily. (This is using the word abandonment in the old sense, not the modern sense).
Jesus taught us from the Cross that we too will suffer pain and abandonment as we pursue the Christ-Life. We share in his sufferings. Praise God.
Finally, He resurrected to defeat death and bring us everlasting life. Without the resurrection we have no hope. Jesus defeated death by his own power as God and thus gave us the means to experience everlasting life.
P.S. I do not know what you are referring to in your comment about Jesus not being virgin anymore because he spilled his blood for us. The Purity of Jesus is NOT compromised because he was the paschal lamb.
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