Good Friday, March 29, 2013 -- A Prayer

Dear Lord,

Your sinless death is the death of Sin.  Please permit my sins to die as well.

To Hell You descended.  Please bring my sins along and leave them with Satan.

On the third day You rose again [1] from the dead.  Please let me wake up with my last year's sins behind me.

If I should sin again, please permit me to receive Your Grace so that I could return to You, and return with a much lighter load of sins to send back to Satan.

Amen.



[1] The Apostle's Creed states that Christ suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried.  He descended into Hell.  On the third day He rose again from the dead.  He ascended into Heaven and sits and the right hand of God.  The word "again" does not mean that Jesus died once, rose from His death, died again and rose from His death a second time.  This is my explanation:  Jesus died on the cross and was buried, then He descended into Hell.  In order to descend into Hell, Jesus' body had to rise from His death.  That marks the first time Jesus arose.  Count that as Day 1, Good Friday.  No one is sure when Jesus arrived in Hell or how long He was there for but He was there.  Perhaps he stayed in his grave Friday night (it was a long day and He was tired as hell) and left for Hell the next morning.  How long it took Christ to get there is not known.  I assume He arrived some time on Holy Saturday (Day 2) and spent His Saturday night in Hell (the real Hell, not some dive club somewhere on this planet that may be called "Hell"), a place for souls that are dead which means souls whose light from God had died, i.e., extinguished eternally.  I assume that Jesus, whose light is eternal, rose really early the next morning to get away as quickly as He could from being among the dead souls with which He spent all night long and ascended into Heaven (returned home).  After which He might have said, "Thank God, I'm home!"  This would be Easter Sunday, Day 3.  This rising from Hell is Jesus' second time to rise.  This second time is not a "rising" from His own death, but a "rising" from the "dead," a place for dead souls (obviously a pun on the word "dead").  Therefore, it would be correct to say that Jesus, on Day 3, Easter Sunday, rose again, (please note the use of a comma here after "again") from a place for the "dead" that can be called "dead."  Therefore, the Apostle's Creed could read like this:  He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried.  [He rose from His grave.]  He descended into Hell.  On the third day[,] He rose again[,] [from where did He rise?] from the dead [a place for souls that no longer have the light of God].