Week 6 - Youth Questions 2
What we talked about on Sunday
Sunday marked the second time this Fall where we spent the teaching time discussing student questions. This week we focused in on three questions from our group.
“When Jesus died with all of our sins, did he go to hell for a few days? Because I know that God sort of turned his back to him at that moment.”
First we have to determine what “hell” is. Is hell a physical place, or a state of being—or perhaps both? From what we can glean from Scripture, hell is both. It is the place that is held together by God’s wrath, where the ungodly dwell and are tormented for eternity. Just as Jesus says in Mark 9:43, hell is the place of “unquenchable fire,” where those without faith in God will be for eternity. At the same time, hell is a state of complete separation from God’s goodness and beauty. On the cross Jesus, having taken on the sin of the world, cried out in agony, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me” (Matt. 27:46). Here, by taking on our sin, Jesus experienced the hell of absence from the Father.
With this understanding of hell, we can consider whether Jesus went to hell when he died. Jesus’ descent into hell is widely contested by theologians, and despite its clear description in the Apostles’ Creed (where it says about Jesus: “he descended into hell”), Scripture does not offer an equally clear description. The closest description is found in 1 Peter 3:18-20a, which says, “For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, because they formerly did not obey, when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah” (italics added for emphasis). A possible interpretation of this passage is that Jesus, after dying on the cross, descended to hell, where he proclaimed to the spirits in prison. However, other interpretations of this verse exist and it is impossible to know for sure what happened. Despite the difficulty of this passage, what we do know with certainty is that Jesus took on the sin of the world, then died, and in dying experienced the excruciating, hell-like forsaking of the Father.
“Why did people not like Jesus even though he didn’t do anything wrong? Why is that also sometimes true today?”
To answer this question we have to consider who the Jews expected the Messiah to be and how Jesus’ arrival and claims of divinity confronted these expectations. The Jews expected the Messiah to be someone like Alexander the Great: a king who would bring them land, prominence, international prestige, and earthly glory. At the same time, Jewish law prohibited blasphemy, the punishment of which was death (see Leviticus 24:16). Therefore, when Jesus came and made statements like “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die” (John 11:25-26), or, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6), the Jews were confronted with a person making what they thought were blasphemous claims about being God. And yet Jesus appeared able to backup these claims by doing things like raise Lazarus to life. Because of this many Jews could not reconcile the Messiah they expected with the one they saw in front of them, and as a result they hated Jesus and sought to kill him.
The same is true today. Today many people want a Jesus who tells them only what they want to hear. They want a Jesus who will make them prosperous and give them a happy life, without having to change how they live. Understandably, these same people get upset when they hear Jesus tell them that to be happy and have a prosperous life they need to sell all their possessions and follow him, or that they should love their enemies and pray for them too. It should come as no surprise that Jesus said, “The gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few” (Matthew 7:14).
“Who are you and how do you know this?”
This question was not directly asked by any of the students. However, there have been a number of questions indirectly related to it. As a result, I thought it would be worthwhile for our group to start wrestling with this question so that it would be on their minds and would allow us to come back to it as we move forward. Wonderfully, one student responded to this question saying, “I am a child of God!” To which I replied, “You are! That is a great answer. As you go throughout your week ask yourself if you feel this way when you do something wrong or when something doesn’t go as you hoped.” Ultimately, I hope all of the students get to a point where they can confidently affirm their position as a child of God even—and especially—when it doesn’t feel like it.
Continuing the Conversation at Home
It continues to amaze me how insightful, intelligent, and ready our students are to have difficult conversations. Encourage your kids for their interest in these conversations. Tell your kids you read what we talked about on Sunday. Let them know what you struggle with these questions and why. In so doing it will let your kids know that you care just as much about what they are learning as they do, and that you are interested in the questions they ask.
Just as reminder: in lieu of Youth Group on October 30, we will be attending Family Fall Fest on Friday, October 28. We would love to have your family join us. This is a great time to build relationships with other students and parents in the group.