What Did Jesus Do on Saturday?

Pastor Dillon Thornton

8 Therefore it says, “When he ascended on high he led a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men.”  9 (In saying, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower regions, the earth? 10 He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.) Ephesians 4:8-10

18 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, 19 in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, 20 because they formerly did not obey, when God's patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water. 1 Peter 3:18-20

The denomination in which I grew up sometimes is guilty of leaving Jesus on the cross. This is not to suggest that they denied the bodily resurrection of Christ—by no means—but it is to say that they got so hyped up about Christ’s sacrifice on Good Friday that they commonly ran out of steam before getting to Holy Saturday and Resurrection Sunday. This is a bit like quitting at mile thirteen in a marathon. The Apostles’ Creed causes us to press on: “He suffered under Pontius Pilot, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended to the dead. On the third day he rose again.” “He descended to the dead” is the most controversial clause of the Creed. For some biblical scholars, this line means simply that Jesus actually died. Others interpret the clause as a reference to Jesus’ descent to hell, but this is unlikely because it seems that hell either does not exist or is not populated until the time of Revelation 20:14. I tend to side with those who read this line of the Creed as a reference to Jesus’ descent to the waiting place of the dead, which Scripture frequently refers to as Hades or Sheol. Consider the question: What did Jesus do on Saturday, the period between his death and bodily resurrection? My suggestion is that, while his body was in the tomb, the immaterial part of his person descended to the underworld, where he both proclaimed his victory over the forces of evil and set free the saints of old, God’s people who passed from this world prior to the cross. Since Holy Saturday, believers who die go directly to heaven to be with Christ, though heaven is not the ultimate hope of the Christ-follower…

From Give Them Jesus: Raising Our Children on the Core Truths of the Christian Faith, “The Son’s Death and Resurrection”