Q: #73. Where did Jesus go for the 3 days between His death on the cross
and His resurrection?
A: Christians are somewhat divided on this point, but it seems the majority
believe that after Jesus died, His body remained in the grave, but His spirit
and/or soul descended into Sheol (or the heart/lower parts of the earth). Sheol
was made up of two places: Paradise and Hades. All of the people who died in
the Old Testament went to one of these two places. Believers went to Paradise,
and non-believers went to Hades. We can see a picture of these two places in
Jesus' story of the Rich Man and Lazarus found in (Lk 16:19-31). Lazarus was in
Paradise (also called: Abraham's Bosom), and the Rich Man was in Hades. A great
gulf separated these two places. In Hades, the Rich Man was tormented
(Lk 16:23-24), and in Paradise, Lazarus was comforted (Lk 16:25).
When Jesus was on the cross, He told the thief next to Him that He would
join Him in Paradise that same day because he believed in Him (Jn 21:13).
When Jesus died, He spent 3 days (Mt 12:40) proclaiming His victory and the
gospel to those in Sheol (1 Pet 3:19)(1 Pet 4:6). It was a message of joy for
those in Paradise, and a message of sorrow for those in Hades.
However, Jesus soul was not left in Hades to see corruption (Ps 16:10)
(Acts 2:27,31), but instead, He was resurrected from the dead on the 3rd day.
It is also believed by some that during Jesus 3 days in Sheol, He took
believers from Paradise to Heaven. Personally, I do believe that Jesus took
believers from Paradise to Heaven, but I am not quite so sure it was during
these three days. My theory is that it may have been after His resurrection,
and His subsequent 40 days on the Earth (Acts 1:3); occurring during His
ascension to heaven afterwards. My reasoning is simply based on Jesus words to
Mary when she met Him after His resurrection and said to her "touch me not, for
I am not yet ascended to my Father..." (Jn 20:17). If Jesus had taken believers
to Heaven previously, it seems to me that he would have already ascended to the
Father.
I should also add here that there are other Christians who believe that
Jesus went directly to Heaven after He died. Various other points of view are
given to explain the verses above (i.e. Paradise was Heaven, the heart of the
earth was the grave and not Sheol, the gospel was proclaimed through Noah to
his generation prior to the flood and not by Jesus in Sheol, etc...).
It makes for an interesting discussion, but it is not something we should
become contentious over.
