1 Peter 3:18–22 (NRSV)
Read 1 Peter 3:18–22 on biblegateway.com
Verse 18For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, in order to bring you to God. He was put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit, Verse 19in which also he went and made a proclamation to the spirits in prison, Verse 20who in former times did not obey, when God waited patiently in the days of Noah, during the building of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were saved through water.
Verse 21And baptism, which this prefigured, now saves you-not as a removal of dirt from the body, but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, Verse 22who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers made subject to him.
Devotion
There are a lot of thoughts packed into this brief passage in Peter’s letter! One idea points to Jesus’ descent into hell. Peter does not quite say it that way. He speaks of Christ making a “proclamation to the spirits in prison.” This is an episode in Jesus’ life that Protestants don’t think about much. But Christians, especially in the Middle Ages, interpreted this to mean that Jesus himself descended into hell in order to trample on the head of Satan and free all those stuck in Satan’s realm. This “harrowing of hell” shows that in the two days that Jesus was dead, he was not motionless or out of commission, but in fact, doing the unbelievably hopeful and dangerous work of freeing all those who find themselves separated from God. For, as Julian of Norwich has put it, God makes sure that “not one thing made shall ever be lost.”
Prayer
Jesus our brother, thank you for not abandoning us to human evil or Satan. Thank you for going where we are terrified to go, and for rescuing all those who find themselves in the grips of hell. You and only you, are the Lord of all reality. Amen.