The Three Days

I have been asked to give a short discourse on the following question …

"Where was Jesus during the three days His body was in the tomb?"

I feel very inadequate trying to answer this question, so as always I will rely on what little I believe the Word hints at concerning this subject.

The three days … wow. Where do I start? Some question why Jesus made the statement to Mary Magdalene in the Garden when He said to her in …

John 20:17 … "Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father …" K.J.V.

The word "touch" in this verse is "haptomia," and in the original Greek means to attach oneself … in other words … to grasp hold of, to hold back, and to restrain from leaving.

The Amplified Bible says it this way … "Jesus said to her, Do not cling to Me [do not hold Me], for I have not yet ascended to the Father."

It's not so much (as some teach) that Jesus, had not yet presented Himself to God the Father now that He was purified and set free from all the world's sin that had been placed on Him as He hung on the cross. Some have said that no one was allowed to touch Him because it would have tainted Him in some way before He (for whatever reason) had ascended in bodily form to His Father. I don't believe this was what He was saying to Mary.

I think Jesus was simply saying to her … "I am going to leave, don't try to hold me back, don't try and keep me here." (My translation)

It is just my speculation but I believe Mary Magdalene had a special type of relationship with Jesus. (No, they weren't lovers or married like many have tried to say today.) Jesus had changed her life; they enjoyed being together, laughing, eating, walking, perhaps just sitting on a hillside talking and sharing time together.

In my mind I can see her giving Him hugs, perhaps even brushing His hair away from His eyes, you know, little things that showed her love for Him. If she had been used to touching Him, no doubt she reached for Him out of habit, to hold on to Him again. I think that's why He said what He did to her.

She had seen Him die … but here He was. I have no proof of this, but I believe it was this special relationship He had with her that is the reason she was allowed to be the first one to see Him after His resurrection, even before His disciples.

Of all those who traveled with Him, she may have been the one who had the most complete understanding of His life changing, cleansing power of salvation. It was she who had seven devils cast out of her by this man called Jesus who came into her life. Mark 16:9 … "Now when Jesus was risen early the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had cast seven devils."

Bishop Pearce wrote the following about her …

"Mary Magdalene is commonly thought to have been a prostitute before she came to the knowledge of Christ, and then to have been a remarkable penitent. As such, historians and painters represent her: but neither from this passage, nor from any other of the New Testament, can such a supposition be legitimately drawn. She is here represented as one who had been possessed with seven demons; but Mary Magdalene, by her behavior, and constant attendance on Jesus in his life-time, at his crucifixion, and at his grave, seems to have exceeded all the other women in duty and respect to his person."

Jesus speaking to Mary Magdalene was one of the first things that happened at the end of the three days. So, what was He doing during the three days?

The Apostle Paul states in …

Ephesians 4:8-10 … "Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men. (Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth? He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things.)" K.J.V.

I like how the Amplified version reads …

"Therefore it is said, When He ascended on high, He led captivity captive [He led a train of vanquished foes] and He bestowed gifts on men. [Ps. 68:18.]
[But He ascended?] Now what can this, He ascended, mean but that He had previously descended from [the heights of] heaven into [the depths], the lower parts of the earth? He Who descended is the [very] same as He Who also has ascended high above all the heavens, that He [His presence] might fill all things (the whole universe, from the lowest to the highest)."

Okay, simple talk that even I can understand; Jesus became sin on the cross …

2nd Corinthians 5:21 … "For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him."

Since Jesus died as a sinner in our place on the cross; (the cross not being the punishment for sin, just the vehicle for death) the punishment for sin was then and still is today … "Hell" and then after judgment … the lake of fire.

Therefore, I believe Jesus paying "the full price for sin" means at death He went into the underworld, ("Hades" in the Greek /"Sheol" in Hebrew) the place of torment, to be punished for our sin. Jesus taught about this in Luke 16:19-31. The example Jesus gives is of Lazarus in Paradise and the rich man in Hell. Both of these places are in the bowels of the earth with a great gulf fixed between them.

It was during the three days His body was in the tomb that the spirit and soul of Jesus went first to the torment side of the underworld, the compartment of Hell. No one knows for sure how long Jesus had to suffer punishment for us … one hour, one day, two days, we just don't know. It wasn't the full three days because Jesus had other things to accomplish for us.

Next, after this unknown period of time in Hades, Jesus crossed over to the Paradise side, called Abraham's bosom where He led to Heaven all those righteous O.T. saints that had been held captive in Paradise against their will instead of where they wanted to be … in Heaven where God was. (The Paradise side is now empty.)

They were not allowed into Heaven because at death their sin was still there; it had not been done away with, it had only been covered by the blood of an animal sacrifice. Jesus hadn't died yet. When Jesus, the true Lamb of God died on the cross, His blood didn't just cover their sin … His blood took all their sin away … allowing them to enter into God's presence in heaven.

Jesus … "led captivity captive" … this phrase is also expressing Christ's conquests and triumph over sin, the world, death, the grave and every spiritual enemy of those who are now His people. This is said to be especially true in light of the fact that Christ has spoiled and triumphed over Satan and his principalities and powers.

Paul is referring to this in Colossians 2:15 when he wrote … "And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it."

The allusion here is to the public triumphs of the Romans, in which captives were led in chains, and exposed, in open view to all.

The writer of Hebrews also tells us some of what Jesus was doing during the three days in question.

Hebrews 9:12 … "Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us."

Hebrews 9:23 … "It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these."

Just as Moses took the blood of calves and goats and sprinkled both the people, the tabernacle, and all the vessels of the ministry; Jesus took His own blood, the better sacrifice and likewise sprinkled the heavenly things themselves.

By doing so during the three days, Jesus has now secured us for all time from the curse and condemnation of the law and from the wrath to come for those who are not in Christ Jesus.

Christ stands between God and the judgment of the law, and by fulfilling it, covers all the transgressions of the law; and being above it, is able to suppress all its accusations and charges brought against us.

Honestly, it doesn't say when Jesus did these things, but I believe it had to have been done during the three days, while He was operating in the spirit realm before He took up His new glorified body.

I also believe during the three days … that Jesus went to a spiritual prison reserved only for the fallen angels and shared, talked with or as the following verses say, preached to them. But I don't believe it was to give them another chance.

1st Peter 3:19 … "By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison …"

2nd Peter 2:4 … "For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment …" ( The word hell in this verse is "Tartaros," not Hades; it's a different place than the Hades or Hell we know about.)

Jude 1:6 … "And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, (and started operating in the human realm, see Gen. 6:1-4) he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day."

In truth … the Bible is silent, unclear about what Jesus was doing during the three days His body was in the tomb. One thing I do know though is this … what ever Jesus was doing was enough. He succeeded in securing our salvation.

Revelation 1:18 … "I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive forevermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death."

I believe He got them during the three days.