Easter has come and gone. Time for another entry examining all of the ways Jesus discusses hell in the gospels.  Last time we looked at how Jesus references the valley of Gehenna.  The simplified conclusion, “Really, really, REALLY try to avoid hell.”  This time Jesus will talk about Hades as a consequence, an adversary, and a parable.

Hades

“And you, Capernaum, will not be exalted to heaven, will you? You will be brought down to Hades!” (Luke 10:15 NASB)

Next time you think your pastor is wrong for referencing pop culture, remember that Jesus references popular culture and religions all the time.  Hades is a Greek word for the pagan idea of a netherworld.  Hades is definitely a god in the Greek pantheon, but by saying “brought down” Jesus is clearly using hades to mean the realm of the dead.  Furthermore, Jesus is referencing a specific cosmological idea of underworld, specifically a world that is “under.”

Hades as Consequence

Matthew 11:23 “And you, Capernaum, will not be exalted to heaven, will you? You shall descend to Hades; for if the miracles had occurred in Sodom which occurred in you, it would have remained to this day. (Mat 11:23 NASB)

Jesus is bemoaning Capernaum as well as the other Galilean towns.  What was the issue?  They saw his miracles, but something still was off.  The trouble in v20-21 is that these towns see the miracles but don’t respond with repentance. Therefore, the towns won’t “go up” but will “go down.”  Does Jesus really think heaven is in the sky and hell is in the ground?  The verb for “be exalted” is a nuanced way of going up.  The Greek version of Isaiah 33:10 has three words “arise”, “exalted” and “lifted up” that are close in meaning.  Matt 11:23 and use Luke 10:15 use this same verb upsow.  Matthew reuses this verb in 23:12 to say “whoever exalts himself shall be humbled.”   Why spend so much time on the heaven verb?  If Matthew is speaking beyond the most basic spatial use of the verb “go up”, then it is likely he is using more than the spatial use of the verb “descend,” katabainw.  Capernaum won’t be exalted to heaven, it will descend to hades, which is a lowering of glory and not elevation.  But, if Jesus is speaking more along the lines of humbling the city, was Capernaum a prosperous world city?  Not really.  It was certainly a hub for the Galilee region, but that is like being the biggest town in the Yukon territories (although Dawson City is great).  So, if in terms of prestige, the city of Capernaum is on the bottom floor, what exactly is the consequence?  Since Matthew 4:25 gobs of people have been following Jesus all over Galilee, and his home base was Capernaum.  What Jesus is saying, “Since there is not repentance, my miracles that make you great will actually condemn you.”  Jesus’ miracles are a weight that brings an unrepentant city down instead of up.  So is hell “down there?”  No, but if by “down there” you mean an inglorious state, then yes.  But most importantly, repentance is the key to the elevator.  Hades is the consequence for a city that saw miracles and did not heed them with repentance.

Hades as Adversary

Matthew 16:18 “And I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades shall not overpower it. (Mat 16:18 NAS)

Katisxuw only occurs three times in the gospels.  Luke 21:36 says, “Keep on the alert at all times… that you may have strength to escape.”  Also, concerning the raucous crowds at Jesus’ trial Luke 23:23 says, “They were insistent… and their voices began to prevail.”  We often read “overpower it” from Matt 16:18 and think, “The church will handle any attack from hell.”  But what Jesus is saying, “Hell won’t be able to overcome any attack from the church.”  Hell is on the defensive.  Hell is the one with gates.  The Jewish people knew siege warfare.  A few years after Jesus’ death and resurrection, Jerusalem itself would be put under siege by Rome.  The hope was that you could stay holed up in your city walls until the attacking army got diverted somewhere else or another larger force came around.  So, hell is an adversary for Jesus’ disciples.  Hell represents an enemy force worthy of being besieged, but victory is assured.

Hades as Parable

Luke 16:23 “And in Hades he lifted up his eyes, being in torment, and saw Abraham far away, and Lazarus in his bosom. (Luke 16:23 NAS)

The parable of the rich man and Lazarus is connected to Jesus’ rebuke of the Pharisees in 16:13-14 “You cannot serve both God and money… God knows your hearts.  What people value highly is detestable in God’s sight” (TNIV).  The parable explains those one-off statements.  The parable discusses money, God’s knowledge of hearts, and God’s detesting.  Short version (but seriously read Luke 16:19-31), rich man ignores poor and sick Lazarus at his front gate.  Both guys die.  Rich man is in Hades “in torment” and “in agony… in fire,” and he can see Lazarus in “Abrahams bosom” which is a place of comfort and apparently has cool water.  There is an uncrossable space between Hades and the Bosom.  And what is the punch line of the parable?  Rich guy wants to warn others to repent from being rich jerks by coming back from the dead, but Abraham shuts him down.  The super Easter foreshadowing is “They will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead” (v31).  Notice that this parable is not meant to be an dictionary entry on the afterlife.  Parables are stories that essentially are about something not in the story.  What is the parable about?  1) You cannot serve God and money 2) God knows your hearts 3) What people value is detestable to God 4) and the new idea, resurrection is not more convicting then Moses and the Prophets.  Jesus’ use of parable does not make him a liar, but we can learn a lot about his perception of Hades by how it has to function in this parable.

Hades is agony (v25).  The parable only works if the rich man is aware of himself and his circumstance (v23).  Hades is permanent separation (v26). And as all of our passages on hell have shown, Hades should be avoided (v28), specifically avoided by repentance (v30).  If Jesus was to tell this parable, but actually believe or mean the opposite of these statements (e.g. “The afterlife has no negative experiences”) then the parable would be incoherent and nonsensical.  Jesus tells this parable to hit home his rebuke of the Pharisees.

What do we learn about Hell from how Jesus uses Hades?

From the passage on Capernaum we learn that Hades is sort of in a cause-effect relationship with Jesus’ ministry and miracles.  If you react to Jesus without repentance, then you are missing the point of Jesus.  What should bring glory, such as Jesus working in your city, now stands to shame you.

In the adversary passage, we learn something that sounds like it clashes with the “who is the boss” passages from last time.  If God is the boss of hell, which should be a comfort, how can Jesus talk about Hades as an adversary?  How can Hades be like any enemy city, if God is “the boss”?  If we really believe that God is the boss, then it makes sense that Jesus tells Peter, “The gates won’t hold you back.”  It helps to remember that Jesus had no room for dualism.  There are not eternal forces of good and evil.  Good was always from God and the forces of Hades are a new thing.  They hide behind gates that God controls.  Jesus can assure Peter the gates won’t hold.

From the parable of Lazarus and the rich man we must be cautious in what we use to define the after-life, because it is not primarily about the afterlife but money and repentance.  But for the parable to function at all, Jesus had to have a very concrete idea that there is a permanent self-aware agony awaiting those who don’t repent.  This parable plus the gehenna passages make it very hard to think that Jesus had a fluffy version of the afterlife. Furthermore, Jesus specifically targets the Pharisees’ hidden love of money.  The sin is two-fold.  The Pharisees think they can hide their love of money from God, and they plainly love money more than God.  So on the other side of Easter and headed to April 15th,  take comfort or take caution that God is with you.