Last week we discussed the line from the creed: I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, Our Lord, who was conceived by Holy Ghost and born of the Virgin Mary. This week we are discussing the next line in the creed, which states that Jesus suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried. He descended into hell. Needless to say, there’s a lot for us to discuss.

This statement in the Apostles’ Creed is included for a very specific reason: It anchors Jesus’ story to history. Linking Jesus’ death to Pontius Pilate is what helps us place Jesus’ life in a very specific historical time frame. So I want to begin our time together this morning by discussing Pontius Pilate. Who was he? Where did he come from? And why was he the man responsible for Jesus’ execution?

Pontius Pilate was descendant from a group of people who lived in the mountains of Samnium in southern Rome. The Samnites were known to be brutal people. They were extraordinarily violent and were the last of the tribes in Italy to be absorbed into the Roman Republic. For more than 200 years, the Samnites sided with every enemy of the Roman State.

In 82 BC, the Roman dictator Lucius Cornelius Sulla sent his troops into the mountains to perform a genocide. Sulla managed to wipe out almost the entire race of Samnites, so you can imagine the ones who survived were some of the toughest individuals on the planet. Pontius Pilate’s grandfather was among those who survived the genocide.

The surname Pilate literally means “skilled with a javelin” and Pilate’s father fought alongside Julius Caesar (another man who was an enemy to the Roman State). It is because Pilate’s father worked with Julius Caesar that his family was able to advance into the knightly class of Roman society. Pontius Pilate served his time in the Roman army, but because of his education, he was considered a better administrator than a soldier.

Pilate rose through the ranks to become a Roman Prefect. The job of prefects were to rule over less important provinces under Roman control. The primary function of a prefect was to establish a military presence in these provinces and, more importantly, collect imperial taxes while also overseeing certain judicial functions such as signing death warrants on behalf of the state.

Pilate was appointed prefect over Jerusalem in 26AD, about two years before Jesus would begin his ministry. All the other prefects before Pilate had been respectful of Jewish customs. However, this was not to be Pilate’s way. The day he arrived in Jerusalem, he came into the city wearing a white tunic with a gold breast plate and red cape draped over his shoulders. Behind him was a legion of 5,000 Roman soldiers carrying standards of the emperor’s image. The message he was sending couldn’t be clearer – you are under Roman authority whether you like it or not.

I think it would be fair to say that Pilate hated the Jews. He felt his assignment to this remote corner of the Roman Empire was beneath him. More importantly, Pilate was openly hostile towards his Jewish subjects and he was not shy about letting the Jews know how much he despised them. Let me give you a few examples of just how much he enjoyed agitating the Jews under his control.

Pilate placed symbols of the Roman gods in the Jewish Temple (which was considered blasphemous by the Jews). But if that wasn’t enough, when Pilate learned that the aging aqueducts in Jerusalem needed to be replaced, he robbed the Temple treasury to pay for the project. When Jews in the city protested against this action, Pilate sent a group of soldiers to slaughter the protestors in the streets.

Anytime Pilate caught wind of revolt, however minor, he wouldn’t hesitate to send in his soldiers who would either kill the perpetrators sight on scene or would have them arrested so they could be crucified. In fact, Pilate developed a bit of a reputation when it came to capital punishment. He was known for signing death warrants without placing the accused on trial. In fact, Pilate did this so often that Jewish aristocrats lodged numerous complaints against Pilate with the legate of Syria.

As you might imagine, Pilate just kept executing people left and right, until eventually the Emperor pulled Pilate from the region in 36 A.D. Do you know what cause him to lose his post? A group of Samaritans led by a man claiming to be the reincarnation of Moses climbed a mountain because they thought they would find special artifacts from Moses at the mountains peak. Pilate had his soldiers slaughter the leader and his followers as they descended down the mountain.

And yet, when we read Luke’s version of Jesus’ last days, there seems to be a disconnect between the Pilate of history and the Pilate we find in the gospels. Luke portrays Pilate as being quite sympathetic to Jesus’ plight. Not only does Pilate hold a trial for Jesus, but he attempts to let Jesus go free. Luke tells us that there was a tradition at the Passover where Pilate would release a Jewish prisoner.

Pilate offers to switch Jesus with another political dissident named Barabbas. When the people protest the switch, Pilate interjects saying, “Why, what evil has he done?” However, when the people persist in asking for Jesus’ execution, Pilate finally relents not wanting to cause a riot. Does that sound anything like the Pilate I just described to you?

Does it really make any sense to you than an extraordinarily cruel man, who hates the Jews with every fiber of his being and happily sends people to be executed without trial would spend his time haggling to save an uneducated Jewish peasant? I can tell you that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me. Based on the Pilate I know from history, if Jesus even had a trial, I doubt very much that Pilate would have even looked at Jesus, let alone had a conversation with him before signing his death warrant.

So when the Apostles’ Creed says Jesus suffered under Pontius Pilate, I would say that’s pretty dead on. Jesus suffered for sure. The fact that Jesus was crucified tells us something important about the crime for which he was convicted. Crucifixion was only used as punishment for extreme political crimes – treason, rebellion, sedition or banditry. Jesus was accused of treason.

Treason is the crime of betraying one’s country, especially by attempting to overthrow the government. This might seem strange that Jesus would be accused of treason given how he is portrayed in the gospels, but let me explain to you why Jesus’ actions fit the crime of treason. We all know that Jesus calls himself the messiah, which means ‘anointed one.’ This term refers to how kings in the ancient world were anointed with oil when they came to power.

The Jews were waiting for the messiah, a man who would be crowned their new king and reestablish an independent state of Israel. Therefore, by calling himself the messiah, Jesus is very clearly stating that he has kingly ambitions. However, simply declaring yourself the messiah would not get you crucified. In Jesus’ day, there were many people who called themselves the messiah.

In order for you to be noticed by the Roman government, you needed to do something that would incite rebellion. Jesus did just that when he overturned the tables of the money changers and the sellers of the sacrifices in the Temple. Thus, it was the act of declaring himself the messiah combined with the act of disrupting the business transactions in the Temple that determined Jesus’ fate.

After being convicted of treason, Jesus is crucified. We’re actually going to get more into the science of crucifixion next week, but for now it’s important to understand that the cross was the equivalent of the modern electric chair or the gas chamber. It was a killing device designed to publicly torture the convict. Crosses were always setup in public areas where the public could watch the criminal suffer. The cross acted as a deterrent: Don’t be like this person or you will suffer the same fate.

Eventually, Jesus dies on the cross and his body is buried. I think every modern person can agree with this part of the Apostles’ Creed. It’s simply stating the historical reality of what would have happened to Jesus. That said, next week we will go deeper into Jesus’ burial because it has an impact on how you understand the resurrection.

This brings us to the last part of the Apostles’ Creed we are discussing today, which is something that I think a lot of modern people will struggle with. Following Jesus’ burial, the Apostles’ Creed tells us that that Jesus descended into hell. Now, I think it should be pointed out that numerous denominations (like the Methodists) have removed this line from their version of the Apostles’ Creed.

We Presbyterians have left it in our version of the Apostles’ Creed, and we actually read the scripture from which it is derived. We read from 1Peter. Let’s read it again, because it’s a strange text: [Jesus] was put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit, in which also he went and made a proclamation to the spirits in prison, who 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.

What is the author talking about? Well, apparently some Christians believed that, following his crucifixion, Jesus’ soul descended into the earth, where he spent some time ministering to spirits that were imprisoned. The text doesn’t exactly tell us where this prison is located, but there are two different interpretations.

The first interpretation is these spirits are in a kind of limbo or, as it became known in the Catholic Church, purgatory. This scripture is where the concept of purgatory began. Of course, we don’t believe in purgatory in the Presbyterian Church, so this interpretation doesn’t really apply to us, but in case you’re wondering what purgatory is, let me define it for you. In the Catholic faith, purgatory is a place where souls reside for a period of time while they are cleansed. After this cleansing period, your soul can be admitted into heaven.

The second interpretation is that these imprisoned spirits are in hell, which is where this line from the Apostles’ Creed comes from. Now we are never told in the scripture exactly who these spirits are, why they’re in prison or what Jesus is saying to them, but we can assume that the reason why Jesus is speaking with them is because he’s trying to help them.

Tradition holds that Jesus descended into hell after his crucifixion to preach the gospel to the dead. The purpose of this trip is to give those who died before Jesus’ arrival on earth the opportunity to hear the gospel and accept Jesus. However, I think for a lot of modern people, this event in 1Peter raises numerous really challenging questions about the Christian faith.

What the traditional interpretation of this scripture implies is that if you don’t accept Jesus into your heart, then God will not allow you into heaven. So literally, if you don’t accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior at some point during your time on earth, then you will spend eternity in hell. Just to put this in perspective, the average length of life during Jesus’ era was about 33 years. So if, in that 33 years, you rejected the gospel or, even worse, you were never exposed to the gospel because no one told you about it, your soul is going to burn in a specialized torture chamber created by God for all of eternity.

But what’s even crazier is when you think about the number of humans who have ever lived on the earth. There have been approximately 100 billion humans who have inhabited the earth over the last 100,000 years. If you do the math, more than 90 percent of those people are burning in hell right now. Does that sound like a loving God to you? It doesn’t sound like a loving God to me.

So when you say to somebody outside the church, “Jesus loves you, but he’ll send you to hell if you don’t love him back,” that’s doesn’t sound like love. That sounds like an abusive relationship. That sounds like leverage: Love me or else there will be consequences. And, of course, this argument is what has inspired Christians throughout the centuries to believe in Jesus, but for a lot of modern people it can feel a bit disingenuous.

However, there’s another way we can look at this scripture from 1Peter: If Jesus is willing to enter into the suffering of the spirits in the afterlife, then how much more is Jesus entering into your suffering right now? And I think that this is one of the most important messages that can help make Christianity relevant in our culture today. When you encounter suffering in this life, you are not suffering alone.

We live in a world where people are the most connected they have ever been thanks to the internet, and yet, ironically, we are the most isolated and lonely we have ever been in human history. The idea that God is with you in the midst of your suffering, particularly when you feel like nobody even notices you’re alive, that’s a powerful message. That’s something that people need to hear because, I don’t care who you are, everyone, and I mean everyone, needs hope in the midst of suffering.

Therefore, when you read in the Apostles Creed that Jesus descended into hell, I hope you might be reminded that when you are in the midst of your suffering, God is with you. But I would also beg you not to suffer alone in silence. Let the pastors and members of this church know what you are going through. One of the most important ways that God brings us hope in the midst of suffering is through the love and support of those around us. We are Jesus’ hands and feet in the world.

And if you’re thinking, “I’m not that important. I wouldn’t want to bother anyone.” I’m telling you, right now, bother us because what we believe in the Presbyterian Church is that Christianity is about what we can do right now to change the world for the better. And if that means helping you through a tough time, then all the better. We’re here if you need us; don’t suffer in silence; all you need to do is tell us and we’ll be there for you. Amen.