An Orthodox ☦️ Funeral for Jesus?
A Video Reflection On The Holy Saturday Liturgy + Ancient Texts on Christ's Descent to Hades
Watch My Latest 🎥 Here: https://www.youtube.com/live/VpwHxQYtNCE?si=RmsQp7MmU5B-QgOK’
In my latest video, I walk you through some of the prayers and liturgical themes for Holy Saturday which felt like a funeral for Jesus. The specific service took place Friday evening, yet it was an anticipation service and so it is referred to as “Orthros of Great & Holy Saturday: The Lamentation Service.”
I also discuss the theology behind ‘lamenting’ and why it is important to express our sorrow to God and others. The Bible has a whole book called ‘Lamentations’ for a reason!
Lastly, I comment on how godly sorrow always involves hope, which is why the service describes Christ’s descent into Hades (Sheol), the realm of the dead, and prophesies His conquering of it. The latter half of the video is actually a presentation on several ancient texts (Biblical, Patristic, Liturgical, Apocryphal) related to Holy Saturday or Christ’s storming of Hell!
I am also going to share some of my previous articles involving both of these themes. The first is on the role of lament and holy tears in the Christian life. The rest of the articles are related to Christ’s harrowing of hell on Holy Saturday.
Christ is Risen! Allelujah!
Kyle
Godly Grief, Holy Tears, & Gandalf the Grey
American culture leaves little room for times of lasting sorrow and grief in our lives. We are a society of quick fixes that tries to solve our deepest problems with consumerist solutions. “Have you tried ‘x’ product or ‘x’ experience or ‘x’ professional yet to fix you?”
C.S. Lewis on the Harrowing of Hell
Dear Barrel Aged Christians, 🎥 I recently posted a video on the often neglected topic of Christ’s descent to Hades on Holy Saturday or the time period between His death and glorious Resurrection. Check it out above! 📖Read more about what the Bible and the Church fathers say
Did Jesus descend to Hell between His Death & Resurrection?
Did you know that the first Easter sermon was actually preached in Hell?! And did you know that this proclamation was given by none other than Christ Himself? Because Jesus experienced a true death, his soul actually separated from his body and descended into the realm of the dead (also called
The Harrowing of Hell in Middle Earth
In our last post, we explored how 🦁 C.S. Lewis depicted the harrowing of Hell in The Chronicles of Narnia. Today, we are going to explore how 🧙♂️ J.R.R. Tolkien depicted this doctrine in The Lord of the Rings. You can also explore my most recent 🎥
The Greatest Easter Sermon Ever!
St. John Chrysostom is considered one of the best preachers in the ancient world. Many of his homilies and Biblical commentaries are still read by many today. His Easter Sermon remains his most well-known and is still read aloud during Matins of Pascha (Easter) in the Eastern Christian/Byzantine tradition.
Lent and Holy week grow in richness every year for me and my family. It is difficult to truly express how the somber week of little sleep, fasting and lament brings us to such a great feast!
this article was cool to read, because I literally had the same epiphany earlier this year, and I am a cradle Orthodox Christian. the holy Friday evening/matins of holy Saturday service is precisely an orthodox funeral for Christ. when you go to a funeral for a regular human being you will see the exact same elements, although not in quite as much ceremony for example, the reading of psalm 118 and the chanting of the funeral holy God. thank you for a very cool video which I shared with several people. Christ is risen! PS, sorry about the weird punctuation. I am a mom of a toddler and I wrote this comment on voice to text