Think of Lent as our three days in grave

Reflections on the church

At the Bishop’s Convocation earlier this month, a pastor in the small group I attended Tuesday said something that startled me.
We had been confessing about the difficulty of caring for ourselves spiritually. Jean Reardon said something about how Jesus spent three days in the grave and that we really don’t know what kind of transformation was going on inside the grave during that time that led to his resurrection. She was using this image as an analogy about our spiritual life.
What startled me was the realization that I have never spent one moment wondering what transformation was happening with Jesus those three days in the grave before the resurrection. Usually, in Disciple classes and other Bible studies, I am the one always reminding people that Jesus was both human and divine when students want to skip over the human part and take the gnostic view that he was only divine.
The crucifixion loses meaning if Jesus was only divine and didn’t truly suffer in his dying on the cross. The resurrection loses meaning if Jesus was only divine because the miracle of resurrecting a human being from the dead isn’t a miracle if Jesus went from being divine before his death to divine at resurrection.
The proclamation for centuries through the Apostles’ Creed has been that Jesus “suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried,” as well as that “on the third day he rose again and ascended into heaven.” This creed, as well as those that followed, insists that Jesus was both human and divine and through the paradox of humanity and divinity come the miracles of crucifixion and resurrection.
So what did happen during those three days in the grave? Some kind of transformation that will remain a mystery for us.
How we are spiritually transformed is often a mystery to us because that, too, happens by the grace of God. Yet we participate in that transformation by our thoughts and actions. We participate in that transformation by how we care for ourselves spiritually.
Lent is the one of the seasons of the year in which we intentionally care for ourselves through the spiritual disciplines in the hope of transformation. Perhaps we can think of Lent as our three days in the grave.
May we become aware of God’s grace surrounding us, filling us, transforming us in this season.