Mel Gibson’s Harrowing of Hell Scene

Through his death for us, he conquered death.

In his 2004 film, The Passion of the Christ, Mel Gibson left us with that unerasable picture of the Devil's painful disillusionment. What appeared to be Satan’s victory, the brutal destruction of Jesus on the cross, became his ultimate defeat. From God’s vantage point, we looked down on the Devil as he shrieked and screamed, writhing in pain in the realization that Christ had weaponized love from the cross to ultimately crush his head (Gen 3:15).

According to interviews Mel Gibson has given about his upcoming film, The Resurrection of the Christ, there will be an even more intense and definitive confrontation between Jesus and the Devil. 

Within the depths of Sheol, a warrior Christ, radiating authority rather than his brokenness from Golgotha, faces off against the Adversary, the pale, androgynous manifestation of Satan introduced in The Passion of the Christ.

Christ, flanked by his angels, will storm the abode of the dead, break down its gates, and proclaim the good news of salvation. He will bind his enemies and liberate the righteous captives: John the Baptist, who just arrived after his beheading, and then his beloved step-father, Joseph. As he descends further into the dark chamber, his light will illuminate the recognizable faces of figures throughout salvation history: David, Moses, Joshua, and Isaac. The angels unbind them, but the Shepherd remains determined to seek out his original lost sheep.

The New Adam encounters the old Adam. The aged Adam sees Christ approaching. Jesus takes him by the hand and commands in ancient Aramaic:

“Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead.”

Then comes the heart of the scene:

“I am your God, who for your sake became your son.”

Taken from St. Epiphanius’ Homily for Holy Saturday, we find a slightly different angle that includes Eve and an “I Am” statement:

“Truly he goes to seek out our first parent like a lost sheep; he wishes to visit those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death. He goes to free the prisoner Adam and his fellow-prisoner Eve from their pains, he who is God, and Adam's son…I command you: Awake, sleeper, I have not made you to be held a prisoner in the underworld. Arise from the dead; I am the life of the dead.”

Christ shows Adam the wounds of the Passion. The wounds are no longer signs of defeat; they have become the trophies of victory. The hand Adam once stretched toward the forbidden tree is answered by the hand Christ stretched upon the Cross. The sleep of Adam in Genesis is answered by the sleep of Christ in death. The garden lost by Adam is replaced by the heavenly kingdom opened by Christ. The homily ends not with Christ simply leaving the underworld, but with Adam being brought out with him.

Gibson lit up when discussing the place of the dead as a different world—an underworld with separate levels. He specifically noted that Jesus will descend into both the "hell of the just" (Sheol / Abraham's Bosom) and the "hell of the damned” (Inferno / Gehenna). How will his underworld appear on the big screen?

Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich on The Harrowing of Hell

Gibson will once again likely consult the mystical visions of Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich. About the confrontation in the underworld between Christ and Satan, she wrote:

“...the angels rapped, and I thought I heard them say, ‘Open these doors.’ When Jesus entered in triumph the demons dispersed, crying out at the same time, ‘What is there between thee and us? What art thou come to do here? Wilt thou crucify us likewise?’ The angels hunted them away, having first chained them. The poor souls confined in this place had only a slight presentiment and vague idea of the presence of Jesus; but the moment he told them that it was he himself, they burst out into acclamations of joy, and welcomed him with hymn of rapture and delight…”

Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich on the Structure of the Underworld

She describes what she calls Limbo as:

“...the place where the souls were waiting for the Redemption. It was divided into different compartments, and encompassed by a thick foggy atmosphere. Our Lord appeared radiant with light and surrounded by angels, who conducted him triumphantly between two of these compartments; the one on the left containing the patriarchs who lived before the time of Abraham, and that on the right those who lived between the days of Abraham and St. John Baptist. These souls did not at first recognise Jesus, but were filled nevertheless with sensations of joy and hope.”

She then describes another compartment, which she considers part of Purgatory, where she situated Adam and Eve:

“The passage of Jesus might be compared to the wafting of a breath of air, to a sudden flash of light, or to a shower of vivifying dew, but it was swift as a whirlwind. After passing through the two compartments, he reached a dark spot in which Adam and Eve were standing; he spoke to them, they prostrated and adored him in a perfect ecstasy of joy, and they immediately joined the band of angels, and accompanied our Lord to the compartment on the left, which contained the patriarchs who lived before Abraham. This compartment was a species of Purgatory, and a few evil spirits were wandering about among the souls and endeavouring to fill them with anxiety and alarm.”

Across Emmerich’s underworld, Christ moves with astonishing speed and authority. Demons scatter in terror, and spirits are bound. Souls whether in Limbo or Purgatory who had only vaguely sensed redemption erupt in joy as they recognize Jesus, their Savior and Warrior King. 

Scripture Gives Us Glimpses Too

In 1 Peter 3:18-20, Jesus preaches to spirits in prison:

“For Christ also suffered for sins once, the righteous for the sake of the unrighteous, that he might lead you to God. Put to death in the flesh, he was brought to life in the spirit. In it he also went to preach to the spirits in prison.”

This is why the Catechism presents the harrowing of hell as liberation:

“In his human soul united to his divine person, the dead Christ went down to the realm of the dead. He opened heaven's gates for the just who had gone before him” (CCC 637).

Similarly, 1 Peter 4:6 notes that he preached to the dead:

“For this is why the gospel was preached even to the dead that, though condemned in the flesh in human estimation, they might live in the spirit in the estimation of God.”

In Ephesians, St. Paul speaks of Christ descending to “the lower regions of the earth” before ascending.

There is nowhere humanity can fall where Christ refuses to go searching for us. That is the mystery behind the Harrowing of Hell. And if Mel Gibson can put that on screen, the most interesting scene in The Resurrection of the Christ may take place before anyone ever sees the climatic moment of the empty tomb.