When Jesus was crucified, Part III

In the last two posts, we looked at the terms "three days" and "the third day" within the New Testament (here) and then why the Church generally recognizes Friday as the day of crucifixion and Sunday as the day of Resurrection (here). Today, we'll look at what the Bible says, and we'll see that there might be an alternative.


And we'll throw this in from the outset:


[NOTE:  None of this should, nor is it intended to, alter anyone's convictions in the inspired and inerrant word of God nor in the doctrine of the literal (and atoning) death, burial, and resurrection of God the Son, Jesus Christ.]


Now, on with the show.


If we are to take Christ at his word, that he says what he means and that he means what he says, we have no choice but to think that he really believed he would be interred for three full days when he said:

For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth." (Matthew 12:40)

The following detective work requires that you have a finger in all four gospel accounts of the death of Jesus and his resurrection (Matthew 27:32-28:2, Mark 15:33-16:3, Luke 23:44-24:3, and John 19:28-20:2).


We have assumed to this point that the Sabbath that was approaching on the day of Christ's crucifixion was the standard weekly Sabbath, that would be Saturday. Notice what John 19:31 says (parentheses included in the ESV):

"Since it was the day of Preparation, and so the bodies would not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day), the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken and that they might be taken away."

There are other Sabbaths apart from Saturday. Think of it like this. Christmas falls on a different day every year due to the perma-shift of December 25th. We have holidays that fall on different days of the week. Yes, every President's Day is a Monday and every Easter is a Sunday, but neither is always on the same date.  Christmas, though on the same date is not on the same day. The Jewish calendar had holidays, too, or Sabbaths.


Consider, each of the feasts has a holy convocation, a Sabbath, associated with it (Leviticus 16:29-3123:24, 26-32, 39). Leviticus 25 speaks of a Sabbath year! And when God instituted the Passover, the day after the Passover was a Sabbath that started the Feast of Unleavened Bread (note Exodus 12, esp. v. 16).  John's inclusion of the term high day leaves one to think that quite possibly it was a non-Saturday Sabbath that was approaching.

Let's turn to the events that took place between the death and the resurrection, specifically, the women had to get the stuff ready to properly bury Jesus body. You simply didn't have these items lying around the house. They needed to be purchased. Notice what Mark's gospel tells us.

"When the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him." (Mark 16:1)

Which Sabbath? The one that immediately followed Jesus crucifixion. The Sabbath ended at sundown. Shops would not open at that time; in fact they would not open until the following morning. If Jesus had died on Friday, this would put the women going to market for the supplies on Sunday morning, but the gospels tell us plainly that at daybreak they were on their way to the tomb.  Luke's account states:

"But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb taking the spices they had prepared." (Luke 24:1)

Note the past tense. So in Mark's gospel we see that after the Sabbath the women had to procure the products with which to anoint the body, but immediately after the Sabbath they were on their way to the tomb. That's just not possible if Jesus died on Friday.


So when did he die? For the three-days and three-nights and Sabbaths to work out, he would have had to have died on a Wednesday late afternoon on the day of Passover (which Jesus had eaten the night before that day). That day was also the day of Preparation (John 19:31, 42) for the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Three days and nights later, he would have been raised late Saturday afternoon or "early" on Sunday which would have been after sunset of our Saturday.


Would that not provide a plain reading of the text?


Why do I care? One of the most breath-taking things for me as I have grown in my relationship with my Lord is that he speaks plainly in his word. I do not have to set my mind aside to be a believer in the true and living God, the One who spoke the cosmos into being, the One who died for my sin and rebellion. If he did not remain in the tomb for three days and three nights, he did not know what he was talking about when he gave Jonah as an answer to those seeking a sign.


Bottom line, what the Bible says can be trusted. Will I still celebrate the Resurrection on Sunday morning? You bet because that is when he was first seen. I would say it doesn't matter when he was raised--just that he was raised--but that would indict the character of God the Son, not something one such as I is qualified to do.  At the same time, I'll not get my knickers in a knot regarding brothers who celebrate Good Friday or state that Jesus rose on Sunday morning.


He died.  He lives.  And because he lives, because of his completed work, God has made the way for us all to have eternal life. A free gift purchased in blood. Will you take it?