“Liar!” they must have screamed.
“You promised the Kingdom, but look at you: bloodied to
a pulp, nailed to the stake like a common criminal,”
they must have thought. “You who are going to destroy
the temple and rebuild it in three days, save Yourself!
If You are the Son of God,” they sarcastically taunted,
“come down from the cross” (Matthew 27:40). There’s
hardly anything uglier than an angry mob. And it was a
mob who with one voice declared, “Crucify Him!” Why
were they so venomously angry at Jesus? After all, He
had healed many of them. He had performed miracle after
miracle. He had preached love and mercy. He said,
“Love your enemies,” but the angry mob had no use for
such advice. At that moment, they were convinced that
Jesus was their enemy.
A week earlier some of them
had hailed Jesus as their prophesied Savior: “Most of
the crowd spread their coats in the road, and others
were cutting branches from the trees and spreading them
in the road. The crowds going ahead of Him, and those
who followed, were shouting, ‘Hosanna to the Son of
David; Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord;
Hosanna in the highest!’” (Matthew 21:8-9). Jesus said
and did nothing to dampen the excitement. On the
contrary, He made a bold entry into Jerusalem by
dramatically cleansing the Temple of God: “And Jesus
entered the temple and drove out all those who were
buying and selling in the temple, and overturned the
tables of the money changers and the seats of those who
were selling doves. And He said to them, ‘It is
written, ‘My house shall be called a ‘house of prayer,’
but you are making it a robbers’ den’” (Matthew
21:12-13). The people were excited. Apparently Jesus
was not just another prophet, like the failed Judas of
Galilee or Theudas, who promised but failed to deliver
Israel from the despised Romans. To them, Jesus seemed
like the real deal, the prophesied Messiah who would
bring glory to Israel by overthrowing the Romans and
restoring the great Davidic Kingdom.
The
atmosphere was thick with anticipation. Even Jesus’
disciples had succumbed to the excitement. During His
last supper, they argued about whom would be greatest in
the new kingdom of Israel: “And there arose also a
dispute among them as to which one of them was regarded
to be greatest” (Luke 22:24). Some wanted to be the
equivalent of our secretaries of State, Defense, and
Treasury.
On at
least three occasions, Jesus had predicted His own
death. However, the disciples failed to understand His
predications, or perhaps they did not want to
understand. In many ways they were clueless. They did
not understand that Jesus had to die: “For He was
teaching His disciples and telling them, ‘The Son of Man
is to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will
kill Him; and when He has been killed, He will rise three days later.’ But they did not
understand this statement, and they were afraid to ask
Him” (Mark 9:31-32). Nor did they understand that Jesus
would rise three days after His crucifixion: “For as yet
they did not understand the Scripture, that He must rise
again from the dead’” (Mark 9:31-32).
The
disciples spent three and one-half years under Jesus’
tutelage, and yet, they were still confused. We could
hardly expect much more from a mob thirsty for bloody
revolution. They expected Jesus to lead them into
battle. Instead, when they saw Him nailed to that
stake—a spectacle for all to see, an example to all
would-be revolutionaries—they became bitterly
disappointed, and then murderously angry. Jesus had
failed them, just like Judas of Galilee and Theudas.
Jesus promised so much, and in the end, nothing!
Of
course, Jesus never promised a revolution, at least not
then and there. Jesus’ battle was not with the Romans,
but with someone much more dangerous, much more
sinister. The outcome of this battle would decide the
fate of mankind.
The Mother of all Battles
It was the proverbial battle between Good and Evil,
personified by Jesus and Satan. The battle raged for
thirty-three and one-half years; in other words, as long
as Jesus had lived. Satan tried to destroy Jesus at His
birth: “The dragon stood in front of the woman
[symbolically, Mary] who was about to give birth, so
that he might devour her child the moment it was born.
She gave birth to a son, a male child, who will rule all
the nations with an iron scepter” (Revelation 12:4-5).
Here the Apostle John was perhaps identifying the
satanic inspiration for Herod’s decree to kill all the
male children in Bethlehem (the birthplace of Jesus),
from two years old and under (Matthew 2:16).
Furthermore, time and again, Satan tried to tempt Jesus
into sinning. One sin—one wrong thought, one lustful
glance, one curse—would disqualify Jesus from becoming
our Savior. “For we do not have a high priest who is
unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have
one who has been tempted in every way, just as we
are—yet was without sin” (Hebrews 4:15).
Satan was losing the
battle; he failed to kill Jesus, and to tempt Him into
sinning. But he had another trick up his sleeve. He
inspired Judas Iscariot to betray Jesus into the hands
of the Pharisees, who beat and humiliated Him. The
Pharisees then delivered Jesus unto the Roman governor
Pontius Pilate. Pilate was a thug. According to
tradition, he routinely tortured and killed people for
imagined or petty offenses. Even Luke had attested to
Pilate’s cruelty: “Now there were some present at that
time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood
Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices” (Luke 13:1).
However, in the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ trial, Pilate
comes across sympathetically. He tried to release the
beaten and bloodied Jesus (John 18:38; 19:4). “From
then on, Pilate tried to set Jesus free, but the Jews
kept shouting, ‘If you let this man go, you are no
friend of Caesar. Anyone who claims to be a king
opposes Caesar” (John 19:12). Egged on by the jealous
Pharisees, the mob chanted, “Crucify Him!” Finally they
persuaded Pilate to accede to their demands by
questioning his loyalty to Caesar.
Why would
a thug like Pilate try desperately to release Jesus?
Did Pilate suddenly develop a conscience? Pilate knew
that the Pharisees were jealous of Jesus (Matthew
27:18). Did he therefore try to ‘stick it’ to the
Pharisees by releasing the hated Jesus? We must place
Pilate and the others in the context of that great
cosmic battle between God and Satan. Satan knew that
Jesus had to die to become our Savior. He had failed to
kill Jesus, and to tempt Him into sinning. Now Satan
tried to prevent His death (and thus prevent Him from
becoming our Savior) by inspiring Pilate’s desperate
attempt to release Jesus (John 19:12). Thus Satan’s
plan was to inspire the Jewish officials and the Romans
to beat Jesus to within an inch of His life, and then to
inspire Pilate to release Jesus from His divine
destiny.
Satan
failed again. By dying on the stake as our sacrificial
lamb (“For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been
sacrificed,” I Corinthians 5:7), and by fulfilling His
destiny, Jesus achieved victory over Satan. Indeed,
Satan was condemned the very moment that Jesus died
(John 16:11).
Now
what? Satan failed to kill Jesus, to tempt Jesus into
sinning, and to prevent Jesus from becoming our Savior.
Satan, however, doesn’t give up. He lost the battle but
is trying to win the war by distorting Jesus’ image and
message, and the events concerning his death, burial,
and resurrection.
Satan
failed to prevent Jesus from achieving His destiny. Now
he is trying to prevent us from achieving our destiny:
“For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to
fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we
cry out, ‘Abba, Father.’The Spirit
Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are
children of God,and if children, then
heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if
indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified
together” (Romans 8:15-17). Our destiny is to
become God’s literal children (see our article entitled
Pentecost & the Meaning of Life). By distorting
the truth of God, including the events surrounding
Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection, Satan is
attempting to divert us from the plan of God, as
revealed in His glorious holy days and festivals. One
such distortion concerns the amount of time that Jesus
was dead and buried.
The Sign of
Jonah
The
scribes, Pharisees, and Sadducees: they were the elite
of Israel. These men felt threatened by Jesus, whose
message and miracles appealed to the masses. “Then the
chief priests and the Pharisees gathered a council and
said, ‘What shall we do? For this Man works many
signs. If we let Him alone like this, everyone will
believe in Him, and the Romans will come and take
away both our place and nation’” (John 11:47-48).
Unlike the commoners, these men were quite comfortable
with the status quo. They did not agitate for
revolution, but (like the masses) they saw Jesus as a
revolutionary. And they sought to brand Him as an
insurrectionist bent on overthrowing the Romans in
Judea. Hence the very imperial form of Jesus’
punishment: crucifixion. The stake was reserved for
political criminals. “By delivering Jesus to Pilate…the
members of the Sandhedrin [the administrative council of
Jewish elders, priests, and officials] could expect the
sentence ‘death by crucifixion,’ for the claim to be the
Messiah could be understood as rebellion against Rome…”
(The Oxford Companion to the Bible, article on
crucifixion).
In an
effort to undercut Jesus’ appeal and legitimacy, the
scribes, Pharisees and Sadducees constantly challenged
Jesus. They attacked His character (for example, calling
him an alcoholic: Matthew 11:19) and even the legitimacy
of His birth (by insinuating that He was born
out-of-wedlock). On at least one occasion, they
demanded a supernatural sign from Jesus. This sign,
they claimed, would lend divine credence to Jesus and
His message. Exasperated by their constant taunts and
challenges, Jesus chastised them and then provided them
with only one sign: “Then some of the scribes and
Pharisees answered, saying, ‘Teacher, we want to see a
sign from You’ But He answered and said to them, ‘An
evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and
no sign will be given to it except the sign of the
prophet Jonah. For 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 12:38-40).
Jonah and the Whale
The prophet Jonah lived during the height of the
Assyrian Empire, in the 8th century BC. God
had commissioned Jonah to “go to Nineveh the great city
and cry against it, for their wickedness has come up
before Me” (Jonah 1:2). Before this commission, God had
somehow used Jonah to protect Israel from the
encroaching and imperialist Assyrian Empire. Jonah
helped restore the borders of Israel (II Kings 14:25).
By doing so, he achieved fame in Israel and throughout
the Mediterranean world, and notoriety in Nineveh, the
seat of the Assyrian Empire. Thus by the time of his
second commission from God, Jonah was well-known.
The prophet Nahum describes
Nineveh as the “bloody city, all full of lies and booty”
(Nahum 3:1). And the Assyrian Empire was among the
cruelest in history. “There is absolutely no doubt that
the Assyrian armies and their kings carried out
exquisite torture and extensive atrocities. Defeated
enemies were flayed alive, impaled on pillars or stakes,
walled up alive, castrated, and decapitated. After the
defeat of Elam its king was decapitated and his head
slung round the neck of a captured courtier; three
rebellious chieftains had their tongues pulled out by
the roots and were then flayed alive; three other noble
rebels were slaughtered and their flesh distributed
around the surrounding lands. Two more were forced to
crush the bones of their father….From the time of
Tiglath-Pilesar III the deportation of the conquered
peoples was institutionalized….The reasons were
various—to punish, to weaken the rival power, to enlarge
the Assyrian manpower base, to import skilled craftsmen,
to populate urban centers and strategic sites and to
re-cultivate abandoned lands” (J.M. Roberts, History
of the World, pgs 235-236).
Because
of his notoriety, Jonah was afraid to go to Nineveh and
thus fulfill his divine commission. He therefore tried
to escape his fate. “But Jonah rose up to flee to
Tarshish from the presence of the Lord” (Jonah 1:3).
Tarshish was located at the western end of the
Mediterranean, hundreds of miles from Nineveh and God’s
commission.
There is no escape from
God. He frustrated Jonah’s plans by whipping up a
fierce Nor’easter in the Mediterranean. The
superstitious and polytheistic mariners traveling with
Jonah sought protection from the storm by throwing their
provisions overboard. However, the sea raged on. They
then sought to appease the gods by finding the person
responsible for their ‘cursed’ voyage. They cast lots,
and the blame fell on Jonah. He identified himself to
the mariners. The mariners knew of Jonah, for his
reputation preceded him. “Then the men were exceedingly
afraid, and said to him, ‘Why have you done this?’ For
the men knew that he fled from the presence of the LORD,
because he had told them. Then they said to
him, ‘What shall we do to you that the sea may be calm
for us?’—for the sea was growing more tempestuous. And
he said to them, ‘Pick me up and throw me into the sea;
then the sea will become calm for you. For I know that
this great tempest is because of me.’ Nevertheless the
men rowed hard to return to land, but they could not,
for the sea continued to grow more tempestuous against
them. Therefore they cried out to the LORD
and said, ‘We pray, O LORD, please do not let us perish
for this man’s life, and do not charge us with innocent
blood; for You, O LORD, have done as it pleased You.’
So they picked up Jonah and threw him into the sea, and
the sea ceased from its raging. Then the men
feared the LORD exceedingly, and offered a sacrifice to
the LORD and took vows” (Jonah 1:10-16).
At first the mariners were
reluctant to throw such an auspicious man into the
raging sea. Nevertheless, the mariners eventually gave
into their fears by throwing Jonah overboard. Throwing
a man into that tempestuous sea was certainly a death
sentence, so they thought. However, God had other plans
for Jonah. “And the Lord appointed a great fish to
swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the stomach of the fish
three days and three nights” (Jonah
1:17). Jonah miraculously survived his ordeal, both on
the ship and in the belly of the whale. His
reappearance on dry land, after spending three days and
three nights in the belly of the whale, was likened by
Jesus to a resurrection from the dead.
Three Days and
Three Nights
Jesus offered only one sign of his divine mission: the
sign of Jonah. “For 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 12:38-40). In other
words, Jesus plainly said that He would be dead and
buried for three days and three nights before His
resurrection.
On other
occasions Jesus confirmed the duration of His death and
burial:
a)“And He began to teach them that the Son of Man
must suffer many things, and be rejected
by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be
killed, and after three days rise again”
(Mark 8:31);
b)“So the Jews answered and said to Him, ‘What sign
do You show to us, since You do these
things?’ Jesus answered and said to them,
‘Destroy this temple, and in three days I
will
raise it up.’ Then the Jews said, ‘It has taken
forty-six years to build this temple, and will
You raise it up in three days?’ But He was
speaking of the temple of His body.
Therefore,
when He had risen from the dead, His disciples
remembered that He had said this to them;
and they believed the Scripture and the word
which Jesus had said” (John 2:18-21);
c)“For He was teaching His disciples and telling
them, ‘The Son of Man is to be delivered into
the
hands of men, and they will kill Him; and when He has
been killed, He will rise three
days later.’ But they did not understand this
statement, and they were afraid to ask Him”
(Mark
9:31-32).
Clearly, Jesus predicted that He would be dead and
buried for three days and three nights. The fact that
Jesus died is indisputable:
a)“and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the
firstborn from the dead” (Revelation 1:5);
b)“I am He who lives, and was dead,
and behold, I am alive forevermore” (Revelation 1:18);
c)“But now Christ has been raised from the
dead…” (I Corinthians 15:20);
d)“And He is the head of the body, the church, who
is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead…”
(I Colossians 1:18).
The Bible
is unmistakably clear about Jesus’ fate and the duration
of his death and burial. Indeed, Jesus died on that
stake, and He was dead and buried for three days and
three nights.
More Proof that Jesus was Dead and Buried for Three
Days and Three Nights
According to the ancient Hebrew idiom, “three days” can
denote any portion of a three-day period of time.
Therefore, according to some theologians, the duration
of Jesus’ death and burial could have lasted for any
amount of time within a three-day period. However, the
Bible qualified the term “three days” by adding the word
“nights.” In other words, in describing the duration of
Jesus’ death and burial, the inspired authors of the
Gospels could not have meant any portion of a three-day
period of time. Rather, they said Jesus would be dead
and buried for three days and three
nights. From the Appendix Notes to
Bullinger’s Companion Bible:
“The fact that ‘three days’ is used by Hebrew idiom for
any part of three days and three nights is not disputed;
because that was the common way of reckoning, just as it
was when used of years. Three or any number of years was
used inclusively of any part of those years, as may be
seen in the reckoning of the reigns of any of the kings
of Israel and Judah.
“But, when the number of ‘nights’ is stated as well as
the number of ‘days,’ then the expression ceases to be
an idiom, and becomes a literal statement of fact.
“Moreover, as the Hebrew day began at sunset, the day
was reckoned from one sunset to another, the ‘twelve
hours in the day’ (John 11:9) being reckoned from
sunrise, and the twelve hours of the night from sunset.
An evening-morning was thus used for a whole day of
twenty-four hours, as in the first chapter of Genesis.
Hence the expression ‘a night and a day’ in 2
Corinthians 11:25 denotes a complete day (Greek
nuchthemeron).
“When Esther says (Esther 4:16) ‘fast ye for me, and
neither eat nor drink three days,’ she defines her
meaning as being three complete days, because she adds
(being a Jewess) ‘night or day.’ And when it is written
that the fast ended on ‘the third day’ (5:1), ‘the third
day’ must have succeeded and included the third night.
“In like manner the sacred record states that the young
man (in 1 Samuel 30:12) ‘had eaten no bread, nor drunk
any water, three days and three nights.’ Hence, when
the young man explains the reason, he says, ‘because
three days agone I fell sick.’ He means therefore three
complete days and nights, because, being an Egyptian
(verses 11, 13) he naturally reckoned his day as
beginning at sunrise according to the Egyptian manner
(see Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th
(Cambridge) edition, vol. xi, page 77). His ‘three days
agone" refers to the beginning of his sickness, and
includes the whole period, giving the reason for his
having gone without food during the whole period stated.
“Hence, when it says that ‘Jonah was in the belly of the
fish three days and three nights’ (Jonah 1:17), it means
exactly what it says, and that this can be the only
meaning of the expression in Matthew 12:40; 16:4. Luke
11:30…”
It Doesn’t Make Sense
Jesus died on the stake. Most Christians believe that
Jesus died on Friday and rose on Sunday. The
amount of time between His death on a Friday and His
resurrection on a Sunday is, at most, two days.
Yet Jesus said that He would be dead and buried for
three days and three nights. Therefore, the common
belief that Jesus died on Friday and rose on Sunday
doesn’t make sense!
According to the Catholic
Encyclopedia, “Jesus died on Friday, the fifteenth day
of Nisan. That He died on Friday is clearly stated by
Mark (xv, 42), Luke (xxiii, 54), and John (xix, 31)”:
a)Mark 15:42: “When evening had already
come, because it was the preparation day, that is,
the day before the Sabbath;”
b)Luke 23:54: “It was the preparation day,
and the Sabbath was about to begin.”
c)John 19:31: “Then the Jews, because it was
the day of preparation, so that the bodies
would not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for
that Sabbath was a high day), asked
Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that
they might be taken away.”
Each of these scriptures
contains the word “Sabbath.” Clearly, Jesus died on the
“preparation day” before the Sabbath. However, the
Catholic Encyclopedia errs when it automatically assumes
that the “Sabbath” refers to the seventh-day Sabbath
(which corresponds to our Saturday).
Most
Christians, Catholics and Protestants alike, believe
that Jesus died on a Friday because the next day was
supposedly the seventh-day Sabbath (Saturday). Yet John
called this Sabbath a “high day.” High Days
refer not to the seventh-day Sabbath (Saturday) but to
the commanded days of rest (hence the designation
Sabbath) during God’s holy days and festivals. “Then
on the fifteenth day of the same month there is the Feast of Unleavened Bread to the LORD; for
seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the
first day you shall have a holy convocation; you shall
not do any laborious work” (Leviticus 23:6-7).
The first day of this Feast was a Sabbath because work
was prohibited. The usage of high day denoted
the difference between the weekly Sabbath (on Saturday)
and the special Sabbaths occurring on the first and last
days of the Festivals.
The “High Day” of John
19:31 refers not to the seventh-day Sabbath but to the
first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which was a
commanded day of rest (literally, a Sabbath). The
preparation day, therefore, was the day on which all
Israelites were commanded to prepare their homes for the
ensuing seven-day Feast of Unleavened Bread. (They had
to discard all leaven from their homes.) Jesus died on
the preparation day before the first day (the “High
Day”) of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Did the first
day of Unleavened Bread (known as the “High Day” in John
19:31) fall on Saturday, and thus Jesus’ death on
Friday?
Jesus’ disciples “did not
understand the Scripture, that He must rise again from
the dead” (John 20:9). So three of His disciples—Mary
Magdalene, the mother of James (her name was also Mary),
and Salome—“brought spices” to Jesus’ tomb, in order to
anoint His dead body. Because they observed the
seventh-day Sabbath and therefore believed that
preparing spices was prohibited work, they rested on
Saturday. “Now after the [seventh-day] Sabbath,
as it began to dawn toward the first day of the
week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to
look at the grave. And behold, a severe earthquake had
occurred, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven
and came and rolled away the stone and sat upon it. And
his appearance was like lightening and his clothing as
white as snow. The guards shook for fear of him and
became like dead men. The angel said to the women, ‘Do
not be afraid; for I know that you are looking for Jesus
who has been crucified. He is not here, for He has
risen, just as He said’” (Matthew 28:1-6).
Again,
the aforementioned scriptures (Mark 15:42; Luke 23:54;
John 19:31) state that Jesus died on the “preparation
day”: the day preceding the first day (“High Day”) of
the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
The preparation day was Passover, the 14th
day of Nisan (not the 15th day as the
Catholic Encyclopedia claims!). Jesus was killed on
Passover, and the next day (the “High Day,” or the first
day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread) is considered a
Sabbath because work was prohibited on it.
Some days
later, three of Jesus’ disciples visited Jesus’ tomb.
The 20th chapter of John clearly states that
their visit occurred on the earliest portion of the
first day of the week, very shortly after the end of the
seventh-day Sabbath (our Saturday). Thus we have two
Sabbaths:
1Sabbath #1: the day after Jesus was
killed. Because, biblically, the days begin at sunset,
and
because Jesus died shortly before sundown, Jesus thus
died shortly before the onset of
the
first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread (the “High
Day” or “Sabbath” of John 19:31).
2Sabbath #2: Because three days and three
nights separated Jesus’ death and resurrection,
the second Sabbath referred to
in the 20th chapter of John must be the
weekly, seventh-day
Sabbath (our Saturday). The
disciples entered Jesus’ tomb shortly after the expiry
of the
Sabbath, on the earliest
portion of the first day of the week (our Sunday). Much
to their
surprise, Jesus was not there.
He had been resurrected before their arrival.
Therefore, He
was resurrected on the Sabbath,
shortly before sunset and the onset of the first day of
the
week.
Again, the Bible is very clear that Jesus would be dead
and buried for three days and three nights. Calculating
backward, three days and three nights from late Saturday
(the seventh-day Sabbath on which Jesus was resurrected)
would correspond to our Wednesday. Jesus therefore died
on Passover of 31 AD, which fell on Wednesday. The next
day was the first day of Unleavened Bread, which was
considered a “High Day” (a special Sabbath). Three days
and three nights after late Wednesday bring us to late
Saturday, our seventh-day Sabbath. Again, from the
Appendix notes to Bullinger’s Companion Bible:
“We
are furnished by Scripture with certain facts and fixed
points which, taken together, enable us (1) to determine
the events which filled up the days of ‘the last week’
of our Lord’s life on earth; (2) to fix the day of His
crucifixion; and (3) to ascertain the duration of the
time He remained in the tomb.
“The difficulties connected with
these three have arisen (1) from not having noted these
fixed points; (2) from the fact of Gentiles’ not having
been conversant with the law concerning the three great
feasts of the LORD; and (3) from not having reckoned the
days as commencing (some six hours before our own) and
running from sunset to sunset, instead of from midnight
to midnight.
“To remove these difficulties, we must note:
1That the first day of each of the three feasts,
Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles, was ‘a holy
convocation,’ a ‘sabbath’ on which no servile work was
to be done. See Leviticus 23:7, 24, 35. Compare Exodus
12:16.
2That ‘sabbath’ and the ‘high day’ of John 19:31,
was the ‘holy convocation,’ the first day of the feast,
which quite overshadowed the ordinary weekly sabbath.
It was called by the Jews Yom tov = (Good day),
and this is the greeting on that day throughout Jewry
down to the present time. This great sabbath, having
been mistaken from the earliest times for the weekly
sabbath, has led to all the confusion.
2This has naturally caused the further difficulty
as to the Lord’s statement that ‘even as Jonah was in
the belly of the fish three days and three nights, so
shall the Son of man be in the heart of the earth three
days and three nights’ (Matthew 12:40). Now, while it
is quite correct to speak according to Hebrew idiom of
‘three days’ or ‘three years,’ while they are only parts
of three days or three years, yet that idiom does not
apply in a case like this, where ‘three nights’ are
mentioned in addition to ‘three days.’ It will be noted
that the Lord not only definitely states this, but
repeats the full phraseology, so that we may not mistake
it…
“We have therefore the following facts furnished for our
sure guidance:
a)The ‘high day’ of John 19:31 was the first day of
the feast.
b)The ‘first day of the feast’ was on the 15th
day of Nisan.
c)The 15th day of Nisan, commenced at
sunset on what we should call the 14th.
d)‘Six days before the sabbath’ (John 12:1) takes
us back to the 9th day of Nisan.
e)‘After two days is the sabbath’ (Matthew 26:2.
Mark 14:1) takes us to the 13th
day of Nisan.
f)‘The first day of the week,’ the day of the
resurrection (Matthew 28:1, etc.), was from our Saturday
sunset to our Sunday sunset. This fixes the days of the
week, just as the above fix the days of the month…
g)Reckoning back from this, “three days and three
nights” (Matthew 12:40), we arrive at the day of the
burial, which must have been before sunset, on the 14th
of Nisan; that is to say, before our Wednesday sunset.
h)This makes the sixth day before the sabbath (the
9th day of Nisan) to be our Thursday sunset
to Friday sunset.
i)Therefore Wednesday, Nisan 14th
(commencing on the Tuesday at sunset), was ‘the
preparation day,’ on which the crucifixion took place:
for all four Gospels definitely say that this was the
day on which the Lord was buried (before our Wednesday
sunset), ‘because it was the preparation [day]’ the
bodies should not remain upon the cross on the sabbath
day, ‘for that sabbath day was a high day,’ and,
therefore, not the ordinary seventh day, or weekly
sabbath. See John 19:31.” (Send for our free audio tape,
"The Three Resurrections.")
It’s
inescapable. Jesus died on Passover, the 14th day of
Nisan. Most Christians believe that this Passover fell
on a Friday, and that he rose two days later on
Sunday. But Jesus clearly stated that He would be dead
and buried for three days and three nights. So whom
should you believe: most Christians or Jesus?
“For such
are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming
themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel;
for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of
light. Therefore it is no great thing if his
ministers also be transformed as the ministers of
righteousness; whose end shall be according to their
works” (II Corinthians 11:13-15). Indeed, Satan has
transformed himself into an “angel of light;” by doing
so, and by twisting the Scriptures, he has deceived “the
whole world” (Revelation 12:9).
In this
case, Satan has twisted the Scriptures in such a way to
make most Christians believe that the Sabbath
immediately following the day on which Jesus was killed
was the seventh-day Sabbath (our Saturday). To most
Christians, this means that Jesus was killed on Friday,
or rather, on “Good Friday.”
However,
as we’ve seen, there are two Sabbaths mentioned in the
account of Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection. The
first Sabbath was a special “High Day,” the first
day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Jesus died and
was buried on Passover, that is, on late Wednesday,
shortly before the onset of this special Sabbath (“High
Day”) that occurs on the first day of the Feast. The
second Sabbath is the seventh-day Sabbath (our
Saturday). Jesus was resurrected on this day, shortly
before His disciples arrived at His tomb on the earliest
portion of the first day of the week (our Sunday).
Hence Jesus was crucified on late Wednesday and
resurrected on late Saturday: the prophesied three days
and three nights of Matthew 12:38-40.
Why does
this matter? Why should we care that Jesus was killed
not on Friday but on Wednesday, and raised not on Sunday
but on Saturday? The answer lies within the context of
that great cosmic battle between God and Satan.
That Great
Cosmic Battle between God and Satan
As I stated earlier, Satan is losing that great battle.
Satan failed to kill Jesus. Satan failed to tempt Jesus
into sinning. Satan failed to prevent Jesus’ death and
thus prevent Him from becoming our Savior. However,
Satan is persistent. When all else fails, try and try
again. Instead, now Satan is setting his sights on the
children of God.
Satan is the god of this
world (II Corinthians 4:4). He has deceived the “whole
world” (Revelation 12:9). He subtly twists the
Scriptures and therefore distorts God’s truth (see our
articles entitled Satan Exposed and Satan Does
Not Want You to Read this Article). God’s truth
reveals His plan for mankind. In particular, God’s holy
days and festivals (Leviticus 23, Deuteronomy 16, etc.)
reveal His seven-step plan for mankind.
People could not have
understood the prophetic significance of the holy days
and festivals before Jesus’ sacrifice in 31 AD. Only
then did the apostles realize that, for example, the
ancient Passover foreshadowed Jesus’ death: hence Paul’s
designation, “Christ our Passover.” They also realized
the prophetic significance of the other holy days and
festivals. In fact, they reveal God’s sequential
seven-step plan for man:
1.Passover: Acceptance of Jesus as our
atoning sacrificial Lamb that was foreshadowed by
the
ancient Passover sacrifice. “For indeed Christ, our
Passover, was sacrificed for us” (I
Corinthians 5:7);
2.Feast of Unleavened Bread: In accepting
the sacrifice of the unleavened “bread from heaven,”
that is, Jesus (John 6:41), and understanding that,
biblically, leaven represents sin (I Corinthians 5:7),
Paul thus urges us to “keep the feast (of
Unleavened Bread), not with old leaven, nor with the
leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened
bread of sincerity and truth” (I Corinthians 5:7-8).
3.Pentecost, anciently the Feast of
Firstfruits: Those who have God’s Spirit are called
firstfruits (I
Corinthians 15:23, James 1:18, Revelation 14:4), and
Jesus was the First of
the firstfruits.
Pentecost is also the birthday of Christianity and God’s
Church, which is the
collection of God’s
saints or firstfruits.
4.Feast of the Memorial of the Blowing of
Trumpets: The plan of God unfolds in these
Festivals. Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread
point back to Christ, as does
Pentecost in pointing us back to the birthday of the
Church. Sequentially, the Feast of the
Memorial of Blowing of Trumpets looksforward to
the return of Jesus and the first
resurrection: “For the Lord Himself will descend from
heaven with a shout, with the voice of
the
archangel and with the trumpet of God, and
the dead in Christ will rise first” (I
Thessalonians 4:16).
5.Day of Atonement: What happens after Jesus
returns? The banishment of Satan, itself symbolized in
an ancient Israelite ceremony conducted on the Day of
Atonement (Leviticus 16). The ceremony foreshadowed
Jesus’ sacrifice in the first century and foretells
Satan’s banishment during the Millennium. Only at that
time will man be “at one” with God.
6.Feast of Tabernacles: After Satan has been
banished, Jesus will establish His Kingdom. We shall be
kings and priests in that Kingdom (Revelation 5:10).
Since this Feast follows the Day of Atonement, the Feast
of Tabernacles foreshadows the establishment of God’s
Kingdom on earth.
7.The Last Great Day immediately follows the
last day of the Feast of Tabernacles. This Day
represents the second resurrection for everyone not
resurrected one thousand years earlier, and the ensuing
100-year judgment period in which everyone will have an
opportunity for salvation.
Jesus was
killed on Passover in 31 AD, which fell on Wednesday.
However, most Christians believe that Jesus was killed
on Friday and call this day not Passover but “Good
Friday.” By deceiving Christians into calling this day
Good Friday, Satan has diverted Christians from the
special significance of the Passover and the other holy
days and festivals. (See our articles entitled
Passover or Easter– Which is Biblical?; Pentecost
and the Meaning of Life; The Feast of Trumpets
and the Return of Jesus; The Day of Atonement and
Satan’s Fate; and The Feast of Tabernacles,
Christmas, and the Kingdom of God.)
Most
Christians also believe that Jesus was resurrected not
on the seventh-day Sabbath (our Saturday) but on
Sunday. Thus Satan has diverted mankind not only from
the special significance of the Passover and holy days
and festivals, but also from significance of the
seventh-day Sabbath. The Sabbath reminds us of
creation, provides us with a needed day of rest, is a
sign between God and His people, and foreshadows the
millennial rule of Christ. (See our article entitled
Why Have Christians Abandoned the Sabbath?)
The
seventh-day Sabbath is also the fourth of the Ten
Commandments. Therefore, by deceiving mankind into
believing that Jesus was resurrected on Sunday, Satan
has cunningly diverted Christians from the Law of God.
The Law of God leads us to Jesus: “Therefore the Law has
become our tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we may be
justified by faith” (Galatians 3:24).
Again, God and Satan
are engaged in a cosmic battle that will determine the
fate of mankind. Satan failed to kill Jesus and to
tempt Him into sinning, and failed to prevent His death
and thus prevent Him from becoming our Savior. However,
for the most part, Satan has succeeded in distorting the
truth of God, which leads us to Jesus. For example,
Satan has deceived most Christians into believing that
Jesus was killed on a Friday and resurrected on a
Sunday. Not only does this undermine Jesus’ admission
that He would be dead and buried for three days and
three nights, this belief also diverts Christians from
God’s significant festivals and holy days (especially
the Passover), and from the Sabbath and Law of God.
Therefore, what seems harmless—like the erroneous belief
that Jesus died on Friday and was resurrected on
Sunday—is actually very sinister.
Jesus
said He would be dead for three days and three nights.
There’s nothing ambiguous about that prediction. Three
days and three nights: according to the Bible, Jesus was
dead for 72 hours. It’s mathematically and scripturally
impossible to get 72 hours between Friday and Sunday.
And if they really think about it, I’m sure most
Christians would agree!
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This publication is intended to be
used as a personal study tool. Please know it is not wise to take
any
man's word for anything, so prove all things for yourself from
the pages of your own
Bible.
The Church of God, Ministries
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