'After Three Days'
"Matthew, Mark and Luke are very specific about when Jesus died. John records only the time of the crucifixion (
John 19:14-16). Luke gives the most succinct report:
"And it was about the sixth hour [when He was crucified], and there was darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour. Then the sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was torn in two. And when Jesus had cried out with a loud voice, He said, "Father, 'into Your hands I commend My spirit.'" And having said this, He breathed His last." (
Luke 23:44-46)
"Jesus remained on the cross for three hours before He died "at the ninth hour" (
Mark 15:34; see
Matthew 27:46). Since they were using the Hebrew method of counting the hours of the day from sunrise, the gospel writers indicate that Jesus was crucified around noon and died about 3 PM. They are remarkably unanimous on this point.
"Mark continues the account:
"Now when evening had come, because it was the Preparation Day, that is, the day before the Sabbath, Joseph of Arimathea, a prominent council member, who was himself waiting for the
kingdom of God, coming and taking courage, went in to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. . . . And . . . he granted the body to Joseph. Then he bought fine linen, took Him down, and wrapped Him in the linen. And he laid Him in a tomb which had been hewn out of the rock, and rolled a stone against the door of the tomb." (
Mark 15:42-43, 45-46)
"Several points stand out in this passage:
» "Evening was beginning—at best Joseph had only about three hours before sunset, when the Sabbath would begin. The task of preparing and applying the spices for burial required work, which is expressly forbidden on the Sabbath (
Exodus 20:8-10). Additionally,
Deuteronomy 21:22-23 demands that an executed criminal be buried before nightfall, and the Jewish law of the time required all dead bodies to be buried before a Sabbath or a feast day (
John 19:31).
» "Before he could take the body down, Joseph had to go before Pilate and receive permission. At first, Pilate did not believe Jesus had died so quickly, so he called the centurion of the crucifixion detail to verify it (
Mark 15:44-45). This delay must have taken at least a half hour.
» "After being granted the body, Joseph went to a local shop and bought several yards of fine linen in which to wrap Jesus. With the help of Nicodemus, he then took the body down, wrapped it in the linen—along with about a hundred pounds of spices—and placed it in the tomb (
John 19:39-41).
"With all this activity and work between the various locations, Joseph and Nicodemus must have had very little daylight left when they finally rolled the stone over the entrance to the tomb. On this point all the accounts again concur; sunset was
very near (
Matthew 27:57;
Mark 15:42;
Luke 23:54;
John 19:31).
"No one disputes that Jesus was laid "in the heart of the earth" at sunset. If, as we have shown, He was buried for exactly 72 hours,
He was also resurrected at sunset—
not at dawn!
The Preparation Day of the Passover
"All four gospel writers mention that Jesus was tried, convicted, crucified, and buried on a preparation day. Without any further clarification, one would assume that they meant a Friday, the weekly preparation day before the Sabbath. But can other days be considered preparation days as well?
"Yes, indeed! God Himself gave the instructions about the use of the preparation day to the Israelites before they reached Mount Sinai (
Exodus 16:23). The Jews later considered this to be so important that they made sure each of
the holy days, which are also Sabbaths, was preceded by a preparation day. Since the holy days can fall on any day of the week, the preparation day can fall on any day of the week as well.
"This is very relevant to the
Passover. Not only is the Passover a festival in its own right, but it also functions as the preparation day for a holy day, the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. According to the calculated Hebrew Calendar, Passover can fall on a Monday, Wednesday, Friday, or Sabbath.
"Clearly, our Savior was crucified on a Passover day (
Matthew 26:2). Thus, it was on one of these days of the week that Jesus was killed and buried.
"But was the Sabbath in question the weekly Sabbath or an annual, holy day Sabbath? What can the Bible tell us?
"John writes, "Now it was the Preparation Day of the Passover" (
John 19:14). The word "Passover" in this context requires some explanation. At some time before Christ's day, the Jews had begun calling the day of Passover and the following seven-day Feast of Unleavened Bread (
Leviticus 23:6-8) by the single name "Passover." This has caused great confusion for non-Jews, especially when they read the account of this particular Passover. But
John 19:31 should clear up any confusion: "Therefore, because it was the Preparation Day, that the bodies should not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for
that Sabbath was a high day) . . ."!
"So, without a doubt, Jesus was crucified on a Passover day, Nisan 14, and the Sabbath that followed was the first day of Unleavened Bread, an annual holy day, a high day. This only makes sense, for the apostle Paul says in
I Corinthians 5:7, "For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us."
con't
