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Jesus three days later1/12/2024 ![]() After Passover, which was Thursday, came Friday, the Day of Preparation, when Jesus was killed. We should assume that Jesus kept the law and observed Passover at the proper time. The Mosaic Law specified the day the Passover lamb was eaten, which was Nissan 14. Food had to be made beforehand, leading to the Day of Preparation becoming the standard term for Friday. So if Jesus was killed on the Day of Preparation, why did He already observe Passover with His disciples? Preparations had to be made for the Sabbath every week. John, Luke, and Mark say the next day was the Sabbath. However, in modern times, He was in the tomb for one full day, the Sabbath or Saturday.Īll four Gospels agree that Jesus was crucified on the Day of Preparation. Because Jesus was buried Friday evening and rose again on Sunday morning, He was in the grave for three days and three nights by Jewish standards. In the first-century Jewish mind, part of a day counted as an entire day. ![]() In those times, days weren’t divided at midnight like in modern times, but at sundown. God also rested after the world’s creation in Genesis 2. The only full day Jesus spent in the tomb was the Sabbath, Saturday, which is also the day God commanded the Israeli people to rest. Though there’s some dispute, most scholars believe that Jesus died on Friday, meaning He wasn’t in the grave for 72 hours, no matter how you look at it. One description says, “Jesus was three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” Matthew, Mark, John and Luke say that Jesus’ resurrection happened on the first day of the week, which would be Sunday for the Jews. The Gospels describe this time in various ways. Between Good Friday and Easter Sunday, Jesus prompted them and us to rest. The disciples still asked when Jesus would return to Israel, even after Jesus’ resurrection. Pilate caved to a mob crying for the blood of an innocent man in all of this restlessness. Impatient for a revolution, Peter cut off a servant’s ear in Gethsemane. Imagine how the people of Jerusalem eagerly welcomed Jesus as King but demanded His crucifixion days later. These ideas somehow make our culture similar to the first Holy Week. Spending even the Lord’s day worked up over something in our newsfeed is tempting. Social media gives us FOMO and the political environment is a wreck. There’s a gem buried in this element of Holy Week: a call to rest, not from something but in someone. If Jesus died and laid in the tomb on Friday night, Saturday and rose Sunday morning before anyone arrived, why do believers say He was in the grave for three days and three nights? Answering this question is a good lesson on why we shouldn’t listen to Western assumptions about the Bible.
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