Three Days and Three Nights

Then certain of the scribes and of the Pharisees answered, saying, Master, 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 there shall be no sign given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the huge fish, so the Son of man shall be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

(Matthew 12:38-40)

How this one has slipped past mankind for so long is beyond me.  Jesus said the only sign that He was the Messiah would be that He would be dead in the grave for 3 days and 3 nights.  Friday evening to Sunday morning just isn’t enough time.  In fact, if you look closely at the Gospels, Jesus was already Resurrected before the sun came up on Sunday anyhow, so you can’t even count that day as a day! 

So how many times have we heard that Jesus was/is our Passover?  I bet somebody says that somewhere in the world every 2 minutes.  Not only is it true that Jesus was/is our Passover, but this is the fundamental clue to what happened Passion week.  There were two Sabbaths Passion week, the First Day of Unleavened Bread and the weekly Sabbath.  On the Hebrew calendar, the month Jesus was crucified is called Nisan.  Passover is on the 14th of Nisan and the First Day of Unleavened Bread, which is a High Sabbath, is on the 15th of Nisan.  So, if Jesus was crucified on the evening of Nisan 14 (Wednesday in that particular year), as our Passover Lamb, then Nisan 15 (Thursday) is a High Sabbath, then the Gospels all start to reconcile. 

Then the Jews, because it was Preparation, begged Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away, so that the bodies should not remain on the cross on the sabbath. For that sabbath was a high day. [Emphasis added]

(John 19:31)

The day after Jesus was crucified was a High Sabbath, it was not the weekly Sabbath.  So, the way it looks to me is that Jesus died on a Wednesday afternoon, was placed in the tomb near sunset Wednesday.  Sunset Wednesday to sunset Thursday, day 1 and a High Sabbath.  Sunset Thursday to sunset Friday, day 2 and the day the women gathered the spices.  Sunset Friday to sunset Saturday, day 3.  Sometime after sunset Saturday, Jesus is resurrected (Praise God Almighty!) and the women discover the empty tomb sometime before the sun comes up.  3 days and 3 nights.

Bottom line, for me at least, is that there is not enough time from Friday evening to Sunday morning for the only sign Jesus gave to be true.  For me, either He was in that tomb for somewhere near 72 hours or He was a fraud.

For more detail on this topic, please read the blog/sermon entitled, well, Three Days and Three Nights!

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