Discover the Three Days Between Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday

One of Passion Week’s numerical mysteries can be traced to Christian tradition, but has no Biblical basis in historical fact. There’s simply no way to squeeze another thirty-six hours into the period of time from sunset Friday to sunrise Sunday.

Every one of the many Biblical references found throughout the Bible agree with Jesus’ own words, ”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.” (Matt. 28:41)

The discrepancy reflects our misunderstanding of Biblical times and the feasts ordered by God. If one holds strictly to the Scriptural references the tomb did hold the body of Jesus for a literal three days and three nights.

For centuries, the Early Church continued observing Jewish feast days, just as our Lord had during His life on earth. Since the Gospels all record the ladies going to the empty tomb on the first day of the week, we can conclude that they hurried to the tomb to anoint Jesus’ body with the special spices early Sunday morning.

In the Jewish calendar, sunset marks the start of a new day. If Jesus is to spend three days and three nights in the tomb, and the empty tomb is discovered on Sunday morning, then Jesus must have been crucified on Wednesday, not Friday. If that’s true, then we should be observing Maundy Tuesday, not Maundy Thursday? Exactly.

Normally, the Jewish calendar held only one Sabbath, the weekly Saturday Sabbath. However, Passion Week included an additional special Sabbath, the High Sabbath that begins the week of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. While Passover is a feast day, it’s not a Sabbath. Jesus celebrated the Passover with His disciples on Tuesday evening by our calendar and the start of Wednesday by the Jewish calendar. The first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, a High Sabbath, began at sunset the following day. (“In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at twilight is the Lord’s Passover. 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.” Lev 23:5-7)

Following the Passover meal, all but Judas went to the place Jesus often used for prayer and teaching. The Gospels record the evening and nighttime events, including the agonizing prayer of our Lord as His life enters the final scenes, the betrayal of Judas with a kiss, Jesus’ arrest, as well as the all-night questioning.

Finally, morning dawned as the last half of the Jewish Wednesday began. All of the women and girls rushed to market to purchase what would be needed for the Feast of Unleavened Bread and their other needs for the High Sabbath when no work could be done.

Meanwhile over at Pontius Pilate’s, a loud crowd had assembled, demanding that Pilate release the murderer, Barabbas, and kill Jesus. Their shouts of “Crucify Him! Crucify Him!” led to the hideous flogging and gruesome, final scene of the life of the incarnate Jesus, the Cross.

As three o’clock on that special Wednesday approached, the Jewish leaders, so deceived by their fear and hatred, returned to Pilate. Because the setting sun ushered in the beginning of the High Sabbath, the bodies needed to be taken from the crosses while still light, even if it meant breaking their legs to hurry the process along. (“Now it was the day of Preparation, and the next day was to be a special Sabbath. Because the Jewish leaders did not want the bodies left on the crosses during the Sabbath, they asked Pilate to have the legs broken and the bodies taken down.”Jn 19:31) To everyone’s amazement Jesus had already died by three o’clock.

Joseph of Arimathea had Jesus’ body put in his own new tomb and the opening closed by a large stone. Thus, began Day One—Wednesday evening by our calendars but right before the start of Thursday by the Jewish calendar.

No work could be done on the Sabbath, until after sunset, the beginning of the day of preparation for the regular Saturday Sabbath. Sunset Thursday marked the start of Day Two.

Daylight hours of Friday included the usual purchases for the regular Sabbath meal that would take place after sunset that evening, but the ladies also purchased and prepared the spices that they would take to anoint the body of Jesus, as soon as they could.

With the sunset on Friday, the regular Sabbath observance began. So did Day Three, the final night and day in the tomb. The ladies planned to make their way to the Garden Tomb early on Sunday.

The Gospel accounts help us to understand the week had two days of preparation, one before the High Sabbath, when Jesus hung on the cross, and the second day of preparation between the High Sabbath and the regular Saturday Sabbath.

“Then they returned and prepared spices and perfumes. And on the Sabbath they rested according to the commandment. But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they came to the tomb bringing the spices which they had prepared. And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.” (Luke 23:56-24:3)

In John’s Gospel, we read Mary came even before daybreak. “Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came early to the tomb, while it was still dark, and saw the stone already taken away from the tomb.” (John 20:1)

Though Mary did arrive before sunrise, the stone had been rolled away and the body of Jesus was gone. He had risen, just as He said, sometime in the night of the Fourth Day. Indeed, Jesus had spent three days and three nights in the tomb.

Have you ever wondered about this apparent discrepancy as you celebrated the events of Passion Week? Did it ever occur to you that we should be celebrating Maundy Tuesday and Good Wednesday before Resurrection Sunday?