Dating Easter

Yesterday, at church, the pastor gave a little sermon about reading and studying the Bible. He noted that in general, Southern Baptists rely more on direct Biblical teaching than church tradition than other denominations do (although we too suffer from the “upholding tradition” curse). This got me thinking about something that I read a couple of months ago and have given a lot of thought about: how errors creep into our celebration and understanding of things.

I’m not going to touch on Christmas, which has its own set of problems, but I specifically was thinking about Easter and the days in front of it. Tradition tells us that Jesus entered Jerusalem on Sunday, He was arrested Thursday night after celebrating the Passover with his disciples, He was tried and crucified on Friday and then he rose on Sunday. On the surface, it seems to be very straightforward, however, when you look at it deeper, a key flaw develops. Jesus promised His followers a key sign: the sign of Jonah.

Jonah was thrown off a ship for violating God’s will and spent three days and three nights in the belly of a fish before he repented and was returned to do the job God originally asked him to do. Jesus promised his followers that like Jonah, He would spend three days and three nights in the belly of the Earth before emerging alive again. Yet if we count out the way we celebrate things, the timeline doesn’t match up. Jesus is buried before sundown on Friday (1 day), Friday night (1 day, 1 night), Saturday passes (2 days, 2 nights), and then Jesus rises from the dead on Sunday. You might argue that if Jesus did not arise until after sunup, this would be three days, but it still fails the three days and three nights test.

So what is the answer? Jesus was crucified and was buried on Thursday. This allows Him to stay in the tomb for the full three days and three nights and then arise as the sun breaks on Sunday. Now, I can hear at least a couple of you crying out that the day after Jesus died was the Sabbath so he had to die on Friday. Not so. We must remember that Jesus was also crucified on Passover (Nisan 14). You must also remember that Jewish days begin at sundown so Nisan 14 actually began on Wednesday night and Nisan 15 began on Thursday night. The day after Passover is known as the Feast of Unleavened Bread and it was a holy day for the Jews. Thus it was to be treated in the same manner as a Sabbath no matter what day of the week it fell on. Much like how we celebrate Christmas on whatever day it falls on. It’s always December 25. Thus the Feast of Unleavened Bread is always on Nisan 15 and is to be treated special.

So what actually happened is this: Jesus enters Jerusalem to great acclaim on Nisan 10. He teaches for several days and then has a Passover meal with His disciples at the start of Nisan 14, which was Wednesday evening. That night He retreats to Gethsemane and is arrested. The Sanhedrin meets and convicts Him, handing Him over to Pilate early Thursday morning. Pilate gives in to the crowd and Jesus is crucified. He dies around 3 pm and is taken down shortly after. He is cleaned and buried in the tomb shortly before sundown. He stays there through both holy days and rises from the dead as the sun breaks early Sunday morning (Nisan 17). Thus, when we celebrate Maundy Thursday, we are celebrating His actual death rather than the Last Supper. Of course, I think we should tie the celebration in with Passover every year, but that’s my opinion.