Good Friday/Easter Sunday
by Ray Wooten
Did you know that Easter Sunday does not commemorate the resurrection? And,
Christ did not die on Good Friday! I know this sounds shocking to you! However,
since this is such a vital subject, and since most of the Christian world
observes good Friday and Easter Sunday, don't you think you should know the
truth about it?
Did you know that Jesus gave only one sign to prove that He was the Messiah,
and that sign was the length of time he would be dead and buried?
Matthew 12:39-40,
39 But he answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation
seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of
the prophet Jonas:
40 For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so
shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
KJV
Of course, most theologians and scholars deny that Jesus fulfilled this sign.
They say he was in the heart of the earth only one day and two nights--only half
as long as he said he would be! In so doing they deny the only proof Jesus gave
that he is the Messiah, the Saviour of the world.
Are you among those today who are denying their Saviour by believing a
tradition that rejects the only sign Jesus gave to prove he is the Messiah? Did
you know that it was not until after the death of John, the last of the 12
apostles, that the good Friday-Easter Sunday tradition began to spread through
the churches?
Notice what Jesus said about this subject.
Mark 8:31,"And he began to teach them that the Son of man must
suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders and chief priest and scribes,
and be killed, and after three days rise again (from the grave)".
Did you really grasp that? Jesus did not say "After a day and a
half". Jesus said, "After three days".
Consider! If Jesus were crucified and buried late on Good Friday, then one
day after would be Saturday evening, two days after would be Sunday evening and
three days after would be Monday evening. But Jesus rose long before Monday
evening. Either Jesus was not crucified on good Friday, or he did not fulfill
the sign and he is therefore an impostor and not the Messiah.
Did Jesus fulfill this sign? Notice; Matthew 28:6. Here is the
testimony of the Angel: "He, Jesus, is not here; for he is risen, as he
said". Jesus did fulfill his sign exactly. He is the Saviour. Then he could
not have been crucified on Good Friday!
But that is not all. Look at John 2:19,21,"Jesus answered and
said to them, destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up".
---but he was speaking of the Temple of his body".
If Jesus were crucified and had died on Friday afternoon and would have been
resurrected on Sunday morning the temple--his body--would have been raised in a
day and a half. But Jesus did not say it would occur in a day and a half. Not
even in two and one half days, but in three days time-72 hours. In other words,
three 24 hour days after his death, he would be made alive again as immortal
Spirit by a resurrection. Jesus meant exactly what he said.
But Jesus also declared he would rise the third day. Let us suppose again
that Jesus was crucified on Friday. If he were to rise on the first day after
his crucifixion, he would be raised on Saturday-if on the second day after his crucifixion,
he would rise on Sunday. But if he were to rise on the third day, he would have
been raised on Monday.
But Jesus was already resurrected by Sunday morning. Plainly, Friday was not
the day of the crucifixion!
Which day was the crucifixion?
Jesus died some three hours before sunset on the day of the crucifixion (Luke
23:54). Since Jesus said that he would rise the third day after his crucifixion
and death, it is obvious that he was made alive by a resurrection precisely at
the completion of the third day following his death.
When the women came to the tomb early Sunday morning, Jesus had already
risen. (Mark 16:6), The Angel said: "He is risen! He is not
here". Of course, Jesus had been resurrected the previous evening.
Jesus arose from the dead late Saturday afternoon--he was not at the
sepulcher Sunday morning. Three days before Saturday afternoon would place the crucifixion
on Wednesday, the preparation day for the feast of unleavened bread. Thursday of
that year must have been an annual Sabbath, the first annual Sabbath in the days
of unleavened bread.
So that we would know that the Sabbath which followed the crucifixion was not
necessarily the weekly Sabbath, John was inspired to call it a "high
day" (John 19:31), which, according to Jewish usage, means an annual
Sabbath that may occur any day during the week.
Mark picks up Johns account by adding that after that Sabbath, which was a
high day, the first day of the feast of unleavened bread, the women bought sweet
spices to use in anointing the body of Jesus (Mark 16:1). This purchasing
of the spices could not have been on Thursday, the annual Sabbath. That must
have been Friday. Having made their purchases, the women prepared these
ointments and "Rested on the Sabbath according to the commandment". (Luke
23:56). This was the 7th day Sabbath upon which, near its close,
Jesus was raised from the dead.
Thus the Bible proves that the resurrection was not on Sunday morning, the crucifixion
was not on Friday. There were two separate Sabbaths that week, one annual
Sabbath, the other a weekly Sabbath.
Let us look at Mark 16:9.
This verse makes clear that the resurrection and departure of Jesus from the
grave was not on a Sunday morning. In the original Greek the phrase "early
on the first day of the Week" refers to the early part of the day-the
evening-for a day began at sunset. This, of course, is according to God's way of
counting time.
Jesus had risen from the tomb the early evening before Sunday morning. That
is, He was already risen Saturday night. That was three days and three nights
after his burial and the closing of the tomb. We read in the RSV, which has the
correct translation of Luke 23:54,"it was the day of preparation, and the
Sabbath was beginning. ". That is, it was very late on the preparation for
the feast, or first annual Sabbath, and the new high day Sabbath had just begun
as Joseph of Arimathea finished the burial.
Time will not permit us to go into a lot of detail on this topic, but, if you
would like more information on this topic please contact us either at our e-mail
or our regular address or call us at the number that will be displayed at the
close of the program. We will be happy to send you a booklet which does go into
depth about both the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ, and when these
momentous events occurred.
The apostle Paul called Jesus Christ our passover (1 Corinthians 5:7).
According to the gospel records, Jesus was crucified on the passover Day-Abib
(or Nisan)14-immediately before the feast of unleavened bread.
Which day was the passover?
The eve of the fourteenth of Abib, after sunset, Jesus instituted the New
Testament passover. By custom that day was also a day on which all leaven was
finally removed and only unleavened bread was to be seen in the homes (Luke
22:7-8). See also John 18:28 as proof that day was passover, Nisan
14th.
The Jews and Jesus and the apostles agreed as to which day it was. There is
no question about the date. But how did the Jews know which day it was? How did
Jesus and the apostles know that this was the passover day as God had appointed
it?
By God's calendar of course! The passover was the 14th day of the first month
according to the sacred calendar used by Jesus and Jews. By that calendar we can
know precisely which day the passover was in the year of the crucifixion!
The passover was Wednesday, April 25th. Christ was crucified in the afternoon
of that Wednesday. Three days and three nights from that time would make the
resurrection in the latter part of the weekly Sabbath at the same time of day.
That is why when Mary and the others went to the grave on Sunday morning he was
already risen. Let us be thankful that God has given us the understanding of
this marvelous truth and proof of Christ's Messiahship. Yes, he was crucified,
but, thankfully he was also resurrected three days later just as our Saviour
said he would be.
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Good Friday/Easter Sunday 