Jesus said, “For 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. 12:40) That is 72 hours!!! If Jesus died at 3 p.m. Friday, the commonly accepted time and vacated His tomb by dawn Sunday morning — about 40 hours later — how does that make three days??? IT DOESN’T! But it is what is commonly believed. “Now it came to pass, when Jesus had finished all these sayings, that He said to His disciples, “You know that after two days IS THE PASSOVER, and the Son of Man will be delivered up to be crucified.” (Matt. 26:1-2) It was not a regular “weekly” Passover. “Therefore, because it was the PREPARATION DAY, that the bodies should not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for THAT SABBATH WAS A HIGH DAY).” (John 19:31)
The HIGH DAY of which John was speaking was one of the THREE SPRING HOLY DAYS, and since Jesus crucifixion took place on the day of Passover (Nisan 14 on the Hebrew calendar), the high day of which he speaks must be the first day of Unleavened Bread, which falls the day after the Passover (Nisan 15). If Jesus rose exactly three days and three nights after His burial, the only candidate for His resurrection is the very end of the Sabbath at sunset. Counting back three full days, then, Jesus must have died ON THE PREVIOUS WEDNESDAY, which would have been the day of the Passover (Jesus and His disciples had observed the Passover the evening before). The gospel account says that, after this, His disciples and the women kept the holy day on Thursday (Mark 16:1). On Friday, the preparation day for the weekly Sabbath, the women prepared spices for His embalming (this was a normal workday; see Luke 23:56), then kept the weekly Sabbath. When they came to the tomb early Sunday morning, He had already risen some time before. He rose exactly THREE DAYS and THREE NIGHTS from His interment (a full 72 hours) at sunset as the weekly Sabbath ended. This shows that there were TWO Sabbaths—a HIGH DAY and a regular WEEKLY Sabbath—during the time of His burial, not one! “EVERY WORD OF GOD proves true…” (Prov. 30:5)
Your Personal Pastor -Bill Stockham