about what happened when.
And the bottom line is that we weren't there
and many scholars who I respect for many reasons disagree strongly about all the timing.
So in the end - the timing really doesn't matter,
but as a friend told me today,
"it's important to look at and discover
what the text says
and doesn't say
because those who attack the gospel
are doing so as a reason
to tear apart faith."
I personally don't need to know,
but looking at Christ's atoning work on the cross as
fulfillment to many prophecies
lead me to this conclusion
Church tradition likes to make things
all neat and tidy
it fits so well on the church calendar.
We have Thursday Night Last Suppers
Good Friday vigils
just spend some time on filling those Saturdays
( and yes, I might add - LENT with it's neat 40 days with even 6 Sundays off) OUCH!
and boom, Sunday Morning Early on we a re good to go!
That is less than 72 hours in the tomb.
This year for the first time - the mainstream media (is even addressing this) see the link.
http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/42643674?GT1=43001
As I have been studying and researching all week, I keep finding more articles, primarily by Messianic Jews (Those of Jewish faith who have accepted Christ (Yeshua/Jesus) as Messiah.
The more I walk as a Christian and a Pastor, I have been burdened to understand Christ as a practicing and observant Jew. For us to receive our salvation open to all, it is important to understand the context of the religion that Jesus was raised in and the meaning of the sacrifice that He became to so that all of us choose choose eternal life and be "PASS"ed "OVER" for eternal death.
So that being said - I am glad that churches have services on Thursday night (frankly, I wish more people would attend them.) I do agree that the empty tomb and the discovery of the resurrection happened at dawn on Sunday Morning, but the more research I am doing, and the more I realize is not written in the gospels, but in tradition......I think we have our timing wrong.
It does say that the disciples asked Jesus where they should "make ready" the Passover meal (and thus he directed them to discover the upper room). Matthew 26:19 It also says that Jesus and the disciples later, "when it was evening, Jesus was reclining at the table with the twelve" ate a meal Matthew 26:20. We presume that it was their Passover meal, but nowhere does it say that it was....
So why do I write this today?
I will take you to another passage in Matthew 12: 38-40
38 Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered, saying, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from You.”
39 But He answered and said to them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. 40 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.
and also to the scheming of the scribes and pharisees in Matthew 26:1-5
1 Now it came to pass, when Jesus had finished all these sayings, that He said to His disciples, 2 “You know that after two days is the Passover, and the Son of Man will be delivered up to be crucified.”
3 Then the chief priests, the scribes,[a] and the elders of the people assembled at the palace of the high priest, who was called Caiaphas, 4 and plotted to take Jesus by trickery and kill Him. 5 But they said, “Not during the feast, lest there be an uproar among the people.”
So all that being said -
as I try to piece all this together
I think the crucifixion happened before the Passover Sabbath - which would have begun on Wednesday night as dusk.
Tuesday tonight, at dusk as the disciples had secured the upper room and were in the process of preparing the passover for an upcoming day...
The "last supper", the footwashing, the time at Gethsemane, the betrayal and overnight tonight the THREE trials began with the horrible beatings in between.
BUT MOST IMPORTANTLY the CALL OF THE NEW COVENANT THAT WOULD BE THE PASSOVER FOR ALL -
Not going to go deeply into this today - we will visit it as well after we understand how Jesus poured out his blood and sacrificed his body so that we would have this new covenant.
Wednesday morning as most of the city was preparing and milling about like our "Christmas Eve" making their last dash - preparations, the Pontius Pilate was showing the "good will" of the Roman government and those in the festive holiday crowd choose to free Barabbas and CRUCIFY CHRIST again BEFORE THE FEAST.... (more on that tomorrow :(.
With this time table, Jesus would be on the cross during the day Wednesday and be sealed with his physical body dead in the garden tomb by the time dusk fell and the passover feast was beginning that was also considered an extra Sabbath day - see Mark 15 :42
He would be in the belly of the earth
Wednesday night
Thursday all day and night (which was the Passover Sabbath)
Friday all day and night
Saturday all day....(which was the traditional Sabbath)
but as the Jews marked their days - the new day began at dusk -So on Saturday evening as the moon rose, that is what Messianic Jews suppose he arose and I will comment more on that as it draws near.
But back to Matthew 28:1 and we see that on the morning of the first of the week, Sunday - the women "went after the Sabbath (this the regular day of rest) to finally attempt to anoint his body for burial that they discovered the empty tomb".
So, that my friends is where I am at! In the end does it matter when?
in a word
NO
I do not expect the world to conform to me
BUT
I do pray that we all ponder
what just happened -
Christ on the day of preparation for the sabbath that was the passover
was slain
and his blood
that knew no sin
covered our sins
so that we could be
made to be in
HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS! (2 Corinthians 5:21)
So tomorrow we go to the cross,
brace yourself,
I am not even sure what we are in for.
Do you know what ____________ has planned for an Easter observance? I think you should find out!
As you pray today remember ______________ and make it a point to include them in your life this weekend. God will lead you, if YOU LET HIM!
Thanks for taking this difficult journey with me!
This discipline is been both harder and easier than I thought it would be.
I will be relieved when I am released to go from teaching/investigation mode back to pithy devotional/testimony mode!
late today because this required much prayer and wrestling to communicate....
email or message me your feedback
I do not expect agreement - but I would hope for honest discussion!
Love and prayers to you all....
preacher on her hike o' life/lent
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