Hi all,
Many people have studied, written, and argued over the centuries about the order of events surrounding Jesus’ death and resurrection. So I don’t claim to have perfect knowledge, but I must as Paul noted, speak from the grace given to me.
What I believe – He was crucified on Thursday, and here is why:
To understand why He was crucified on Thursday we need to start with the original Passover week found in Exodus 12 through chapter 15. Passover week is further detailed in the list of Biblical festivals (6 feasts, 1 fast) in Leviticus 23: 5-8.
We will follow the week as going from Palm Sunday the 10th, through Resurrection day on Sunday the 17th. From what I’ve read the original Passover was believed to have been a Sunday to Sunday as well.
In Hebrew, the word translated ‘feast’ or ‘festival’ is ‘mo’ed’, which means “appointment”. From the beginning with Moses, these were understood as appointments to keep, therefore also rehearsals of a larger appointment fulfilled through an actual event later. So each year, with each feast or fast, Jewish culture teaches they are rehearsals for a future fulfillment.
Jesus literally fulfilled Passover and the Feast of Firstfruits in the cross and resurrection; He kept His appointment and validated those centuries of rehearsals, so that is why we are looking at the original to understand the order of things.
The original Passover week
Exodus 12: 3-6 instructs them to take into their home “a first year male lamb, without spot or blemish, from among the sheep and goats”, on the 10th through the 14th of the month. That would be Sunday the 10th, through Thursday the 14th the lamb was in their home, being examined to be sure it was healthy, sound, and without fault.
The rabbi’s say they took the animal into their home those days so they could examine it, make sure it was healthy, and to come to love the lamb. It was taken from the sheep and the goats and brought into the home. The Lord wanted them to know the lamb and love it, so they would realize the sacrifice the lamb was making for them, and that genuine sorrow would be felt as it died. The sheep and goats being an obvious metaphor of Lamb coming from among the saved and unsaved.
Exodus 12:6 says they killed the Passover “between the evenings” which is 3pm, on the 14th, which makes the 14th a Thursday. The day the lamb was slaughtered was called the Day of Preparation, and the time between the slaughtering of the lamb at 3pm to the eating of the roasted lamb at 6pm, was taken up with preparing the meal, thus, the Day of Preparation.
They ate the meal at 6pm, which was the start of the next day (15th) because the Jewish day starts with sundown.
Exodus 12:29 says following that 6pm meal, at midnight – the 15th now, the Lord executed the firstborn of Egypt.
The day of the 15th they left Egypt, and Exodus 13:20 says they took a detour to get the bones of Joseph, camping for the night at Ethan, ‘in the edge of the wilderness’. That evening was the start of the 16th.
The day of the 16th they traveled to the edge of the sea, with Exodus 14:2 saying the Lord commanded that spot, which was “…before Pihahiroth, between Migdol and the sea, over against Baalzephon: before it shall you encamp by the sea.”
That was the night of the 16th, that sundown starting Sunday the 17th. During the night the Lord caused a strong east wind to blow which made a path through the sea for Israel – who came out of the sea at dawn the 17th.
So the coming through the sea untouched by Pharaoh to be resurrected and reborn as a brand new nation, was the dawn of Sunday the 17th. Leviticus 23:9-14 details the Feast of Firstfruits, saying it is to be celebrated on ‘the morrow after the Sabbath’ following Passover. That would be Sunday.
On the first day of Firstfruits, which was not a Sabbath, they were to wave a sheaf of harvested grain to the Lord as an example of the first of the harvest. Jesus was resurrected that Sunday, the first day of Firstfruits.
This is why after His resurrection Jesus is no longer called ‘the only begotten Son of God’ but rather, “the first born from the dead’, and ‘the firstborn among many brethren’. And that we have come to the ‘church of the firstborn’. See Romans 8:29, Colossians 1:18, Hebrews 12:23, Revelation 1:5 for those verses. This is why He told Mary to tell the disciples: “Tell them I ascend to my Father and their Father; to my God and their God.” John 20:17
Spiritually speaking, He is our Big Brother, the firstborn from the dead, and we will follow Him. I don’t care if I’m known as ‘the one hundred and nine million four hundred and thirty seventh born from the dead’ – I’m still in that number following the first born – amazing grace!
To summarize: On the 10th they brought a perfect lamb into their home to be examined until 3pm on the 14th. On the 14th at 3pm they killed the lamb, roasting it at 6pm. In the middle of the night and early morning of the 15th they spoiled the Egyptians and left. They spent 2 nights camping on their journey, the 17th by the Sea. All night the Lord caused a strong east wind to blow, separating the waters and drying the seabed, and they traveled through, coming out of the sea on Sunday morning the 17th. Pharaoh’s army drowned in the Sea.
Palm Sunday, the 10th
We will find Jesus’ week followed this ancient pattern. On Sunday the 10th, what we call Palm Sunday, Jesus entered Jerusalem for a series of several days to be examined as the Lamb, which Mark details and we will also document.
Remember, at the same time every household and in the temple itself, the personal lambs and the official national lamb, was ‘in the house’ being examined – as the true Lamb entered the city on Palm Sunday.
We will pick it up there and conclude the week next week. Until then, blessings!
John Fenn
www.churchwithoutwallsinternational.org and email me cwowi@aol.com
