Good Friday Refuted

I want to talk about something that has misguided many believers in Christ and is only gaining momentum. Don’t worry, I’ll keep it limited to ONE of the many things that fit this description. It’s this thing called Good Friday. I will no longer remain silent as I have up to now for the sake of keeping the peace with the brethren. It can be easily refuted as it is based on a simple misunderstanding and poor computation.

I’ve very patiently listened to my brothers and sisters in Christ, so please afford me the great patience I have shown you. You see, in the Bible, John 19 emphasizes the fact that Jesus was slain on “the Jewish day of preparation.” Without a right understanding of the biblical holy days, one only has a basic understanding of the weekly Sabbath at best. However, embedded in the holy days are annual Sabbaths as well. Any time there is a Sabbath day, be it annual or weekly, the day leading up to it is a “day of preparation.” In the case of Passover, John 19 is describing the day leading up to Passover because Passover is an ANNUAL Sabbath.

Unfortunately, more and more believers are taking misguided teachers at their word, and coming to believe it for themselves, and thus perpetuate the notion that John 19 is referring to the WEEKLY day of preparation, which would be a Friday (Thursday sundown to Friday sundown). This is how Christians have come to believe Jesus was crucified on Friday.

But these very intelligent Christians also know how to do math. I implore you to use that intelligence right now, since you are one of those intelligent people.

As you may recall, Genesis Chapter 1 describes the very first day of creation being the first NIGHT and the first DAY, that is, from the time the sun sets one evening to the setting of the sun the following evening. One night, one day = the first day of time.

Jesus was confronted by a crowd of Sadducees and Pharisees in Matthew 12:39-42 who were demanding that he show them a sign to prove he truly was who he said he was. Jesus replied, “I already gave you a sign. No other sign shall be given to you except the sign of Jonah. Just as Jonah was in the belly of the fish for 3 days and 3 nights, so the son of man will be in the belly of the earth.” Have you ever argued that Jonah was only actually in the belly of the whale for a day and a half and somehow that actually equaled 3 days and 3 nights? I sure hope not!  Then why would anyone argue that Jesus said 3 days and 3 nights, but really only meant 1 night (Friday night), 1 day (Saturday day) to sometime on Saturday night?

Here’s the math. Granted, I’m not too great at Algebra, but I taught my preschool class today how to count 3 days and 3 nights, so I am confident I’m not going to be over your head with this. Jesus’ tomb was found to be empty before sunrise on the FIRST day of the week, Sunday, implying that it became empty at some point during the night. Since he obviously arose at some point after the sun set the previous day, he could not be in the grave to the completion of that particular night.

So we back up further and do not count, what we would call, Saturday night. We know that Jesus was praying in the Garden of Gethsemane in the night when he was betrayed. We know he died at about 3:00 the following afternoon. We know that the Jewish people were in a hurry to find a tomb so his body would not be on the cross on the high day Sabbath. Joseph of Arimathea opened up a tomb he happened to own and placed Jesus’ body in it just before the sun set for the evening that would start the next day, an annual Sabbath. I can almost hear the closing of the day with the closing of the tomb. Thus began night #1 of the 3 days and 3 nights in likeness of Jonah in the belly of the fish. The vault is sealed: night #1. The sun comes up after that night and proceeds to execute the cycle of day #1. At this point I’ll give you a hint. If Jesus didn’t lie, which he didn’t, then he was crucified on what we would call Wednesday, and spent his first night in the tomb on what we would call Wednesday night. Count them in Western terms:

Wednesday night = night #1

Thursday day = day #1

Thursday night = night #2

Friday day = day #2

Friday night = night #3

Saturday day = day #3

Keeping with Christ’s teachings about the Sabbath and in fulfillment of the sign of Jonah, I believe Jesus arose from the grave just after sundown that Saturday night. The ladies only discovered the empty tomb Sunday morning before the roosters crowed; doesn’t mean that is when he came out.

Ok, so was that simple enough? THREE days and THREE nights. Enough with the “Good Friday” business!