I had a conversation the other day with a friend of mine, who says that Christ was crucified on a Wednesday, and that He lay in the grave three days and three nights, rising from the grave on a Sabbath. Matthew 12:40 was quoted as proof.
I cannot agree with him, as I understand from God's Word that He died on a Friday, resting on the Sabbath day, and rising on the first day of the week.
I would like your view. Please answer through Present Truth, as I know there are others who are puzzled about the same question.
Your friend is unquestionably correct in saying that Christ lay in the grave "three days and three nights," for His words recorded in Matthew 12:40, declare that He would. That text says, "As Jonah 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." (Matthew 12:40)
The only point to be decided is the sense in which the Scripture uses the term "three days and three nights;" and this can easily be determined.
It is commonly assumed that the reference to Jonah in the whale's belly fixes the time. But the text simply says that Christ should be three days and three nights in the earth, just "as Jonah was three days and three nights in the fish's belly;" and we must go to other Scriptures than that to learn the use of the term.
On several occasions Jesus foretold His crucifixion and resurrection, and each time He specified the length of the period covered by those events. For instance, in Matthew 16:21 we read: "From that time forth began Jesus to show unto His disciples, how that He must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders, and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day." (Matthew 16:2)
Compare this verse with the one first quoted. Both verses refer to the same event, and therefore it is evident that the expression "three days and three nights" is exactly equivalent to "the third day." That is to say that, although it is said that He should be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth, he was, nevertheless, to rise the third day.
Now read Luke 13:32. Jesus, when they said that Herod would kill Him, said: "Go, and tell that fox, Behold, I cast out devils, and I do cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I shall be perfected." (Luke 13:32)
This is not an isolated instance. In Esther 4:16, and 5:1, we read that the queen said to Mordecai: "Go, gather together all the Jews that are present in Shushan, and fast you for me, and neither eat nor drink three days, night or day: I also and my maidens will fast likewise; and so will I go in unto the king, which is not according to the law." (Esther 4:16) "Now it came to pass on the third day, that Esther put on her royal apparel, and stood in the inner court of the king's house," (Esther 5:1) and so forth. Suppose it had been Friday when Jesus sent His message to Herod, or when Esther spoke to Mordecai; then, "today and tomorrow, and the third day," would reach only to Sunday. And that would be just what we would mean by the expression "the third day." It includes one whole day, with parts of the first, and third.
Yet in the Scripture, as plainly seen by the texts quoted, these parts of the two days, and the whole of the intervening day, are spoken of as "three days and three nights." It is plain, therefore, that the latter expression is simply a colloquial term, and not an exact definition of time.
Now read the last verse of the 23rd chapter of Luke, and the first verse of the 24th, and the case is clear. Speaking of the time of the crucifixion, Luke says: "And that day was the preparation, and the Sabbath drew on. And the women also, which came with Him from Galilee, followed after, and beheld the sepulchre, and how His body was laid. And they returned, and prepared spices and ointments; and rested the Sabbath day according to the commandment." (Luke 23:54-56) "Now upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they came unto the sepulchre, bringing the spices which they had prepared." (Luke 24:1)
I know that some people claim that the Sabbath spoken of in verse 54 means the Passover ceremonial Sabbath. But there is no evidence of this. There is but one day which in the Scriptures is known as the Sabbath, and that is the seventh day. If a temporary or a ceremonial Sabbath were referred to, that would be indicated. In the absence of any qualifying term, the word "the Sabbath" must be considered to refer to the seventh day. So we have Friday as the "today"; Sabbath as the "tomorrow;"--and the first day of the week as the "third day." And those three days, during parts of which Jesus lay in the grave, are in the Jewish idiom spoken of as "three days and three nights," just as in the case of Esther.
The case is not one of any vital importance as regards the Sabbath. The vital thing is that Jesus was raised from the dead; and the time in which He should lie in the grave is referred to only for the purpose of establishing the fact that He did rise at the specified time. If He had risen on the Sabbath day, as some claim, it would have added nothing to the sacredness of that day; and His rising on the first day does not impart any sacredness to it.
Nowhere in the Bible is it intimated that any day is to be observed in memory of Christ's resurrection. But we do have a memorial of that event in baptism, as we read in Romans 6:3-5; Colossians 2:12.
Those who observe Sunday in memory of Christ's resurrection, have two memorials of that event, unless they substitute sprinkling, which signifies nothing, for the most striking and significant act of immersion; and they have no memorial of God's new creation, which, if it had ever been kept in mind, would have prevented the fall; and which is restored by the death and resurrection of Jesus.--Present Truth, July 2, 1903.