I
learned the Easter story when I was a young heathen in Holly Springs CME Church
in Bassfield, Mississippi. And I believed it.
The cross made sense. The
personal, biological death of Jesus made sense.
His physical resurrection was not a theological stumbling block. But what I didn’t get, what made no sense to
my junior high school mind was all my teachers and pastors demanding that I
believe in a God who can’t count.
But
Jesus 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.
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.” (Matthew 12: 39, 40)
In
the original Greek, the word three
means 3. The word Jesus used for day means day, but the term translated night actually means night.
Jesus
said 3 days and 3 nights. Jesus meant 3
days and 3 nights.
The
gospels agree that Jesus died around 3 P.M.
(Matthew 27: 46-50; Luke23:44-46)
“So
how,” I asked in my 13 year old, smart-alecky voice, “you get 3 days between 3
o’clock Friday and eaarrrllly Sunday morning?”
My
elders read to me from their study Bible commentaries that say that ancient
Jews considered any part of a day to count as a whole day. O.K. So
let’ count.
Friday,
3 P.M. – sunset
|
=
|
1
day
|
Friday
night
|
=
|
1
night
|
Saturday
sunrise –sunset
|
=
|
2
days
|
Saturday
night
|
=
|
2
nights
|
Sunday
morning (He was already risen, but I’ll give you that, too) = 3 days
or parts of a day and 2 nights
|
||
The
crucifixion makes sense, but the Good Friday math doesn’t.
Jesus
was crucified the day before the Sabbath. Any normal week, that would mean Friday
afternoon. (The Jewish Sabbath runs from sunset Friday to sunset Saturday). But Jesus wasn’t executed during a normal
week. It was Passover. In Exodus 12, after the 10th
plague, God instituted the feast of Passover, and the guidelines included 2 EXTRA sabbaths.
Seven
days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall remove leaven
from your houses. For whoever eats leavened bread from the first day until the
seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel. On the first day there shall be a holy convocation,
and on the seventh day there shall be a holy convocation for you. No
manner of work shall be done on them; but that which everyone must eat—that only may be prepared by you. (Exodus
12: 15, 16)
John’s
gospel states the day after the Crucifixion wasn’t a normal Sabbath. “That Sabbath was a high day” (John 19: 31).
The
day after Jesus died was a Passover Sabbath, and the regular weekly Sabbath
might have been the day after that. Let’s
count again, class.
Thursday
3 p.m. - sunset
|
=
|
1
day
|
Passover
Sabbath, High Day, Holy Convocation
|
=
|
1
night & 2 days
|
Weekly
Sabbath (Fri- Sat.)
|
=
|
2
nights & 3 days
|
Saturday
night
|
=
|
3
whole nights & 3 days or parts of day
|
Sunday
morning (He was already risen, but I’ll give you that, too) = bonus
|
||
There
are a couple of other plausible scenarios. The crucifixion could have occurred on
Wednesday, but if you base your math on the Bible and not on the church’s rich 2,000
year old tradition, you can’t start your count on Friday afternoon.
So Jesus
wasn’t crucified on Good Friday. Jesus also
almost certainly wasn’t born on December
25th of the Julian calendar. Rev.
Martin Luther King Jr. didn’t celebrate
his birthday every 2nd Monday of January. The Declaration of Independence was signed on
July 2nd, not the 4th of July. And the Last Supper wasn’t at 11 A.M. on the
1st Sunday of the month.
The
day we celebrate isn’t as important as what we celebrate.
One
person esteems one day above another; another esteems every day alike.
Let each be fully convinced in his own mind. He who observes the day,
observes it to the Lord; and he who does not observe the day, to the
Lord he does not observe it. (Romans 14: 5-6)
Commemorating
the crucifixion on the Friday before Easter is not a sin. It’s a convenience. This
Good Friday I’ll attend 3 worship services in 3 cities and preach at two of
them. I will honor the traditional day. But I won’t preach the day as doctrine.
When
we defend the Good Friday TRADITION as a DOCTRINE we argue that Jesus didn’t
really mean what He explicitly said. We
tell questioning believers that God can’t count.
As Jesus said, we “[make] the word of God of no effect through your tradition which you have handed down.” (Mark 7: 13)
Some
people never question their culture’s or church’s traditions. But there’s always that one kid. He/she is sitting there listening more
intently than all the stewards and deacons and mothers in white. That kid has
questions because that kid wants the Truth.
You’ve convinced him that the Bible is true, but then you tell him to accept
a tradition that contradicts the Bible. He won’t accept that. It just doesn't add up. He’d rather reject both the tradition and the Bible. I know this because I was one of those kids.
All
those kids want are answer that make sense.
All they need is some honest math.
This
Good Friday is a good Friday to start giving it to them.
Rev.
Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Miles Chapel CME Church in Fairfield,
Alabama; executive director of the Substance Abuse Youth Networking
Organization (SAYNO); and director of
rural leadership development for the National Institute for Human Development (NIHD).
Email atgravestwo2@aol.com
You
can help support Rev. Graves’ work by visiting his personal blog and clicking the DONATE button
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Support
by check or money order may be mailed to
Miles
Chapel CME Church
P O
Box 132
Fairfield,
Al 35064
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