JESUS: OUR RESURRECTED LORD

The day on which Jesus, the Lord's Passover Lamb was crucified for the sins of the world (Jn. 1:29, 36; 1 Cor. 5:7), was the Jewish "preparation" day (Ex. 12:6; Lev. 23:5; 2 Chron. 35:1-6), the fourteenth day of Nisan, the day they killed and prepared the Passover Lamb to be consumed at sunset, which was the beginning of the fifteenth day of Nisan, the first day of Unleavened Bread (Lev. 23:6).  The Greek word translated "preparation" is παρασκευή (paraskeuē), which, in context, means "the day on which the Jews made necessary preparation to celebrate a Sabbath or a Feast."  In the case of the Lord's Feast Days, the first day was "a holy day of convocation" (an assembly day; a High Sabbath).  Because the Gospel of John explains that that particular "Sabbath day was an high day" (Jn. 19:31), it referred to the Lord's Spring Feast of Passover.  Remember, Jesus was our Passover!

*  Matthew 27:62 - "Now the next day, that followed the day of the preparation, the chief priests and Pharisees came together unto Pilate."
*  Mark 15:42 - "And now when the even was come, because it was the preparation, that is, the day before the Sabbath (in this case the day before the Feast)."
*  Luke 23:53-54 - "And he took (Christ's body) down, and wrapped it in linen, and laid it in a sepulchre that was hewn in stone, wherein never man before was laid.  And that day was the preparation, and the Sabbath (Feast) drew on."
*  John 19:30-31, 42 - "When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, He said, It is finished: and He bowed His head, and gave up the ghost.  The Jews therefore, because it was the preparation, that the bodies should not remain upon the cross on the sabbath day, (for that Sabbath day was an high day,) besought Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away....There laid they Jesus therefore because of the Jews' preparation day; for the sepulchre was nigh at hand."

Because the Jewish readers of the Gospels understood that the Lord's Feast Days were Holy Assemblies, or Sabbaths, the terms were used interchangeably.  Unfortunately, 2000 years have passed, and the Church, now composed almost totally of Gentile believers, have mistaken the day after the Crucifixion as being the weekly Sabbath.  Hence, it "celebrates" on "Good Friday."  Based upon the Lord's own words, that would be impossible since He rose from the grave before sunrise on the first day of the week:  our Sunday.  Matthew 12:39-40:

"But He answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonah:  for 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." 

In reality, the actual day on which Christ died for us is apparently not as important as the day of His Resurrection, for that is made very clear; Jesus rose on "the first day of the week" (Mt. 28:1; Mk. 16:2; Lk. 24:1; Jn. 20:1)!

 

JESUS DIED AS SAVIOR; JESUS ROSE AS LORD!