RECONCILING / HARMONIZING THE SCRIPTURES

Based upon Matthew 12:38-40, when compared with Matthew 28:1-6, it is impossible for Christ's Crucifixion to have been on a Friday.  The latter reference gives us the time of His Resurrection as being at the end of the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week (the Jewish Sabbath began at sunset Friday night, and ended at Sunset Saturday; the "first day of the week" began at Sunset Saturday, and ended at Sunset Sunday).  So counting backward three "days and three nights," Jesus was placed in Joseph of Arimathaea's tomb just prior to Sunset Wednesday (Mt. 27:57). 


The confusion comes from misinterpreting the word "Sabbath" from Mark 15:42 and Luke 23:54.  It was not referring to the weekly Sabbath (Saturday), but, we read in John 19:31:   "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...."  The Feast of Passover, which always occurred on the fourteenth day of the first month of the Jewish calendar, was actually the preparation day for the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread.  Leviticus 23:5-7 reads:


"In the fourteenth day of the first month at even is the LORD's Passover.  And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the Feast of Unleavened Bread unto the LORD:  seven days you must eat unleavened bread.  In the first day you shall have an Holy Convocation:  you shall do no servile work therein." 


"An holy convocation" is a sacred assembly, a special Sabbath, a "high day."  So the Jews did not want to get the bodies buried because Saturday was approaching, but because the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread was to begin at Sunset.  Here is a chronology of events as I understand them: 
*  Christ was nailed to His cross on Wednesday at around 9:00 a.m. (Mk. 15:25).  It was the "preparation day" and Jesus was the Passover Lamb (1 Cor. 5:7; Jn. 1:29).
*  The sky turned to darkness as the sin of mankind was placed upon Jesus at Noon, as it was then that He felt forsaken by His Father (Mk. 15:32-33).
*  The sky remained dark for three hours (until about 3:00 p.m.) and Jesus died.  At that time, there was an earthquake and the veil of the Temple was torn from top to bottom (Mt. 27:50-51).
*  Joseph received permission to bury Christ's body and because time was running out with Sunset quickly approaching, Jesus' body was hurriedly placed in Joseph's tomb (Mt. 27:57-61; Mk. 15:42-46; Lk. 23:50-56; Jn. 19:38-42).
*  The high Sabbath - no work (Sunset Wednesday to Sunset Thursday).
*  The women prepared burial spices sometime between Sunset Thursday and Sunset Friday.
*  The weekly Sabbath - no work (Sunset Friday to Sunset Saturday).
*  The women go and find that Jesus had risen sometime between Sunset Saturday and just before dawn of the first day of the week (Sunday).

WHILE THERE IS DEBATE OVER THE DAY OF THE WEEK JESUS DIED;

THERE IS ABSOLUTELY TOTAL AGREEMENT THAT HE ROSE ON SUNDAY!