The Third Day

MOST Christians are ac­quainted with the Old Testament prophecies concerning the birth and ministry of Christ. Not so much has been said about the prophecies of His resurrection. Yet Christ Himself empha­sized His fulfillment of prophecy in rising "the third day." During His first visit with the disciples after His resur­rection He said, "Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day" (Luke 24: 46). The apostle Paul, in writing to the Corinthians, also refers to this in these words, "He rose again the third day ac­cording to the scriptures" (1 Cor. 15:4). But where do we find this prophecy in the Old Testament? Jesus said, "It is written." But where is it written?

Passover a Reminder

To help the Israelites understand the plan of salvation and to prepare the world for the great event of Calvary, God di­rected Moses to build a very special taber­nacle, or sanctuary, and gave him instruc­tions regarding a yearly round of services that were typical in nature, "a shadow of things to come" (Col. 2:17), prophetic of the life, death, resurrection, and ministry of Christ. In the spring there was the Pass­over, a reminder of Israel's exodus from Egypt, and yet pointing forward to the great sacrifice of Christ that would free mankind from the slavery of sin and save him from eternal death. Paul says, "Christ our passover is sacrificed for us" (1 Cor. 5:7).

The Passover lamb was chosen on the tenth day of the first month. It was sacri­ficed on the fourteenth (Ex. 12:3, 6). The next day was kept as a special yearly sab­bath, one of a number of sabbaths that were "shadows of things to come." These were yearly sabbaths and given to Israel "beside the sabbaths of the Lord" (Lev. 23:4, 5, 11, 38). Then on the sixteenth the offering of the first fruits took place, which, according to Paul, typified the res­urrection of Christ. "Now," he says, "is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept" (1 Cor. 15:20). Again he says, "As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ's at his coming" (1 Cor. 15:22, 23).

Prophecy Fulfilled

So here it is—the symbolic prophecy portraying the death and resurrection of Christ! His death to be the day before the Sabbath, on the fourteenth, His resurrec­tion on "the third day," the day after the Sabbath, on the sixteenth, "Christ our passover," "Christ the firstfruits." The prophecy was exactly fulfilled! The Gospel of Mark says the day of Christ's crucifixion "was the preparation, that is, the day be­fore the sabbath" (chap. 15:42). And when the sabbath was past, Mary Magda­lene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, had bought sweet spices, that they might come and anoint him. And very early in the morning the first day of the week, they came unto the sepulchre at the rising of the sun" (chap. 16:1, 2). And then in the ninth verse we read, "Jesus was risen early the first day of the week." Literally translated this verse reads, "Now having risen early the first day of the week." (There is no Wednesday crucifix­ion or Sabbath afternoon resurrection here in Mark as a few would like to be­lieve.) Christ died the day before the Sab­bath and arose the day after the Sabbath, on "the third day."

Matthew says, "In the end of the sab­bath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre. And, behold, there was a great earth­quake" (chap. 28:1, 2). How fitting that the earth should quake as the angel rolls back the stone at the door of Christ's tomb and the Saviour steps forth triumphant over death!

Two Sabbaths?

Some have tried to find something in the fact that Matthew uses the plural of the Greek word for Sabbath. Those who know the idiosyncrasies of the Greek word sabbaton could never agree that this indi­cates two Sabbaths had passed since the cru­cifixion of Christ. If Matthew used the plural intentionally it could only have meant that the ceremonial sabbath and the weekly Sabbath ended together just before the first day of the week. There is nothing here to support a Wednesday cruci­fixion. "In the end of the sabbath, as it be­gan to dawn," et cetera, is unthinkable if one was on the fifth day and one on the sev­enth. How far men will go to prove a pet idea!

The Gospel of Luke is, if possible, more plain. Here we are told the women re­turned home from the crucifixion as "the sabbath drew on" to keep the Sabbath day "according to the commandment," and then returned early the first day of the week to the tomb (chaps. 23:54-56; 24:1).

Jesus knew well the meaning of the Passover. We read: "From that time forth began Jesus to shew 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" (Matt. 16:21). Repeatedly Christ said He would rise the third day (Matt. 17:22, 23; 20:19; Mark 9:31; 10:34; Luke 9:20-22; 18:31-33; 24:6, 7, 46).

Two places, where Christ is not quoted directly, we find "after three days" (Matt. 27:63-65; Mark 8:31), with, however, ob­viously the same meaning as the other texts, for the Pharisees asked that "the sepulchre be made sure until the third day" (Matt. 27:64). (The Greek meta translated "after" does not have the exact meaning of our word "after" but is trans­lated according to the context.)

In the Heart of the Earth

There are some well-meaning individ­uals who, recalling what Jesus said about Jonah being in the fish three days and three nights, et cetera (chap. 12:38-40), feel that we must somehow believe Christ was in the tomb seventy-two full hours. Yet this contradicts the prophecy of the Passover with its offering of the first fruits. It contradicts the many statements of Christ that He must rise again the third day. And it contradicts the facts as related in the Gospels. Therefore it cannot be right.

What, then, shall we do with this ex­pression "three days and three nights in the heart of the earth"? Some have sug­gested Jesus was including His experience of being betrayed, His mock trial and death, et cetera, for Jerusalem was indeed considered the "heart" or hub of the Jew­ish world. This at least does not contradict the passages we have already considered. However, we should point out that the people of Christ's time were not accus­tomed to thinking as we do. If three days were involved, even though only portions of the first and third days were involved, they thought of it as three days. This is illustrated in other passages of Scripture. Take for example Esther 4:16: "Go, gather together all the Jews that are present in Shushan, and fast ye 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: and if I perish, I perish."

"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" (chap. 5:1). Another example is found in 2 Chronicles 10:5: "And he said unto them, Come again unto me after three days." "So Jeroboam and all the peo­ple came to Rehoboam on the third day, as the king bade, saying, Come again to me on the third day" (verse 12).

You see, to the Jews "after three days" meant "on the third day," or after the third day had arrived. Why try to put English interpretation on a Jewish idiom?

 We must endeavor to understand the words of Jesus the way Jesus intended we should, and the way the disciples under­stood them. Jesus talked the language of the common people.

Let us look again at the record in Luke: "And that day [the day Jesus was cruci­fied] 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" (chap. 23:54-56).

This was undoubtedly the Sabbath of the Ten Commandments. The women re­turned from the crucifixion, prepared what spices and ointments they could hast­ily gather before the Sabbath and then "rested the sabbath day according to the commandment." After the Sabbath they probably added to what spices they had been able to get together on Friday. (Many think the story in Mark indicates this.) And then early in the morning they came to the tomb. (But those who say

 Mark is talking about a Sabbath on the fifth day and Luke about the seventh-day Sabbath would have us believe the women let Friday go by doing nothing for their Lord! Unthinkable. The story in Mark and Luke is so plain!) Only one Sabbath day is involved here. But that Sabbath day was a very special day. "That sabbath day was an high day" (John 19:31), because it was both Passover Sabbath and weekly Sabbath, says the apostle John, a "great" (Megale) day. For centuries the church in the East, where the Sabbath was kept longer than in the 'West, continued to call the Sabbath they kept in remembrance of this, " 'the Great Sabbath' " (Joseph Bing­ham, quoted in Richard Lewis, The Prot­estant Dilemma, Pacific Press, p. 67).

Only One Sabbath

It is well to notice that the Gospels, writ­ten about thirty years after the resurrec­tion, say nothing about the first day being holy. (Luke was not converted until fif­teen years after the resurrection.) The Gospels picture the closest friends and dis­ciples of Jesus keeping the Sabbath of the Ten Commandments. There is only one Sabbath in the New Testament. Centuries later the hatreds referred to in Acts 18:2 and Revelation 12:17 brought about a change and fulfilled the prophecies of Dan­iel 7:25 and 2 Thessalonians 2:4.

We have already noticed that Mark tells us Christ was resurrected early Sunday morning. Luke says the "men" "in shining garments" told those who came "he is not here, but is risen," and reminded them how Christ had said He would rise again "the third day" (Luke 24:6, 7). Later the same day, in conversation with Jesus, two of His disciples said, "To day [the first day of the week] is the third day" (verse 21). But they found it hard to believe Jesus was resurrected. "Then he said unto them, 0 fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken" (verse 25). And that night in the upper room He again reminded them, "Thus it is writ­ten, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day" (verse 46). How plain the facts! And Jesus confirms them! How wonderfully the prophecy of the Passover has been fulfilled!

After all this has been said some will say, "Was not Christ supposed to die in the 'midst of the week'?" Not in the mid­dle of a seven-day week. The prophecy referred to is in Daniel nine. These are, as the Revised Standard Version clearly says, "weeks of years" (Dan. 9:24; see also Eze. 4:6). It was sixty-nine weeks of years from the decree of Ezra 7:13 to the baptism of Jesus (Messiah means "Anointed," and Christ was anointed by the Holy Spirit at His baptism) (Matt. 3:16, 17; Acts 10:37, 38). After preaching, teaching, and heal­ing for three and one half years Jesus was crucified in the midst of the seventieth "week of years," on the preparation day, the day before the Sabbath of the Ten Commandments.

As Christ uttered His last words, the priest at the Temple was about to take the life of the paschal lamb. There was sudden terror and confusion. The great "veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent" (Matt. 27:51). The paschal lamb escaped the hands of the priest. "Type has met antitype in the death of God's Son."—The Desire of Ages, p. 757. He who came to do the will of God caused the "sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings" to cease (Heb. 10:10-12). He took "away the first," to "establish the second," for we are "sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all." "After he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever," Christ rose "the third day," to become the executor of His last will and testament, the new, the everlasting covenant, sealed with His own blood on Calvary (Heb. 9:15, 16; Matt. 26:28).

"Having [such] an high priest over the house of God; let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised)" (Heb. 10:21-23). He kept His word; He arose "the third day."