Most churches follow a liturgical calendar around Easter that has the Last Supper on “Maundy Thursday” (where we get our mandatum to love and serve each other), Jesus being arrested and tried overnight, crucified on “Good Friday”, put in a borrowed grave before the Sabbath and resurrected before dawn on “Easter Sunday”. It is a well worn route but some wonder how the time from before sundown on Friday to before sunrise on Sunday can qualify as three days and three nights in “the heart of the earth” (Matthew 12:40). Unsurprisingly, these questions rise to the fore online at this time of year – this morning, I’ve read a blog post on the chronology of Holy Week and watched a video arguing for supper on Tuesday, death on Wednesday and a three day gap incorporating both a regular Saturday Sabbath but also a special annual Sabbath on the Thursday:

Note that the video is provided by an organisation linked with a church group somewhat on the fringe of traditional Christianity and it doesn’t reference some of key assertions, such as the existence of a “high day” sabbath as well as a regular one. That makes me a little cautious about accepting it as “gospel”.

Speaking of which, I’ve taken time to re-read the relevant passages from all four canonical gospels: Matthew 27:51-28:8; Mark 15:42-16:8; Luke 23:50-24:12; John 19:38-20:10. That doesn’t magically make things clearer. For example, it is clear that Jesus was laid in a tomb belonging to Joseph of Arimathea on the evening of the day he was crucified and that the Pharisees go to see Pilate on the next day, “the one after the preparation”. Wouldn’t those both be Sabbath activities under either the traditional or the “two Sabbath” chronology?

I spent a bit of time to track down one further passage, John 9:1-41. In that one Jesus gives sight to man who was born blind. Unlike most of the healing miracles, we see a lot of follow up on this one, including an attempted investigation by the Pharisees. They claim they want to know how it was done but “he put mud on my eyes, I washed and now I can see” doesn’t satisfy them. It is almost comedic how they make a futile effort to discredit what has clearly happened while the healed man is resolute in his gratitude to the one who healed him. It makes me reflect that it doesn’t benefit me in the slightest if I put hours into studying the chronology of Holy Week if I’m not living in the light that Jesus has died for my sins, resurrected and now sits in heaven as King of kings, Lord and Saviour.