Have you ever tried to teach Holy week? It can be confusing to nail down the chronology. Looking at the narrative and laying it out against what we celebrate reveals that we might not be counting the days exactly the way the four Gospel writers counted days.
- Palm Sunday – Jesus enters Jerusalem (Luke 19 – check)
- Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday – Jesus teaches at the Temple. (Luke 19:45-Luke 22:6 – check)
- Maunday Thursday – Last Supper, praying in the garden, arrested, late night trials. (Luke 22:7-65 – check)
- Friday – Further trials and Crucifixion (Luke 22:66-Luke 23)
- Friday sundown – Saturday sundown – Nothing happened because it was Sabbath (check)
- Sunday morning – Resurrection (Luke 24 – check)
So what’s the problem? That all makes sense in the narrative once you work it out.
The problem is that our written and oral tradition says that Jesus rose on the “third day.”
The way we say (sing, read, write songs, print Easter cards) “three days later” would be Saturday, Sunday… Monday. That would imply that three days after Jesus died would be Monday, not Sunday morning.
It’s confusing. So confusing that you find this story in today’s USA Today.
As Christians worldwide prepare to celebrate Easter, they will follow a familiar chronology: Jesus was crucified on Good Friday and rose from the dead on “the third day,” in the words of the ancient Nicene Creed.
But if Jesus died at 3 p.m. Friday and vacated his tomb by dawn Sunday morning — about 40 hours later — how does that make three days? And do Hebrew Scriptures prophesy that timetable?
Even Pope Benedict XVI wrestles with the latter question in his new book, Jesus: Holy Week, about Christ’s last days. “There is no direct scriptural testimony pointing to the ‘third day,’” the pope concludes. read the rest
The article goes on to propose how 40 hours can be called three days.
Literalist – It’s 3 days because they counted Friday as Jesus died before sunset.
Figurative – In those days “three days later” was a phrase of inexact length. Kind of like “See you in a few days.“
Either one of those are fine with me. They both make sense.
But here’s my last difficulty with calling it Holy Week. If Holy Week starts on Palm Sunday and ends on Easter Sunday… it’s really eight days so it should be called “Holy Weeks.”
No matter how you look at it, if Palm Sunday is included that’s two weeks!
Bonus
If you want to blow your mind today– check out the Wikipedia page on weeks. 5 day weeks, 10 day weeks… 3 day weeks! There’s a lot of ways to divide 365 days.
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