The Crucifixion of Jesus: What Day Did it Really Happen?

Ever since I've been old enough to understand and appreciate the Easter events, I've been familiar with terms such as Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter or Resurrection Sunday. Palm Sunday was the day Jesus rode into Jerusalem in an apparent triumphal entry. Maundy Thursday was the day on which Jesus celebrated the Passover with his disciples. Christians have called the event the Last Supper. "Maundy" comes from a Latin word which means "command" and refers to the new commandment Jesus gave his disciples to love one another (John 13:34). Good Friday is called that because, even though it was the day Jesus died, it was good in the sense that his death made possible our salvation. Easter or Resurrection Sunday is simply the day on which Jesus rose from the dead.

The Traditional Days of the Easter Events. Christianity has traditionally held to Sunday, Thursday, Friday, and Sunday as the days when the key Easter events took place. That tradition is based on the idea that Jesus and two criminals were crucified during the day on Friday. Their bodies had to be removed and disposed of before sunset when the Jewish Sabbath or day of rest began. That meant, in turn, that Jesus and his disciples had to celebrate their Passover on Thursday night.

Problems with the Traditional Days. There are some problems with the traditional days of the events.

1. The main problem is how Jesus can be raised to life after three days if he was crucified on Friday. The traditional answer is that part of any day counts as an entire day. So we have part of Friday, all of Saturday, and the part of Sunday before Jesus rose. That makes three days.
2. The problem is complicated, however, when we recall that Jesus said in Matthew 12:40 that just as Jonah was in the belly of a huge fish for three days and nights, so the Son of Man (Jesus) would be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights. If you start counting on Friday, you cannot come up with three nights.
3. The problem also appears in Luke 24 when two disciples are on their way to the town of Emmaus on Easter Sunday. They come across the risen Jesus, but don't recognize him at first. As they talk, one of the disciples talks about it being the "third day since" Jesus was crucified. If Jesus were crucified on Friday, Monday, not Sunday, would be the third day since the crucifixion.

Resolving the Problem? How do we resolve the problem? First, let me say that it really doesn't matter what day the crucifixion happened. What is important is that Jesus died to pay the price of our sins. Most Christians celebrate Christmas on December 25, but no one knows if that's the day Jesus was actually born. In some parts of the church, Jesus' birth is celebrated on January 6. It doesn't really matter.

However, if you would like to resolve the problem, here are a few thoughts:

1. First, realize that if Passover came the week that Jesus was crucified, there could two Sabbath days-the regular one and an additional one for Passover. The Passover Sabbath could have been on Thursday, so the need to get the bodies off the crosses could have been on Thursday, not Friday. It's interesting in this connection that the Greek version of Matthew 28:1 has the word for Sabbath as a plural-"After the Sabbaths..." It's always translated into a singular in our English versions, but a plural would make more sense if there were indeed two Sabbath days.
2. Second, the problem of three days and three nights is not a problem if Jesus died on Thursday.
3. Third, the problem of Easter Sunday being three days since the crucifixion is also eliminated if Jesus died on Thursday.

But there's something else that decides it for me.

Jesus as the Passover Lamb. According to Exodus 12 in the Old Testament, each family had to slaughter a lamb and eat it as part of the Passover celebration. The Passover lamb had to be selected four days before the Passover day. For the next three days, it was kept by itself away from the rest of the flock. On the fourth day following selection, it was offered as a sacrifice.

If Passover fell on the Thursday of the week Jesus rode into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, it means the lambs had been penned up on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. That also means they arrived in Jerusalem on Sunday, the day that Jesus arrived. A conservative estimate is that 186,000 lambs arrived in Jerusalem on that one day. A more generous estimate places the number at 256,000 lambs. Imagine how lambs must have been arriving all day on Sunday. When Jesus rode into town, he might have been surrounded by lambs. The lambs would be put to death on Thursday. So would Jesus.

The bottom line?
The lambs had come to die.
He had come to die.
The lambs were merely symbols to remember when the blood had saved people physically.
Jesus had come so his blood would save people spiritually and for eternity.

I find this to be spiritually a very satisfying way to look at the events of Easter.

Source: A good source of information about this subject is:
James Montgomery Boice, The Gospel of John, Vol. 3 (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1977), 316-23.