Understanding the Passion Week

I've been studying Leviticus in my devotionals lately, and it's made me interested in studying the different feasts and ceremonies instituted in for the Hebrew people in the Old Testament and how they were fulfilled by Christ's earthly ministry.  So today I've been studying the timeline of Christ's death, burial, and resurrection and how it coincided with the timeline of the Jewish practices of choosing a lamb, observing passover, and then observing the feast of unleavened bread.  In so doing, I'm come to the conclusion that Jesus was crucified not on the 6th day of the week (Friday) as is traditionally assumed, but on Thursday.  This doesn't really make any significant difference to my day to day walk with Christ, but is is really awesome to see how God was preparing His people for what he planned to do with these various feasts and practices from long, long before Christ fulfilled them.

I'm inserting my conclusions here more for my own future reference than for any other reason:

*the Jewish day begins at twilight, or 6PM

*Nissan is the 1st month of the Jewish calendar, during which they were to observe the Passover each year.

We can know which day of Nissan each event of the passion week ocurred on by counting forward from the 9th of Nissan when Jesus was in Bethany, and we know which day of the week each event occurred on by counting backward from the first day of the week (Sunday) when he rose from the dead.

10th of Nissan (Sunday) - Jesus enters Jerusalem on "Lamb selection day." (God presents His chosen lamb to the people on this day, sending Him into Jerusalem)

·      Matthew 12 points out that it was the day after he was anointed at Bethany, which happened 6 days before the Passover (9th of Nissan)

·      Matthew 12:1 and 12 - "Six days before the Passover, Jesus therefore came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead…  The next day the large crowd that had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem.

·      Exodus 12:3 "Tell all the congregation of Israel that on the tenth day of this month every man shall take a lamb according to their fathers' houses, a lamb for a household."

·      We conclude that it was a Sunday working backward from Jesus' resurrection day, which we know was a Sunday (see following).

11th - 13th of Nissan Jesus was with his disciples.  Also, the passover lambs were cared for by the families for these 3 days before they were slaughtered on the day of preparation, Nissan 14.  During these three days, Jesus taught and prayed for His disciples (some of my most treasured teachings - John 12-17)

13th of Nissan  (Wednesday) Jesus has the last supper with His disciples

·      We conclude that it was Wednesday working backward from the day Jesus rose from the dead, on Sunday.  (See following)

14th of Nissan (preparation day) Jesus is sentenced to death, tortured, and finally dies on the cross around 3pm (or the 9th hour).  This was also the day that the passover lambs were slaughtered, and then eaten at twilight.  Jesus fulfills the passover feast here by becoming our ultimate passover lamb.

·      Matthew 27:46-50 - " And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” ⁴⁷ And some of the bystanders, hearing it, said, “This man is calling Elijah.” ⁴⁸ And one of them at once ran and took a sponge, filled it with sour wine, and put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink. ⁴⁹ But the others said, “Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to save him.” ⁵⁰ And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit."

Jesus was in the tomb 3 days and 3 nights (From Nissan 14 until Nissan 17)

·      Matthew 12:40 - "For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth."

15th of Nissan - The day immediately after Christ's death was a Sabbath, or a "high Sabbath" because it was the first day of the feast of unleavened bread.  Every year the 14th day of Nissan (the first month of the Jewish year) the Passover meal was eaten at twilight, and the following day was a "high Sabbath," "special Sabbath," or as it's sometimes referred to today, a "floating Sabbath" regardless of which day of the week it actually fell on.   Because the day after Christ's death was one of these high Sabbaths, his body had to be buried before hand.

·      John 19: 31 - "Since it was the day of Preparation, and so that the bodies would not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day), the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken and that they might be taken away."

·      Leviticus 23: 5-7  " In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at twilight, is the Lord's Passover. ⁶ And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the Feast of Unleavened Bread to the Lord; for seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. ⁷ On the first day you shall have a holy convocation; you shall not do any ordinary work."

One cool side note about this day being the first day of the feast of unleavened bread, is that on this day the whole Jewish nation would be praying for life out of the earth, as the body of Christ had just been placed in the earth.

Nissan 17, 1st Day of the week - Jesus rose from the dead

·      John 20:1 - "Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb."

A cool side note about this day, is that as the day after the Sabbath, it would have been the feast of first fruits, so Jesus, the first fruits of the resurrection, rose out of the earth on the feast of first fruits.  On the same day that Jesus rose from the dead, the priests would be waving the sheaf offering of first fruits, the very first heads of barley harvested and offered to God before the 7 week period began in which the rest of the grain harvest would be gathered in (which typifies the gathering of the rest of the elect into God's kingdom which would begin after Christ's saving work of death and resurrection). 
*a great resource fore learning about the festival typology:  http://www.biblicalperspectives.com/books/festivals_2/1.html

So to work everything backward from resurrection day, which we know to be the 1st day of the week (what we call Sunday):

Sunday - Jesus rose from the dead (John 20:1)

Saturday before - in the tomb

Friday before - in the tomb

Thursday before - Jesus laid in the tomb after trial and death.  

Wednesday before  - arrested in the garden after the last supper after spending the day with the disciples (3 days were spent with the Passover lamb before the day of preparation, Nissan 14)

Tuesday before - spent with disciples

Monday before - spent with disciples

Sunday before - Jesus enters Jerusalem on the day after being anointed at Bethany)

Saturday before (Nissan 9) - Jesus anointed at Bethany

How are you?

How are you?

Probably one of the most spoken phrases of the English language, it is both simple and complex in meaning.  In response one could communicate anything - literally anything that they want to about themselves and it would be technically speaking appropriate (though very possibly not culturally appropriate, as my husband points out).  So when someone asks me this question, I can answer by saying, "I'm fine," and tell the other person absolutely nothing, or I can tell them about my day, or I can tell them about my life.  And yet I know, and you know, that if I were to respond by telling you about my life, you would very quickly become bored, confused, and frustrated with the way I have hijacked our conversation.  You might never ask me again.

How are you?

As a child of God, this question poses a dilemma for me.  Technically speaking I AM fine.  Actually, I'm more than fine.  I'm absolutely loved, and I have been provided and equipped for a high calling.  And yet, I live in a broken world, so I do not always feel fine.  So when people ask how I am, I must take it to mean, "how do you feel?"  And if the answer is that I feel something less than that I am absolutely loved and provided with and equipped for a high calling, then I must consider whether my feelings result from a disbelief that demands repentance.

How are you?

Such a loaded question.  So I ask myself, is there a better question to ask?  What ought we really seek to know about each other?  We DO live in a fallen world, and we ARE called to bare each other's burdens, so perhaps we ought to ask about what those might be?  Yet each of us has only earned the respect and integrity in the lives of a select few to earn that kind of information sharing.  So when speaking with someone who you may or may not have earned said clearance with, what would the safe, yet helpful, question be?  Perhaps, "Is there a burden that I can help you bear today?" - no, much too surgical.  How about, "How can I pray for you today?"  Yes.

A few other good ones:

What is God teaching you?

What joy has God given you today?

What comfort?

What encouragement?

What affection?

What sympathy?

Hmm… and I'm still trying to wrap my mind around "participation in the Spirit," but if you think you've got some of that, then tell me about it too, ok?  :) 

*Philippians 2

*Galatians 6

Goosbumps

I've been reading through Leviticus in my devotions lately, and I came to one of those stories, today, that gives me goosebumps just thinking about how awesome it must have been.  Leviticus 9 is an account of the ceremony that took place at the tabernacle when the priests were beginning their ministry.  The tent of meeting had just been set up, things were kicking off, and God organized an assembly of all of the people so that they would all witness what He was going to do.  After a series of slaughterings and burnings (the tabernacle must have been a seriously smelly place!) God showed up.  Out of the Holy of Holys flies a beam of fire, moving right in front of their eyes to burn up the offering on the altar and show all in attendance that GOD was there and all of this was HIS idea and HIS pleasure.  "And when all the people saw it, they shouted for joy and fell facedown." (v. 24) 

Can you even imagine?  What if this happened today when a church held it's first worship service?  How incredible it must have been.

And the part that really gives me goosebumps is to think about how God did this again when the temple was constructed (2 Chronicles 7), and again when the temple was moved to the hearts of men (pentacost- Acts 2).  Each time God confirmed with the fire of His presence that that He was choosing to dwell and work in THIS place. 

The more I read about the work of the priests in the tabernacle, the more I wonder at how God calls us a priesthood, and our bodies His temple.  What a sacred and holy calling we have!

[EDIT] more on this here.