Anchor My Faith

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Author: Stephen Weller
811 words, 4 minutes read time

A Conflict Exposed

Scripture: Luke 22:7

In the previous lesson a diagram was presented to summarize what was covered in the previous three lessons. With this lesson we will try to get back to our harmonization study, but first a comment about Jerry Peyton’s outline that we are following. In that outline, he did not record any events on Wednesday. When one places the death of Jesus on Friday the events we are about to cover must start on Thursday, but if his death occurred on Thursday then the events he covers on Thursday are covered on Wednesday. I cannot change his outline but in my lessons I am going to deviate from his outline to fit match our diagram.

Lk 22:7 Then came the day of Unleavened Bread, on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed. 8 So Jesus sent Peter and John, saying, “Go and prepare the Passover for us, that we may eat it.”

Looking back at our diagram, we notice that the day of Unleavened Bread is Nisan 14 or our Thursday. Since Jesus is our Passover Lamb, he must die on Thursday along with the Passover Lambs if we are to maintain the parallel symbolism. According to our diagram, Jesus will be dead and in the grave at the time they were to eat the Passover meal. To follow this verse, we are forced to accept the traditional belief that Jesus died on Friday to allow them to eat the Passover meal on the beginning of Nisan 15. Accepting this Friday death destroys the sign of Jonah and creates a problem.

Researching this further brought me to John 18:28 and John 19:14. John 18:28 (ESV) reads: “Then they led Jesus from the house of Caiaphas to the governor’s headquarters. It was early morning. They themselves did not enter the governor’s headquarters, so that they would not be defiled, but could eat the Passover.” John makes it very clear that Jesus will not be eating the Passover meal because he has been arrested. From our diagram, Jesus would have been arrested Wednesday evening at the beginning of Nisan 14.

John 19 details the cry of the people to crucify Jesus. ¹³ “[Pilate] brought Jesus out and sat down on the judgment seat at a place called The Stone Pavement, and in Aramaic Gabbatha. ¹⁴ Now it was the day of Preparation of the Passover. It was about the sixth hour (about noon our time). He said to the Jews, “Behold your King!” ¹⁵ They cried out, “Away with him, away with him, crucify him!” Pilate said to them, “Shall I crucify your King?” The chief priests answered, “We have no king but Caesar.” ¹⁶ So he delivered him over to them to be crucified” (John 19:13 – 16 ESV). Then in John 19:30, Jesus bowed his head and gave up his spirit. Jesus was now dead. Verse 31 then states that it was the day of Preparation and Nisan 14 (Thursday) according to our diagram.

All seems well, but if we read on we encounter a problem: 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. ³² So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first, and of the other who had been crucified with him. ³³ But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. ³⁴ But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water.” (John 19:31 – 34 ESV).

Verse 31 states that the day of Preparation was before the Sabbath and that the Sabbath was a high day. Most claim that this proves that Jesus died on Friday because the next day was the Sabbath. However, in parenthesis is the statement that the Sabbath being referred to was a high day; a special day that we spoke about in Lesson 636. This was a special week of two Sabbaths and puts the death of Jesus on Thursday as expressed in our diagram.

Conclusion

We began this lesson with Jesus instructing his disciples to go and prepare the Passover meal, but according to our diagram Jesus would be in the grave at that time. These instructions are found in Matthew, Mark and Luke, but when the gospel of John is checked, we find Jesus being crucified before the Passover meal. This puts Matthew, Mark and Luke in conflict with John and as a result a great debate continues among scholars over how to resolve this. Did Jesus eat the Passover meal and if so, when?