The Final Week - Wednesday & Thursday

Traditionally, we celebrate Good Friday on the Friday before Easter Sunday. (duh) However, there is compelling Biblical evidence that Christ celebrated the Last Supper on Wednesday evening, was betrayed and arrested that same evening and then crucified on Thursday. Since this was the time of celebrating Passover, there has been an assumption that Jesus and the disciples celebrated the Passover on Friday. While I do not have enough room to go into a detailed explanation, basically, you have to have an understanding of the Passover, the Feast of Unleavened Bread, and the way in which the Jews reckon time. For instance, the Jewish day begins at sunset on the previous evening. This means, for example, that our Wednesday night is actually Thursday, and our Thursday night is actually Friday. If Christ is placed in the tomb on Thursday afternoon, He is there for three days, which lines up with the scriptural accounts.

Confused? Matthew, Mark and Luke record the disciples' preparation for the Passover on the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed. While the disciples assume they are preparing for the Passover meal, and that it will be held in two days, the meal we traditionally call the Last Supper was actually held on the day before the Passover, known as the Day of Preparation.

One of the most moving reasons for moving away from the traditional time frame is seeing how Jesus' crucifixion becomes the perfect type of the Passover Lamb. Under Hebrew law, the paschal (Passover) lamb is chosen on the tenth day and then kept up until the 14th day, when it is sacrificed for the sins of the people. If you count the days of the Jewish calendar, Christ was crucified on the Day of Preparation, the same day the sacrificial lamb was sacrificed for the Passover meal. Throughout the account of Wednesday and Thursday, more very specific prophecies as revealed in Isaiah 6 and 53, Psalm 41, and Zachariah 13 come to pass. The entire account of this week is an amazing one, full of revelation about Christ's sacrifice for us. Even though I've read these passages many times, I am learning so much this time. PTL