Jesus became highly frustrated at the Temple. The people wanted signs to prove to them that he was the Messiah sent from God. So, he gave them the Sign of Jonah.
Three days and three nights, then Jesus would rise victorious. Christians find this exhilarating, but everyone else rolls their eyes. Why? Because, when counted, Jesus was not entombed for three days and three nights.
In the traditional counting of days, they buried Jesus Friday before sunset, before the start of the Jewish day, so that the dead would not remain hanging on the Sabbath. He arose pre-dawn Sunday morning. That makes two days and two nights, the very end of Friday through Saturday night.
An alternate explanation places Jesus’ death on a Wednesday to obtain three days and three nights. This solution is possible since the Passover Sabbath is based on the rising of the full moon and is separate from the weekly Sabbath. For a Wednesday death, Jesus had to have died in the year 0030 or much later in 0037. However, this interpretation does not account for the detail stated in John 19:31, which referred to this as a “special Sabbath,” meaning the Passover Sabbath occurred on the Saturday Sabbath. The “special Sabbath” happened in the year 0033. On that night, the full moon rose in total eclipse, a blood moon described in Joel 2:28-32 and Acts 2:21.
Does that mean the prediction was false? No. It means looking at the surface details fails to illuminate the sign Jesus gave.
Prophets regularly spoke in parables. Jesus was a prophet. These stories taught righteousness and wisdom to young and old, to the studious and the uneducated. They relay information more meaningful than simple facts. Parables convict the soul to fear God and keep His ways. However, people only learn these things if they ponder the deeper meaning within the stories.
The people Jesus addressed looked for faults not insight, so concluding the sign must only mean “in the tomb” is myopic. Jesus used the idiom “in the heart of the earth.” That sounds like the grave, but Jesus did not mention death, and Jonah did not die.
Jesus explained this phrase in the Parable of the Sower (Matthew 13:1-23; Mark 4:1-20; Luke 8:1-15). The earth represented the hearts of men in which God sowed the living word. Therefore, three days and three nights encompass more than physical death. He meant the entire event where God exposed the hearts of men.
The apostle Paul called that event the ultimate sacrifice of atonement. Jesus became the sacrifice as well as the only high priest capable of presenting that sacrifice. He entered the hearts of men and covered their transgressions. (Romans 3:21-26; Hebrews 2:14-18; Hebrews 9:11-14).
Thursday, Jesus entered Jerusalem and asked his followers to remember as they shared the Passover meal. Thursday night, Judas betrayed him with a kiss, and soldiers took Jesus to the High Priest’s house. There, with all the priests, and as the Law prescribed, the first drops of sacrificial blood fell at dawn. Then, blood splashed at the hands of governmental leaders. His blood anointed the public along the road to Golgotha. As Jesus hung in agony, he asked God to forgive those who committed murder and those who followed their leaders. Before the dawn of the fourth day, Jesus arose as our high priest capable of presenting His blood sacrifice in Heaven’s Holy of Holy.
The Sign of Jonah took three days and three nights to expose the dusty hearts of men. Only then could anyone see Jonah as a sign that God sent Jesus.
One Response
Interesting and well explained. Thanks.