Tradition teaches that the crucifixion of Jesus occurred on Friday in Passion-Week. It is called Good Friday because Christians believe Jesus died on Friday as a sacrifice to save humanity. While his death was a sad and painful event, it brought the ultimate good: forgiveness of sins and eternal life. The word “good” comes from an old meaning that means holy.
In the Hebrew calendar, a new day begins at sunset, in the evening and ends at nightfall the following evening. If you read the story of creation in Genesis 1:5 you will notice that it says “And the evening and the morning were the first day.” From this, they infer that a day begins with evening, that is sunset. Holidays end at nightfall of the date specified in most calendars; that is, at the time it becomes dark outside, about an hour after sunset.
God Instructs Moses
The story of Passover is told in the Book of Exodus (chapter 12). According to the Hebrew Bible, God instructed Moses to take his people (the Israelites) out of enslavement in Egypt. When Pharaoh refused Moses, God unleased 10 plagues on the Egyptians. With each one, God told Pharaoh, “Let my people go,” until He finally released the last and worst of them – death of the firstborn.
During the tenth plague, God commanded the Israelites to offer a Lamb, which the Egyptians worshiped as one of their gods, as a sacrifice. He instructed them to smear its blood on their door posts, marking the household as home of an Israelite. The Hebrew word Pesach translates to “pass over,” because the angel of death passed over these homes and spared the family’s firstborn.
Pharaoh chased the Israelites out of Egypt – forcing them to leave in such haste they didn’t even have time to let their bread to rise. Led by Moses, the former slaves fled and began their journey as God’s chosen people.
The Passion-Week
The Passover was the first of the feasts God appointed for Israel, and the most important. It was to be celebrated during the month of Nisan, the first month on the Jewish lunar calendar. It corresponds to our late March and early April. Passover commemorated the central event in Israel’s history, when God delivered his people from slavery in Egypt. Striking down the firstborn son of every Egyptian family while passing over the Israelite homes that had the blood of a lamb sprinkled around their doors.
The first preparations for the Feast would begin on the evening of the 13th which was the 14th of Nisan. A solemn search was made with lighted candle throughout each house for any leaven that might be hidden or have fallen aside by accident. Such was put away in a save place, and afterwards destroyed with the rest.
The Feast of Unleavened Bread
The Feast of Unleavened Bread followed right after Passover and lasted seven days. While the two are often used interchangeably, they are in fact distinct. After eating the Passover Lamb with unleavened bread, the Israelites were to continue eating unleavened bread – without yeast – for seven more days. In the Bible, yeast was typically used as a symbol for sin and its pervasive effect. By eating unleavened bread, the Israelites were reminded to keep themselves from sinful influences. The first day of Unleavened Bread that followed would’ve been the day Jesus spent in the tomb. He was the true bread from heaven, the only one who can give life to those who trust him.
The feast foreshadowed the sacrifice of Jesus, who ate his final Passover meal with his disciples on the night he was betrayed. He then became our ultimate Passover Lamb. Shedding his own blood on the cross to deliver those who trust in him, both Jews and Gentiles, from our sins. During Jesus’ final Passover, he inaugurated the Last Supper. Telling his disciples that the bread represented his body broken for them.
Feast of First Fruits
Like the Feast of Unleavened Bread (Leviticus 23:6), the Feast of First Fruits (Leviticus 23:10) is often conflated with Passover but is distinct from it. In fact, Unleavened Bread and First Fruits overlap, with the latter beginning on the third day after Passover. First Fruits marked the start of the spring harvest, celebrating the goodness of God in providing for Israel. To express their dependence of God, the Israelites would bring a sheaf of grain and wave it before the Lord.
The beginning of First Fruits was also the day Jesus rose from the grave. Writing about the Resurrection, Paul referred to Jesus as the First Fruits from the dead. Like the symbolic sheaf of grain, Jesus was the beginning of a spiritual harvest. All of us who belong to him will rise with him into new resurrection life.
The Lamb was Chosen
On the 10th day of the first month (Nisan/Abib), each household was commanded to take a lamb. It had to be a male, one year old, and completely without defect. If a family was too small to eat an entire lamb, they were to share one with their immediate neighbour. Based on the number of people and how much each person would eat. The Israelites brought the selected animal into their dwelling, keeping it penned or closely observed inside. They kept the lamb in their care for four days (from the 10th until the 14th day). This allowed families to thoroughly inspect the animal to ensure it remained defect-free. Tradition notes it allowed the household to grow familiar with the lamb before its substitutionary sacrifice. On the 14th day of the same month, the entire assembly of the congregation of Israel was to slaughter the lamb at twilight (dusk).
Palm Sunday
The first day in Passion-Week (10th of Nisan) saw the royal entry into Jerusalem. Jesus was about to make entry into Jerusalem as King. King of the Jews, as Heir of David’s royal line, with all of symbolic, typic, and prophetic import attached to it. Yet not as Israel after the flesh expected its Messiah, the Son of David to make a triumphal entrance, but as deeply and significantly expressive of His Mission and Work, and as the prophet Isaiah had beheld afar off the outlined picture of the Messiah-King. Not in the proud triumph of war-conquest, but in the “meek” ruler of peace. It was a day in early spring of the year 29, when the festive procession set out from a home in Bethany to Jerusalem.
Jesus returned to the Temple to teach on the second and third day in the Passion-Week. Three busy days of Passion-Week were past. Only two days more, as the Jews reckoned them – Wednesday and Thursday – and at Wednesday evening the Paschal (Passover) Supper. Jesus spent Wednesday with his disciples, speaking to them of His Crucifixion. They sorely needed His words; they, rather than He, needed to be prepared for what was coming.
The Passover
The fifth Day in Passion-Week began on the 14th day of Nisan, that is, from the appearances of the first three stars on Wednesday evening (the evening of what had been the 14th day of Nisan). This was the evening when Jesus ate the Paschal meal with his disciples. He was later arrested and taken for trial by the Jewish leadership. It was Thursday morning at 9AM that Jesus was put on the cross and at 3PM that afternoon he died.
This all occurred on Thursday, the 14th of Nisan, not Friday as Church tradition has taught. The misunderstanding occurred when all four Gospels (Matthew 27i:62; Mark 15:P42; Luke 23:54; John 19:31) tells us the crucifixion day was called “the preparation.” The preparation day for the Sabbath. But for what Sabbath? The fourteenth day of the first month is the Passover of the LORD. And in the fifteenth day of the month is the start of the “Feast of Unleavened Bread” (Numbers 28:16-18). This day was also called a Sabbath day as no work was to be preformed.
Historians have mistakenly taken the weekly Sabbath day rather than the start of the “Feast of Unleavened Bread,” to which “the preparation” referred to. Friday should not be called Good Friday. Thursday should be known as Good Thursday. This explanation will help to understand that Jesus died on Thursday and He spent three days and three nights in the grave according to scripture (Matthew 12:39-40).