After the Sabbath, Not Instead of the Sabbath

Every Spring, after we finish celebrating Purim (Lots), the Feast of Esther, we begin to prepare our homes and our hearts to celebrate Pesach (Passover). For those unfamiliar with Passover, it is a memorial feast commemorating the Exodus from Egypt. Families gather together around their table and have a Seder which is a meal in which each part of the meal helps to symbolically tell the story of the Exodus. The meal includes four cups of wine, matzah (unleavened bread), salt water and parsley, a shankbone, bitter herbs, and charoseth (a mixture of apples, honey, nuts, raisins, dates, cinnamon, wine). As each of the different foods are eaten, the leader of the Seder reminds those participating of the reason for the food and the part of the Exodus story it represents. As the Seder progresses, there are readings from the book of Exodus that I read as well as special prayers before eating the different foods. 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        As believers in the Messiah, we often use the Seder as an opportunity to share that Yeshua had a Passover Seder with His disciples the evening before He was crucified. As we read through the account the Gospels provide of Yeshua’s Seder, we can see him partaking of the different elements of the Seder meal with his disciples. The symbolism of the Exodus narrative, which included the sacrifice of a lamb and blood being applied to the homes of those who were redeemed, compares perfectly to what was taking place in the death burial and resurrection of Yeshua. The Lamb slain from the foundation of the world whose blood is applied to you and I as we are the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit. 

As we go over the Scripture in the Brit Chadasha (New Testament), it tells us about Yeshua’s death, burial and resurrection. We often focus on things like His arrest, His trial, His Seder meal, His blessing of the bread and the wine, Judah betraying Yeshua, the crucifixion, or even the stone being rolled away for His resurrection. Each of these parts of the story are important and each of them is a powerful fulfillment of prophecies found in the Tanakh (Old Testament). But one thing I have not seen people focus upon when telling the story of Yeshua’s fulfillment of the Passover are the three days that take place between His death and resurrection. 

Now we know that Yeshua said He would be in the ground for three days and three nights as we read in Matthew 12:39-40:

39 But Yeshua replied to them, “An evil and adulterous generation clamors for a sign, yet no sign shall be given to it except the sign of Jonah the prophet. 40 For just as Jonah was in the belly of the great fish for three days and three nights, so the Son of Man will be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights.

We know what date Yeshua died in the Hebrew calendar Nisan 14; however, there is always debate among people about what day of the week Yeshua’s death took place according to the Gregorian Calendar. Was it Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday? A topic for another article. What we know, according to the Bible, is that Yeshua died on the 14th of Nisan and that He resurrected after the Shabbat was completed. We read about this in Mark 16:1-2:

1 When Shabbat was over, Miriam of Magdala, Miriam the mother of Jacob, and Salome bought spices, so that they might come and anoint Yeshua’s body. 2 Very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they come to the tomb.

Many times because of the debate about when Yeshua died and how to count the three days from His death until His resurrection, we don’t even think about why He waited until after the Shabbat was over to be resurrected. The Scriptures point out in both Matthew and Mark that His resurrection was after the Shabbat, as if this information was important to us as the readers to know. Why do both of these Gospel accounts point out that it was after the Sabbath? I don’t think it was simply because of providing a timeline simply saying three days would provide the timeline. I don’t think it was simply because Yeshua’s followers were Jewish and observed the Sabbath, because we already knew that his disciples were all Jewish and kept the Holy Days commanded in Leviticus. 

I think these verses specifically tell us that Yeshua resurrected after the Sabbath to let us know that He chose to honor the Sabbath even after His Death, Burial and, even in, His resurrection. I believe that His choice to resurrect specifically after the Sabbath was a purposeful statement. A statement that His atonement sacrifice, which covered all of our sins, brought redemption to all those who would believe He was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. It did not do away with the importance of observing the Fourth Commandment - the commandment to remember and keep the Sabbath Holy.

I believe that from the moment G-D set the sun, moon, and the stars in the sky to establish the Moedim (appointed times), He planned on the Resurrection to take place after the Sabbath so that we would know that Yeshua didn’t come to do away with the Torah, but to bring it to fullness. Yeshua waited until after the Sabbath even after he paid the penalty for sin and defeated death and hell so that we would know that Sabbath wasn’t something He was sent to defeat or abolish, but that the Sabbath was still to be observed even after His death.