Sunday Devotional
The Last Supper Chronology
Pastor Wes
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Hey church! If you’re joining us live tonight from 5-7pm, then stop watching and wait for the live version tonight. If you are missing our-in-person fellowship or have missed it, then keep watching! Have you ever read something in the Bible, and it didn’t seem to make much sense, and so you just kind of skipped over it and ignored it? Maybe you’ve read something that seems to clash historically, scientifically, philosophically with what you know to be true, and each time you read something like that in the bible, your view of the Bible’s truth and accuracy diminishes a little? I want to encourage you that God’s word is 100% true and accurate, and that there are good answers out there to our questions. As we study the bible, we have to sometimes be scientists, dissecting and putting together pieces, unfolding layers of history and culture in order to understand clearly. Now maybe some folks are ok with not understanding a lot, but for me, I want answers to my questions. And many of my questions have been answered over the years as I read and study more, and I’m sure there are more questions that will come up and be answered at a later time. This past week as I was studying, I stumbled across an answer to a question I’ve had for quite some time, and I want to share with you what I’ve learned.
As we continue our chronological walk through the gospels, we are looking at the events that took place just days before Jesus’ crucifixion. And I’ve never quite understood the timeline of the last supper, the crucifixion, and then the resurrection. Traditionally we’ve understood the last supper to take place on a Thursday night, after which Jesus is arrested and put on trial all night, leading to His wrongful conviction and then crucifixion on Friday, Saturday is the Sabbath, and then Sunday morning He is resurrected. Now the problem arises when we read something that Jesus said in Matthew 12:40, He says “for just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” Now maybe we can stretch our minds a little and think 3 days as in Friday crucifixion (1), Saturday (2), and Sunday morning resurrection (3), but we’re definitely missing from the equation 3 nights. Under this timeline, we just have Friday and Saturday night. I’ve always passed off this “apparent contradiction” as Jesus was just speaking in “generalities” and it wasn’t meant to be taken as 100% accurate. Well this week, I stumbled upon a view presented in the margins of one of my chronological Bibles, that led me to dig deeper, do some more research, and what I learned at first blew my mind, but after sorting it all out, I believe there is a good answer to reconciling Jesus’ words and His final days’ timeline, and I want to share it with you now. So, everyone put on your CSI (Crime Scene Investigation) thinking caps and let’s figure this out!
The first thing we have to understand about the Jewish culture reckoning of days, is that they considered the next day to begin at nightfall. In other words, our Wednesday night after the sun sets, would be considered by Biblical Jews as the beginning of Thursday, and our Thursday night is the beginning of their Friday, and so forth. The Jews counted days as being sundown to sundown, and our view of a day being sun up to sun up was also shared by the Romans. Sometimes the Gospel letters describe days as per the Roman calculation, and sometimes as per the Jewish calculation. The second thing we need to understand culturally is how the Passover celebration, and “Feast of Unleavened Bread” worked. God’s instructions for the Passover are recorded in Exodus 12 and Leviticus 23. The Passover is to be celebrated in the first month of the Jewish year (Nisan). On the 10th day of that month, a lamb was to be chosen for sacrifice, and on the 14th day it would be slaughtered and then eaten at the end of the day- which again, at nightfall would already be the next day, the 15th of the month. That 15th day would be considered a “special Sabbath”- in other words whatever day the 15th of the month happened to be, whether it was a Tuesday, Wednesday, or Friday, etc.- that day would become like Saturday- the Sabbath- when no work was done and the day was dedicated to honoring the Lord and resting.
It appears the 14th day of the month fell on a Thursday during Christ’s last week on earth. So the Passover lamb would have been sacrificed that Thursday, with that day also being referred to as the “Day of Preparation”, and the Passover meal eaten that Thursday night, and then Friday would be the “Special Sabbath” day of rest- the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Now Jewish culture had drifted from God’s original instructions to Moses about the Passover meal and the Feast of Unleavened bread. What ended up happening is that Jewish families mixed the Passover and the weeklong Feast of Unleavened Bread together. Passover day was also the 1st day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, when originally it had been intended to be Passover, and then the next day starts the Feast of Unleavened Bread. The people would have sacrificed their lamb at home the 14th day (Thursday), often earlier in the day, and then the priests in the temple would sacrifice their lambs later in the day and then eat the official Passover meal that night. What some scholars suggest is that Jesus wasn’t eating the Passover/last supper with His disciples that Thursday night, rather it was actually Wednesday night. Then the timeline would thus follow with Jesus being arrested that Wednesday night, tried throughout the night, and then Thursday morning crucified- on the actual day that the priests traditionally sacrificed the Passover lambs. That would certainly give us the 3 days and 3 nights Jesus predicted from Matthew 12:40, and certainly would seem fitting considering that the Passover lamb was to be chosen the 10th day of the month, and sacrificed the 14th day. The 10th day would have been Sunday, Jesus’ triumphant entry, when He was “chosen” as King. And He was THE Passover Lamb, the ultimate expression and fulfilment of the whole Passover, it would only make sense that He was sacrificed on the 14th day, Thursday to fully complete that role.
So, let’s walk through this timeline, beginning in Matthew’s account in chapter 26, starting in verse 17, but I’ll insert the other gospels’ details as we go. Let’s assume now that Jesus tells His disciples to make the preparations for the Passover, Wednesday evening. (approaching the darkness of Thursday, which is the Passover day and First day of Unleavened Bread). They follow the guy carrying a water pitcher, leading them up to the guest room, and the disciples prepare the room. (Matt. 26:17-19) There they are reclined (Matthew 26:20) which might indicate they weren’t yet celebrating the Passover meal- since, according to Exodus 12:11, the Passover meal was to be eaten with loins girded, sandals on feet, staff in hand, in haste- commemorating the quick salvation of the Lord and journey out of Egypt.
As they’re reclined, Jesus is recorded by Luke saying “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer; for I say to you, I shall never again eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.” (Luke 22:14-16) I always assumed Jesus was speaking about the current meal they were eating, but perhaps it makes better sense that Jesus was saying how much he had wanted to eat the Passover meal with them, yet instead He would suffer and wouldn’t get to eat it again until it was fulfilled in the Kingdom of God.
This Wednesday night last supper timeline also makes sense when considering Jesus (in the book of John) telling Judas “What you do, do quickly” and Judas leaving during the meal- the disciples supposing that Jesus was saying to him “Buy the things we have need of for the feast.” (John 13:27-29) If they were already celebrating the big Passover feast meal on Thursday night, why would the disciples assume Judas was going out to buy things in preparation for the feast? (and just to clarify, the context of “feast” is referring to the Feast of the Passover, as indicated by verse 1 of the same chapter 13)
Further evidence is gathered from the book of John, he tells us that after Jesus’ trial that night in front of the high priest, in the following morning Jesus was taken to Pilate, and the religious leaders would not enter into Pilates’ Palace- why? Because they didn’t want to be defiled and disqualified from eating the Passover meal, (John 18:28) that would take place later, on Thursday night. If it had already been Thursday night, and this was now Friday morning, they would have already eaten the Passover meal and wouldn’t be worried about entering the palace. The obvious conclusion is that this morning with Pilate is Thursday, with the previous last supper night being Wednesday.
Then after Jesus had been crucified, and died, He was taken down from the cross by Joseph of Arimathea, and Luke mentions that day was the “preparation day,” the day before the Sabbath. (Luke 23:54) The preparation day Luke mentions is the day that the Passover lamb is traditionally prepared (slaughtered, bleed out, skinned, and cooked) in order to be eaten as the Passover meal that night, and the Sabbath he is referring to must then mean not Saturday the Sabbath, but the special Sabbath that takes place the day after the Passover. That special sabbath day during that week, again, would have landed on Friday.
In addition to all these verses, the gospels give us a day by day timeline starting from Jesus’ triumphant Palm Sunday entrance into Jerusalem. (for example: Mark 11:12 “On the next day,” Mark 11:20 “in the morning”) It would be more natural to see the corresponding events being described referring to Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, instead of them referring to events that took place on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday with there being no record of anything happening on Wednesday.
So, there is very substantial evidence spread through each of the gospel books for the timeline that Jesus ate a meal with His disciples actually Wednesday night, was killed and buried on Passover Thursday, then Friday and Saturday He remained in the tomb, and Sunday He resurrected back to life. His prediction of being buried three days and three nights makes sense now. And what a more fitting way to see the correlation between Jesus as the Passover Lamb if He actually was sacrificed on the day of Passover, when lambs were sacrificed. The scene in the upper room makes much more sense with them all reclined at the table, and with Jesus advising a different, new “Passover” tradition, breaking the bread and saying “Take, eat; this is my body” and passing the cup saying “Drink from it, all of you; for this is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for forgiveness of sins.” (Matthew 26:26-28) This new, different Passover would be played out before their very eyes the next day, on Passover. As all of Israel ate the Passover meal that Thursday night, graphic images of Jesus’ broken body and blood spilled out, just hours earlier, would be playing non-stop within the disciples’ minds. Mystery solved!
Now, maybe you don’t get as excited as I do in hammering out the correlation of details contained in the Bible. But what I want you to walk away with, is a confidence in knowing that the Bible is true and accurate, and that it is worthy of being studied, wrestled with, and defended.