3 Days 3 Nights

Matthew 12:38-40
This promise meant that 72 hours would pass from His death to His resurrection and that this would be the sign for the Jews that He was who He said He was (the Messiah). The Friday crucifixion with a resurrection before sunrise on Sunday morning totals approximately 36 hours. If we understood Y’Shua to mean that within three days and three nights He would rise again, then any period short of that would suffice. But He taught that after three days and three nights in the heart of the earth, and then He would rise again. This logically would require the crucifixion on a Wednesday, then the daylight and nighttime periods of Thursday, Friday, and Saturday would be three days and three nights. We count from His actual death shortly after 3 PM.
You'll notice that the above text from Matthew 27 recorded that the chief priests met with Pilate the next morning after the crucifixion to get permission to post a guard and seal the tomb. The Bible records that this was the day after the day of preparation. This day of preparation is the 14th of Abib/Nisan, when the homes were scoured for any leavened bread within the house and a preparation of food was readied for the Passover meal, and the Feast of Unleavened Bread [Mark 15:42, Luke 23:54, John 19:14, 31, 42]. Therefore, the grave of Y’Shua was not sealed until the morning of the 15th of Abib/Nisan, on the annual Sabbath. In the text from John 19:31, we learn that the body of Y’Shua needed to be removed from the cross because the Sabbath was about to begin and that Sabbath was a high day or annual Sabbath. This is consistent with the other verses which teach that the day of preparation was the day that Y’Shua died.
The lamb was killed between 3 and 6 PM on the afternoon of the 14th of Abib/Nisan and prepared, because the 15th was the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which was an annual Sabbath observance (the first and last days of Unleavened Bread were annual Sabbaths in addition to the normal weekly Sabbaths).
"On the fourteenth day of the first month--between the two evenings (at twilight)--is the Passover to Yahweh (YHVH). And on the fifteenth day of this month is the Feast of Unleavened Bread to Yahweh (YHVH); seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall have a holy convocation; you shall not do any laborious work. But for seven days you shall present an offering by fire to Yahweh (YHVH). On the seventh day is a holy convocation; you shall not do any laborious work." Leviticus 23:5-8”.
The Passover meal was an important religious observance in which to remember that the blood of the lamb on the doorposts of their houses kept them alive when the angel of death passed by, and that G-d had delivered them from slavery in Egypt. The Passover is a perpetual observance to celebrate passing from death to life. These ancient events foretold the blood of Y’Shua being spilled for our sins, and our passage from death to eternal life, by the everlasting covenant of the blood of Y’Shua. They also foretold that Y’Shua would die as the national Passover Lamb, exactly on the 14th of Abib/Nisan and that the day following was an annual Sabbath.
But the Jews (Judeans), because it was the day of preparation (evening of the Sabbath), they were saying, "These bodies should not pass the night on their crosses, because the Sabbath say is approaching, for that Sabbath was a high day (an annual Sabbath)." And they asked Pilate to break the legs of those who had been crucified, and they would be taken away (die quickly). John 19:31.
And it was the Preparation Day (the eve of the High Sabbath), and the Sabbath was about to begin. Now these women who had come with Him out of Galilee were approaching; and they saw the tomb and how His body had been laid. And they returned and prepared sweet spices and ointments. Then on the Sabbath they rested according to the commandment. Luke 23:54-56
Now notice on the Jewish calendar the days ran from 6 pm to 6 pm, were the Greek calendars are from midnight to midnight – of course Y’Shua went under the Hebrew way, we chose to follow the Greek.
But on the first day of the week at early dawn while it was dark they came to the tomb; they brought the sweet spices, these they had prepared. And there were with them other women. And they found that the stone was rolled away from the tomb. Luke 23:56, 24:1-2.
The women saw Y’Shua' body being laid in the tomb on a Wednesday afternoon, they rested on the annual Sabbath on Thursday, and bought spices on Friday. They prepared the spices on Friday and then rested according to the commandment on the weekly Sabbath on Saturday. After the weekly Sabbath, ending at 6 pm, they intended to anoint Y’Shua' body with the perfumes and spices. Therefore both intuitively and by evidence, we have proven that Passover was on a Wednesday, and that Y’Shua did as He had said, which was to rise again after three days and three nights.
You'll notice through a comparison of the four gospels that Mary Magdalene and the disciples went to the tomb a number of times. In some it was still dark, and in some it was already light. It wasn't until it was light on Sunday that they actually discovered that He had risen, in the first visits the tomb was empty. The above text in John 20, tells us of the first visit by Mary Magdalene when it was dark, the tomb was empty, and she had not been told that Y’Shua was risen, and only saw the stone rolled away. There is one verse which seems to tell us that Y’Shua rose on the first day of the week. Now after He had risen early on the first day of the week, He first appeared to Mary Magdalene, from whom He had cast out seven demons. Mark 16:9. The above text would seem to conclusively prove that Y’Shua rose early in the evening on the first day of the week, (after 6 pm) what we would call Saturday night. This makes the verse consistent with all the four gospels, where Mary Magdalene visited the grave, shortly after the Sabbath ended, and saw the empty grave with the stone rolled away, but did not see an angel or see Y’Shua. It was later, when the sun had risen on Sunday morning that she came with Mary the mother of James and Salome back to the tomb, saw an angel who told her that he had risen, and then saw Y’Shua. One can imagine that Mary asked Mary Magdalene, "Who would roll away the stone?" as they approached the tomb, since Mary Magdalene had not mentioned that she had been there earlier and saw the empty grave. Then she went and told the disciples that she saw the angel and saw Y’Shua. What any reader should realize is that the Holy Spirit gave us the four gospels with fragments of the story in each, and it takes a study of all together, to arrive at the complete picture. The following verse clearly shows us that Mary Magdalene came to the grave as the weekly Sabbath was ending at 6 pm. Now late on the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to look at the grave. Matthew 28:1.
Y’Shua was buried at the beginning of the Feast of Unleavened Bread since His body was interred at sundown of Passover day. Crucifixion normally took three days. The Roman utilized this slow and terrible way of death to terrify the population of provincial Israel.
The young, strong carpenter of Galilee was dead in just six hours. He was placed on the cross at 9 am. ‘The third hour’ and taken down at 3 pm. There was then time enough to wrap the body and bury it at sundown. The answer to why He died in six hours is that’s all the time He could spare. Our L-rd never omitted a feast.
Candles burn out, flowers fade away, bread gets moldy, and wine turns sour, but as He dwells in us, we become His living sign to the world.
He said, “You are witnesses of these things.” (Lk. 24:48).
Sabbath Shalom = have a good day in the Sabbath - Sabbath peace