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Easter Observance: Are we celebrating the Messiah or Rejecting Him?

img of Easter Observance: Are we celebrating the Messiah or Rejecting Him?

Easter is celebrated by Christian all over the world involving many custom and traditions. It is one the most popular Christian festival next to Christmas yet from a religious standpoint it is important than Christmas. So how did it began? Who commenced it? Did Messiah told His disciples to observe it or did the New Testament church observe it? What is the relation between Easter bunnies and eggs with Messiah and how is it connected to His death and His resurrection? Is Good Friday and Easter festivals affirm the only sign He gave us which was the sign of Jonah? (Matt. 12:40) or deny it, thus rejecting Him as the Messiah?

Read More, the answers will shock you!


Most of the people do what they do without ever questioning why or where did it come from, just following what they have been taught. They just assume it is true, since everyone around them are doing it.

But the Bible says,

but test everything; hold fast what is good.

I Thes 5:21 (ESV)

We will test Easter and Good Friday not by the traditions of men, but through the Living Word.

The Sign Of Jonah

Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered him, saying, “Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.” But he answered them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.

Matt 12:38-41 (ESV)

The Pharisees had remained unconvinced that he was the Son of God despite curing a demon possessed man who was mute and blind. Then one of them asked him to give them a sign, that they may believe that He was the Messiah. To them He gave no sign but “the Sign of Jonah”, “Just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.”.

Jesus was clearly paralleling the people of Nineveh to the Pharisees, Jonah to Himself, “Behold, someone greater than Jonah is here” and the belly of the great fish to the heart of the earth - dead in the grave and finally the important parallel - the period of time. Same as Jonah was in the belly of the great fish for three days and three night, so will the Son of Man be dead in the grave for three days and three nights.

Now the question is, was three days and three nights period really a defined period of time or did He suddenly use figure of speech in the midst of paralleling other things - people of Nineveh, Jonah and belly of great to Pharisees, Himself and the grave respectively? If it is not a figure of speech, how does this sign - “The Sign of Jonah” coincide with the tradition of Good Friday and Easter? The period between Good Friday and Easter Morning is two nights and one day and not three days and three night. Is this sign of any significance, if so how much of a significant was it?

The Colossal Significance of the Sign of Jonah

Is it any surprise that the devil will always want to deny that Christ the Messiah? So is it any surprise that he would relegate the story of Jonah and the Whale to mere folklore, myth, symbolism or “figure of speech”? If Jonah and the great fish never happened, then Christ’s sign which was based entirely upon it would become pointless and hallow allegory. So of course devil would want to do that.

Understand what’s at stake here, Jesus placed his entire identity on this sign. If that turns out to be false, then He failed His only sign, thus He’s not our Savior and nothing He says can’t be trusted. And also, if He had failed to fulfil His sign, He would fail His prophecy, making Him a false prophet and thus He’s not our Savior. In both case, He would not be our Messiah, and the world would have no Savior!

We shall talk about Jonah and great fish in another article, but today we will look into His prophecy and whether Easter celebration approves it or rejects it.

Make no mistakes by thinking that this sign pertains only to His resurrection and not the time period He was dead in the grave. This was the test of His sign, that he would be dead for three days and three nights and resurrect after that.

Bible scholars and other church leaders when talking about the sign of Jonah, will-fully ignore three days and three nights. While some would go to greater extent to prove that three days and three nights are not actually three days and three nights by twisting the words of Messiah and Bible.

But is three days and three nights not actual three days and three nights as they claim? Does it represent three period of time - either day or night in Greek language? Or were Hebrews three days and three night different from us, the one we use today? Let’s find out!

Three Days and Three Nights

In Greek

Let’s examine different verses to get better understanding of what’s written about Messiah’s death, resurrection and the time in between them in Greek.

He was raised on the third day

Matt 16:21, 17:23, 20:19; Mark 9:31, 10:34; Luke 9:22, 18:33, 24:7, 24:46; Acts 10:40 and I Cor 15:4 uses the word third day. These were all translated from the Greek word “τῇ τρίτῃ ἡμέρᾳ” (Gtr. te trite hemera). “te trite hemera” literally means “on the third day” (D.F. Hudson p105; Ward Powers p112; H.P.V. Nunn p47), that is, at some particular point in time on that day.

Jesus died on the day of Passover (Not on Good Friday) which was 14th of the First Month (Leviticus 23:5; Numbers 9:5; Ezra 6:19) and the Preparation Day (John 19:31). He died on the 9th hour of that day, which is around 3 pm in the afternoon. There are two ways to interpret the “third day”.

One is to count from the day of His death, which is 15th would be first day, 16th second and third day would be 17th of that month. Another way is to understand the “third day” as “the third day of the feast of unleavened bread”, which is also 17th of the First Month. In both cases Jesus had raised on the 17th day of that month.

He was raised in three days

Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days (Greek: ἐν τρισὶν ἡμέραις) I will raise it up.” The Jews then said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days (Greek: ἐν τρισὶν ἡμέραις)?” But he was speaking about the temple of his body.

John 2:19-21

In both of these verses the words - three days is translated from the Greek words ἐν τρισὶν ἡμέραις (Gtr. en trisin hemerais). It means at some point in time during a three days period of time. From the above section we know that it was specifically at a point of time in the third day of that period, which is 17th of the first month.

He was raised during three days

In Mat 26:59-61 and Mark 14:55-58 we see that the chief priest and the council had brought false witnesses to testify against Jesus. They brought in two false witnesses who said, “This fellow said, I am able to destroy the temple of God, and to build it in three days”. The phrase “in three days” is translated from the Greek words διὰ τριῶν ἡμερῶν (Gtr. dia trion hemeron), which means, “time during which” (D.F. Hudson p105; Ward Powers p108; H.P.V. Nunn p43). These false witness thought He was talking about building the Temple in three days. So during three days makes sense in this context. Since we know that He was talking about His resurrection and not about rebuilding the physical Temple, we can safely ignore these statements.

He was raised after three days

“The next day, that is, after the day of Preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered before Pilate and said, “Sir, we remember how that impostor said, while he was still alive, ‘After three days I will rise.’”

Matthew 27:62-63 ESV

“And he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again.”

Mark 8:31 ESV

The words after three days in both of these scriptures are translated from the Greek words μετὰ τρεῖς ἡμέρας (Gtr. meta treis hemeras). It means duration over a whole period (D.F. Hudson p105; Ward Powers p106; H.P.V. Nunn p40), not “duration within a period”. We cannot take this period to be complete three separates days and night, since it would mean that he rose on 18th rather than 17th contradicting other statements here. We can take this as a period of three whole days and nights - this is 72 hours. If we were to start from the time of his death, around 3 p.m. on the 14th day, then he must have risen at some time after 3 p.m. on the 17th day, but before 6 p.m. which would be the start of the 18th day for the Jews. For detailed timeline of events concerning His death and resurrection check this article.

Days and Nights in Hebrew

And the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.

Jonah 1:17

Here, three days and three nights were translated from שְׁלֹשָׁה יָמִים וּשְׁלֹשָׁה לֵילוֹת. Almost all scholars agree that this mean three days and three nights as in 72 hours, there’s no room for time period theory here.

Here is the problem! Christ said His time in the grave would be “as Jonah was three days and three nights in the great fish’s belly…” The word “as” sets the standard of comparison. It leaves no room to “negotiate” the meaning of the Greek. The margin of Jonah 2:2 even compares Jonah’s time in the “great fish” to “the grave.” In this verse, the Hebrew word translated “hell” is sheol. It literally means “the grave.” The comparison of Christ to Jonah—in a grave—becomes complete.

But did Christ understand the length of a day or length of a night? He surely did, In John 11:9 He says, “Are there not twelve hours in the day? If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble,…”

The belief that Hebrew’s time perception was different from us was coming from the wrong understanding of where a day would begin for them. We start a day at the midnight, not at end of the day or a night, but at the middle of darkness, but Hebrews begin their day at sunset, around 6pm. This was not done by Hebrew, but by God Himself when he created day and night. Genesis chapter 1 Genesis 1:4-13, plainly says that God “divided the light from darkness. And God called the light Day and the darkness He called Night. And the evening (darkness) and the morning (light) were the first day… And the evening (darkness) and the morning (light) were the second day… And the evening (now THREE periods of darkness called night—three nights) and the morning (now THREE periods of light called day—three days) were the third day.”

Hence there’s no room for the argument “Hebrews day and night calculation were much different from us”, on the contrary their day and night also has 24 hours as us, with only difference was being where they were starting their day.

Testing Good Friday and Easter

Now that we have established that Jesus was indeed dead in His grave for 72 hours (three days and three nights) as Jonah was, we will examine if Good Friday and Easter tradition fulfils this sign, or rejects it.

Let us calculate the time in between Good Friday and Easter Sunday, shall we?

  • Good Friday evening to Saturday morning - 1 night
  • Saturday morning to Saturday evening - 1 day
  • Saturday evening to Sunday morning - 1 night

Totalling only 2 nights and 1 day that is 36 hours. It is only half of the time Jesus said He would be in the tomb, which in effect disproves His prophecy. As we have said earlier, He had placedentire identity on “The Sign of Jonah”. If that turns out to be false, then He failed His only sign, thus He’s not our Savior but a false prophet.

Yes by celebrating Good Friday and Easter Sunday tradition we effectively nullify His Sign and make Him a false prophet. Nowhere, nowhere in the whole Bible did God asked us to celebrate Good Friday and Easter Sunday, neither did the early church and the apostles.

thus making void the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And many such things you do.

Mark 7:13 (ESV)

Jesus warns us not to nullify God’s word through the tradition of men. This is exactly what we do by celebrating Good Friday and Easter Sunday, making the word of God void by our traditions.

Easter is a pagan festival, a festival filled with immorality, debaucheries and other sins which was disgusting in the eyes of our God. It is from this pagan festival where Easter bunnies, eggs and even Lent came from. He had warn Jews not to be associated with it or celebrate it and now He’s warning you against it. Learn more about Easter here (coming soon).

Ask yourself this, Do I really want to keep Easter and Good Friday, which I thought would be celebrating Him and making Him happy, but in reality would be rejecting Him and making Him very unhappy? Do I really want to uphold the tradition of men at the cost of falsifying His Only Sign - “The Sign of Jonah”, making Him a false prophet and a false Messiah?

One may argue that “God sees only the Heart, my heart is at right place when celebrating Easter - to praise Him”. This is sadly, unbiblical, a lie and a form of self worship. Jesus clearly said “If you love me, you will keep my commandments” (John 14:15). There’s no room good heart and good will argument.

So are you ready to confess your love by following His commandment (keeping Passover) and rejecting the traditions of men that making the Word by God null (Good Friday and Easter)?