This is just my interpretation of the events; others have slightly different timelines, and that’s fine. This is how I see it…

Thursday (6pm-11:30pm): Jesus eats the Passover meal with His disciples, Judas leaves to betray Him and the Lord talks to the remaining eleven about love, unity and sacrifice. He closes with a prayer and leads the eleven to the Garden.

Thursday (11:30pm) – Friday (1:00am): Jesus prays in the Garden of Gethsemane.

Friday (1:00am-1:30am): Jesus is confronted in the Garden and arrested.

Friday (1:30am-2:00am): Jesus’ first trial takes place, under the direction of Annas, former Jewish High Priest.

Friday (2:00am-5:00am): Jesus’ second trial takes place, under the direction of Caiaphas, the current Jewish High Priest (along with the Sanhedrin Court). They decide to petition the Roman government to kill Jesus.

Friday (6:00am-7:00am): Jesus’ third trial is a hearing before Roman governor Pilate.

Friday (7:00-7:30am): Jesus is sent to Herod Antipas who had (Roman-appointed) jurisdiction over Galilee. He mocks Jesus, who tells him nothing.

Friday (7:30am-8:30am): Jesus returns to Pilate, who repeatedly attempts to release Him while the Jewish leaders continue to rebuff. Pilate orders Jesus to be scourged to satisfy the Jewish leaders, however the Jews demand that Jesus be crucified. Pilate resists but eventually gives the order to execute Jesus.

Friday (8:30am-9:00am): Pilate’s Roman soldiers take Jesus into the Praetorium and enjoy mockery and abuse against Him, including driving a thorny crown into His skull.

Friday (9:00am-12:00pm): Jesus is forced to carry His own cross up the Golgotha hill and then His crucifixion begins. Jesus cries out three of his seven “final sayings” from the cross.

Friday (12:00pm- 3:00pm): Darkness covers the earth. Jesus’ final four sayings are uttered.

Friday (3:00pm): Jesus dies, the veil in the Temple which separated the Holy Place from the Most Holy Place is torn from top to bottom. An earthquake reverberates through the holy city and the dead rise from their graves, appearing unto many.

Friday (3:30pm): Roman soldiers break the legs of the victims (to speed-up their asphyxiation and kill them faster) but find Jesus is already dead (which is unusual, considering the “short” time He was on the cross). Instead of breaking His legs, they pierce His side, through to His heart.

Friday (4:00pm-5:00 pm): Jesus is buried and laid in the tomb of the disciple Joseph, for part of the first day (day one).

Saturday (all day): Jesus’ body rests in the tomb, while His spirit is in paradise with God (day two). Meanwhile, the Jewish leaders petition Pilate to station guards at the tomb in case the Apostles get the idea to steal the body and say He was risen. Pilate agrees, stations guards (perhaps a quaternion) and “seals” the tomb (by placing an official Roman insignia thereon that threatened death with any who removed it).

Sunday (sometime after midnight but before sunrise): Jesus’ spirit returns to His body and He is resurrected. An angel rolls the stone away and sits on it (like a boss). The Roman soldiers shake in their boots and do nothing. Jesus saunters out of the tomb, alive and well. Later the soldiers tell the Jewish leaders what happened and the leaders bribe the soldiers, telling them “if someone asks, say the Apostles stole the body.” But that raises the question…if you have to bribe someone to say the body was stolen…what really happened to the body? Hmm…

Others may offer their own interpretation of the how the above events were carried out across several days, but such debates are merely academic. The fact of the events is undeniable. These things happened; if you want to argue they happened from Wednesday to Sunday or from Thursday to Sunday, etc, I’m not going to unfriend you on Facebook. Understanding the little details in this historical account isn’t nearly as important as simply understanding that these things happened.

 

The Lord suffered, died and rose again.

 

Thank God for that!

~Matthew