"after three days": Was Jesus really crucified on a Wednesday?

Any time this week approaches, someone inevitably poses the question: 

"Was Jesus' resurrection really three days after his death? Friday afternoon to Sunday Morning seems more like a day and a half."

In the past, I've aligned myself with the traditional church calendar usually by following in the footsteps of Martin Luther's defense - "but Jesus was dead at some point on each of those three days - Friday, Saturday, and at least for a little bit on Sunday." 

However, Jesus' words in Matthew 12:39-40 have always troubled me - "three days and three nights in the heart of the earth." In this case, the Lutheran defense, which would require a Sunday (or Thurs) night addition, does not seem to hold up. 

Nothing consequential to the reality of the resurrection is at stake here - except for, of course, the matter of Scriptural inerrancy. Is all of Scripture true as it was originally composed? My worry, accordingly, is keeping to the traditional church calendar. If we are saying history lines up with the Friday-Sun church calendar, are we not in danger of invalidating verses like Matthew 12:40 or Mark 8:31 ("after three days")?

In this linked article Josh Claybourn makes a compelling case for a Wednesday crucifixion. Below is a visual that helps with the Wednesday-theory chronology of events.

To be fair, there are plenty of legitimate dissenting opinions (just check out the comment section in the above article). One problem with the Wed idea is it seems to make for 4 nights in the tomb! Perhaps it was a Thursday, as is argued here. 

And don't worry, SCCers, our Tenebrae Good Friday service tomorrow night is still a-go. Any time is a good time to reflect upon and be moved by the agonies of the cross endured by Jesus on our behalf.

Summer Reading & Pics

Hi friends. It's good to be back on Grand Cayman (a.k.a. "The Rock"). Katie, the boys, and I enjoyed our time on leave immensely. So good, even while there were some adventures -- see near death in lightning storm, the leg infection from a dirty/overpopulated river, and a chigger bite infestation all of which were superfluously (and, frankly, needlessly) covered in my first sermon back. The four weeks away were capped off wonderfully by time away at a Bed and Breakfast with my bride as her sister watched the chillins'. I am just so grateful for my closest friend in life and ministry!

Did a lot of livin', lovin', and readin' during the trip -- so a brief summary of each below (the "lovin'" is subjective and open to interpretation). First pictures, then Books.

Summer Pics.

Kiawah Island. A home away from home &
site of the 2012 PGA Golf Championship
(won on Sunday by Rory McIlroy )

Beach Olympics. Gage & his cousin Andy go 3-legged against
Mason and his younger cousin Lincoln, who've lost their 'rope'
(notice: it is really a bungee cord my father found in his garage).

Fourth of July Parade. With electricity in Cayman costing
way too much for Christmas decor, Fourth of July afford
us our next best chance to be tacky and gaudy.

One of FOUR trees that fell in my sister and I's path during a lighting storm. Really, Lord?! Four?!

July 15. 2:04:05 pm 

July 15. 2:04:10 pm
("5 typical seconds in the ever-changing life of my youngest son")

Flexing before Ziplining
(Mason, cousins Marlow and Moriah) 

Father-Son Trip to D.C.
(at Nat'l Zoo - see Panda in background)

Father-son Baseball Trip

How gangsta is this pic?! Cousin Eliot looking cool,
Mason flashing gang signs, Cousin Jemma with the hardcore spit.

Summer Reading.

My favorite book of the Summer was Dianne Severance's Feminine Threads: Women in the Tapestry of Christian History. And if that makes you feel awkward, imagine the many looks and comments I received/endured from family and friends as I sported this book whose cover features an image tantamount to an Audrey Heburn silhouette on the beach, hammock, etc. Hint: They were not favorable toward my masculinity. But it was well worth it. I love history. But let's face it: Most history from 0-1950 A.D., both history in general or church history, is very masculine in its focus. And I'm not going to comment on whether that's a travesty or conspiracy nor argue that we need to rewrite all of history. However, I felt it was worthwhile for Katie and I (and those to whom I minister) to potentially benefit from the many lives of women who contributed to the spread of the gospel to the four corners of the earth, in their neighborhoods, and, most importantly, in their own households. It was awesome. In fact, I've ordered some copies and will be putting them on sale in our church lobby. Dianne Severance does an excellent job of combining historical accuracy with readability. I found the first 50-75 pages a bit dry, but after that I found it to be an absolute page-turner. 

Mason and I did the Narnia thing this Summer - specifically Prince Caspian (the fourth book in the Chronicles of Narnia series...and the most natural sequel to The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe). This was the first time I can recall Mason saying, during a break, "Dad, I really like this story. I can't wait to pick it up again." Here are a couple of my favorite moments.

At the end of feasting led by the god Bacchus but in the presence of Aslan, Lucy notes to Susan at the close of one chapter, "I should be afraid of Bacchus, if Aslan wasn't here." It's a profound statement really. Bacchus is the Roman god of making merry (ie. partying). Yet he makes his way into a Christian children's book. How? Because Aslan is present. Partying for its own sake or for the sake of self-indulgence is a fearful thing to these girls because even they know at their young age that it causes self-destruction, causes one to become less human. But merriment/party-making is itself relished by God when done for Him, through Him, and by Him. Thus, in Aslan's presence, the joy and merriment is pure and allows one to be more free to take pleasure in it.

A second moment is when Lucy reacquaints herself with the great lion, Aslan (who represents Jesus in the story), having not visibly seen him in some time:

"Aslan," said Lucy, "you're bigger."
"That is because you are older, little one," answered he.
"Not because you are?" 
"I am not, but every year you grow, you will find me bigger."

A third Book I had opportunity to read was Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand. It was the fascinating life story of an wunderkind Olympic runner who becomes a WWII bombadeer. Louis Zamperini's plane and crew crash over the Pacific. His story of survival that ensues is really quite inspiring. 

Finally, I was blessed to read Radical Together: Unleashing the People of God for the Purpose of God by an 'up-and-coming' young pastor named David Platt. His church's story of sacrifice from a place of comfort is quite encouraging and challenging. His chapter pinpointing the need sacrifice comfort to reach unreached people groups specifically is compelling.

A 4th century encouragement for a 21st century job

This past Sunday under the Big Top, I taught from 1 Corinthians 7:17-24 on God's Calling. The  sermon in a nutshell was basically: When it comes to questions of "God, where do you want me?", "What do you want me to do?", "With whom do you want me to do it?", the biblical, God-speaking to you default is to remain. Though walking with God daily, prayer/discernment, & good counsel may lead you elsewhere, remaining where you are, what you're doing (vocationally/job-wise), with whom you're already doing it is God's starting line. 


Of course, the place, the people or the job (especially) isn't necessarily what we would choose in the Game of Life (or in the elementary/primary school Game involving those do-dads constructed out of notebook paper where you start by choosing a number, open up a leaf, and eventually find out who you marry, what your job is, and how much money you make - what were those things called?? Please don't say 'do-dads').


Jobs we wouldn't pick. I was reading some older church history and came across this. A prominent fourth century church father, Basil, informed his young brother, Gregory of Nyssa, that he was to become the bishop of Cappadocia (in the middle of nowhere...a.k.a. middle of modern day Turkey).  To which Gregory objected! He didn't want to be stuck in the middle of nowhere away from friends and family ministering with and to a strange people where there is little prospect for distinction & advancement. His older brother replied:

I don't want you to obtain distinction from your church but to confer distinction on it.

Cappodocia is now best known in history for being the center from which the so-called Cappadocian Fathers (Basil, Gregory of Nyssa, & Gregory of Nazianzus) fought the heresy known as Arianism (the rising belief growing in popularity that Jesus was inferior to God the Father and was, in fact, created by the Father...a similar belief to modern-day Jehovah's Witnesses). Indeed, through his service there, Gregory conferred distinction upon the place and the the people.


Jesus conferring distinction like it's going out of style. When the incarnate Christ walked this earth, all he did was confer distinction upon places, people, jobs that otherwise had none. Consider the places. Jesus was raised in the runt among places, Nazareth. One of Jesus' future disciples even confessed when first being told about Jesus: "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" (John 1:46). He conferred distinction upon the hated territory of Samaria (see Luke 10:33 and 17:16) - where, from the Jewish perspective, a bunch of 'half-breeds' lived whose worship of God was considered a joke (cf. John 8:48). Among the many examples of people upon whom Jesus conferred distinction, perhaps the one who stands out is the woman of ill-repute who interrupts dinner to wash Jesus' hair with oil: "And truly I say to you, wherever the gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in memory of her" (Mark 14:3). Consider the jobs. Jesus chose for his cabinet: Fishermen (a poorly-regarded, blue-collar job), a zealot (someone who was organizing radical, militant religious rallies), and a tax collector (symbolically stood for all things evil & traitorous in the eyes of God's people). But all legitimate positions from which to begin following Jesus. 


You and your job. For those who have trusted their lives to Jesus, Paul states the following: "To [us] God chose to make know how great are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory" (Colossians 1:27). Christ still exists to confer distinction upon jobs, including the locations and the people who work there. All the riches of glory which are contained in His person is in you, who have believed.


The temptation of course is to think: Which next place, which next people, which next job will bring me distinction, will finally set me apart. You already are set apart, friend, because of Christ in you. Such is the hope of glory! And he wishes, through YOU, to now bring distinction upon whatever you do, wherever you are & whomever you are with.  

CayHistory: Relationship to Jamaica & the Crown

I'm continuing to try and blog every so often with regard to Cayman History & Culture as a way of assisting those of us who aren't familiar with either to be thinking about the people/place we live and, honestly, to help me distill my own thoughts about this majestic island in which my family & I are blessed to live. Most of this is derived directly from a book I've been reading, He hath Founded it Upon the Seas: A History of the Cayman Islands and their People.

One of the fascinating aspects of living here in the first year listening to and observing different Caymanians formulate answers to the question: "What is the essence of Cayman Culture?" On the one hand, there are certainly aspects of Cayman Culture that stand out proudly (I am not counting the Batabano Festival -- during which I had to shield my children's eyes) ; yet, it is a relatively young island whose government didn't really even come into being until 1831 and who has relied greatly on inhabitants and contributions from a number of places, especially Britain & Jamaica.

To what degree Cayman is related culturally to Britain & Jamaica seems to have been a question even back in the early 1800s. In 1776, there was a matter of potentially wrongful selling of slaves to planters in Cayman. The matter was resolved, but the British-installed governor of Jamaica was surprised to find out from his law-officers that the Cayman Islands had never been declared a dependancy of Jamaica -- furthermore, no one could tell him to what extent Jamaican laws applied to the Islands.

Despite this ambiguity, which continued, Cayman was managed by a number of Magistrates, one of whom usually served as chief magistrate. Around 1823, there were a number of needs to which the Magistrates appealed to Jamaica & the Crown. When nothing happened, the Magistrates met at the famed Pedro St. James and leased the property from William Eden to use it as an animal pound, courthouse, and jail.

Eight years later a number of Cayman Magistrates had some specific requests of the Jamaican Governor -- namely, that their authority would be recognized by Jamaica and the Crown so that their authority would carry more weight among the commoners in Cayman. Apparently no one acknowledged that this group of Magistrates had any authority -- in fact, there was open opposition to it. Jamaica agreed to appoint some new Magistrates for Cayman but said they had to ask the Crown for permission on other matters like raising taxes and pursuing legal redress to recover outstanding debt. Once again, nothing happened.

So rather than waiting on Jamaica or the Crown, the group of Magistrates and the island inhabitants, led by Waide Bodden, began to organize themselves into a formal, bicameral legislature. The magnitude of this should not be underemphasized -- they did this without any permission from either Jamaica or the Crown. A militia was formed and the legislature met twice a year for the next ten years.

What bold initiative by the Cayman people! While inextricably linked to Jamaica & Britain in family origin, in trade, and in culture, with two bold strikes they had independently asserted that they were willing to care for and provide for themselves.

So as we view the landscape today and all aspects of culture that has borrowed/imported onto this island, perhaps this period of history might help make sense of the importance of a sense of independence as well. A people who historically have been left to survive on their own -- forging a culture even still in this 21st century. I'm grateful to be a part of it.

(**I'd welcome any thoughts or any correctives to my still limited grasp of Cayman History)

CayHistory - Disappointed about Pirates

I've heard this said a bunch of times, but it was Karl Barth who first said Christians must "hold the Bible in one hand and a Newspaper in the other." Barth was speaking to the importance of Christians knowing the culture around them well enough to relate eternal truth to it. This is true anywhere and it is especially true for those of us who live in Cayman.

Called to Engage Culture

We are called to engage culture -- and in order to engage culture we must know & understand the history of the particular culture in which we live (there are some great discussions defining 'culture' elsewhere--but I'll leave that aside for now). This call to engage the culture around us is critical because (a) We love God & His Word in doing so; (b) we love our neighbor in doing so.

We love God because we honor & emulate the example set forth in His Word of relating the good news of the gospel to different people in different contexts. The Apostle Paul says as much in 1 Corinthians 9.

For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them. To the Jews, I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law. To those outside of the law I became as one outside of the law (myself not being outside of the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law. To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel (I Corinthians 9: 19-23).

I'm not the biggest fan of country music. But once being a Pastor of students in a Southern U.S. town, I at least had to grow familiar with country music beyond Garth Brooks & "Achey Breaky Heart." So I'd make a habit of checking country music pop charts, read an occasional article, and even put in a Brad Paisley & Rascal Flatts CDs. This is not a Country Music love story with a happy ending -- I still cringe when I hear the twang of a guitar-banjo-harmonica combination. But, for that time & place, to the Country Music Fan I needed to humble myself ("made myself a servant" Paul says) and become a country music to win a hearing and, ultimately, to win Fans to Christ.

We also love others by engaging with culture. A piece of advice people in my line of work are often given: "People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care." People know how much you care when you get to know them, where they live, their history.

Engaging with Cayman's History

Since arriving in January, I've attempted to ask questions of various pastors, leaders, 'old-timers' of Cayman in order to get to know its cultural history. Indeed, people have proved to be the greatest resource in this endeavor. However, you have to do both the social interaction and the hard work reading objective history to get a full picture.

Accordingly, I recently picked up the book Founded Upon the Seas: A History of the Cayman Islands and their People by Michael Craton. It's an exhaustive (500 pp.) but lively work. What I'd like to do over the next few months is regularly post re: a little tidbit of history...CayHistory -- whether merely interesting or immediately impactful for current life in Cayman.

This post especially goes out to those of us who are not originally from Cayman but currently live here. If you only plan on living here for 2-3 years, I recognize it's hard to get motivated to get to know & engage culture. But I'd encourage you to not make this season that God has prepared for you merely a blip on the radar or a fun fling -- rather, that God may use this time in your life to leave behind a spiritual lineage on this glorious island.

You can start by getting to know a bit of the history of Cayman, its culture, its people.

So without further ado......

Disappointed About Pirates

Everywhere you turn in Cayman, you can spot a Buccaneer statue, paraphernalia, or a person dressed up in the garb -- like this morning when I awoke to my son Mason dressed as a pirate, with the tip of plastic sword near an inch from my eye.

He received his pirate costume for Pirate's Week, which takes place each November. Pirate's Week is easily the most popular & attractive organized event we have here in Cayman. One of my favorite moments from the week was when a man, dressed as Blackbeard and emceeing a children's costume contest, stopped his playful 'avasting' to say, "You know kids, Pirates get a lot of flack for bad things they've done...but we don't talk about all the good things they did..." This made my Dad and I chuckle as this man went on to laud the positive effects of pirates on society (even my oldest son laughed).

But with all the fun & hype surrounding Pirates on this Caribbean Island, pirates had very little presence here during the golden age of pirating (1670-1730).

WHY? As Craton explains, there was simply not enough to plunder. You could only plunder other visiting ships, which were sporadic in frequency. "Unlike the Bahamas," writes Craton, "[Cayman] had no town where pirates could purchase provisions and supplies or spend their ill-gotten gains on riotous living."

Also, compared with the seven hundred islands of the Bahamas, the three Cayman Islands were too little and too close to Jamaica to offer easy hiding places, either for pirate ships or for ex-pirates seeking a life on shore.

Basically, pirates would make brief stop-offs to grab a bite of turtle to eat and for some wood with which to patch up their ships.

In other words, to Pirates, the Cayman Islands were the 7-Eleven of the Carribean. And that's a little disappointing.