Saturday sunset began Sunday. Some time after sunset, Jesus rose Sunday morning.
I would suspect that if Christ died at 3pm Wednesday, the time when the sacrifices started at the temple, then he would have rose Saturday around 3pm. If Christ was to be
exactly 3 days and 3 nights, not a minute more, not a minute less, then somewhere around 3pm Saturday, he rose. It sounds like in your post you said Christ rose
after sunset, but it would have been a smidge before. Not sure if meant that or not.
Also
@BrotherJJ - I absolutely agree that we cannot attain salvation through works and that we should be mindful of why we take the bread and wine; what it represents and not to enter into the Passover with an irreverent attitude.
Let me quote a post I made in another thread, as it's relevant to this discussion.
- Philippians 2:12 "Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling"
- Isaiah 29:13 Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men:
- Matthew 15:9 "But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men."
We all need to seek out our own salvation with fear and with trembling. Philippians shows that it is impossible to acquire salvation without the Fear of God. Although salvation is a free gift, being flippant against God can cause one to lose that free gift of salvation.
However, we must be careful that our Fear of God is not taught by the precept of man, but that God teaches us the Fear of Him. Isaiah and Matthew show that it's possible to worship God in vain by only providing lip-service, yet having hearts far removed from God.
- Psalms 103:17-18 But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear Him, and His righteousness to children's children, to such as keep His covenant, and to those who remember His commandments to do them.
- Proverbs 16:6 In mercy and truth atonement is provided for iniquity; and by the fear of the Lord one departs from evil.
- Matthew 22:36-37 "Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
Fearing the Lord means:
- Keeping His Covenant
- Remembering His Commandments
- Doing the Commandments
- Departing from Evil
- Loving God with all our Heart, Soul and Mind
. . . . .
So although no one can be saved by merit and our works will never bring us towards salvation (which is why we needed Christ to be our Passover Lamb and our atonement for sin) we should be striving to emulate Christ. Will marking of 61 boxes save you?, nope! Not all! You're completely right there. But being able to view a list and see where we need to grow so we can be like Christ--as that is a Christian's duty--is beneficial.
We are to grow in grace and knowledge, and we are to overcome. We need to examine ourselves daily to see our faults. And every year when we take of the bread and wine we need to remember that it was our sins which caused His suffering and His death. We should be striving to refrain from sin, so that we are not, in a sense, crucifying Christ over and over.
Ezekiel 6:9 And they that escape of you shall remember me among the nations whither they shall be carried captives,
because I am broken with their whorish heart, which hath departed from me, and with their eyes, which go a whoring after their idols: and they shall lothe themselves for the evils which they have committed in all their abominations.
God/Christ speaks of being
broken because Israel departed from the Lord, worshiped idols, and committed all forms of evil. Even though that was for Israel it still holds true for us today that Christ can feel broken when we depart from Him. And it should be our goal not to grieve Him, and the way we do that is departing from evil and keeping the commandments.
So I think a checklist is a good and beneficial thing to help us keep track of ourselves; be able to see ourselves in a honest light and know where we need to improve in Christian lives. Passover time is a time of reflection both for what Christ has done for us and how we can improve so that we are not continuously grieving Him with our sins.
The Days of Unleavened Bread exemplifies that by removing leaven (sin) from our lives. And no matter how hard you try to remove all the leaven from the house, you will surely find leaven somewhere. You will have missed it somewhere. The Days of Unleavened Bread is a physical ritual for a spiritual lesson. No matter how hard we try to remove sin from our lives, somewhere a crumb is going to pop up, but what is our mindset? That as soon as we find the leaven we remove it, or say, ah, well, there's only a few hours left 'til sunset it doesn't matter?
