When did Jesus rise? What day did Jesus rise?

The Wave-sheaf then is introduced as quite separate from the Passover and accompanying Feast of Unleavened Bread. But in point of fact the Wavesheaf was waved on the first day of the week that followed the passover. So the Lord was crucified on Friday, lay in the grave on the sabbath or last day of the week, and rose on the first day or Sunday as the Gentiles called it. He was raised from the dead on the very day the Wave-sheaf was waved before Jehovah. Little did the priest who waved it conceive the power and character of the truth set forth in the first-fruits he was thus presenting before the God of Israel. But the Risen one and Raiser of the dead had left the grave and broken its power for believers, whether they knew it or not; but if the Jews refused to listen, the Gentiles by grace would hear. Thus the type of the Wave-sheaf begins a new order of things, distinguished from all before, as befits Him Who is the Beginning, the First-born from the dead, as the type of the Christian gathering (or the church) is seen immediately after. The church is dependent on Christ's resurrection.

It is remarkable that in all our Lord's history, the one event which admits of no discussion is the time of His resurrection—in the early hours of “the first day of the week” (Mark 16:9). Sweet day for all who know His grace! A day not for rest, though it does give rest; not for usual occupation, for it is the Lord's day, to be spent especially with Him, and used for Him and His interests on earth. Some who know it is not the Sabbath, would use it for themselves as a common day of the week, but this is not love to the Lord, whose day it is.

The waving of the sheaf of the firstfruits of the harvest was typical of the resurrection of our Lord. The sheaf was waved on the morrow after the sabbath. Our Lord rose the first day of the week. That was the day of all days when our Lord rose triumphant from the dead, having brought to completion the great atoning work of redemption on the cross, the declaration on God’s part of His complete satisfaction with the work He sent His Son to perform. It was the outward and visible sign the the power of sin, death, and Satan’s power was shattered, that salvation could be offered to sinful men. That was the astounding event, the importance of which it is impossible to exaggerate. It occurred on the morrow after the sabbath, on the first day of the week.

On the first day of the week “He was declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead.” “He was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father.” “God raised him from the dead.” “As it is also written in the second Psalm, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten Thee.” (Acts 13:23-39.) “This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which is become the head of the corner,” &c. The epistles also are full of the glory of the resurrection of Christ. The whole question of our salvation hangs on the resurrection of Christ. Now it was on this first day of the week that Christ arose, the first-born from among the dead — the first-fruits of them that slept. (1 Cor. 15:20; Col. 1:18; Rev. 1:5.) “The stone which the builders refused is become the head stone of the corner. This is the Lord’s doing; it is marvellous in our eyes. This is the day which the Lord has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.” (Psalm 118:22-25.) The question is, On what day did God take up from the dead His rejected stone, and give Him this glory? Plainly, on the first day of the week. This, then, is the day of all days which the Lord has made; and without a command, those are glad and do rejoice in it, who are one with Him that is raised from the dead. I know this passage looks forward to Israel, as to the time of the manifestation; but faith sees in the resurrection of Christ the pledge and assurance of all that is yet to come. “Knowing that he which raised up the Lord Jesus, shall raise up us also by Jesus.” As Jesus was the first-fruit pledge of the coming harvest, so that day on which He arose is a foretaste of the eternal peace and joy at His right hand in the glory.

And further, the sheaf of firstfruits was not to be waved before the Lord on the sabbath, but on the day after the sabbath, that is, on the first day of the week. True to this type, Christ lay in the tomb all the sabbath, and on the first day of the week He rose from the dead. The sheaf was waved "to be accepted for you," as verse 11 says, and in keeping with this Jesus our Lord, who was delivered for our offences, "was raised again for our justification" (Rom. 4:25). The believer today stands before God in the acceptance of the risen Christ; and indeed for any saint at any time no other acceptance is possible.

But greater even than this was that yet more fundamental victory when the Lord Jesus, in the early hours of the first day of the week, came forth in a resurrection body from the grave of Joseph, closed with the seal and guarded by the soldiers

He was laid in a borrowed grave. His body lay in the tomb the whole of the Sabbath—the day appointed for rest, but how broken in upon by sin! Then comes that glorious morn, the first day of the week, and He is raised by the glory of the Father.

Our Lord was buried. On the third day He rose triumphant from the grave. We read, “Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father” (Rom. 6:4).

“THE MORROW AFTER THE SABBATH”

Then came the eventful day, the third day after the crucifixion, the day our Lord prophesied He would rise from the dead. Would His words prove to be true?

They buried Him. The third day He rose again. For forty days He was on this earth after His resurrection. His apostles saw Him three times. Peter saw Him. James saw Him. Five hundred brethren at once saw Him. He ate and drank with His disciples. He convinced them that He was indeed risen from the dead. From the Mount of Olives He ascended to heaven in a cloud. Angels testified that He would return to this earth in similar manner to His leaving it.