The prominence of the “third day” in the Lord’s eschatological expectation is widely attested in the gospels. Jesus almost always associates his resurrection with the third day, and he begins by announcing the third day as the day of his triumph when he addresses the scribes and Pharisees about the prophetic significance of Jonah’s three days and nights in the belly of the great fish (Matt 12:40). More typical, however, and far more explicit is the Lord’s private teaching to the disciples that begins after Peter’s confession of Jesus as the Messiah. Characteristic of this teaching is Matthew’s account of all the suffering that Jesus was to endure before the glory of his third day resurrection, “From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised up on the third day” (Matt 16:21).
As the hour of Jesus’ suffering drew near, he added more detail to the things he was to suffer before his vindication on the third day. He taught that he was to be condemned to death, handed over to the Gentiles, mocked, scourged, and crucified, only to be raised on the third day (Matt 20:19; cf. also Mark 8:31, 9:31, 10:34; Luke 9:22, 18:33, 24:46; John 2:19-21). After his suffering, the angels reminded the perplexed women of Galilee who came to the tomb on resurrection morning that Jesus had taught previously that he would rise on the third day (Luke 24:7). Surprisingly, in spite of the disciples’ inability or unwillingness to believe the Savior, Christ’s enemies understood clearly that he claimed he would rise on the third day and so they sought to have the tomb guarded to prevent rumors that would arise after any theft of the Lord’s body (Matt 27:63).
When Cleopas and his companion mention all the things that had transpired concerning Jesus in Jerusalem, noting that it was now “the third day since all these things happened” (Luke 24:21), Jesus rebukes them for not understanding from the Scriptures that all “these things” were to be accomplished (Luke 24:25-26). What things? Jesus’ reproves his Emmaus disciples for not understanding that all of “these things” were to precede the “third day” resurrection, namely, as Cleopas recites them, Jesus was delivered up by the chief priests and rulers to be condemned to death and crucified (Luke 24:19-21). Jesus simply assumes that his disciples should have understood “these things” to be required before the “third day” to satisfy the prophetic Scriptures. This is all in addition to his own explicit teaching to the twelve about his own suffering which was to culminate in his third day triumph.
It seems apparent from all of this that the apostles came to understand that the suffering followed by the glory of Christ, like the darkness followed by the light of the original days of creation, had likewise characterized the “Day of the Lord” (Joel 2:28-32). Joel had described the “Day of the Lord” as commencing with “darkness and gloom, with clouds and thick darkness” (Joel 2:1-2). But according to the prophet, the great darkness of that day was to yield to a glorious dawn, “And in that day the mountains will drip with sweet wine, and the hills will flow with milk, and all the brooks of Judah will flow with water, and a spring will go out from the house of the Lord” (Joel 3:21). The day of judgment, with signs in the sky and with the sun turned to darkness (Joel 2:30-31; cf. Matt 27:45; Mark 15:33; Luke 23:44) would give way to a day of gospel mercy, so that “whoever calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved” (Joel 2:32; cf. Acts 2:37-40). It was by an appeal to the prophet Joel that Peter proclaimed the triumph of Christ to the Jews on Pentecost, arguing from Psalm 16 that the Lord’s anointed could not suffer corruption,[1] signifying that Jesus should be raised by the third day (Acts 2:16-21 and 29-32). All of these events constituted the Day of the Lord, making the “third day” the eschatological day of the victory of God against his enemies, as foreseen by Moses and the Prophets of Israel.
In view of the teaching of the Lord about the “third day,” our investigation of the Old Testament requires us to establish that the resurrection of Jesus on the third day is widely attested in Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms (writings) of the Hebrew canon. Moreover, we should observe the pattern of suffering and glory, and that the suffering which precedes the third day deliverance from death through resurrection should foresee that Jesus was to be 1) rejected by the priests and rulers of Israel, 2) delivered up to the Gentiles, 3) condemned to death, 4) crucified, 5) buried in the earth, 6) and emerge from the earth in resurrection on the third day. Only if we can establish such a doctrine of the third day resurrection from the Old Testament may we justly claim to have read the Scriptures in the manner our Lord directs.
[1] Corruption began by the fourth day, according to the custom of the Jews (John 11:39).