airytales include three bears, three little pigs, and three witches. The third time is a charm, we say. The life cycle is birth, life, and death. The magi brought three gifts to the infant Jesus. Time is divided into past, present, and future. Hegel taught about thesis, antithesis, and synthesis. And we could go on and on and on. Threes are all around us. Threes abound in Matthew's account of Jesus' passion as well. Judas is paid thirty pieces of silver for betraying Jesus (three times ten). Jesus takes his three favorite apostles Peter and "the two sons of Zebedee" as he goes off to pray. Three times Jesus finds Peter asleep after he asks him to "keep watch with me." One of the accusations against Jesus before the "chief priests and the entire Sanhedrin" is that he said he could rebuild the temple in three days. Peter denies three times that he knows Jesus. Jesus and two others were crucified on that first Good Friday. Jesus died at three in the afternoon. Pilate gave orders that "the grave be secured until the third day." But no one was prepared for what would happen on that third day!
