Audio Transcript
You’re reading through the first book of the New Testament, the Gospel of Matthew, and you get to the crucifixion account. It’s a story you probably know well, but there, right in the middle of it, is one detail — one really weird detail. It comes as the ground shakes and the temple curtain tears in half. Those are amazing. But I’m thinking of another thing. The tombs break open. Formerly dead saints start walking around Jerusalem. Is this something out of a zombie movie? Why is this bizarre miracle even in the text, and why is Matthew the only person to mention it? Today on Ask Pastor John: why a crowd got resurrected.
We’re reading the Gospel of Luke together right now. Ed from Northern Ireland has a question about this event that Luke won’t mention in his Gospel, nor Mark, nor John. Only Matthew describes it. Here’s Ed’s question:
“Pastor John, in Matthew 27:50–54 we read that saints were raised after Jesus’s death and later entered Jerusalem, one of the greatest miracles in human history! And yet there’s no further mention of it anywhere else, not in any other Gospel, not in Josephus — nowhere. So, why might Matthew include it so briefly? And why would no other Gospel account expand on it? And then verse 53 says, ‘After his resurrection they went into the holy city.’ Does this mean they were raised and waited until Christ rose? I would love your thoughts on how to read this really curious and glorious and underemphasized story faithfully.”
Well, we’d better start with the text, because I don’t think most people will know what we’re talking about if we don’t. So, here’s the text:
And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit. [That’s the very last thing he does on the cross.] And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split. The tombs also were opened. And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised, and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many. When the centurion and those who were with him, keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took place [that’s an important phrase: “what took place”], they were filled with awe and said, “Truly this was the Son of God!” (Matthew 27:50–54)
Major and Minor Actors
Now, I believe all Scripture is inspired by God and is without error as it was written by those who were carried along by the Holy Spirit, and that it is profitable. All of it is profitable, as the apostle says in 2 Timothy 3:16. But that doesn’t mean every sentence or every part of it is equally profitable.
It doesn’t diminish the glory of God or the truth of his word to say that some things he says are enormously important, and other things are true and helpful but not of the same level of importance and helpfulness. You could think of stories and teachings in the Bible as different actors in a drama. Some actors are much more central and prominent than others, and others are supporting actors, all of them fitting together in their greater or lesser roles, in order to get across God’s infallible truth.
Well, this story in Matthew 27, I think, is one of the minor actors in the drama. You could think of this story as a cameo appearance of an actor that lasts for a moment, and he never shows up again in the New Testament. But that’s not at all unusual. I mean, our friend who asked this question makes it sound a little bit unusual. Lots of events in the Gospels are reported only once in the whole New Testament. The raising of the widow’s son at Nain, the coin in the fish’s mouth, the healing of the bent-over woman, the healing of the ten lepers, the replacing of Malchus’s ear in the garden, the raising of Lazarus — and, oh my goodness, so many more — occur one time and never again in the New Testament.
I think that Ed overstates the situation a bit when he says, “There’s no further mention of it anywhere else — not in any other Gospel, not in Josephus — nowhere.” Well, actually, it is mentioned in most of the earliest church fathers, starting from the early church: Ignatius, Irenaeus, Clement, etc. So, the fact that it doesn’t get reported anywhere else in the New Testament is not unusual, and outside the New Testament, it was well-known among Christians from the beginning. The main question is not the frequency of the report, but what does it mean? Why is it here?
Six Reasons for Resurrection
So, let me mention six possible things that Matthew may be trying to communicate in telling us this story. Some of these I feel strongly that this is what he’s doing. Others, maybe less so, but I commend them for your consideration.
1. Separation Overcome
At the moment of Jesus’s death, the curtain in the temple was split and the rocks were split. Now, that leaps off the page in Greek because the same word is used, eschisthē, in both cases. Unfortunately, in English translations, it almost always says the curtain was torn and the rocks were split, so you can’t see it’s the same word, and the splitting of the rocks is connected with the tombs being opened. So, in verse 51, the second half of the verse, and the beginning of verse 52, the rocks were split and the tombs were opened. Two splittings and two openings: the curtain separating the holiest place in the temple, where God met his people in person (the person of the high priest) once a year, and where redemption was transacted on the day of atonement — that was now open.
“The death of Jesus for sin is decisive in opening his grave and our graves.”
Jesus’s death made a way of access to God by becoming the final sacrifice and the final redemption for sinners. Then the splitting of the rocks and the opening of the tombs is a parallel opening into the way of the life of God. So, the splitting of the curtain represents the overcoming of the separation of sin, and the splitting of the rocks represents the overcoming of the separation of death. That’s the first thing I think Matthew wants us to see.
2. Death Defeated
Matthew wants us to make the connection between the death of Jesus and the resurrection of the body. It isn’t just Jesus’s resurrection that secures our resurrection. His death defeated our death and secured the resurrection.
It says in Hebrews 2:14 that he died to “destroy the one who has the power of death.” Death defeated death. It wasn’t just resurrection that defeated death. Jesus’s death defeated our death. And in Hebrews 13:20, amazingly, it says that Jesus himself was raised by the blood of Jesus. So, the death of Jesus for sin is decisive in opening his grave and our graves. That’s the connection that I think Matthew wants us to see. Connect the resurrection of the body with the death of the body of Jesus.
3. Life Secured
The fact that the bodies which came out were saints who had died under the old covenant makes clear that the life-giving power of Jesus’s death works backward as well as forward. It secures the resurrection of Old Testament saints, not just Christians. I think he wants us to see that.
4. Bodies Raised
The fact that the word bodies is used stands out. It might have said, “the saints who had fallen asleep were raised.” That would be perfectly natural. That’s not what it says. It says, “Many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised” (Matthew 27:52). So, it seems Matthew wants to underscore that Jesus’s bodily death and resurrection guarantees a bodily resurrection for all God’s people.
5. Repentance Called For
Why did Matthew refer to the appearances in “the holy city”? “Coming out of the tombs after his resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many” (Matthew 27:53). This was God’s most privileged city in the world. Yet Jesus had said, “It cannot be that a prophet should perish away from Jerusalem” (Luke 13:33). It was a deadly city, an unbelieving city. Yet there were so many warnings to Jerusalem to repent. Perhaps this is another. You have crucified Jesus, but here’s what it means: You didn’t succeed. It means life from the dead. It’s not too late, Jerusalem. Here’s another witness to the reality of Jesus. Jerusalem, repent while there’s still time.
6. Witness Given
Finally, here’s what it says about the centurion at the cross. “When the centurion and those who were with him, keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took place, they were filled with awe and said, ‘Truly this was the Son of God!’” (Matthew 27:54).
What was Matthew referring to by saying they “saw the earthquake and what took place”? Well, in the immediate context, what took place was the curtain split and the tombs opened. The curtain’s too far away. They’re not going to see that, at least not there. Maybe the tombs? I mean, I don’t know how close they were, and I don’t know what they could see, but at least in the context of the text, as it flows, the clearest antecedent to “what took place” was the rocks were split, the curtain was split, the bodies were raised, they came out, they bore witness to the resurrection. So, this last suggestion is that the raising of the dead was another witness to the confession, “Truly this was the Son of God!” His death raises the dead.
There are many — I mean, let’s admit it — unanswered questions about this text and this event, but there’s enough here to keep us amazed and thankful for a long time.
