Jesus (and Others!) Were Raised on Resurrection Sunday
Matthew 27:51-53 – “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.”
Read those last two sentences of the above passage again! Do you remember reading that before? Does it seem random to you? Unexpected? Confusing? If you believe in the inspiration of the Bible (and you should!), then these words are true and really happened in history: “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.”
This means that Jesus was not the only person raised on Resurrection Sunday. There were many other saints raised. Now, there are some things we do not know about this particular episode. We don’t know who they were. Though, they did appear to people who knew that they had previously been dead (see the final words of v.53). We don’t know if they were raised in their original bodies (to die again, like Lazarus) or in glorified bodies (and taken/transferred to heaven at some point). We don’t know if they appeared to only a limited/select number of people. And we don’t know how long they remained in Jerusalem after they were raised.
But we do know this. The resurrection of these saints clearly demonstrates that Jesus’ death was not a normal, everyday crucifixion. God intervened when Jesus died on the cross. The temple curtain to the most holy place was literally, physically split in two. The physical earth shook and real rocks split in two. And many of the dead saints were physically, bodily raised from the dead and appeared to people that they knew. And in this way, God’s message couldn’t be any clearer: in the death and resurrection of Jesus, He is making it possible to be raised from the dead.
Listen to Pastor Conley talk about these verses in a 3-minute clip from a 2013 sermon.
3-minute clip on Matthew 27:45-54
Additional Resources:
Listen to the whole sermon titled “Hand of God” from Matthew 27:45-54 here.
Here is an article at the Gospel Coalition that walks through this text.