On Good Friday, you know Jesus died.
That the sun went dark. The curtain tore.
--And the dead walked out of their graves---
-
Most Christians skip that part.
But the Gospel of Matthew doesn’t
“Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and gave up his spirit.
At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.
The earth shook. The rocks split. Tombs broke open.”
—Matthew 27:50–52
Not metaphor. Not parable.
“The bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life.
They came out of the tombs after Jesus’ resurrection and went into the holy city and appeared to many people.”
—Matthew 27:53
The Gospel says this happened.
No explanation. No follow-up.
Just: the dead walked.
We don’t know their names or what they looked like.
We don’t know who saw them—only that “many” did.
Imagine: you buried your grandfather years ago.
You see him walking through the city gate.
Would you be terrified or happy?
This moment appears nowhere else in Scripture.
Only Matthew records it.
Theologians debate why.
Is it a foretaste of the general resurrection?
A symbol of victory over death?
Or did something crack open that day which couldn’t be undone?
The Gospels don’t shy away from the strangeness of Good Friday.
-Darkness at noon.
-The veil in the Temple torn top to bottom.
-An earthquake.
And then this—
Holy dead walking into the city like silent witnesses.
Early Christians believed this happened.
The dead walked.
Not as zombies, not as spirits—but as a sign.
A moment when the old world was undone.
A hinge in history when death itself faltered.
St. John Chrysostom believed the dead who rose were prophets and martyrs.
Others say it was “holy ones” known to the people of Jerusalem.
Not generic souls.
People with names.
And what did they say?
Did they speak?
Did they vanish again?
Matthew doesn’t tell us.
He leaves it hanging with this mystery in the middle of salvation.
Was it terror or joy the living experienced at the sight?
This moment is not the Resurrection.
It’s not Pentecost.
It’s not joy yet.
It’s grief and rupture and shaking earth.
A world destabilized.
As if creation itself could not bear what had happened on Golgotha.
For early Christians, this wasn’t just a sign.
It was a warning.
That Christ’s death didn’t just forgive sin—it judged the world.
It split history in two.
The end had begun.
And the dead knew it.
We like to rush from Cross to Resurrection.
But there is a deep, dark pause between them.
On that Friday, it was not only the Savior who died.
The world that had *been died with Him.
And the dead rose to prove it.
The grave loses its grip not when Jesus rises—
but the moment He dies.
That’s the terror of Good Friday.
And its hope.
Even in death, Christ is Lord.
. Sources:
-Gospel of Matthew 27:50–53
-Early Christian interpretations (e.g. Chrysostom homilies)
-NT Wright on resurrection theology
-Catechism of the Catholic Church (638–640)
-Various commentaries on the passion narrative
What do you make of the graves breaking open?
14 comments:
Matthew 27:52 is one of the greatest proofs that the Gospel of Matthew is false.
Just think... both the Romans and the Jews were lovers of legalistic trivia. There were laws in place regarding how to handle the estates of those who had died. If "many" people in the Jerusalem area had come back to life, not only would MANY non-Christians have been aware of at least one of them, but there would also have been unprecedented legal wrangling about how to administer the affairs of a dead person who had come back to life. There's no way that this wouldn't have been written about for the benefit of future legal wranglers.
There are minor non-Christian accounts of a Jesus-figure with a group of followers. But there no non-Christian sources even hinting at the reanimation of many dead people in Jerusalem at the time of Jesus' crucifixion/resurrection, an event that would have been far bigger news in Jerusalem (and Rome) than the alleged resurrection of one rabble-rousing teacher. And there are no Christian sources mentioning even one of these people as coming forward to receive the Holy Spirit (which hadn't yet been given when they died). It's a pious fiction, and proves that the Gospel of Matthew is hagiography, not history.
More blasphemy during Passover season.
These are remarkable words contained in Matthew 27:51-53. From the darkness covering the land, to the earthquake and the veil of the Temple being torn in two at His death, all being witnessed by many and the dead raised after His resurrection; I cant help but wonder at the response from the authorities / pharisees at these events. What happened would have strengthened His followers and increased their fragile faith after what they observed. Sadly it had the opposite reaction from the leaders in Israel as they doubled down on this small group of Jews who claimed Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah. It was a Roman Centurion who ultimately acknowledged the truth as it unfolded before his eyes. Hag Pesach Sameach everyone.
Oh my! As a young boy, Dennis probably took delight in farting at his friends' birthday parties, and urinating on all the presents.
Sometimes, couldn't you just be gracious towards others who are deeply invested in one of the most serious and joyous days of a Christian's life? There are times when exercising ones' right to remain silent would be the most loving and endearing thing to do. You can't possibly hurt Christians with this sort of treatise. Won't even faze them. You'll see a sad shake of the head, perhaps followed by the slight chuckle that comes with the realization that this is yet another thing which Jesus will explain when He returns.
Dennis, you have a mighty funny way of causing people to pray for you! Because, they now are, you know? Nice prayer request.
I heard one SDA preacher say on radio that the resurrected people in this account "became the 24 elders" in heaven. He offered no verse to support that.
But one comment I read about this several years ago explained it this way: “Jesus is the first fruits to be resurrected and to be changed in to a spirit body receiving eternal immortal life. The other resurrections in the Old and New Testaments were only a physical resurrection.”
Matthew was inclined to some embellishment.
Matthew appears to have a style whereby if Jesus refers to the Old Testament, Matthew seeks to add a quotation, something he sees as being proper for a historian – yet he has chosen at times to put the passage taken from the Old Testament as if into the mouth of Jesus.
Matthen when dealing with the acts of Jesus he places Old Testament verses in the narrative with the statement that whatever was done, was done 'in order that it might be fulfilled which was written, saying,' etc.
The sign of the prophet Jonah is such an example.
Likely we need see these many resurrections in the same light.
Oh my! As a young boy, Dennis probably took delight in farting at his friends' birthday parties, and urinating on all the presents.
Wait a minute. I thought Armstrongists disapproved of birthday celebrations. An Armstrongite should praise Dennis for such alleged conduct!
Funny, the thoughts which can occur when, to borrow from Jackson Browne's "Redneck Friend", one is "Shootin' up the evenin' news" (Ah, thank you Jackson! Your gifts just keep on giving). This morning, I had checked out the comments here, and then went to some news sites and learned that the Supreme Court, reacting to an emergency appeal, had halted the further deportation of any illegal immigrants to a living death in El Salvador's notorious super prison without due process, ie, their right to make their case in court.
Truly, we live in much more complicated times than did those who lived during the early first century. I began to contemplate all of the complications which those who had been resurrected would endure if a similar miracle were to happen in our own contemporary times. Back in Jesus' days on earth, these folks most likely returned to their lives, their families, and blended right back in, their friends and families aghast, but very conscious that something impossible had happened; a miracle!
Today, in 2025, these folks would find that they had been legally declared dead. They would be unemployable because their social securiy numbers had been cancelled. Their estates (if any) would have been divvied up. They would be hounded by reporters, examined and probed by the medical community, followed around and harrassed by paparazzi and the news media, uninsurable by virtue of their death certificates, and no longer financially viable due to the cancellation of their bank accounts and credit cards. They would not be able to obtain any loans without credit rating. Even their safe deposit boxes would have been opened and disbursed by the feds. No drivers licenses! They would have been beneficiaries of a fantastic miracle, only to have it turn into a sentence of months or years of homelessness! Many aficianados of TV and motion pictures would be thinking of them as little more than zombies or vampires, and would report them to authorities or seek to do them harm.
In short, the miracle would be cataclysmic to any sort of post-resurrection life that the beneficiaries of the miracle could have. I believe that events have happened throughout history in direct proportion to the state of progress of the human species (alternately termed as humanity's state of evolution). Something which was an incredible blessing in more primitive times may not stand the test of time, and would actually be a devastating curse were it to happen today. Over the years, I've found great value in the word "appropriate". You really can't go wrong if you apply that word to all of the choices and experiences inherent in human life on planet Earth. We can appreciate events of the past in their own proper context, realizing that many of them did not have the quality known as universality. They were only appropriate to their unique place in time.
BB
This view of the story is a common view with critically thinking theologians and Church history scholars. It is a valid questioning of the story being literally true or spiritually true to the author. Few, save for Bible literalists, see the story as literally true due to the actual problems with it and it never having been used or referred to again by anyone. You seem insecure in the need to attack me instead of addressing the story. I have my doubts that Jesus will explain anything when he doesn't actually return ever. But that's another whole concept and story probably more than you could bare.
This resurrection was one of several very persuasive events which caused so many early Christians to willingly become martyrs when faced with a choice between torture and death or relinquishing their faith.
BB
Correction: "This story about a resurrection was one of several very persuasive stories which caused so many early Christians to willingly become martyrs when faced with a choice between torture and death or relinquishing their faith."
For anyone who has ever spent time in a third world country, or for that matter a third world county (see what I did there), where the vast majority of the population is uneducated and was never trained in critical thinking skills, you already know what I am about to say: such people are easily manipulated. It is very hard for anyone who has never visited such cultures to understand just how deep it can go. I met people in a certain West African country who were utterly convinced, beyond any shadow of doubt, that gnomes and elves lived in a certain part of the jungle. Some even claimed to have seen them and interacted with them. Others believed such stories even if they were bold enough to admit they had never actually seen them.
This is how most of the world thinks.
Ah, but these people were the privileged of that day! The Roman Empire was the pinnacle of civilization, and Jerusalem was one of a handful of crown jewel cities of the empire. The great philosophers had already lived and died, Hellenization had taken place.
I don't believe that you are much of a critical thinker yourself! People who are easily manipulated into certain beliefs are also very easily manipulated out of them through threats of torture or death. Africa? Isn't that where people float amongst the SDA's, CCOG, and the main ACOGs based on which group has gotten them the latest food, computers, clothing, etc. Even a leader of the stature of Che Guevara had difficulty fomenting a revolution in Africa, because although there were impoverished conditions which would normally make a region ripe for a communist revolution, he found no sense of nationalism, no pride in country, no motivation to fight for country amongst the Africans. It is a grossly false comparison to equate Africa of today with Israel of Jesus' day.
Ain't it a gas, 5:38? Looks like it got pulled. Happy Easter!
...Third world county ( see what I did there)...
The tendency of these blogs is very dismissive of other human beings. The is a problem with intellectual labeling on others, it creates a hierarchy of knowledge and importance, leading to godless dismissive attitudes towards those not fitting into the privileged category.
What's Christ like about that?
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