Matthew 27:51-53

MIRACLES ACCOMPANYING THE DEATH OF CHRIST

TEXT: 27:51-53

51 And behold, the veil of the temple was rent in two from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake; and the rocks were rent; 52 and the tombs were opened; and many bodies of the saints that had fallen asleep were raised; 53 and coming forth out of the tombs after his resurrection they entered into the holy city and appeared unto many.

THOUGHT QUESTIONS

a.

Why attribute to God what an earthquake may have actually done, i.e. the ripping of that veil? What causes earthquakes anyway? What happened that day anyway?

b.

Assuming that the veil of the temple was miraculously torn from the top to the bottom, what do you suppose was the purpose of God for this gesture?

c.

What kind of impression do you think the rending of this great curtain must have made on the priests, not to mention the one who might have been burning incense before it at the hour of prayer? (Cf. Matthew 27:46 with Acts 3:1; Luke 1:9 f.)

d.

Since the veil of the temple was visible to none but priests who could have witnessed it, would priests be likely to tell the story of the end of that from which they derived their livelihood? If so, excluding inspiration for the moment, how could this great secret still leak out and be recorded by Matthew?

e.

What divine purpose do you discern in the opening of the tombs and the resurrection of the saints after Jesus-' own resurrection?

f.

Who do you think these saints were?

g.

What became of them after their resurrection? Did they have to die all over again? Where did they go?

PARAPHRASE

At this point the great veil in the sanctuary split in two from top to bottom. There was an earth tremor and boulders cracked. Even tombs were opened. The bodies of many holy people who had died were resurrected to life. They left their tombs after Jesus arose from the dead and went into the Holy City and appeared to many people.

SUMMARY

Miracles accompanied the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus: the great Temple curtain that veiled the Most Holy Place was ripped in two from the top by unseen hands! An earthquake split great rocks. Many saintly people who had died were resurrected and after Jesus-' resurrection made their appearance in Jerusalem before many witnesses.

NOTES

Matthew 27:51 And behold, the veil of the temple was rent in two from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake; and the rocks were rent. The heavy veil in question was located in the sanctuary to curtain off the Holy Place from the Most Holy Place (Exodus 26:31 ff; Exodus 36:35; 2 Chronicles 3:14; Hebrews 9:2 f.; see also Wars, V, 54f.). In the tabernacle first, then in the temple, it served to distinguish the area of the common priests from the symbolic dwelling place of God. So long as this great veil remained intact, the atonement of man's sin was possible only through intercession by sinful high priests and imperfect sacrifices, on the Day of Atonement. Access to the glory of God and the fellowship with Him through prayer were barred by this veil too. (Cf. Hebrews 6:19.) Incense and prayer were offered outside it. (Cf. Acts 3:1; Luke 1:8-21.) Jewish tradition (Mid. 4, 7; I.S.B.E., 2938) declares the veil consisted of two exceedingly heavy draperies about 50 cm. apart. For this to be rent in two from the top to the bottom would be little short of a mighty miracle.

So, when the great veil came ripping in two and fell apart, the Holy of Holies lay exposed. However, since great golden doors stood behind the veil (1 Kings 6:31 f.; Wars, V, 5, 4f.), the priests could not yet gaze with impunity into that dark, bare room. The ark of the covenant had been gone for centuries. Where once the Glory of Israel spoke to His people from between the cherubim, there was now nothing (Wars, V, 5, 5; Mish., Yom. 5, 2). Until that great veil was replaced, the priests could verify that one more symbol of the great separation between man and God broke down seemingly of its own accord. Ever more clearly Ichabod was being engraved upon the Temple; its glory was at last departing never to return. Pagans had gazed upon the emptiness of the Holy of Holies before (Ant. XIV, 4, 4; Wars, I, 7, 6; cf. VI.4, 7 also Ant. XII, 5, 4?). Now, however, the Temple's obsolescence is being dramatically revealed to men just at the hour that the Nazarene, Jesus of Nazareth, expired. Matthew's Gospel practically shouts to those who knew the facts best, Priests of God and men of Israel, is there any connection between these events?

The ominous rending of this massive curtain, particularly from the top to the bottom at the moment of Jesus-' death, would suggest that God Himself opened the way for man to enter boldly into His presence and He did it through the perfectly atoning sacrifice of Christ (Hebrews 6:19 f.; Hebrews 9:8; Hebrews 9:11-12; Hebrews 9:24 ff.; Hebrews 10:19 ff.) Further, this great veil was rent at the afternoon hour of prayer near the ninth hour when the officiating priest was in the process of offering incense at the incense altar located just in front of the veil. (Cf. Acts 3:1; Luke 1:8-21.) The last daily sacrifice of the Old Covenant, whereby Israel consecrated itself daily to the Lord, was being sacrificed that afternoon. Unexpectedly, the old, symbolic ministry of the entire Levitical system, having fulfilled its purpose, came to the end of its usefulness, finding its perfect completion in Jesus. Godet (P.H.C. XXIV, 596) wrote:

As the high priest rent his robe in the presence of a great scandal, so God rent the veil which covers the Holy of Holies, where formerly He had manifested Himself. It implied a desecration of the most holy place, and consequently of the Temple, with its courts and altar and sacrifices. The Temple is profaned, abolished by God Himself. The efficacy of sacrifice has henceforth passed to another blood, another altar, and a new order of priesthood.

This event has tremendous significance for understanding millennial questions. Shall the Jerusalem Temple be rebuilt here on earth and its worship restored? By ripping apart that mighty veil, God proclaimed the end of that typical ministry because of the arrival of a superior ministry that was perfect and final, when Jesus our divine High Priest entered once for all forever into the true Holy of Holies, the presence of God, to intercede with his own blood for us. The veil of the temple was rent in two from the top to the bottom. What God has rent asunder, let not man join together!

Even without special revelation Matthew could have learned of rending of the great veil from a great many of the priests who were obedient to the faith (Acts 6:7). Indeed, could their conversation be explained by their insight into the meaning of this very sign?

The rocks were rent not improbably as a result of the earthquake.

1.

In this earthquake some discern a symbol of the shaking that began with the death of Christ, a shaking of all that is impermanent or contrary to the Government of God in the moral world until only that which is eternal shall remain. (Cf. Haggai 2:6 f.; Hebrews 12:26 f.)

2.

Beginning from the starting point of literal earthquakes unquestionably caused by the Lord, it was possible for Jewish poets and prophets to develop poetic imagery based on fearful convulsions in nature whereby the covenant God of Israel revealed His majesty, might and holy wrath against sinners (Exodus 19:19; Psalms 68:8; Psalms 114:4-8; 2 Samuel 22:8; Psalms 18:7; Psalms 77:18; Isaiah 5:25; Isaiah 13:13; Isaiah 24:18 f; Isaiah 29:6; Jeremiah 10:10; Jeremiah 49:21; Joel 2:10 f.; Nahum 1:5 f.; Haggai 2:6; cf. Acts 4:31; Acts 16:26; Revelation 6:12; Revelation 8:5; Revelation 11:13; Revelation 16:18). Thus, for people prepared in this way by their literary heritage, it would be a short mental step from God the cause of the literal to His moral reasons for doing it.

Because Matthew points out that the Romans discerned the connection between the earthquake and the things that were happening (Matthew 27:54: idòntes tòn seismón kai tà ginòmena) and the fact that they reacted positively to what they saw, it would appear that anyone should be able to see a significant connection between these natural phenomena and Jesus-' death. Although earth's natural course regularly continues without interruption when other mortals suffer, here, however, it is brusquely interrupted just at the moment of THIS MAN'S death, and becomes one more portent that points to His world-shaking significance.

Matthew 27:52 and the tombs were opened; and many bodies of the saints that had fallen asleep were raised; 53 and coming forth out of the tombs after his resurrection they entered into the holy city and appeared unto many. Since many tombs were carved into the stone face of cliffs, even the opening of the tombs could be produced by the tremor as the rocks were rent. But here its effect stops. Other power is required to give life to the dead.

The fact that the saints are raised, not at the time their tombs are opened, but after his resurrection implies that their own resurrection is a result of His and dependent upon it. Death has been self-defeated by the death of our Lord. Life was not merely guaranteed for others but actually produced by His own resurrection. These resurrected saints become an earnest of what shall occur when Phase II of Jesus-' earthly victory shall occur at His Second Coming.

A simple reading of the text argues that they arose when He died, hence before He arose.

1.

But, if they rose first, they unquestionably remained in their graves until after his resurrection, since coming forth out of the tombs is connected with entering into the holy city. But even if they arose first, like Lazarus and many others, Christ remains the first-born from the dead, the first-fruits of them that slept (1 Corinthians 15:20; Colossians 1:18). He alone is the first to rise by His own power to die no more and guarantee life for all men by the power of His own immortality. These saints were raised only by virtue of His death and resurrection. In this sense His uniqueness is not affected by the hypothesis of their prior resurrection.

2.

A better view, better supported by the grammar, is to see the words as constituting one complex idea: they arose and, coming out of the graves after His resurrection, entered (egérthesan Kai exelthòntes. metà tèn égersin autoû eisêlthon). The resurrections and appearances in Jerusalem all occurred after Jesus arose.

Lenski (Matthew; 1130) and Hendriksen (Matthew, 976) argue that only their entrance into the holy city occurred after Jesus-' resurrection, whereas they left their tombs at the moment of Christ's death. But to connect after his resurrection with their entrance into the holy city ungrammatically divides a participle (exelthòntes) from its main (eisêlthon) and links it with a verb from which it is separated by and (kaì).

The solution to the problem of when they arose is perhaps only literary in character, in that Matthew summarized the effects of Christ's death in one place and proceeded to report the resurrection and Great Commission together without returning to report the saints-' resurrection in its chronological order. This is accepted literary style well documented in Scripture, but gives rise to the debate.

They appeared unto many: who are the many? Believers? Enemies? Since Jesus Himself appeared only to preselected believers (Acts 10:40 f.), perhaps these saints were sent to appear to His enemies. Their appearance in the holy city, Jerusalem (Matthew 4:5; cf. Isaiah 48:2; Isaiah 52:1), points to the directness and power of the evidence. Here, the nation of Israel was gathered for the Passover. Thus, critics at the very heart of Judaism could easily examine the facts: The amazing resurrections occurred after the Galilean from Nazareth was crucified! Could there be any connection? Would not this proof that God had visited His people serve to prepare minds for the Gospel of a risen Christ preached just over a month later?

What happened to these resurrected saints after their appearances during the post-resurrection period is not stated. Their spectacular resurrection was incomparably surpassed by the world-shaking tidings that are the heart of the Gospel: Christ Jesus arose! Possibly they eventually joined Jesus for the ascension. (Cf. Ephesians 4:8 a [= Psalms 68:18]: When he ascended on high he led a host of captives.. Were these resurrected saints His captives to embellish His triumphant return to glory?)

God had neither totally abandoned Jesus nor absented Himself from the crucifixion, merely because He did not intervene to save His Son. He too was there. These miraculous events could not occur unless God had cared enough to intervene in this way. These supernatural acts say, Notice, I am here!

FACT QUESTIONS

1.

What unusual events accompanied the death of Jesus?

2.

Locate the veil of the temple, indicating its function there.

3.

At what hour was this great curtain torn?

4.

What other events usually occur at that same period in the Temple?

5.

When, precisely, did the resurrections cited occur?

6.

What unusual events occurred after Jesus-' resurrection?