Events that baffle your mind

And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he 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 and the tombs broke open. 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 27:50-53

A mature Christian once admitted to me that, in spite of all the years she had been following Jesus, she had never really noticed this little passage. Matthew 27 is a long chapter, 66 verses, and the things described here occupy just four, so it’s easy for them to get a bit lost as Matthew unfolds all sorts of dramatic events. But they are saying important things.

In verse 50 we read about the death of Jesus, the central event in Christian faith: he “cried out again in a loud voice” and “gave up his spirit”.

In verse 51 we read that “the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom”, a symbol of the wonderful new access to God we sinful human beings have through his sacrifice on our behalf.

Still in verse 51 we read that “the earth shook and the rocks split…” – in other words, there was an earthquake, symbolising the world-changing, earth-shattering nature of what happened that day: our sins forgiven once-for-all through Christ’s body nailed to the cross.

So much, so familiar. But then, in verses 52-53: “… and the tombs broke open. 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”.

How very strange! Remember, this is still Good Friday, not yet Easter Sunday. Yet a clear indication of new resurrection life is given. Not that these “holy people” were yet resurrected in the same sense that Jesus would be - “resuscitated” would be a better word. Like Lazarus in John 10 they would have to die again.

Taken at face value, these events raise all sorts of questions…

Given their extraordinary nature, why doesn’t the Bible tell us more about them? Mark, Luke and John say nothing, and even Matthew gives us no more than this handful of verses.

Who were these “holy people”? Old Testament saints? Just ordinary God-fearing members of Jerusalem society?

What did they do in the interval of time between being “raised” on the Friday and entering Jerusalem and appearing to “many people” on the Sunday? How did they spend that time?

In what form did they appear? Surely not walking skeletons! Or zombie-like humans? And what happened to them in Jerusalem? How did the “many people” who met them greet them? As if they were ghosts? Again, surely not.

And when it was time for them to return to their tombs, did they just lay themselves down again – rather like The Snowman in the cartoon film climbing back into his freezer and pulling the lid down with a sigh of pleasure?

Strange indeed. And no single explanation entirely satisfies.

Could it be that Matthew is describing a fulfilment of Old Testament prophecy in a strictly literal sense? We read in Ezekiel 37:1-14 about the “valley of the dry bones” being brought to life. It culminates in verse 13: “Then you, my people, will know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and bring you up from them”.

That prediction, of course, belongs strictly to the time of Jesus’ return in glory; but could it be that Matthew is so certain of it that he depicts it as an event right in the here and now?

Or could it be that Matthew is describing some kind of collective vision? – not that the holy people were literally raised from the dead but that loved ones and others who had known them “saw” them in some dream-like state.

Could some such conversation as this have happened on the Saturday morning…? “’It’s really amazing: yesterday I saw my grandfather, as real as life…’ ‘That is amazing! I saw my wife, who died five years ago – and she looked so wonderfully well. And it wasn’t remotely spooky!’ ‘Yes; it all seemed to happen just after that horrible crucifixion outside the wall, didn’t it?’”

Who can say? Most New Testament scholars, unsurprisingly, write this episode off as a legend that grew up in the years after the event. But that certainly isn’t the way Matthew presents it – for him, it seems to be a plain statement of fact.

Questions, questions, questions! I’ve certainly raised more than I have answered! But perhaps that’s as it should be. What happened that first Easter weekend was the most momentous event in the history of the world. So we need to be aware that just to probe into it a little is to step onto holy ground, like Moses before the burning bush. Can we expect to understand such awesome mysteries?

Isn’t it enough to know that Jesus died for us and then rose again in glory? For the rest, let’s be content to wait until that day when we will see him face to face. I doubt if we’ll feel then the need to ask our questions, don’t you?

Father, I understand only the tiniest part of all that was happening over that first Easter weekend. You have given me a mind with which to probe and ask questions, for which I thank you. But help me not to overstep the mark. Help me simply to love and trust you a little more each day, and with that to be content. Amen.