(Today’s audio reading on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/2qPTv5wvuH7xykGvUHcjgQ)
The earth shook, rocks split apart, and tombs opened. The bodies of many godly men and women who had died were raised from the dead. They left the cemetery after Jesus’ resurrection, went into the holy city of Jerusalem, and appeared to many people. (Matthew 27:51-53)
The cross also indicates things I don’t understand (and to my knowledge, have never heard a sermon on in more than half a century of going to church): “Many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised; and coming out of the tombs…” Huh??? “They entered the holy city.” What??? It’s pretty astounding. But meaning unknown! After Jesus breathed his last and was resurrected, did tombs just open all over the place in Jerusalem and these guys scraped the dirt off themselves and suddenly started going here and there, to homes, to the marketplaces, to the public baths? How did that work? How many were there who popped up out of the ground? What did the Jerusalem Times say about it?
“Gasp! Where did you come from, Joseph! Haven’t seen you in ages…wait, didn’t I hear that you died?! Are you a ghost, or…!? What’s that dirt on you? And you look a little…”
Lots of unknowns for me, but here are some certainties: 1) the moment of crucifixion set off a series of phenomenal events (a total eclipse, the torn temple curtain from top to bottom, graves opened, dead raised suddenly at the resurrection); 2) the super-natural evidence was undeniable—these were no magic tricks, sleight of hand, or “pay no attention to the man behind the curtain”—this was the real deal; 3) these things are once-in-a-universe kinds of events…Let it all add up to proclaim a message that the one crucified was no ordinary man. Signs and wonders accompanied him in life and death; 4) the One who died at Skull Place had power over death—though it may not have looked like it to the uninformed observer.
Particularly the cross was a sign that death was conquered. Admittedly as we read the story of his passion, or suffering, it feels ‘final’, and like ‘life is over’, but behind all that’s going on, Jesus’ death is actually an eternal turning point. A case in point is that folks who were in graves, the usual, final place of the death experience, they experienced the reversal of their deaths! (And it doesn’t matter that we don’t know how many; we just know it was enough to be counted and recognized!) Their final resting place in the soil was suddenly understood to be not so final. Their deaths were being reversed to life. For sure, we can’t explain this one! Are you okay with God having the final say on this, and us not being able to explain it? Or do we have to be able to explain things, completely, before we can rest in peace (pun intended)?
That’s kind of how the crucifixion went, isn’t it: there had never before been a crucifixion like the one Jesus experienced. It was unique. It was accompanied by graves being opened and dead people coming forth and “appearing to many people.” Try to absorb that news.
“Father, thank you for doing things that were never before seen, like opening the graves of dead people—even if we can’t explain them, don’t have historical research on them to learn more, or are able to get our minds around them!”
Freddy Boswell 