Can you please explain Matthew 27:52-53?
Let’s read Matthew 27:50-53: “And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit. Then, behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth shook, and the rocks were split. The tombs were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised; and coming out of the graves after His resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many” (NASB).
This is a marvelous passage and we trust all will be blessed as we meditate upon it. In verse 50 we told that “Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit.” What exactly was the cry that came from the Savior’s holy lips? We aren’t left to our imagination, for the answer is given in John 19:30 and Luke 23:46. John tells us, “Therefore when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, ‘It is finished!’ And He bowed His head and gave up His spirit.” Luke adds that He also cried, “And Jesus, crying out with a loud voice, said, ‘Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit.’ Having said this, He breathed His last.” His first cry revealed that “the atoning work was done!” He had paid for the sins of all who would believe, having exhausted the wrath of God that those sins deserved. But sin’s penalty also involved death, for we read in Romans 6:23 that “the wages of sin is death.” The Savior’s second cry manifested that He would willingly lay down life (for no man could take it from Him…see John 10:18) to pay for the penalty of sin. As a witness to the victory that Jesus had gained, three things happened.
- “The veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.” The veil in the Jewish temple was a constant reminder that men could NOT come into God’s presence, but after Christ’s death God Himself tore the veil down (the words “from top to bottom” indicate this) to show that all men could now enter into the holiest of all. Hebrews 10:19-20, “Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh.” Many believe that this “torn veil” was what caused many of the Jewish priests to believe, as we see in Acts 6:7, “and a great many of the priests were becoming obedient to the faith.”
- “The earth shook, and the rocks were split…the tombs were opened.” The death of Christ was, as one has said, “a powerful, earthshaking event with repercussions affecting even the creation.” The fact that it resulted in the tombs being opened signaled the victory Christ had gained over death itself. This is confirmed in the third witness.
- “And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised; and coming out of the graves after His resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many.” We know that the Lord, in His earthly ministry, raised the body of Lazarus, Jairus’ daughter, and the widow of Nain’s son, but here we see “many bodies of the saints” being summoned from their graves in a moment of time. It would appear that their resurrection took place AFTER the Lord’s resurrection, which would be in keeping with the truth of resurrection in 1st Corinthians 15:23: “But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, after that those who are Christ’s.” What an amazing testimony they were as they made their way into Jerusalem and appeared to family, friends and acquaintances! It was a glorious foretaste of the future resurrection of all the saints, as seen in 1st Corinthians 15:50-53. At that time death will be conquered and then “then it shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, ‘Death is swallowed up in victory’” (1st Corinthians 50:54, KJV). (226.1) (DO)