Midweek 5 – “The Miraculous Raising of the Saints from Death” – Matthew 27:52–53 – April 6, 2011

Are you a curious person? I am. I remember growing up that I was always taking things apart to see what was inside – to see how they worked. I was also curious about nature and investigated anything that living. Very curious.

Our Lenten series ponders some of the miracles surrounding the passion of Jesus – several of which are no more than mere passing phrases in the texts of Holy Scripture – miracles whose meanings often go unnoticed as we read or hear the passion story. This evening we ponder The miraculous raising of the saints from death. At the moment of Jesus’ death, St. Matthew writes: “The tombs also were opened. And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised, and coming out of the tombs after His resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many.” (Matthew 27:52–53)

What a curious story. Out of all the miracles we have pondered from the time of Jesus’ death, this one holds perhaps the most fascination for me – probably because there are so many questions that go unanswered.

For instance, who were these saints that rose and how many were there? Obviously they were believers – but were they people who had heard Jesus and put their faith in Him and then had died at some point during Jesus’ ministry or were they saints from before Jesus’ ministry – like Simeon and Anna that had seen the infant Jesus in the temple or even some of the familiar people from the OT – people who had believed God’s promise of a Savior?

Or, how about this question… What kind of a physical resurrection was this? Did they rise and live for awhile again and then die again or did they actually rise with glorified bodies as all believers will on the last day? If so, which our Lutheran commentators seem as likely, when were they taken directly into heaven by God…. And when?

And this question… What did these saints do between being raised from the dead on Friday and their appearing in Jerusalem on Easter Sunday? To whom did they appear? Did they appear once or over the course of many days? I like to think that they appeared to some of the Pharisees and leaders who had crucified Jesus.

I am steeped in curiosity over this miracle. But here’s the deal – here’s the answer to all my questions – We just don’t know.

Ultimately, although these questions peak our curiosity, they are the wrong questions and St. Matthew inspired by the Holy Spirit has no reason or need to answer any of them. Why? Because it is the actual miracle of the raising of the saints from death that should hold all of our attention.

Again I ask, Why? Well, let me ask you this: Why are people put in graves? Because of sin – your sin, my sin, the sin we commit, the sin we are born with – we all die because of sin. St. Paul declare our dilemma very well in Romans 5: “Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned” (5:12).

And unless there is victory over sin, victory over death, the death my father suffered, my grandparents suffered, your loved ones suffered, the death you and I will suffer will be permanent – eternal – forever outside of God’s presence. That is what our sin brings – death.

But, what happens at Jesus death is an undoing of death. It is irony at its best – at the moment of Jesus’ death, death loses its sting and is swallowed up in victory, as Paul writes in the great resurrection chapter, 1 Corinthians 15.

You see, the immediate effect of the death of Jesus was the opening of the tombs and the resurrection of many saints. This miracle is a sign that Jesus’ death has conquered death. These risen saints prove His great victory. Death can no longer keep the saints of God in their tombs.

The significance of the event is well summarized by one of our LCMS New Testament theologians, the late Dr. Martin Franzman, who wrote, “The saints proceeding from their tombs and appearing in the Holy city indicates that Christ’s death is victory over death, that he is the firstborn from the dead.”

And so, this miracle was not intended to satisfy our curiosity about the details of what this event might have entailed at a personal level, but this miracle was intended to impress on all believers in all times and in all places that Christ is the Victor over death and that His resurrection guarantees our own. Because Christ Jesus died for my sins, our sins, and the sins of the world, we have the assurance that we and all believers in Jesus will rise to eternal life on the Last Day.

“‘Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?’ The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain” (1Cor. 15:54-58). Amen.