Hallelujah, Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Happy Easter to you. Graham discusses the unknown numbers who were raised from the dead on resurrection day.

Don’t forget to listen to the drama! The script to Mick, Matt and Ben is available here mick-matt-n-ben.

Resurrection Day [ 21:11 ] Play in Popup | Download

Scene 1 [ 2:47 ] Play in Popup | Download

Scene 2 [ 3:18 ] Play in Popup | Download

Scene 3 [ 1:32 ] Play in Popup | Download

Scene 4 [ 2:33 ] Play in Popup | Download

Matthew 27:52-53

THE DEAD RAISED

Not the main event, but part of the history.

At this first resurrection time this other miracle occurred.

1) What happened?

Matthew 27:52-53

“The graves 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”

Would it have been as described in our drama with bodies having to be buried in graves that had to be dug again? Perhaps not quite like that.

Many of the tombs in and around Jerusalem to this day are hollow stone sepulchres. They are built at ground level.

I have heard it suggested that it was the earthquake at the time of the death of Jesus that would have burst open these ‘graves’.

This miracle though is not the bursting open of the tombs but what happened to the dead people with them. The dead were raised for a while and they came out. But they did not come out of their tombs until the resurrection of Jesus, not at the time of the earthquake.

Notice that those who rose from the dead did not appear in Jerusalem until after

Jesus’ resurrection. See the NIV translation: “They came out of the tombs, and after Jesus’ resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many people.”

What they were doing until their appearance is not known to us.

2) Why is it often overlooked?

This event it only mentioned in Matthew’s gospel. I have not idea why that is so! It must have been something people would talk about in such a small city.

Although “many . . . saints who had fallen asleep” were raised, not all were. These were a select group. Were they examples of something to come or the consequence of such resurrection power at work?

The numbers of those who were raised is not specified, but the term “many” in this case is rather vague. Was it a crowd or half a dozen? I think half a dozen would be “many” if we are talking about dead people walking about.

They “appeared to many” (v. 53). Again, we are not told how many. There must have been enough eyewitnesses to verify the miracle. When Matthew wrote his gospel, some of the

eyewitnesses would have still been alive. Matthew doesn’t say what became of these risen ones so we assume they were returned to their graves.

This event, for all its amazing detail, seems to have been eclipsed by the far greater event of the resurrection of Jesus and his many and prolonged appearances.

3) Why the time gap?

Where they were in the days after they were loosed from the grave and before they appeared in Jerusalem is not revealed. But I am sure that they it is because they were not raised before Jesus.

1 Corinthians 15:20 tells us that Jesus was the first to rise.

But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.

Their appearance proved that Christ had conquered death, not merely for Himself, but for

all his people.

One day all who are in the graves will hear His voice and come from them.

John 5:28-29

Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice and come out- those who have done good will rise to live, and those who have done evil will rise to be condemned.

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope. We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. According to the Lord’s own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord for ever. Therefore encourage each other with these words.