Lesson Four
Graves Opened

I chuckled when I read what Steven Wright said, “When I die, I’m leaving my body to science fiction.” Death is a heavy topic. Many can relate to the thoughts of Woody Allen, “I am not afraid of death, I just don’t want to be there when it happens.” We want to avoid talking about it with family or even a doctor. However, it is real and we will have to face it.

1. Have you had a bad diagnosis or a near-death experience?

2. Why do you think God prolonged your days?

David Jeremiah shared an epitaph that was written on a tombstone.

Pause stranger when you pass me by

As you are now so once was I

As I am now so you will be

Prepare yourself to follow me

He continues that someone left a note adding a key element.

To follow you I am not content

Until I know which way you went

The key to handling death is to know what happens next. Max Lucado wrote, “If we can understand that death is not the end but is really a transition into the next life, the great part of life, that frees us up into receiving God’s courage and his help.” However, it is important to realize that the next step is not the same for everyone. George Whitefield adds, “Take care of your life and the Lord will take care of your death.”

3. What do we need to do to assure our next step after death is secure?

There are some amazing miracles that take place at the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. We have already discussed darkness, the tearing of the Temple veil, and an earthquake. The next miracle has to top them all. It can only be from God!

Matthew 27:51-54 records, “And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split. 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. When the centurion and those who were with him, keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took place, they were filled with awe and said, ‘Truly this was the Son of God!’”

4. What happens after the earthquake?

Although the New Testament was written in the first century, verse numbers were not added until the sixteenth century. They are very helpful when trying to find a specific passage, but they are not an actual part of Scripture. Matthew 27:52 contains two separate parts:

These seem to go together until you add verse 53, “And coming out of the tombs after his resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many.” This leaves too many questions. Besides the normal questions of who they were, what kind of bodies they had, and how long they lived, one has to wonder why they were resurrected at the death of Jesus but waited three days to go anywhere. What did they do in the cemetery for three days? Why would they not go see loved ones? Could they be resurrected before Jesus?

5. If you could see someone who has already passed, who would it be and what would you say?

It makes more sense to add the first part of verse 52 to verse 51 and keep the second half of verse 52 with verse 53.

The tombs were not six feet deep. They were above ground and would naturally have been broken open due to the earthquake. However, Matthew adds an interesting fact here that happens three days later. Jesus is raised from the dead and He brings some friends back with Him! Douglas Sean O’Donnell (“Preaching the Word”) writes, “Note that the actual event happens after Jesus’ resurrection, not after his death. Yet Matthew places it here to open our eyes to the resurrection power of Jesus’ death.” J.W. Wenham agrees saying, “A full stop should be placed, not after ‘split’ (verse 51), but after ‘broke open’ (verse 52). The resurrection of ‘the holy people’ begins a new sentence and is tied up only with Jesus’ resurrection. So Matthew does not intend his readers to think that these ‘holy people’ were resurrected when Jesus died and then waited in their tombs till Easter Sunday before showing themselves.”

Matthew’s one main statement is that Jesus can and will raise the saints from death!

Dwight L. Moody said, “As I go into a cemetery I like to think of the time when the dead shall rise from their graves….Thank God, our friends are not buried; they are only sown!”

6. What pictures are conveyed here by the word sown?

Josh McDowell says it well, “No matter how devastating our struggles, disappointments, and troubles are, they are only temporary. No matter what happens to you, no matter the depth of tragedy or pain you face, no matter how death stalks you and your loved ones, the Resurrection promises you a future of immeasurable good.”

Matthew chapter 27 does not document the first time Jesus resurrected someone from the dead. Each of these individuals physically died (not just a few minutes or even hours), were brought back to life, and died again.

“And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her and said to her, ‘Do not weep.’ Then he came up and touched the bier, and the bearers stood still. And he said, ‘Young man, I say to you, arise.’ And the dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother.”

“And all were weeping and mourning for her, but he said, ‘Do not weep, for she is not dead but sleeping.’ And they laughed at him, knowing that she was dead. But taking her by the hand he called, saying, ‘Child, arise.’ And her spirit returned, and she got up at once. And he directed that something should be given her to eat. And her parents were amazed, but he charged them to tell no one what had happened.”

“When he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, ‘Lazarus, come out.’ The man who had died came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips, and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, ‘Unbind him, and let him go.’”

7. Does anything stand out in these passages?

Matthew chapter 27 says that “saints” were raised from the dead. A saint is someone who recognizes their sin and trusts God for a Savior (Jesus the Messiah). Today, a saint is someone who is a follower of Jesus Christ. We are not told who they were or how many there were that were raised physically. That is not the main point. Matthew’s one main statement is that Jesus can and will raise the saints from death! Believers in Jesus will be raised again.

8. How can one become a saint today?

I appreciate how the death of Jesus Christ has been succinctly explained.

9. Does one of these phrases summarize it well for you? How would you phrase it?

Finally, Dwight L. Moody says it so well, “Some day you will read in the papers that D.L. Moody of East Northfield, is dead. Don’t you believe a word of it! At that moment I shall be more alive than I am now; I shall have gone up higher, that is all, out of this old clay tenement into a house that is immortal – a body that death cannot touch, that sin cannot taint; a body fashioned like unto His glorious body.”