Matthew 27:51-53
At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. 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. After his resurrection they came out of the tombs and entered the holy city and appeared to many.
The consequences of Jesus’ death are portrayed in Matthew’s story as more immediate and more dramatic than in any of the other gospels. The darkness and tearing of the temple curtain – this is a constant feature in Mark and Luke as well. But the rest – the earthquake that split rocks and opened tombs – this is distinct.
I have suggested before that the tearing the Temple curtain represents the unleashing of God’s presence into all the world and our complete access to God’s mercy through Christ. There is, as the Apostle Paul writes, nothing that may separate us from God (Rom. 8:39). But the rending of the curtain may also be a visible sign of the anguish that accompanies the death of this innocent. Precisely because he is the Son of Man and bearer of the Kingdom, when he is put to death by the Romans the sky goes dark, the earth convulses in grief and outrage, and the Temple itself is wrought by aguish.
Jesus’ death is an offense against creation, Matthew suggests. It runs against the natural order. And in response, the natural order itself is disrupted, as some of the saints who had been laid to rest awaken and are called out of their tombs and raised to new life. It is as if even the normal rules of life and death no longer hold once the Son of God is not welcomed by humanity but instead put to death.
But what is experienced only as disruption on Friday afternoon becomes the birth pangs for a new creation, a new way of relating to God and each other. Come Easter, there is a new order, not a return to the old or the chaos of disruption but a new world altogether, one governed by love and grace and forgiveness. And so the saints that were raised on Friday suspending the natural order now bear witness to the fact that death is no match for the life-giving power of God’s grace and love.
No one expected this. Friday was meant to be the end of the story, and so the whole earth grieves Jesus’ tragic demise. But God takes what we believe is dead and offers new life, transforming the ending Jesus’ opponents had devised into a transition, a birthing of a new world and order altogether where the dead live, the lame walk, the tired receive rest, the blind see, and all the people live in the hope of life with God.
Prayer: Dear God, grant us faith to believe that with you all things are possible. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
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