GOD’S WORD FOR APRIL 1 ~ ~ Matthew 27:52 ~ ~ “the tombs were also opened and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised.”

We’re reading in Nancy DeMoss Wohlgemuth’s book, “Incomparable.”

This brief verse tells us that people whose graves had flown open following the subterranean aftershocks of Christ’s crucifixion suddenly began showing up in town.  In person……..alive.

I can’t help but wonder why this remarkable story would be given such scant attention in the narrative.  All we get is a tiny slice of barebones reporting:  “They came out of the tombs after His resurrection, entered the holy city, and appeared to many.”(Matthew 27:52).

Dead people disinterred and walking around town?  Surely such a miraculous moment calls for a little more elaboration!

But let’s simply go where the Biblical accounts leads us.  These were “saints,” the Bible says –literally, “holy ones,”  probably Old Testament believers who had died looking forward to and trusting in the redeeming work of Jesus the Messiah.  After coming out of their tombs, they physically “appeared” to people, most likely to other believers, just as Jesus did following His own resurrection. (1 Cor. 15:4-7).  So there’s POWER at work here.  The power of God.  The earthquakes that cracked these tombs open were not just random tremors.  They clearly coincided with the spiritual convulsions of the crucifixion.

Try putting yourself in the place of those early believers in the days following the resurrection.  They’d allied themselves with a crucified carpenter who was now unbelievably alive.  They’d placed themselves outside of the religious Jewish mainstream.  (which leaves them without the benefits that go with being members of the temple groups).   Their belief in Jesus was soon to be greatly tested, and the suffering they’d be required to endure for Him would run the gamut from ferocious to fatal.

Imagine how the sight of these resurrected saints must have served to bolster their faith, to give the hope, and to remind them that:

Christ’s death had truly put death to death.

Christ was (and is) indeed the resurrection and the life.

Christ was (and is) the “firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep”  (1 cor 15:20)

Every person who dies in Him will be raised in Him, brought back from the dead to live with Him forever. (Romans 6:4;  Colossians 2:12).

The community of early believers needed this visible, tangible encouragement for the challenges of faith that lay ahead for them.  At any time in the future when their spiritual supplies were running low, they’d be able to look back and remember their interactions with the truly dead who were now truly alive.

God gave them what they needed.  He still – always—provides what His people need.  And He will give you and me exactly what He knows we need, in preparation for every trial to our faith that lies ahead.

But I’m struck by how easy it is for us to lose our sense of wonder over what took place on that historic weekend.  Is it possible that all this can become both too familiar and too distant in our eyes and hearts, that we can lose confidence in what He can do?  What He is still doing today?

Charles Spurgeon said it like this:

“These first miracles wrought in connection with the death of Christ were typical of spiritual wonders that will be continued till He comes again – rocky hearts are torn, graves of sin are opened, those who have been dead in trespasses and sins and buried in graves of lust and evil are quickened and come out from among the dead.”

So there’s one final takeaway from this little snippet of Scripture:  not only does it remind us of God’s POWER, PROVISION, and His gift of a FRESH PERSPECTIVE; it also provides the PROMISE of resurrection miracles yet to come.

Thinking of friends and loved ones who have died in the Lord, I find great joy in knowing that their souls are now is His presence.  And that one day – the great Resurrection Day – their physical bodies will be raised and glorified.  On that day you and I will also be raised to live forever with our resurrected Christ.

WHAT A TRIUMPH IT WILL BE!

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