Matthew 27

⁵¹ And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split. ⁵² The tombs also were opened. And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised, ⁵³ and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many. 

Gary Burge and Gene Green have passed on a fascinating historical anecdote about King Herod.

Herod ordered all the noble Jewish families to come to Jericho to attend to him. When they arrived, he had them herded into Jericho’s hippodrome (horseracing track) and told his soldiers to slay them the moment he died. This was to promote national mourning.

While he was on his deathbed, he obtained a letter from Rome giving him permission to slay his too-ambitious son Antipater. He did so immediately. Then he gave his will: Archelaus would be king, Antipas would rule Galilee, and Philip would rule the northeast regions (Gaulanitis, Paneas). Five days later he died.

When Herod was dead, the hippodrome was opened, no one was killed, and the people gathered together in the theater. Herod’s will was read, and Archelaus was hailed as king.[1]

This is equally absurd and pitiful: a king demanding that people be slaughtered to make sure that there was some sort of reaction at his death. A truly great king, of course, would not have to set up such a diabolical manipulation. The world mourns the death of greatness without having to be tricked into it.

Case in point: the death of Jesus on the cross. The heavens and the earth mourned the death of Jesus, and this showed up in a number of starling ways!

The veil is torn.

First, and perhaps most famously, the veil of the temple is torn.

⁵¹ And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom…

This has traditionally been thought of as the veil guarding the entrance to the Holy of Holies, that innermost and most sacred of temple areas.

Iain Duguid notes that there are, in fact, two curtains.

There were two temple curtains. One blocked entrance to the Most Holy Place, which the high priest entered once per year, bearing a sacrifice. A second curtain separated the courts of Jews from the courts of Gentiles. Paul teaches that the atonement ends racial and ethnic divisions, which that curtain partially reflected. But Matthew almost certainly means the curtain, the inner curtain separating the Most Holy Place from other parts of the temple. First, his term katapetasma normally refers to the inner curtain (cf. Ex. 26:31–35 LXX). Second, subsequent NT uses of katapetasma have the inner curtain in view (Heb. 6:19–20; 9:3–8; 10:19–22).[2]

Josephus’ description of the veil is truly awesome:

But then this house, as it was divided into two parts, the inner part was lower than the appearance of the outer, and had golden doors of fifty-five cubits altitude, and sixteen in breadth; but before these doors there was a veil of equal largeness with the doors. It was a Babylonian curtain, embroidered with blue, and fine linen, and scarlet, and purple, and of a contexture that was truly wonderful. Nor was this mixture of colors without its mystical interpretation, but was a kind of image of the universe; for by the scarlet there seemed to be enigmatically signified fire, by the fine flax the earth, by the blue the air, and by the purple the sea; two of them having their colors the foundation of this resemblance; but the fine flax and the purple have their own origin for that foundation, the earth producing the one, and the sea the other. This curtain had also embroidered upon it all that was mystical in the heavens, excepting that of the [twelve] signs, representing living creatures.[3]

This curtain, then, depicted the universe. It was seen as that which separated man from God. The curtain highlighted the transcendence of God, the otherness of God. At Jesus’ death, the veil is torn. This is an act pregnant with meaning!

It means that, through Jesus, there is now no separation between God and man. We can now come to the Father and we come to Him through the Son! It means that there is a way, and the way is Jesus!

In Hebrews 10, the writer of Hebrews put this powerfully and beautifully!

¹⁹ Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, ²⁰ by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, ²¹ and since we have a great priest over the house of God, ²² let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. ²³ Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.

The separation has ended! The Son has made a way! And the way is the Son!

The earth is shaken.

Then, the earth itself seemed to mourn!

⁵¹ …And the earth shook, and the rocks were split.

The shaking of the earth is an image that occurs frequently within scripture.

In Judges 5, in the Song of Deborah and Barak, we read:

⁴ “Lord, when you went out from Seir, when you marched from the region of Edom, the earth trembled and the heavens dropped, yes, the clouds dropped water. ⁵ The mountains quaked before the Lord, even Sinai before the Lord, the God of Israel.

Here, the shaking of the earth appears to refer to the power, magnitude, and sovereignty of God!

There is a decidedly negative connotation in 2 Samuel 22, in David’s song of deliverance.

⁷ “In my distress I called upon the Lord; to my God I called. From his temple he heard my voice, and my cry came to his ears. ⁸ “Then the earth reeled and rocked; the foundations of the heavens trembled and quaked, because he was angry. ⁹ Smoke went up from his nostrils, and devouring fire from his mouth; glowing coals flamed forth from him.”

The earth quaking as a result of God’s anger is also seen in Jeremiah 10:10 and Nahum 1:5. We should likely see in this shaking, then, a reflection of God’s anger at the unjust execution of the Son, even as God sent the Son for this. The cross reflects our salvation. But the execution on the cross represents man’s wickedness as well!

Interestingly, in Psalm 60, we see the earth shaking in conjunction with a tearing or rending.

¹ O God, you have rejected us, broken our defenses; you have been angry; oh, restore us. ² You have made the land to quake; you have torn it open; repair its breaches, for it totters. ³ You have made your people see hard things; you have given us wine to drink that made us stagger.

When we think of the veil depicting the universe—the heavens and the earth—these verses become even more interesting. The earth is torn. The earth quakes. The psalmist cries out for help from God lest the whole created order “totter” into its own ruin before God’s wrath.

Similarly, and perhaps more evocatively, we find this in Isaiah 64:

¹ Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains might quake at your presence—² as when fire kindles brushwood and the fire causes water to boil—to make your name known to your adversaries, and that the nations might tremble at your presence!

Here, the rending of the heavens is coupled with the shaking of the mountains and a plea for God to “come down” and make His name known! In Jesus, of course, God has done precisely that. But with the cross and the empty tomb, Jesus will come again and His adversaries will indeed know His name!

Joel 3 highlights the aspect of decision with its depiction of the quaking of the earth.

¹⁴ Multitudes, multitudes, in the valley of decision! For the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision. ¹⁵ The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining. ¹⁶ The Lord roars from Zion, and utters his voice from Jerusalem, and the heavens and the earth quake. But the Lord is a refuge to his people, a stronghold to the people of Israel.

There is awesome strength here, but there is also salvation here. Even as the earth quakes, God is seen as a refuge for His people! They can run to Him and be saved.

Tellingly, then, these Old Testament images of the earth quaking move from sheer wrath to the promise of salvation itself. All of these should be seen in the earth’s mourning of the death of the Son of God. Judgment is coming, but, through the Son, we may be saved!

As for the splitting of the rocks, it should be noted that here, too, we have Old Testament imagery to consider. Psalms 78 speaks of the Lord’s provision of water in the wilderness wanderings of Israel.

¹⁵ He split rocks in the wilderness and gave them drink abundantly as from the deep. ¹⁶ He made streams come out of the rock and caused waters to flow down like rivers.

This is in reference to Numbers 20.

¹⁰ Then Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock, and he said to them, “Hear now, you rebels: shall we bring water for you out of this rock?” ¹¹ And Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock with his staff twice, and water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their livestock. ¹² And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not believe in me, to uphold me as holy in the eyes of the people of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land that I have given them.” ¹³ These are the waters of Meribah, where the people of Israel quarreled with the Lord, and through them he showed himself holy.

Even though Moses was not allowed to bring the children of Israel into the land of promise as a result of this, it was a powerful image of God’s provision: water flowing from a split rock.

Perhaps we should simply see the splitting of the rocks in our text as another way of depicting the earthquake. But it is telling that its Old Testament precursor has to do with salvation coming from an angry striking.

The tombs are opened.

And then, one more surprising reaction to the death of Jesus on the cross.

⁵² The tombs also were opened. And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised, ⁵³ and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many.

It is telling that Matthew links the cross to the empty tomb, giving us a glimpse into what will happen “after his resurrection.” It is telling because by connecting the two—the cross and the empty tomb—Matthew is showing that they should not be seen separately. No great wedge should be driven between them. The cross is connected to the empty tomb. These two events make up the “passive” aspect of Christ’s saving work; the “active” aspect being His life of perfect obedience.

“Many bodies of the saints” rise, come out of the tombs, go into Jerusalem, and appear to many. This is fascinating. Some find it hard to embrace, but I do not know why! The cross and empty tomb signal the death of death! We would be surprised if some did not rise as a picture of what is to come.

And I do believe this is the right way to look at this: that these who rise at this time are a foretaste of what is to come. They are a picture of the resurrection of the dead at the second coming of Jesus!

This is why Paul, in 1 Corinthians 15, speaks of Jesus as “the firstfruits.”

²⁰ But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. ²¹ For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. ²² For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. ²³ But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. ²⁴ Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power.

Here is the proper order: Christ rises, and then “those who belong to Christ” rise!

This odd resurrection, we might respectfully call it, is showing us what is to come!

The overall picture of these three acts—the tearing of the veil, the quaking of the earth, the rising of some of the dead—is one of an act so momentous, so powerful, so astonishing, and so pulsating with divine energy that the earth and the elements and the temple and the tombs convulse in response to it.

The Son of God died! The Son of God rises! And when the Creator or all dies and rises, nothing is ever the same. The heavens and the earth heave, and this resulted in the amazing phenomenon we read about here.

Behold, the Lamb of God! Behold King Jesus! The cosmos shiver at His death and resurrection and wait with anticipation for His promised return!

 

[1] Burge, Gary M.; Green, Gene L. The New Testament in Antiquity, 2nd Edition (p. 53). Zondervan Academic. Kindle Edition.

[2] Excerpt From: Iain M. Duguid. “ESV Expository Commentary: Matthew–Luke.” Apple Books.

[3] https://www.ccel.org/ccel/josephus/works/files/war-5.html