. . . the tombs broke open. The bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. They came out of the tombs after Jesus’ resurrection and went into the holy city and appeared to many people. —Matthew 27:52–53

The sixth miracle of Calvary was the revivals to life that accompanied the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The text reveals to us that certain graves were opened by the earthquake at the death of Christ, and that the dead bodies arose and came out of them after Christ Himself had risen, and that they went into Jerusalem and appeared to many. It is a statement of one of the grandest miracles, an incredible example of supernaturalism in the sense that it was completely miraculous.

Self-evidencing marks

To this statement belong certain historical evidences. It stands in the same line as the other miraculous events of the time. It harmonizes with and explains the wonder of the opened graves in the same way that the opened graves were the product of the miraculous earthquake. And the earthquake was the miraculous counterpart to the tearing of the curtain, and the curtain was the answer to the shout of victory from the cross whose dying Sufferer had just emerged triumphant from the horrors of the symbolic darkness! So if all the previous miracles of Calvary were historical, then in order to maintain their harmony, this is the only conceivable way the great series of miracles could end.

Moreover, it is in complete accord with the whole teaching of salvation. Instead of being amazed that the resurrection was accentuated by such revivals to life in the Calvary graveyard, we would say instead, upon hearing of the incident, that, “It has a right to be here. It is credible because it expresses the pledge of the coming resurrection, when, from all the graveyards of the world, wherever the mortal remains of a saint may lie, this corruptible shall put on incorruption, and this mortal immortality!”

Marvelous silence

Then again, consider the reticence of this statement. In that restraint we see a sign of truthfulness, where incredulous babbling is forced into silence, and even the severest criticism must express admiration. The evangelist tells his story of wonder; but we also have a curious story to tell on him, one barely less wonderful than his own. Our story is amazement that these few words are absolutely all he says.

He tells us that when the Lord was resurrected certain of the departed saints arose, left their graves, and went into Jerusalem, appearing to many. But he says nothing more. Who were they? How many were there? Did they go into the houses of the people or only walk the streets? Whether they appeared only once, or from time to time during the forty days of the Lord’s appearances, isn’t told us. How did their return from the dead affect them? Did they speak of the realms of the dead or of Christ’s recent entrance into those realms? How and when did they finally disappear, or did they continue to live? On all these questions there is not a word, not so much as the faintest recognition of the possibility of such questions being asked.

Nor does the writer even mention whether the risen saints had died recently. At first glance, it might be inferred that this is implied in their appearing to many, for why should they appear, except to be recognized and identified? And yet, Moses and Elijah were recognized by the disciples at the Transfiguration, although they had never before seen either one. Certainly the Holy Spirit is able to make known to people those who were strangers before. The Spirit is able to do it as easily and quietly as the light shines or a new idea comes into the mind.

In fact, the thought in this text is not simply that they “appeared”—which doesn’t fully express the original—but that they were plainly recognized. It is not said that they were recognized by their names. The only thing implied is that they were plainly recognized as people risen from the dead.

Now how do we respond to such restraint? Was there ever a myth in any fiction story that had such a brief setting? If history can be judged by the manner in which it chronicles events, then this is history. Furthermore, it is a divine history, for what uninspired historian ever practiced such a repressed imagination? The desire to pry into the secrets of the other world can be unbearable. One of the oldest superstitions is that of trying to speak to the dead. It was forbidden in the Law of Moses. It was one of the world’s mischievous pursuits in the ignorance of earlier centuries. And yet we see a revival of it even now in our intellectual age, when human beings think they have finally gained a mature knowledge of life.

So, I say, the silence in our text is almost as wonderful as the miracle itself. No one, writing about a miracle of such magnitude, would have said so little.

What was the nature of their revivals from the dead? There are two kinds exhibited in Scripture. We are told of six resurrections that were only restorations to this present mortal life. The son of the widow of Zarephath (1 kings 17), the Shunammite’s son (2 kings 4), the resurrection caused by the bones of Elisha (2 kings 13:20–21), the daughter of Jairus (luke 8:40–56), the son of the widow of Nain (luke 7:11–15), and Lazarus (john 11). In every one of those cases, it was only a revival of the natural body that would die again, and which, in those particular cases, undeniably did die again.

The resurrection

Furthermore there is 1 Corinthians 15, where a resurrection body of an entirely different kind is promised to us who have placed our hope in the day of the Lord’s coming. “It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body” (1 corinthians 15:43–44). That is the actual resurrection—the true rising from the dead.

But in which of these two categories should we place those who came out of their tombs? Were those bodies examples of the resurrection body described in 1 Corinthians 15—spiritual, incorruptible, and immortal? Or were they only the natural body restored to this present life, like Lazarus and the others we referred to? Does the Scripture provide the means for us to answer this question?

In 1 Corinthians 15 we are told that all who are Christ’s shall be made alive in the resurrection body described there (v. 22). However, we read, “But each in turn” (v. 23), each one of the “all” who will be made alive will be made alive in his own order.

And what is that order? “Christ, the firstfruits;
then, when he comes, those who belong to him” (v. 23). Christ will rise first, and He did rise in that kind of final resurrected body—then afterward, at His coming, every one of the “all” who are His will be raised in that same way.

Note it well. The apostle doesn’t say that only those who haven’t risen before will rise at Christ’s coming. His language is absolute and all-inclusive—“those who belong to him”—he says, without making any exceptions. All those who belong to Christ shall rise, every one who is His throughout the ages. Then he adds, “but each”—every last one—“in turn,” and their turn he explains as being “Christ, the firstfruits,” and then only “when he comes.”

Notice how careful he is to tell them that this order affects all, throughout all the ages, who were ever meant to take part in that kind of resurrection.

Therefore, it is clear that none of Christ’s people have yet received the spiritual immortal body, and none shall receive it until His coming. Those saints at Calvary rose from their graves, but only in their natural revived bodies. They are still waiting for their true resurrection bodies until that moment when we are all raised up to Christ, from all the ages. No one shall precede another, no one will be perfected before another. God has provided something better for us, so that those saints who were raised at Calvary will not be made perfect without us.

What is God is teaching us here? He is teaching us the truth and certainty of the final resurrection. The teaching is symbolical. The revivals to life of the saints at Calvary foretell the greater coming glory. They were not the resurrection, but they were a resurrection; not the thing itself, but the shadow of it. Yet they were a substantial shadow, requiring nothing less than omnipotence. This was the greater meaning behind the revivals: they were a rehearsal of the more glorious scene to come.

God has assured us numerous times of that coming resurrection glory, but here He demonstrated it for us. When Christ was finished with His work and His time had come to leave the world, the great final resurrection was hinted at on a small scale, with an expenditure of power sufficient for us to trust what He can accomplish in the future. It was a farewell display of His purpose and power, a pledge and guarantee of the Savior’s return to be glorified in His risen saints.

God’s purpose

We can’t know what other purposes God may have designed for them. At the least it was for this. When Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life” (john 11:25), and proved this truth by raising Lazarus from

the dead, the proof didn’t lie in what kind of body Lazarus was raised with. Chapter 15 of 1 Corinthians demonstrates the meaning of Jesus being the resurrection and the life. But the proof lay in the fact that restoring Lazarus to natural life—the shadow of the true resurrection—visibly displayed the omnipotent power necessary for both resurrections.

Indeed, seeing the historic and the symbolic together is a significant feature of the entire series of Calvary miracles. The three hours of darkness, though real, were likewise a symbol. The tearing of the curtain as though an artisan’s blade had cut it from top to bottom was a symbol. The earthquake that split the rocks was a symbol. The opened graves were a symbol. The grave clothes of Jesus, whose marvelous arrangement was a demonstration to John of his Lord’s resurrection, were a symbol. And here, these revivals from the dead—living realities yet still only symbolic—completed the harmonious arrangement of miracles.

A basis of assurance

With that powerful scene in mind, how forcefully vivid does our assurance in the final resurrection become! When an event that has actually occurred is understood to be representative, its symbolism becomes more than just a verbal expression of ideas but an acting out of them as well.

One of the most beautiful things Jesus ever said

was “I am the vine; you are the branches” (john 15:5). Were an artist to paint a picture of vine and branches on his canvas, you would have a picture of the essential union of Christ and believers, but still only a picture.

But let us say you were looking at a particular grapevine and came to understand that God planted it for the specific purpose of serving as an analogy to you of your union with Him. Think of how much more impressive your sense of the union between Christ and believers would become!

In the same way, the white robes seen on the multitude in Revelation, while a symbol of their final resurrection glory, were only a picture, for they did not yet actually exist. But the situations in the Calvary graveyard were actual instances of death destroyed for a specific time and natural life restored in the grave—instances of God’s omnipotence working amid human decay and producing restoration. Those revived bodies of saints walking the streets of Jerusalem were designed by God as a representation, a foreshadowing of immortality and eternal glory, but as actual occurrences they also demonstrated the certainty of what they represented.

Grandeur of the plan

Furthermore, what an amazing impression is made upon us of the grandeur of God’s plan! When we consider that those saints did not have the body “sown in weakness” and “raised in power” (1 corinthians 15:43), God’s purpose in making the final resurrection a beautiful expression of the unity of the Body of Christ, the church, is clarified.

“Those who belong to him” (1 corinthians 15:23). No member of the Body will be glorified before another. Its eye, its hand, its foot, its greatest and its least, whether the remains be under the snows of Greenland or the burning soil of Africa, they shall together be ushered into the fullness of eternal life. At that time the whole Body, drawn from throughout the ages, shall come forth at exactly the same moment in a perfect harmony of beauty and glory.

Another lesson is that only in the personal deliverance of Christ Himself are His people delivered. The saints of Calvary rose from the dead only after and because Christ Himself rose from the dead. “They came out of the tombs after Jesus’ resurrection and went into the holy city” (matthew 27:53).

While it is true that their revival was not their final resurrection and their restored bodies were not yet created like His glorious resurrection body, yet they still lived in their restored bodies, the magnificent symbol of the final resurrection. Being such a symbol, they are immediately and deliberately placed in view following Christ’s resurrection. They went forth from their graves, so to speak, on the very heels of Jesus. They followed Him as meaning follows language, as vision follows light.

In other words, only by extinguishing the curse of sin and conquering it in His own person has Jesus Christ succeeded in removing it from His people. Since He was the One designated to bear the sins for us all, had He not personally been declared righteous before the Father through the accepted offering of His perfect sufferings, we could have never been justified by faith. Had He not achieved true resurrection Himself, neither would we have been able to. Consequently, His people are in Him and are one with Him. His death was their death; His life is their life. “Because I live, you also will live,” He said (john 14:19).

Oh, the immeasurable assurance of our promised heritage! We are joined with Christ in the same bundle of life. Even now “your life is now hidden with Christ in God” (colossians 3:3) and a time is coming when “[He] will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body” (philippians 3:21).

Every saint—because everyone who believes in Jesus is a saint—will rise to live an everlasting life and will never be condemned.

Author Bishop William Rufus Nicholson, D.D. (1822–1901) was rector of St. Paul’s Church, Philadelphia, bishop of the Reformed Episcopal Church, and dean of the Reformed Episcopal Seminary, Philadelphia. The great sermons collected in this book were first published in the Moody Bible Institute Monthly.

Editor Dan Schaeffer, an award-winning writer, pastors Shoreline Community Church in Santa Barbara, California. He is the author of In Search of the Real Spirit of Christmas, Defining Moments, and When Faith and Decisions Collide.