Odd Stories from the Bible
Dead Men Walking: Matt. 27:50-53
Last year Americans spent 10.6 billion dollars decorating for Halloween; that outspends Christmas which includes buying gifts! What fascinates us to decorate or dress like something from out of a scene from Thriller? I think it’s the unknown, unexplainable, and even supernatural, so let’s dig into this story.
The Lord Jesus was unjustly executed on a cross and finally, after voicing a mega-piercing scream, ‘yielded up His Spirit’. Jesus was dead, but it wasn’t over yet since His holy, innocent blood needed to be offered on the heavenly Mercy Seat. Without the blood sacrifice there is no forgiveness of sin (Heb. 9:7-8), therefore, the indwelling Spirit of Christ was released at His last breath.
So Christ has now become the High Priest over all the good things that have come. He has entered that greater, more perfect Tabernacle in heaven, which was not made by human hands and is not part of this created world. With His own blood—not the blood of goats and calves—He entered the Most Holy Place once for all time and secured our redemption forever. Hebrews 9:11-12
Matthew is overwhelmed as he witnessed Jesus’ death, but records the veil of the Temple in Jerusalem being split in half from top (heaven) to bottom (earth). This earth-shaking event was cataclysmic; tombs were split open and graves unearthed as they vibrated. It’s no surprise that this Thriller scene came to life as dead saints, believers in the coming Messiah, woke up from the sleep of death, and walked around the city in full view! What?!!! Could they have been Adam and Eve, Noah, Moses, or even King David? We don’t know, but this odd story is vital to our understanding of the return of Christ since these people are a foreshadow of our future resurrection promised by God,
But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.
1 Corinthians 15:20
Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. 1 Corinthians 15:51-53
Why was this odd story included in the Bible? Consider the outcome of this evidence of resurrection; one of the Roman centurions and his battalion of 100 soldiers saw it all and were awestruck. Without thinking they blurted out, “Truly, this was the Son of God!” and Luke records, “Certainly this Man was innocent!”
We should be thanking God every day for the hope, confident expectation, of our future resurrection when we’ll be reunited with Him at His Return. I don’t know exactly what it’ll look like, but I do know it’ll be good.
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