On Easter Sunday, we proclaim that the stone was rolled away; the tomb is empty; Christ is risen! The resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ is the main event, and it is right that we should focus on his stone, his tomb, and his resurrection. But what is the meaning of Christ’s resurrection? Why was he raised? And what did he accomplish on the third day?
We can begin to answer these monumental questions by considering the other stones, other tombs, and other resurrections that took place on Easter Sunday morning. Matthew 27 gives a strange and extraordinary report that when Christ died on the cross, many other stones were split by a mighty earthquake, and many other tombs were opened; then, after Christ’s resurrection, many other righteous people were raised from the dead and went into Jerusalem.
50 And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit. 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. 54 When the centurion and those who were with him, keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took place, they were filled with awe and said, “Truly this was the Son of God!” (Matthew 27:50–54)
Many Saints
Matthew 27 is a partial fulfillment of Daniel 12:2: “many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake.” Ezekiel prophesied in the Valley of Dry Bones, “I will open your graves and raise you from your graves, O my people. And I will bring you into the land of Israel” (Ezekiel 37:12).
We don’t know exactly who was raised, or how many, but Matthew says that there were “many,” and that they were “saints.” While “saints” can refer to all the righteous, Matthew is likely referring to those who were well-known among the Old Testament righteous dead. They “appeared to many” in Jerusalem, likely as witnesses, so one would expect them to be prominent figures.
After Christ’s resurrection, many other righteous people were raised from the dead and went into Jerusalem.
Perhaps King David was among those raised from the dead on Easter Sunday morning, since he was buried in the City of David, just a short walk from the heart of Jerusalem.
It’s possible that Abraham was also raised from the dead. He was buried in the Cave of Machpelah, in Hebron, only 19 miles from Jerusalem. Sarah, Isaac, Rebecca, Jacob, and Leah were buried in the same place, and may have been resurrected with him.
Perhaps Joseph was also raised from the dead, as he had been raised from the pit and prison, and journeyed from Shechem to Jerusalem.
It’s possible that Samuel, Joshua, Caleb, and Isaiah were also raised and appeared in the holy city.
In the Eastern icon of the resurrection, Jesus is always depicted as rising from the dead with a man and a woman beside him. He is holding their limp wrists and lifting them out of the dark, shadowy realm of the dead, its doors burst open by the divine power. The man and woman are Adam and Eve. While the icon is making a theological point, it is possible that even our first parents were among those who rose from the dead on Easter Sunday morning. Perhaps the first Adam rose with the second. We’ll never know.
We’ll never know who or how many rose with Christ on Easter Sunday morning, but it was many, and they were saints of old. They were men and women who had looked and longed for the seed of the woman, who would crush the serpent’s head; for the seed of Abraham, who would bless all nations; for the seed of David, who would reign over an everlasting kingdom.
Heaven or Hades?
When we think about where the Old Testament saints are at now, we immediately think of heaven. But in the Old Testament, God’s people had a very different expectation for life after death. They did not expect to go “up” to heaven when they died; they expected to go “down” to a place called Sheol or, in the Greek, Hades.
Jacob said, “I shall go down to Sheol to my son” (Gen. 37:35). He believed that his righteous son Joseph was already in Sheol, and that he would join him there when he died.
King Hezekiah, one of Israel’s most righteous kings, also expected to die and go to Sheol: “I must depart; I am consigned to the gates of Sheol for the rest of my years” (Isaiah 38:10).
Hannah also refers to Sheol as the place of the dead: “The Lord kills and brings to life; he brings down to Sheol and raises up” (1 Sam. 2:6).
Many other passages confirm that the Old Testament saints expected to go to Hades, not heaven, when they died (Job 7:9–10; 14:11–14; Ps. 49:14–15; 89:48). In fact, Sheol is envisioned as a place “below,” under the earth, and is constantly contrasted with heaven “above” (Job 11:8; Ps. 139:8; Isa. 7:11; Amos 9:2).
The Jewish view of Hades/Sheol is reflected in the books that were written in the centuries leading up to Christ’s coming. The most famous example is 1 Enoch, which is actually quoted in the Bible, in Jude 14–15. Enoch depicts Hades as “a mass of rock containing cavernous compartments filled with the souls of all the dead, righteous and wicked” (Samuel D. Renihan, Crus, Mors, Inferi: A Primer and Reader on the Descent of Christ).
Since the wicked also went to Hades/Sheol (Ps. 9:17), the Jews envisioned at least two “compartments” in the place of the dead, sometimes called “Upper Hades” and “Lower Hades.” This view is likely reflected in Jesus’s story about the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19–31), in which both men die and go to the same general location (they can communicate), though there is a great gulf fixed between them. The rich man is tormented while Lazarus is comforted at Abraham’s bosom (where Abraham is, in upper Hades/Sheol).
This view, that Sheol was the common abode of the dead, was still widely held in the first century. Charles Hill writes, “If you approached a Jew on the streets of Jerusalem in Jesus’ day and asked: ‘If you were to die tonight, why should God let you into his heaven?’ you would probably have heard: ‘God doesn’t let anyone into his heaven. You mean, ‘Why should God let me into the good section of Hades,’ don’t you?’”
If we fast forward to the latter part of the New Testament, we see a very different picture. When the saints die and are absent from their bodies, they are “with the Lord” (2 Cor. 5:8). They are “in the very presence of God in heaven, in the heavenly Jerusalem, with the angels in festal gathering (Heb. 12.22), under the altar (Rev. 6.9), or standing before the throne (Rev. 7.9) or standing beside the sea of crystal (Rev. 15.2).”
What changed from the Old to the New Testament? How did the saints go from Hades to heaven? The answer helps us to make sense of what happened in Matthew 27:50–54.
Jesus in Hades
Matthew 27:50 records that when Christ died, he “gave up his spirit”—his human soul. Jesus died a fully human death: his body was buried, but his human “soul” or “spirit” departed. The New Testament teaches what is confessed in the Apostles’ Creed: “he descended to the dead”—to the place of the dead, to Hades or Sheol.
Some translations of the Apostles’ Creed say that Christ “descended into hell,” but it’s important to know that “hell” was used in the past to mean nothing more than “the place of the dead.” It didn’t always refer to a place of punishment. The Creed never meant that Christ was punished in hell for our sins; it always meant that Christ joined the Old Testament righteous dead in Hades or Sheol.
In Acts 2:31, Peter preached that David “foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption.” Peter is citing Psalm 16:10: “For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol, or let your holy one see corruption.” The flesh of Christ did not see corruption—God raised him from the dead before his body began to decompose. The soul of Christ was not abandoned to Hades/Sheol—God raised him from the place of the dead on Easter Sunday morning.
In Romans 10:7, Paul asks “‘Who will descend into the abyss?’” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead).” Ephesians 4:9 asks, “what does ‘he ascended’ mean except that he also descended to the lower parts of the earth?” (CSB). The ESV says that Christ descended to “the lower regions, the earth,” but the comma is not necessary, and it constrains a questionable reading. The Jews understood “the abyss” and “the lower parts of the earth” to refer to Hades (see Matthew Emerson’s treatment of these and other key verses in He Descended to the Dead: An Evangelical Theology of Holy Saturday).
In Matthew 12:40, Jesus says, “just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” The Jews understood “the heart of the earth,” like “the abyss,” to refer not merely to the grave, but to the place of dead souls. In fact, Christ is probably alluding to Jonah’s prayer, in which he “describes the depths of the ocean as Sheol, the abyss, the place of the dead” (Emerson).
Christ descended into Hades and joined the righteous saints who had long awaited his advent.
Christ descended into Hades and joined the righteous saints who had long awaited his advent. He flooded the dark place called death with the light of his divine life. And as Samson tore off the gate of Gaza, bar and all, Christ burst open the gate of Sheol, snatching the keys from Satan’s hand. On the third day, his soul rejoined his body in life, and he arose from the grave proclaiming, “I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades” (Rev. 1:18).
From Hades to Heaven
It’s significant that in Matthew 27:51, two things are simultaneously split: “the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split.” Hebrews 9:3 explains that “behind the second curtain was a second section called the Most Holy Place,” but that this was merely a “copy” of a heavenly reality: “Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself” (Heb. 9:24). The splitting of the curtain means that Christ has opened the way into God’s presence in heaven.
The splitting of the curtain means that Christ has opened the way into God’s presence in heaven.
At the same time that the curtain was split, the rocks were split. And as we’ve seen in the Old Testament and 1 Enoch, this meant more to the Jews than that the physical ground had been disrupted. It symbolized the opening of Hades, the place “under the earth” (Php. 2:10; Rev. 5:3, 13).
John Calvin comments,
This was also a striking miracle, by which God declared that his Son entered into the prison of death, not to continue to be shut up there, but to bring out all who were held captive. For at the very time when the despicable weakness of the flesh was beheld in the person of Christ, the magnificent and divine energy of his death penetrated even to hell.
Christ “led a host of captives” (Eph. 4:8) out of Hades, in keeping with his promise to Jerusalem: “I will set your prisoners free from the waterless pit” (Zech. 9:11). God arose (Ps. 68:1), “the earth quaked” (Ps. 68:8), and he led out the prisoners to prosperity (Ps. 68:6), the women announcing the good news (Ps. 68:11).
Hilary of Poitiers preached,
The earth shook. For the earth could not hold this dead man. Rocks were split, for the Word of God and the power of his eternal goodness rushed in, penetrating every stronghold and principality. Graves were opened, for the gates of death had been unlocked. And a number of the bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep arose. Dispelling the shadows of death and illuminating the darkness of hell, Christ destroyed the spoils of death itself at the resurrection of the saints, who saw him immediately.
Matthew 27:50–54 brings into focus the unity of the cross and resurrection. Matthew records that Christ died, then interjects this passage, mentioning his resurrection before even recording his burial! It seems like bad storytelling! But Matthew is making an important theological point. The rocks split when Christ died on the cross, because Christ conquered death by death; the saints were not actually raised or released from their tombs until after Christ’s resurrection, because it was by his resurrection that the power of Christ’s victory was unleashed in the world. Christ drove his cross-sword through the serpent’s head with such power that it ruptured the rocks and opened the tombs.
Melito of Sardis preached,
By the cross death is destroyed,
and by the cross salvation shines;
By the cross the gates of hell are burst,
and by the cross the gates of paradise are opened.
The cross has become the way of saints and martyrs;
the cross has become the chain of the apostles
and the shield of faith of prophets.
Melito pictures Christ saying:
I am he who destroyed death
and triumphed over the enemy
and tread down Hades
and bound the strong one
and bore man away to the heights of heaven.
“The strong one” refers, of course, to Satan. The church fathers loved to draw on Christ’s story of the strong man in Matthew 12 to explain the unity of the cross, descent, and resurrection. By his death on Good Friday, Christ bound the strong man. By his descent on Holy Saturday, Christ entered the strong man’s house. By his resurrection on Easter Sunday, Christ plundered the strong man’s goods—the souls of the righteous dead who, though comforted, were still held under the power of death, and unable to journey behind the curtain.
Referring to Matthew 12 and Matthew 27, Origen wrote,
First therefore he bound him at the cross, and thus he has entered his house, that is, Hades (infernum), and from there “ascending on high, he led captivity captive” (Ps. 68.18; Eph. 4.8), those certainly who with himself are co-resurrected and have entered the holy city, heavenly Jerusalem” (cf. Matt. 27.52-3). (Commentary on Romans, V.10)
Hippolytus had earlier written,
As many as Satan swallowed and bound, these the Lord, when he came, loosed from the bonds of death, having bound him who was “strong” against us, but having set humanity free. As also Isaiah says, “then he will say to those [men] in chains, ‘Come out!’ and to those in darkness, ‘Be enlightened!’” (Isa. 49.9). (Commentary on Daniel, IV.33.4)
As the Paschal Troparion of the Eastern church says,
Christ is risen from the dead,
trampling down death by death,
and on those in the tombs bestowing life!
Christ the Firstfruits, Then Those Who Belong to Him
What happened to the many saints who rose from the dead with Christ on Easter Sunday? We’ll never know for sure, but I have no reason to think that they were raised like Lazarus. Lazarus was raised from the dead before the cross and resurrection, and simply died again.
The strong teaching of the New Testament is that Christ’s resurrection secures a new, glorious resurrection of the dead: “each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ” (1 Cor. 15:23). That’s why it is so theologically significant that the saints arose only “after his resurrection” (Mt. 27:53). The resurrection of the saints on Easter Sunday was a foretaste of the resurrection harvest that is to come at the end of the age. It is as if, on their way from Hades to heaven, God allowed some of the saints to stop and assume their glorified bodies in advance as a witness to what Christ had accomplished. The life of the age to come has broken into the present world. The power of the resurrection is available to us today.
The resurrection of the saints on Easter Sunday was a foretaste of the resurrection harvest that is to come at the end of the age.
If the saints did, indeed, receive glorified bodies, then they never died again. Some think that they were simply taken up into heaven—“translated” like Enoch and Elijah—after appearing in the holy city. Since the saints rose from the dead at the same time that Christ arose, it’s possible that they ascended at the same time that Christ ascended—forty days after the resurrection. In this case, Ephesians 4:8 could have an extended meaning: “When he ascended on high he led a host of captives.” We don’t know for sure.
The Son of God did what no mere man could ever do: he destroyed the one who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and delivered all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery (Heb. 2:14–15). In every generation, he fills men with awe, and moves them to confess, “Truly this was the Son of God!” “At the name of Jesus every knee should bow,” even “under the earth” (Php. 2:10), where Christ has gone for us.
In the words of John Chrysotom’s great paschal homily,
Let no one fear death, for the Savior’s death has set us free. He that was held prisoner of it has annihilated it. By descending into Hell, He made Hell captive. He embittered it when it tasted of His flesh. And Isaiah, foretelling this, did cry: Hell, said he, was embittered, when it encountered Thee in the lower regions. It was embittered, for it was abolished. It was embittered, for it was mocked. It was embittered, for it was slain. It was embittered, for it was overthrown. It was embittered, for it was fettered in chains. It took a body, and met God face to face. It took earth, and encountered Heaven. It took that which was seen, and fell upon the unseen.
O Death, where is your sting? O Hell, where is your victory? Christ is risen, and you are overthrown. Christ is risen, and the demons are fallen. Christ is risen, and the angels rejoice. Christ is risen, and life reigns. Christ is risen, and not one dead remains in the grave. For Christ, being risen from the dead, is become the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. To Him be glory and dominion unto ages of ages. Amen.
