EASTER: THE GRAVES THAT COULDN’T BE SHUT
TEXT: MATTHEW 27:50-54
INTRODUCTION: Let me begin by reviewing the sermon that I gave two weeks ago titled “Was Jesus Crucified On Good-Friday?” If you still have your chart, please take a look as I remind us of the timeline.
We learned from Lev. 23 that there were other Sabbaths beside the weekly Sabbath. The seven feasts were also considered to be Sabbaths with the same restrictions as the weekly.
We saw in John 19:31 31The Jews therefore, because it was the preparation, that the bodies should not remain upon the cross on the sabbath day, (for that sabbath day was an high day,) besought Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away.
This verse tells us that the Sabbath John was talking about was a high Sabbath, the Passover Sabbath. The Passover Sabbath was always followed by the Feast Of Unleavened Bread Sabbath.
The Passover Sabbath was always on the same date, the 14th of Nisan. The second The Feast Of Unleavened Bread Sabbath on the 15th of Nisan. So every year these Sabbaths fell on a different day of the week. Only the weekly Sabbath of course stayed the same, Saturday. At every Passover there were two Sabbaths back to back, there were no exceptions.
According to Unger’s Bible Dictionary: Whenever the Passover fell on the regular weekly Sabbath (Saturday), the sacrifice was slain at 1:30 P.M. and offered at 2:30 P.M. on Friday to be finished before sundown on Friday, the beginning of the regular Sabbath.
If the Passover Sabbath fell on Friday, the sacrifice was slain at 12:30 P.M. and offered at 1:30 P.M. on Thursday.
However, on all other days the Passover sacrifice was slain at 2:30 P.M. and offered at 3:30 P.M. on the day previous to the Passover Sabbath itself.
Consider: Jesus was three days and three nights in the tomb. When daylight arrived on the first day of the week, the tomb was already empty (we know He was entombed in the evening, not in the morning).
Consequently, He arose at 6:00 P.M. at the end of the weekly Sabbath which is also the beginning of the first day of the week.
This fixes the time of His death at 3:00 P.M. on Wednesday and His entombment by 6:00 P.M. on the same day.
It should be clear that what we have at the passion of Jesus is not one, not two, but three Sabbaths all in a row. Thursday, the Passover Sabbath; Friday, the Feast of Unleavened Bread Sabbath; and Saturday, the seventh-day weekly Sabbath.
The Jewish day begins at 6:00 P.M. not 12:00 midnight as ours does. It runs from 6:00 P.M. to 6:00 P.M. So when it is 6:00 P.M. Wed. by our reckoning to the Jews Thursday is beginning.
II. HOW MANY HOURS IN A DAY?
Mat 12:40 For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
How long is a day? Can just a part of a day be counted as a full day? Listen to Jesus again because He is the one who divided the light from the darkness.
Gen 1:4 And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.
Gen 1:5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.
John 11:9 Jesus answered, Are there not twelve hours in the day?
Twelve hours in the day and twelve hours in the night. Twenty-four hours to each day and night, and three periods of equal length, make an even figure of seventy-two hours total.
Look at Luke 23:44-46 44And it was about the sixth hour, and there was a darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour. 45And the sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was rent in the midst. 46And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit: and having said thus, he gave up the ghost.
Jesus died at 3:00 Wednesday.
Jesus was buried at 6:00 P.M. on Wed., the 13th day of Nisan. The 14th (Thursday) began at this time and ended twenty-four hours later. This is one day and one night.
Friday made two days and two nights. Saturday made three days and three nights. Jesus was buried at 6:00 P.M. on Wednesday and resurrected at 6:00 P.M. on Saturday the beginning of Sunday. This made Him exactly seventy-two hours in death just as He said He would be.
The Friday crucifixion error allows only thirty-six hours for the time of entombment, and through the years Christendom has tried to explain this away.
But again the following Scripture clearly determines the length of time He was actually buried.
Matt. 12:39-40 39But he answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas: 40 For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
Now let’s look at this mornings sermon as we continue to look at the events surrounding the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
In our text we see the singularly most important and impressive truth of the resurrection is a cemetery filled with graves which men were powerless to close.
These graves were opened at the time that Jesus died; but those inside the graves would not come out until after His resurrection.
During the three Sabbath days following the crucifixion of Jesus, an entire graveyard lay stripped of its covering of the dead.
The insides to these graves could be seen by all, the puzzled, the hurt, and those who were just curious. And they were seen by thousands of both followers and enemies of Jesus Christ.
In this we see that God wrote a conclusive proof of the resurrection and victory of Jesus Christ in the hearts of people and on the pages of Scripture. Men cannot refute the finality of this argument.
Again look at Matthew 27:50-53. At the exact moment of the victorious cry of Jesus, as He yielded up His life, came the earthquake and the rending of the rocks.
The rocks rent showing the power of the earthquake; the graves were opened showing its purposeful plan in the execution of its power.
The graves were opened and would stay opened until the three Sabbaths had passed. The restrictions of the Sabbath prohibiting manual labor were proof and a guaranty that the open graves would not be closed.
Now this had to be – among the other rare and unusual events of this day – a chief topic of conversation. I will first consider a number of interesting conclusions and then weave the story.
The location of Calvary was near the north wall of Jerusalem, making it within a Sabbath’s day journey (3000 ft. about a half-mile) of the entire city.
The city was full of dedicated Jews who had come to Jerusalem from all over the world to celebrate the Sabbath festival of the Passover.
As I say so many times when you read the Bible, try to put yourself in the text and imagine how you would feel and respond to events talking place. That is what I will be doing as I explain these events.
These Jews were tense, expectant, listening for words of anything which might indicate an action from God. Because of the three Sabbaths in a row, they no doubt would grow restless.
Entertainment was practically nil; passing the hours talking, no matter how interesting the conversation would eventually become dull.
Most people were not used to being idle for such long periods (three days) and yearned for exercise.
Add to this the fact that there probably wasn’t anyone in Jerusalem who didn’t have some relative whose grave had been brutally exposed by the earthquake.
These simple human facts are basis upon the drama of this night, which I am conveying to you, is based. They predicate action to come and fit perfectly into its Designer’s purpose.
Once more, imagine you are there. You hear the news that all the graves are opened. What would your first thought be? Oh no! What about my deceased loved one.
Maybe the first painful thought to jar your senses is that only ten days earlier you had sadly laid to rest a dear loved one.
You had lovingly kissed the lifeless brow of that tiny boy, or wife, or husband, or young daughter, and with an aching heart walked away from the cemetery.
You had visited the grave often and placed flowers upon the stone that kept your loved one from your sight. The hurt just won’t go away.
Now has come the disturbing news of the last few days – the news about Jesus and how He was crucified. You had often thought that if only He had been where you could have found Him, the one you buried would not have died.
You felt the darkness when God turned of the sun; and you heard the cry of anguish from the cross as the intense darkness penetrated you to the very core.
And now this! The grave is opened. The loved one is exposed to the eyes of anyone who would care to look. Then suddenly, a horrifying chill causes your body to shake uncontrollably. Wild animals, dogs, rats, could enter and mutilate the corpse.
Oh, no – the thought is so horrible you refuse to even consider it. But you can’t shake it, it persist, and recurs.
Then you remember the story of Rizpah in 2 Sam 21. David had given over seven of Saul’s sons as retribution to the Gibeonites whom Saul had sworn to slay in his zeal for the children of Israel.
Two of Rizpah’s sons along with five other of Saul’s sons were delivered to and hanged by the Gibeonites. And you remember how; Rizpah the daughter of Aiah took sackcloth, and spread it for her upon the rock, from the beginning of harvest until water dropped upon them out of heaven, and suffered neither the birds of the air to rest on them by day, nor the beasts of the field by night. 2 Sam. 21:10
For five months this distraught mother had camped by the bodies of her slain sons and fought of the birds by day and the wild animals by night. The people thought she was mad, but it was love, not madness that kept her there.
Now on this night beginning the Passover Sabbath, imagine seeing many people make their way to the graves of their dearly departed to sit through the long hours of guarding those graves that have been mysteriously opened.
You see the fires lit for warmth, light and protection. No animal is going to touch the body of their loved ones. They will organize a watch for the protection of these graves for the duration of the Sabbath restricted days and nights. This first night’s guarding is purely an act of love.
Since the graves are within a Sabbath’s allowable distance, this would assure that people would continually be coming and going as they took turns guarding the graves.
Alone, with friends, or just part of the crowd, they come day after day. Some come to the graves they know so well, some out of curiosity, and some with no better reason than that there is nothing more interesting to do.
But they do come and they look inside. Loved ones remember things they had long since forgotten. Maybe the line left where once a rose had been so delicately placed upon the chest as a final act of affection.
Maybe a memento placed there long ago. Maybe a special colored garment spread just so.
It was necessary that these visitors to the open graves remember. God opened the grave to show something wonderful.
They would show, for all time, the insurmountable proof of the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ and the guarantee of our own resurrection as well.
John 14:19b because I live, ye shall live also. They were on exhibition, these corpses in their different stages of decomposition. Also, the hollowed contents of these graves were not disturbed.
You might expect to find the contents shaken around. Bodies on the ground, mementos scattered all around. But they weren’t.
Even with all of the force of that tremendous earthquake which shattered the stones that covered those graves, the corpses were left undisturbed.
This is the way God wanted it. It was clearly for the purpose of exhibition. If they were not for exhibition, they would not have been opened until after the resurrection.
How strangely significant that the only closed tomb those fateful Sabbath days was the tomb of Jesus Christ. Loved ones guarded the open graves, and Roman soldiers guarded the closed one!
Now someone might question the statement that all the graves were opened. There are some how believe that only a few of the graves of the saints were opened.
But I don’t believe this. There was a purpose for these graves to be opened because there was an object lesson to be taught.
We know from Matthew 27:52-53 that only the saints arose after Jesus’ resurrection. This shows a complete picture of the resurrection because it is almost as important that those who were known to have rejected God should be left behind as that those who had worshipped Him should be taken.
Also, this would show that it was no doubt a great victory, but only in behalf of the people of God – not the human race in general.
Matthew 27:62-66 Now remember that the Jewish day ends and begins at 6:00PM. Jesus was crucified on the preparation day of the Passover Sabbath which was Wednesday. The next day, after 6:00PM was Thursday.
So immediately after Jesus was placed in the tomb, the chief priest and Pharisees came to Pilate to request soldiers to guard the tomb.
This was probably because they knew, if the disciples did attempt to steal the body of Jesus, they would make that attempt the first night He was in the tomb.
Verse 66: So they went this seems to indicate that the Jews didn’t trust the Roman soldiers to take security measure severe enough to satisfy them, so the chief priest and Pharisees went along with the guard to see that the tomb was properly secured.
They sealed the stone, which means they stretched a strong cord across the mouth of the sepulchre, over the stone that had been placed at the door, and then with sealing wax or clay they fastened the ends of the cord to the solid rock on either side of the door.
The wax or clay used this way was then stamped with Pilate’s official seal.
Now how does all of this fit together? Why is this strange vigil in Calvary’s graveyard this night so important to the account of the Lord’s crucifixion?
What bearing can hundreds of watchers standing guard by open graves with their campfires blazing add to the testimony of Scripture?
If where only for the purpose of protecting the bodies of their loved ones, there would be little significance to the action.
Its purpose is far greater than a simple act of reverence for the dead. God is using this situation to make sure there will be no grounds for believing that His disciples came by night, and stole him away Mat. 28:13.
This is the reason God planed this eerie night in Jerusalem when all the graves were opened. For three days there will be people all around the tomb of Jesus.
They can see everything that takes place both day and at nighttime when they would have their campfires going for warmth, protection, AND light. There would be hundreds of watchful eyes alert to every movement.
Remember, they are watching for animals that might try to get into the grave to mutilate the corpse. So no rodent can move without their detecting its ever step. They will be alert to all that goes on around them.
No person can ascend or descend the rocky mount unseen. Infallibly written in the hearts of the grave-watchers is God’s proclamation that Jesus Christ, His Son, will be undisturbed in His three days and nights in death.
So when the chief priest and Pharisees paid the soldiers to say that the body was stolen while they slept (which would have cost them their lives if they did), this was yet one more proof that this was a lie. Hundreds of people knew that no such event ever took place.
As we leave this scene this morning, we are leaving a ground fraught with miracles and with more to come. The earthquake, the rending of rocks, the opening of graves were miracles God performed with specific goals in mind. They are miracles which sets apart the Creator from His creation.
It is a supernatural event not using the natural forces. As someone once said, it was not the fire beneath the earth, but the voice on the earth that triggered this scene and made the rocks rend.
Calvary is even more than this. Back through the centuries there was another mount, Mount Sinai. On this mount, too, God came for a visit. It was filled with thunder and lightnings; the people feared and trembled at His presence.
He was giving the Law to Moses on tables of stone. Its only message was that the soul that sins shall die.
And there were given with the tables of stone, directions for animal sacrifices. Sacrifices which would allow God to pass over the guilty by the covering of blood.
Rivers of blood had crossed the altar of God, each declaring that one day there would come One Who would be acceptable.
The thunder, lightning and wrath of God against sin were absorbed in the lone figure of Calvary, Whose cry of victory made the earth quake.
The wrath of Sinai was quieted in the mercy of Calvary. Mercy for us because Jesus bore the full penalty of sin without mercy.
Let us always remember that when Jesus was made sin for us (2 Cor. 5:21), He suffered the unyielding justice the law demanded.
I am at a loss for words to describe the foolishness of those who, even now, want to be justified before God by obedience to a law that could only give death.
Calvary is the answer to Sinai – the affirmation of the gospel of grace. 1 Cor. 1:3-4 3Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ. 4I thank my God always on your behalf, for the grace of God which is given you by Jesus Christ;
Psalm 85:10 10Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other.
Let no one here this morning imagine that because the sin debt of the world has been paid and every penalty fully laid on Jesus Christ, that all people are going to heaven.
People do not go to hell because of sin. Jesus paid for sin. 1 John 2:2 2And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.
People go to hell because they refuse to accept God’s cure for sin.
Jesus Christ has provided full pardon for all who will receive it. It is a gift freely offered. If it is refused, then that person will stand before God and be judged for his works – not his sins.
Galatians 2:16b for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.
Revelation 20:12 says 12And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.
Again, if the lost are judged on the basis of their works rather than as sinners, why do we find categories of sin mentioned in Revelation 21:8 concerning those who are cast into the Lake of Fire?
8But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.
Now these are no doubt categories of sin and to be sure they proclaim the basic character and sins of these people.
But, there are multitudes in heaven who were as sinful as any of them and guilty of the same sins.
1 Cor. 6:9-11 9 Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, 10Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. 11And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.
They received the gift of salvation through Jesus Christ and were saved. The difference between heaven and hell is not sin, the difference is a person – Jesus Christ.
Everybody has some basis by which they expect to go to heaven. No one really expects to go to hell even though some say they expect to. Somewhere there is tucked away that secret belief that they will, after all, eventually go to heaven.
So for this purpose it seems reasonable to believe that God exposed everyone to the sight of the open graves so that they might see, even in death, how the Lord makes a difference between His people and the world.
And let me close with a word about the veil in Mat. 27:51 because the graves were not all that was opened. As the priest in the holy place were busy with their duties related to the sacrifice, the massive veil covering the most holy place – the holy of holies – was “rent in twain from the top to the bottom.”
More than likely the ministrations of the Passover were not completed this day. The opened veil defied approach and blocked entrance into the holy place.
No ram’s horn would announce the completed offering. Fear in the hearts of the ministering priest kept them from the awesome presence of the severed veil.
Did the earthquake accomplish this without disturbing the rest of the temple? Or did the unseen hand of God with the skill of a surgeon sever its length; declaring for all time that a new and living way into the presence of God was complete?
Heb. 10:19-22 19Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, 20By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh; 21And having an high priest over the house of God; 22Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.
In all of Israel’s history of failure and sin, this is the one thing she was not guilty of – looking behind the forbidden veil. On the Day Of Atonement the High Priest went behind this veil with blood for his own sins and for the sins of the people.
Around his garment were rows of tinkling bells. Around his waist there was a cord which extended outside the veil. The people were silent, listening for the bells. If the bells failed to tinkle, they would pull the priest out by the cord. He would be dead.
The O. T. had man attempting to approach the presence of God. In the N. T. we have God approaching man. With Christ’s substitutionary death accomplished, there is no more offering for sin. Heb. 10:18
We are now invited to come boldly to the throne of grace for mercy. Not through the blood of bulls and goats which could never take away sins, but by the precious blood of Jesus Christ. I believe many things were opened on the day Jesus died.
