Matthew 27:51Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

He who loosened the stones and cast shadows upon the cosmos could just as easily have chosen to act against them had He desired. Yet, He refrained; having unleashed His fury upon the elements, He desired to redeem them through gentleness. However, they remained entrenched in their wrath. Such is the nature of envy and animosity; it is a challenging force to subdue! The boldness of their actions did not wane even then. However, after the tomb had been sealed and guarded by soldiers, He was raised, and they learned of this from the guards themselves. Still, they resorted to deception, offering bribes to silence the truth of the resurrection. Therefore, it should not surprise us that they committed such a disgraceful act; they have shown they were persistently willing to act shamelessly in every circumstance! Consider the multitude of miracles He performed, whether in heaven, on earth, or within the temple itself. Through these signs, He expressed His righteous anger and revealed that the previously unattainable would now become achievable, as the heavens opened and the true Holy of Holies was disclosed. They taunted, ‘If He is the King of Israel, let Him come down from the cross’; all the while, He was revealing that He reigns as King over the entire universe. They declared, ‘He who destroys the temple and rebuilds it in three days’; yet, He indicated that their temple would face total devastation.

Then the earth’s stones were fractured, admonishing the folly of Israel, which failed to recognize the Spiritual Rock from which they drank while in obedience. The veil of the church was torn, revealing compassion for Christ and the genuine heavenly High Priest. The entirety of creation might have collapsed under the weight of suffering had not the great Jesus exhaled the divine Spirit, proclaiming: ‘Father, into your hands I commit my spirit’ (Luke 23:46).

The hearts of the stones were shattered, yet the hearts of the Jews remained unrepentant. In the month of Arekk, the Lord triumphed over the Egyptians, while in the same month, He illuminated the Hebrew people with a pillar of fire. Instead of parting the sea, the Spirit tore the veil, allowing the King of Glory to ascend freely to the Cross on Calvary. However, as the people did not rend the temple's veil with sincere hearts, and the Jews were unwilling to open their hearts through righteous actions, creation endured suffering alongside the suffering Lord. The earth trembled, tombs were opened, and the torn veil seemed to weep, mourning the temple's imminent destruction. Just as human voices condemned Him, the voices of inanimate objects proclaimed His righteousness. Those who were silent were the humans, while the stones cried out, fulfilling the Lord's prophecy. The veil also broke open their deaf and stubborn hearts, honoring the One they rejected. Witnessing His Beloved in anguish and humiliation, the Spirit seized the curtain, the temple's adornment, and tore it apart. Or perhaps, as the firstborn saw the symbolic lamb, they were compelled to rend the veil and came forth in crowds to Him. Moreover, the prophetic spirit residing in the temple that descended to announce His arrival to humanity ascended to Heaven to proclaim the news of the Lord's ascension to the heavenly beings.

It appears to me that the earthquake and these events symbolize the faithful, who initially resembled the tombs of the dead, and later, leaving behind their former errors and hard-heartedness, recognized Him as their Savior. Many bodies of the departed saints were raised, and after His resurrection, they emerged from their graves and entered the holy city, appearing to numerous people. Just as Lazarus was raised from the dead, many of the saints were also brought back to life to testify to the resurrection of the Lord (See Jn. 11:1-44). However, although the graves were opened, the dead did not rise until after the resurrection of the Lord, affirming that He is the firstborn among the resurrected. The holy city, wherein the resurrected appeared, may refer to either the heavenly Jerusalem or the earthly Jerusalem, which was once considered holy. Likewise, Matthew is referred to as a tax collector not because he continued in that role while also being an apostle, but because he kept that name from before. The city of Jerusalem is deemed holy due to its temple and the holy of holies, distinguishing it from other cities where idols were worshipped. When it states that they appeared to many, it indicates that the resurrection was not universal but rather a specific revelation granted to a select few, allowing those honored to witness it.

Even if they attempted to justify themselves by asserting that ordinary afflictions might involve an eclipse, an earthquake, or fractured stones, they would have been silenced by the tearing of the church’s veil, as no such example could be found. By rending the veil, God signified that divine grace had withdrawn from the temple, rendering its sacred interior, the Holy of Holies, accessible and visible to all, an event realized later with the Roman incursion. The clearest interpretation is that the inner side of the veil represented heaven, while the outer side depicted earth; thus, the tearing of the veil indicated the removal of the divide between heaven and earth—the discord between God and humanity—allowing heaven to be opened to humanity, for Jesus Christ, by shattering this barrier, restored that access to us. Ultimately, all of this stood as a manifestation of God's wrath, condemning the audacity of the Jews and heralding their impending ruin.

A solar eclipse happens when the moon lies directly between the earth and the sun and can only occur between the last day of the waning moon and the first day of the new moon, that is during the new moon phase. At other times, an eclipse cannot take place—how could the moon block the sun if it is positioned behind it? Nevertheless, let us consider Sallus's perspective and align ourselves with the prevailing view, acknowledging that this extraordinary phenomenon might indeed be a solar eclipse. Phlegon states that during the reign of Tiberius, a total solar eclipse occurred while a full moon was present, lasting from the sixth to the ninth hour—this aligns with the occurrence we are examining. However, have we ever heard of a solar eclipse coinciding with an earthquake so powerful that it caused mountains to fracture? Or that the dead were resurrected during such an event, shaking the foundations of the universe? Historians have not recorded anything of this nature prior to our Lord's crucifixion. It is clear that this darkness was not simply an eclipse; even if it were one, it was orchestrated by God Himself in response to His Son's suffering on the cross.

Others suggest that the significance of the veil's tearing lies in the annulment of the letter of the law, revealing what was once obscured and mysterious, now made clear through fulfillment in Christ. Additionally, it can be noted that, similar to the Jewish tradition of tearing garments in instances of blasphemy, the temple itself seemed to lament the death of God incarnate by tearing its veil (Theophilus). - “The earth shook”: this earthquake must be understood as a miraculous event, linking it to the signs that happened before and after, serving as an indication of God's wrath against those who crucified His beloved Son.