The Greatest Story Never Told

Do you know how many people the Bible says were raised from the dead on Easter weekend?

When Christian friends engage me in debate about the reliability of the Bible, I like to ask them that to see how well they know the book they so revere. One of the hallmarks of fundamentalism is the belief that the Bible can’t be wrong, and that has produced a plethora of problems for American society. But believing in a perfect Bible doesn’t always lead to actually knowing what the book says.  So when I ask them this question, the answer I usually get is: “It says only one person was raised from the dead:  Jesus.”  But that’s not correct, and what happens next fascinates me.

I have to point out to Christians, many of whom maintain that the Bible cannot be wrong, that in one place (and only one place) the Bible says that a whole bunch of people came out of their graves right after Jesus died on the afternoon of Good Friday and then walked around Jerusalem…a couple of days later.  Here’s what it says in the gospel attributed to Matthew about the moment that Jesus died:

At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook, the rocks split and 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.

In all my years in church I don’t recall ever once hearing a preacher acknowledge from the pulpit that a bunch of people were raised from the dead and appeared to many on Easter weekend.  Have you ever heard one talk about this?  Surely somebody has addressed it at some point.  But most of them don’t, and never will.  I find that fascinating!  This book, which many of them claim would never make a mistake (especially about something as important as the events of Easter weekend), tells a story that I’m not sure they really believe.  I say that because they virtually never talk about it.  This gets talked about so infrequently that even when I ask people the above question they seem unaware the book even says what it says.

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The Greatest Story Never Told