broken earth

"And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit.
At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook and the rocks split. The tombs broke open and the bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. They came out of the tombs, and after Jesus' resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many people. When the centurion and those with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and all that had happened, they were terrified, and exclaimed, "Surely he was the Son of God!"

Matthew 27: 50 - 54 (The Bible)

It's Friday. Today was my day off, but I went to work - to work on the Media part of the upcoming weekend service. During lunch time, my co-workers and I got into a conversation about things in the Bible. Things stated in various scripture passages, that are not explained or alluded to again. I mentioned that I'm curious about the dead people who walked out of their tombs. Dead people who were raised to life during the earthquake that happened after Jesus' crucifixion. I guess I could pick apart the passage - what they call an exegesis (an explanation or critical interpretation of the Bible). But I'm not too interested in doing that. I'm not a scholar, and not just that - life's too short to be so concerned about something that just isn't mentioned again. Or at least today is too short... But I do wonder, about those dead people who walked out of their tombs. What were their first thoughts? Did they suddenly realize that they were now alive? Or did they not realize that they had been dead in the first place? And what did the community around them think of such a thing? I imagine that even though the community was still immersed in the trauma of the current crucifixion (Jesus' death), that they would have noticed the dead people walking out of the broken earth. Crucifixion was common back then - it was the current form of execution at the time. What wasn't a common occurance, was the earth quake that resulted right after the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Back to the dead people --- if it happened today, would they hike off to the first 7-Eleven they could find to buy coffee and a banana-chocolate-chip muffin? Scripture states that they were holy people. So maybe that means that they wouldn't purchase cigarettes at the same time - okay so now I'm getting ridiculous... but possibly you get the drift.