The Virgin Mary And The Resurrection

During this Easter season I am looking at various teachings of Holy Scripture about the resurrection of the dead. In this connection there is a very strange statement in Matthew's Gospel about resurrection.

The tombs also were opened. And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised, and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many. - Matt 27:52-53 ESV

That's it! Matthew writes nothing more about these saints. For that matter, who were they? The best we can do is guess. Some feel they were righteous believers from the Old Testament era and that after "appearing to many" in Jerusalem they were taken up or assumed into the temporary state of rest and happiness called paradise and then later brought into heaven. In that connection these writers quote Jesus' words to the thief on the cross next to him.

And he said to him, "Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise." - Luke 23:43 ESV

Beyond that—and it is a stretch to go there—we have nothing in Scripture to explain who these saints were and why Matthew included this information. We can only assume that their resurrection was a sign of the power and mercy of God now available to all who believe in God's Word and the Gospel.

And yet this Matthew passage is tied to the Assumption of the Virgin Mary as a round about way of pointing to the possibility of people being bodily assumed into heaven before Christ's Second Coming. We have no other records to tell that tells us these saints died and were reburied again. Arguing from silence, we are urged to conclude they were taken up or assumed into heaven like Elijah (2 Kings 2:1,11).   

Diego Velazquez - Virgin Mary

In 1950 the world learned about The Assumption of Mary, now an official teaching of the Roman Catholic Church (Munificentissimus Deus) that she, "having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into the glory of heaven." Pope Pius XII in his capacity as Christ's infallible Vicar on earth, does not say whether Mary died or not. Most think she did and was then resurrected and taken by God into heaven. When all this happened is based upon apocryphal  writings, like the Gospel of James. Also since prayers and references are made to this teaching in many of the early liturgies, Catholics assume traditions passed on support this teaching. Of course, for them, it is now a central dogma and celebrated as a major feast day on August 15. Read the Wikipedia article on the Assumption of Mary for further details.

Most of us Lutherans are very reluctant to embrace this teaching, especially since it is completely outside of God's revealed and inspired Word. Further, it is part of an ancient movement to make Mary semi-divine, something the Scriptures never do. Consider the implications of such titles as Co-Redemptrix, Mediatrix and Queen of Heaven which can lead to prayers and worship of her as Jesus' Mother with a special authority. There are many approved sites where she supposedly appeared and healed.

I can only encourage us to remain close to Holy Scripture as did Dr. Martin Luther. Of Mary he said,

She became the Mother of God, in which work so many and such great good things are bestowed on her as pass man’s understanding. For on this there follows all honor, all blessedness, and her unique place in the whole of mankind, among which she has no equal, namely, that she had a child by the Father in heaven, and such a Child. … Hence men have crowded all her glory into a single word, calling her the Mother of God. (Luther’s Works 21:326ff)