Zombies or Brilliant Picture of the Gospel?

And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split. 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.
~Matthew 27:51-53

I have been known to tease about there being zombies in the Bible. The above text is my proof text when playfully defending my position on zombies and the role they played in spreading the Gospel (I call them my "Zombies for Jesus"). However, when looking at this passage with a bit more serious thought and contemplation I believe that we see an amazing picture of the Gospel.

Many times we read in Scripture that before the grace and mercy of God was poured out upon us, we were dead in sin. And like the bodies in those tombs, we were utterly helpless and unable to do anything until the power of God fell upon us.

If you were to walk into a graveyard and command the dead which lie in their graves to rise up and flee their confines, nothing would happen. They are unable and incapable to do whatever it is you command them to do. Likewise the Bible reminds us that we were once like those bodies; dead. Unable, we could not repent. We could not turn away from our sin. We could not do that which all have been commanded to do by God.

Prior to the work of God in us, we were nothing more than slaves to sin and death; following in passionate pursuit the desires of a corrupt and deceitful heart. But God, being rich in mercy, has made us alive through Christ.

Those believing, He has called specifically and intentionally out of death and into life. By the power of God upon us, we have errupted out of our tombs. We have been brought from death to life. Transformed from slaves of sin and death to fellow heirs with Christ; living and alive in Christ. And like those saints who came up out of their tombs to appear to many, we now stand before all men as witnesses to the Gospel which raised us from the dead, echoing with God that all men must repent, believe, and be saved.

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ— by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
-Ephesians 2:1-10