14. The Tearing of the Veil

Matthew 27: 50 & 51 - 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 curtain of the temple symbolized our separation from God.  On one side we had the courts of the temple, the inner court where the priests served the people and God.  Then there was the Holy of Holies; the part filled with God.  The curtain, really a cloth wall, was several inches thick and served as a barrier.

Only the High Priest could enter it, and then only on a special day, and then only after having performed rites of cleansing.  He could go in behind the curtain to the Holy of Holies.  The others would tie a rope around his ankle just in case being in the pure presence of God killed the High Priest.  Then, they could then drag the body out. To me, this arrangement smacks of man not of God.

The day that the High Priest could go into the Holy of Holies, was Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement.  So on our Day of Atonement, as Christ dies, the curtain in the temple is torn. 

The symbolism of the tearing of the curtain of the temples has always been clear, the veil of the temple being torn made clear that we were are now reconciled to God.  No longer were there to be the sacrifices and offerings of restitution for sin.  The price had been paid. 

I like the wording of the King James Version for Hebrews 4:16

Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.

But I wonder.

It would have been a busy day at the temple.  It was the festival of The Passover.  Jerusalem was crowded, and the temple, while maybe not full, was definitely busy in preparation for the Passover Sabbath. 

In the tearing of the veil, those in the temple could see into the holy of holies.  And I wonder what they saw?  For so long they had been prohibited from seeing inside the Holy of Holies, so they must have at first diverted their eyes.  Then after a while, they must have looked, at least peeked.  When those who were around them did not die, surely curiosity must have gotten the better of them.

I would have looked, even risking death I would have looked.  And what would I have seen?  I think I would have seen an empty room. 

Acts 17:24 & 26 “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else.

There is so much about Christ that set what we thought, what we believed, and what we did on its ass.  He held no deference for trifling ways of people.  He still doesn’t.  Nor should he. 

Jesus had been executed by the religious powers of his day.  We, you and I, need bear that in mind.  It was the power brokers of the temple that arranged for him to be hung on the cross.  Jesus had managed to anger those in authority by speaking truth, loving others and God.  In return they killed him.  I think that as the killed him, it was probable that he showed them that in killing God they were protecting an empty temple.

The tearing of the veil is much more than the one-upmanship of Jesus telling them they were wrong.  In his exposing that the religion of the day was empty, I think it was his plea for those who claimed to love God to see they had more interest in adhering to rules, than in actually loving God.  Spirituality had become a contest of who is the most holy, not a channel of our love for he that has created us.

I don’t see the tearing of the veil as being an act of anger, but of sorrow, of deep sorrow.  I think it was the same sorrow that overcame Jesus when he wept for Jerusalem. 

Yes, I think with the veil being torn that we are able to confidently approach God.  But I think the message of the torn veil may be a bit more humbling than that, and maybe a warning for us not to get caught up in what we do so much as to why we do it.