The Torn Curtain

March 21, 2008

With a loud cry, Jesus breathed his last. The curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. And when the centurion, who stopped in front of Jesus, saw how he died, he said, ‘ surely this man was the Son of God!’ Mark: 15:37-39

I was at the Good Friday service at Bayside Church this morning. As always, Ps Rob gave a great message. I learn something new from every one of his sermons. He’s one of the most gifted teachers I’ve ever come across. What I like a lot about his sermons is that he doesn’t just do a reading from the bible and talk about that passage, he actually takes us back through time with descriptions of how things were, what people would have seen or experienced, how it really was back then.

Today we learnt about how placing the purple robe on Christ after he’d been scourged would have meant the robe stuck to his bleeding back and would have been ripped back off him again. We learnt how the thorns were about 3cm long and thick and much stronger than that of a bourganvillea and pushed into his head. We learnt that ‘Good Friday’ used to be known as ‘God’s Friday’ and over time, as language changes it became Good Friday. Same with ‘goodbye’ being shortened from ‘God Be With You’ and that ‘holiday’ used to be ‘Holy Day’. I’ll not take any of these words or phrases as lightly any more.

But the biggest revelation to me was the torn curtain. The curtain in the temple in that day was around 1 foot thick, knitted together and impossible to tear. It was designed to keep the holy of holies separate from the common man, the sinners, and that only the highest priest could be in there, once a year, to pay sacrifice for the sins of the people. It was to keep God separate from man and if anyone did venture behind that curtain they died instantly.

I’d heard the story of the Christ’s death many, many times but until today I did not understand the significance of the torn curtain. Today when Ps Rob told it I suddenly understood that in the curtain being torn, God was now available to us direct, through the death of his Son, Jesus Christ. That no longer would God be hidden from us but rather made accessible to us at any time we had need or want. That means all the time. The curtain tearing has a big significance for mankind and the curtain only tore once Jesus had breathed his last breath and paid the ultimate price for mankind. A curtain so thick, so strong, that it couldn’t be torn by anyone or anything else. Wow! Now that was a powerful message. I’m so glad Christ died for me - do you realise the significance of that for yourself too?

Torn curtain image sourced from The Project Gutenburg eBook.

Posted in My Thoughts