The Veil was Torn...

Mark 15:38
And the veil of the sanctuary was torn in two from top to bottom.

Matthew, Mark and Luke all mention this event without comment. They expected their audience would understand the significance.
But its meaning may be lost on us.

 
The Scriptures do not provide specific details about the Second Temple, so what we know about this veil comes largely from Rabbinic literature. From these sources, the Temple veil separating the Holy Place from the Holy of Holies was “60 feet long, and 30 feet wide, of the thickness of the palm of the hand.” The veil was said to be so heavy that in the exaggerated language of the time, “It needed 300 priests to manipulate it.”

 
Only the priests could enter the Holy Place. Only the High Priest could enter through the veil from the Holy Place into the Holy of Holies. He made that journey once a year, on Yom Kippur to offer atonement and sacrifice for the collective sins of the people of Israel. He could not enter at any other time for any other reason under penalty of death (Leviticus 16:2).

 
With the death of Jesus, the Temple veil was rent (schizō, torn, cleaved, split) from the top to the bottom. Since the veil was not seen by anyone but the priests, we know that this event happened likely because early in the history of the church “A great many of the priests were becoming obedient to the faith” (Acts 6:7).

 
In the Tabernacle and in Solomon’s first Temple, the presence of God was visible as the Shekinah glory: fire, light and smoke (Exodus 40:34-38, 2 Chronicles 7:1). Rabbinic literature suggests that while the Second Temple was a house of worship for the people of Israel, “The Shekinah did not rest on the Second Temple."  The Ark of the Covenant was lost during the Babylonian conquest. And so, the Holy of Holies in the Temple of Jesus’ day was an empty room.

When Jesus died, the veil obscuring the Holy of Holies was torn in two making it obvious to all the priests who dared look that the room was empty; that not only the ark, but also the visible glory of the presence of the Lord was absent.

 
God’s glory was instead a half a mile away at Golgotha. It was on a cross, the last place anyone expected to find it.

God had become man. He had become the curse for us and had died for the sins of the whole world, to bring an end to the power of sin and death (1 John 2:2). As Jesus died, and the veil was rent (schizō) the gospels record that the Roman Centurion supervising His execution declared, “Truly this man was the Son of God” (Mark 15:39). He was the first person in Mark’s gospel to acknowledge Jesus' divinity.

 
At the beginning of His ministry when Jesus was baptized and came up out of the water, the heavens were rent (schizō). A voice declared from the heavens, “Thou are My beloved Son, in Thee I am well pleased” (Mark 1:11). The heavens were torn open, and heaven came down.

It is the only other time in Mark’s account that he uses this word (schizō), “to rend.”

A tearing or rending begins and ends Jesus’ ministry. The place of men was torn open and God’s presence came down. The veil of the Holy of Holies was torn open, and there was nothing there. We have a new High Priest in Jesus the Messiah, sacrificed once for all (Hebrews 10:10). God now dwells among us so that the glory and presence of God now rests upon His people, the followers of Jesus who are sealed with His Holy Spirit.

 
“We have this hope as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and confirmed and one which enters within the veil" (Hebrews 6:19).

 
May our lives reflect the glory of God made manifest to us through the death and resurrection of our Lord.

 
Have a blessed last Sunday of Lent.