We use curtains to hide
things. Shower curtains maintain our
privacy as well as keep the water from getting all over the floor. Window curtains keep people from looking into
our houses. I used to watch the Price is
Right when I was younger. Would pulling
back the curtain reveal a great prize, like a new car or trip or an okay prize
like a small kitchen appliance? The climax
of the Wizard of Oz occurs when Dorothy and her companions finally get to Oz to
meet the wizard, and Toto, the dog, being intuitive as pets are, pulls back the
curtain to expose a man using special effects.
While clever, the man has no magical powers or real knowledge of how to
get Dorothy back home. For years, the
curtain protected the wizard, but now all was exposed. He was just a power-hungry individual engaged
in manipulation. Curtains can conceal
something wonderful or something shameful, and sometimes the difference is in
perspective. In our Scripture readings
today, we hear about the curtain in the temple, the one that separate the Holy
of Holies from the inner court. Upon
Jesus’s death, that curtain was not simply pulled back, it was torn in two from
top to bottom. Everything behind the
curtain was exposed. For some it was
shameful, for others, it reveals wonderful things.
The shame hidden behind the temple curtain was fake
worship. In the video clip, you saw the
high priest’s reaction to the tearing of the veil. The Jewish leaders are devastated. They cannot pretend to offer sacrifices
anymore. The sham worship they had been
doing for hundreds of years was exposed.
There was no Ark of the Covenant.
What you saw cracked inside the Holy of Holies was a stone altar. I don’t know if they put a stone altar in
there or if it was a somewhat empty space, but what was not there was the Ark
of the Covenant. It had been taken in
the 6th Century BC. The
Coptic Orthodox Church of Ethiopia claims to have it at the Church in Axum, and
maybe they really do. But since they
claim to have had it for 3000 years, I seriously doubt it.
There’s nothing in Scripture to say that the temple
itself was torn in two like the movie.
Presumably. they made another curtain and restarted their fake worship
for a few more decades, but the tearing of the veil also foreshadowed that the
sham worship would be ended once and for all when the temple would be destroyed
in 70 AD.
Gibson got it wrong in showing the veil being torn from
the bottom to the top, which is what you might expect if it was the earthquake
that caused it, but top to bottom shows that this rending of the curtain is
God’s intentional act. In the negative
sense, it symbolized the departure of the glory of God from the Temple. I Samuel 4 tells the story of the Philistines
attacking Israel and stealing the Ark of the Covenant. In the process, the sons of Eli the priest,
Hophni and Phineas, are killed, and Eli himself dies upon hearing the news that
his sons are dead and the Ark has been taken.
Phineas’s wife, who is very pregnant, goes into labor at the news, and
dies shortly after the traumatic birth, the midwives try to encourage her by saying
she has delivered a boy, boy, but she names the child, “Ichabod,” which means
“the glory has departed,” saying that the glory of God has been removed from
Israel—no ark, no glory. And the Jews
had felt abandoned by God. They hadn’t
seen that glory in a long time, though the priest did stay alive from year to
year, giving them hope, and yet, we know God was still working and answering
prayers. Just in the offering of incense,
not even in the Holy of Holies, but just outside of it, Zechariah learned that
his prayers for a child had indeed been heard, and not only that, all the cries
for a Messiah were about to be answered with the birth of Jesus.
And so the tearing of the curtain also symbolizes good
news. We hear again in our Hebrews text
how the Holy of Holies could only be entered once a year and only by the high priest. This was where the presence of God presumably
dwelt, and literally did many times as recorded in the Old Testament. But the tearing of the veil showed that the
presence of God was not limited to time or space or a particular person, but
everyone could now have access to the God’s presence. God is not hidden away, but accessible to
anyone. The accessibility comes through
the shed blood of Jesus Christ.
There’s no more need for a Temple, no more need for
sacrifices. Jesus offered Himself once
for all. Christ is the high priest of a
tabernacle not made by human hands, one that is far superior to Solomon’s or
Herod’s temple. And He didn’t offer the
blood of animals, but He offered His own blood.
We don’t have to worry from year to year if our sins will be forgiven;
we have been forgiven and are being forgiven.
The prize on the other
side of the torn curtain is eternal life in Christ. The last verse of Hebrew 9 contains the
promise that Christ will appear a second tie for salvation for those who
eagerly await Him. He won’t have to pay
for sin again because that’s already been done.
There were other sacrifices besides the once-a-year
atonement sacrifice that involved putting blood on the Ark of the
Covenant. There were individual guilt
offerings. There were peace offerings,
and there were thank offerings. On the
cross, Jesus not only paid for our sins, but for our guilt and shame. Those are removed. Through His blood, Jesus has made peace
between us and God. As a thank offering
Jesus shows us that everything good comes from God. In return, we offer our thanks and praises to
God as offerings, and we offer ourselves as living sacrifices in thanks to God.
Jesus truly is the once for all sacrifice.
Notice there’s nothing about the need for an earthly temple to be established before Christ returns. Rather, our text says that all those things from the beginning were mere shadows of what was to come. Anyone saying that the Temple in Jerusalem must be rebuilt before Christ can return is at best grossly misinterpreting the book of Daniel. Herod’s temple was the 3rd physical temple. The second temple was rebuilt by the exiles who returned to Jerusalem. The temple that matters now is the one not built by human hands, which we are told is the Church—the people who follow Christ are the temple of God, and each one of us is a temple of God. I want to read just a little more from Hebrews 10 beginning in 19:
Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
Here we are told that the veil that was torn was Jesus’s own flesh. And because of what Christ did, we can confidently enter in to the most holy place, the presence of God. We can have assurance that our hearts are sprinkled and our bodies washed with pure water. This latter is a reference to baptism, which signifies our entrance into the church. We have assurance of our forgiveness, and we are called to encourage each other to love and good deeds. No longer are our works dead, but profitable. And we are called to continue to meet together as His Church. If we want to hasten the day of Christ’s coming, we are to live as the writer of the Hebrews tells us and as Peter tells us to in 2 Peter 3:11 in “holy conduct and godliness.” Peter also tells us that the reason Christ hasn’t returned yet is because the Lord is patiently waiting for people to come to repentance. Jesus Himself said that He will not return until “this gospel of the kingdom is preached in all the earth.” There are still people who need to hear the good news of the kingdom. Believe it or not, some of them are right here in our town. And there are a lot of people groups in the world who still have never heard. We need to pray, as Jesus commanded, that “the Lord of the harvest would send more laborers.”
Friends
the curtain is gone! We have full access
to God in Jesus Christ and access to all of God’s blessings. We have assurance that our sins are forgiven,
that our prayers are heard and will be answered. We have assurance of eternal life. We offer worship pleasing to God. We have the best prize package! And the Man behind the curtain is no scam
artist, but Jesus Christ—God in flesh, who is our High Priest forever.
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