04/19/2023
The Veil is Torn
When Jesus died the veil was torn in two, “And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and gave up His spirit. And behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.” (Matt 27:50-51).
Matthew doesn’t explain “the veil of the temple” and assumes everyone knows what he is talking about. He is referring to the inner veil before the Holy of Holies, the innermost and most sacred area in the temple of Jerusalem. It was, says seminary professor Daniel M. Gurtner, “a physical, visible barrier indicating that access to God was strictly prohibited because of his holiness.”
The veil was huge, it was 60 feet long, 30 feet wide and 4 inches thick, according to rabbinic sources. “Eighty-two myriads of damsels (young women) worked at it, and two such veils were made every year. When it became soiled, it took three hundred priests to immerse and cleanse it.” (“myriad” in the ancient world means 10,000).
First-century Jewish priest and historian Josephus said it was beautiful: “It was a Babylonian curtain, embroidered with blue, and fine linen, and scarlet, and purple, and of a contexture that was truly wonderful. Nor was this mixture of colors without its mystical interpretation, but was a kind of image of the universe; for by the scarlet there seemed to be enigmatically signified fire, by the fine flax the earth, by the blue the air, and by the purple the sea; two of them having their colors the foundation of this resemblance; but the fine flax and the purple have their own origin for that foundation, the earth producing the one, and the sea the other. This curtain had also embroidered upon it all that was mystical in the heavens, excepting that of the [twelve] signs, representing living creatures.”
This special place in the temple was so holy that only one person could enter it, and it could only be entered by that person once a year, during the Day of Atonement. Any other person or any other time would mean death to that person. “The Lord said to Moses, ‘Speak to Aaron your brother, so that he does not come anytime into the holy place within the veil before the mercy seat, which is upon the ark; that he does not die.’”(Leviticus 16:2).
God was distant to His people, evidenced by His fearsome presence at Mount Sinai with smoke and fire, even Moses approached with fear. “All this is ended,” Charles Spurgeon says. “The precept to keep back is (abolished), and the invitation is, ’Come to me, all you who labour and are heavy laden.’ ‘Let us draw near’ is now the…spirit of the gospel. How thankful I am for this! What a joy it is to my soul!... Draw near with full assurance of faith. The veil is torn: access is free. Come boldly to the throne of grace. Jesus has made you near, as near to God as even he himself is.”
“It is imperative to remember that the holiness of God remains unchanged from all eternity — even after the veil is torn,” Gurtner says. “What has changed, then, is that the atoning death of Jesus on the cross has provided the appropriate wrath-bearing sacrifice, one which the bulls and goats of the old covenant could not provide (Hebrews 10:4).”
The Jewish high priest Caiaphas tore his clothes symbolizing his (feigned) righteous indignation at the true, eternal High Priest, Jesus, for claiming equality with God. God has torn the veil between Himself and the religious system of Caiaphas, symbolizing God’s righteous judgement, and His deep love for His elect. As a result, all believers are now His priests and are temples of the Holy Spirit.
Commentator Alexander McClaren says, “At the moment when the loud cry of the dying Christ rung over the heads of the awestruck multitude, that veil was, as it were, laid hold of by a pair of giant hands and torn asunder, as the Evangelist says, ‘from the top to the bottom.’ The incident was a symbol. In one aspect it proclaimed the end of the long years of Israel’s prerogative. In another it ushered in an epoch of new relations between man and God.”
“Whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away” (2 Corinthians 3:16).
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