The Curtain Is Torn

Just as Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. – Mark 1:10

The curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. – Mark 15:38

The only two places where the Greek word for ‘torn’ comes up in the Gospel of Mark are at the very beginning of the story and the very end. And both are used by Mark to give us a picture of what Jesus has done by arriving on this planet, by teaching us his new way of life, by dying on the cross, and by coming alive again – he has ripped open the what kept God secret and hidden.

God was always ‘out there’ or ‘in heaven somewhere’ – but the skies are torn open at Jesus’s baptism. The great curtain in the Temple kept people out of the Holy of Holies because, so they thought, God would destroy them if there was direct contact.

But in Christ, the skies are shredded and the curtain falls. And out from behind the veil steps the God who is really there… and he’s not angry, he’s not distant, he’s not there to judge us (after all, Jesus said that all judgment was given to him, and he wasn’t the judgmental type!). Instead, the true God who is on the other side looks exactly like his son, Jesus. As Hebrews 1:3 says, Jesus is the “exact representation of his being.”

So once the curtain comes down, the we find is a servant. That God cares. That God weeps at our brokenness. That God carries our pain. And, yes it’s true, that God actually loves us. So celebrate this resurrection life, embracing the reality that Jesus’s life after death proves – nothing can separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus!