Most of us have a hard time with blood – especially outside of our own flesh.  Most of us, with the exception of those who are emergency responders or in the medical field, get a bit queasy when we see a little blood.  It doesn’t have to be oozing, gushing, or pumping – sometimes just a little bit of blood can cause a grown adult to turn pale and drop like a rock.

Yet, you cannot look at the God of the Old Testament and not see that there was a lot of blood involved.  Sheep, goats, doves, lambs, and bullocks were all sacrificed and burned on the altar as an act of worship continuously from the days of Abraham to the times of Jesus.  The tabernacle of Moses was a place of killing and there was the shedding of blood as was the temple of Solomon and the rebuilt temples of Ezra and Herod.  

But why?  It all goes back to the Garden of Eden.  Adam and Eve lived there in perfect harmony with God until they listened to the deceiver and ate of the tree of good and evil.  The consequence of their distrust of God and disobedience of his word was death – the end of life. 

If you remember they were forced from the Garden and God killed animals to give them clothing.  And the first sacrifice was made to Blood is shed because all life is in the blood.  In Genesis 3:21 we are told that “21 The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.”  Animals were killed because of the sin of men. 

God instituted the sacrifice of animals in order that we would understand that it is sin that destroys life.  

In the book of Hebrews we have seen that there is a whole great order of sacrifices that has gone on for centuries.  The priests of Levi have killed thousands of animals and split gallons of blood to mediate between man and God – but it was never enough – until the coming of the perfect sacrifice… Jesus

The Sacrifice

11 When Christ came as high priest of the good things that are already here, he went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not man-made, that is to say, not a part of this creation. 12 He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption.

Hebrews 9:11-12

When Jesus came – everything changed.  Over the past few weeks we have seen this taught by the author of Hebrews and a variety of different ways.

Jesus is more than an angel – He is God the creator.

Jesus is more than a man – He is God in flesh.

Jesus is more than a messenger – He is the message.

Jesus is more than the Sabbath – He is the rest we seek.

Jesus is more than a teacher of the old Law – He is the New Law.

Jesus did not enter into Herod’s Temple to offer prayers and act as a Levitical Priest – He came into the true tabernacle where God dwells as a Priest like Melchizedek – without beginning or end.

And now we learn that Jesus is more than the giver of an animal sacrifice – He is the sacrifice.  His blood was shed to pay the price for our sin.

When Jesus died there is nothing that illustrates this simple fact more powerfully than the tearing of the veil in Herod’s Temple

The Veil

31 “Make a curtain of blue, purple and scarlet yarn and finely twisted linen, with cherubim worked into it by a skilled craftsman. 32 Hang it with gold hooks on four posts of acacia wood overlaid with gold and standing on four silver bases. 33 Hang the curtain from the clasps and place the ark of the Testimony behind the curtain.

Exodus 26:31-33

Let me tell you a little about this veil.  It was nothing like what you think it was like.  Most of us see something thin and light.  This veil was so much more.  It was the separation and boundary between the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies. 

The Holy Place was a room with three piece in it; a golden lamp stand with seven lights on it; a table with twelve loaves of bread (one for each of the 12 tribes of Israel) on it, and a small altar where incense was burned continuously.   This room – in Herod’s temple was about 40 feet wide 80 feet long and 40 feet high was limited to only the priests of Israel.  This room was the closest that man could get to God – for in the inner room separated from man by this veil was the ark of the agreement was supposed to be kept and where the Glory of God dwelt. 

This was not true in Herod’s Temple.  The Ark of the Covenant had been lost in the mist of time centuries before the days of Herod and his attempt to rebuild the temple.  The inner room was empty.  It was called the Holy of Holies still but the shekinah, Glory of God had been absent for centuries.  The many sacrifices were made – in the absence of a real ark and the real presence of God.  

The veil was still there.  The Old Testament  tells us that is was woven from cloth made of blue, purple, scarlet, and fine linen.  Into the weaving there were cheribum – winged angels depicted by skilled craftsmen. 

It stood over 40 feet tall and was 40 feet wide.  Some scholars believe that when Herod rebuilt the temple he made it even taller and wider as much as 60 feet.  Josephus, a Jewish Historian and Priest, writes that the veil was draped from a heavy lintel made of a solid stone weighing over 30 tons.  In recent years the quarry outside of Jerusalem where great stones were carved out of the rock has been discovered with artifacts, coins, and belongings dating to 20 BC – the time of the rebuilding of the Temple – have been discovered. 

Josephus tells us that the veil was made up of 72 strips of material each made separately and then woven carefully together into one great curtain.  The veil was as thick as the palm of your hand, about 4 inches, and had 24 warp threads or about 2 per centimeter.  Your less expensive bed sheets have about 200 threads per inch.  This would have been about 6 threads per inch requiring a very thick linen thread.  It would have been a very expensive piece of material – and heavy.  300 priests were required to immerse it in water to cleanse it when it became ceremonially unclean.  There is no way that such a veil could ever have been torn by human hands.

Yet, when Jesus died, the veil was torn.

The Veil was Torn from Top to Bottom

50 And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit. 51 At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook and the rocks split.

Matthew 27:50-51

In early writings of the church fathers, Jerome in a Letter to Hedibia relates that the huge lintel of the Temple was broken and splintered and fell. He connects this with the rending of the Veil. Says Edersheim, “it would seem an obvious inference to connect again this breaking of the lintel with an earthquake” (p. 610, op. cit.). The lintel was an enormous stone, being at least 30 feet long and weighing some 30 tons!

That the veil being torn from top to bottom took place at the very hour of Jesus death was a terrible portent to the Jewish leaders that had connived and contrived to achieve Jesus’ crucifixion at the hands of the Roman occupiers. Its significance cannot be overstated.

But that was Friday – this is Sunday and Jesus is alive!

The Torn Veil Reveals the Grief of God

44 It was now about the sixth hour, and darkness came over the whole land until the ninth hour, 45 for the sun stopped shining. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two. 46 Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” When he had said this, he breathed his last. [1]

Luke 23:44-46

In the days of Jesus when a father heard the terrible news of the death of a loved one – especially a child he would tear his robe.  There is something powerful in this act.  It takes the deep grief of a parent and vents it in the violent act of ripping the very fabric of your existence.   When Jesus reached up in the crushing agony of death, God reached down in the agony of a father tearing his garments.

But that was Friday – this is Sunday and Jesus is alive!

The Torn Veil Foretells End of the Temple

Jesus left the temple and was walking away when his disciples came up to him to call his attention to its buildings. 2 “Do you see all these things?” he asked. “I tell you the truth, not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.”

Matthew 24:1-2

From the historian Josephus and others of the time we learn that the Sanhedrin – that body of Jewish Leaders that met in the temple to legislate, guide, and direct the Jewish nation, moved from the temple to another location that was less important.  The only reason for such a move would have been some sort of cataclysmic event that made their former rooms uninhabitable.  The earth shook, the lintel cracked, the veil tore and the Sanhedrin moved. 

Jesus himself  

Titus destroyed the temple as Jesus foretold in Matt 24

But that was Friday – this is Sunday and Jesus is alive!

The Torn Veil Removes the Boundary between Earth and Heaven

37 With a loud cry, Jesus breathed his last. 38 The curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. 39 And when the centurion, who stood there in front of Jesus, heard his cry and saw how he died, he said, “Surely this man was the Son of God!”

Mark 15:37-39

The separation between the finite and the infinite is removed

Time ends and eternity surrounds

Death is defeated because Jesus is victorious

But that was Friday – this is Sunday and Jesus is alive!

The Torn Veil is the Beginning of Resurrected Life

28 so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.

Hebrews 9:28

This past week I visited with a 19 year old girl and her family.  Gabby has cerebral Palsy and her body is crippled so completely that she has never walked and never will.  Last January the doctors did surgery to try to straighten her spine.  They improved it a lot but Gabby got an infection that she has been fighting in what is a losing battle ever since. 

When I saw her Saturday she weighed about 50 lbs.  She hasn’t eaten anything in days and her kidneys have stopped functioning.  Gabby will go home soon… where she will walk for the first time – with Jesus. 

This is the real meaning of the torn veil.  A resurrected body for all of us!

Yes the sacrifice was made and the veil was torn…

But that was Friday – this is Sunday and Jesus is alive!

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[1]The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984 (electronic ed.) (Lk 23:44-46). Grand Rapids: Zondervan.