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The Purpose of the Passion

Palm Sunday 2006 April 9, 2006

Mark 15:38

With a loud cry Jesus breathed his last. The curtain of the temple was torn

in two from top to bottom.

Mark 15:37-38 NIV

It had been hanging there for years, and it looked as if it might hang there

forever! It was in the innermost pasrt of the temple--this big curtain--

separating the the holy place from the holiest place of all, the place where it

was believed that God himself dwelt above the ark of the covenant.

It was there for two reasons: It was a warning to everyone to keep as

respectful distance from God, and it was there to shut God in.

It was no ordinary curtain either! 60 feet long and 30 feet wide from floor to

ceiling, interwoven with blue, scarlet and purple wool, and according to the

historian Josephus, it was as thick as a human palm--4-5 inches thick.

According to written accounts of the time, it was so heavy that it took

hundreds of priests to move it.

The curtain of the temple, the veil, was a living reminder of the separation

between God and humankind. Behind that veil was the mercy seat on the

ark of the covenant, and the conviction that the very presence of God in all

his Holiness around that blood stains of the sacrifices offered to him.

Behind that veil only the High priest was allowed to enter, and only once a

year on the day of the Atonement, to offer the atoning blood of the sacrifice

for the sins of a whole nation. They tied a rope around the High priest's

ankle when he went in that one time every year--just in case he was struck

dead by the terrifying power and holiness of God, the other priests could at

least retrieve his body without risking any more lives.

And then suddenly, say the Gospel writers, that curtain was torn in two from

top to bottom, and a formidable frustration was finished. The priests coming

in that dark day of Christ's crucifixion saw it hanging in two pieces. And

when they compared notes, they were even more startled to discover that the

rending of this veil happened at the precise moment when Jesus on the hill

of Calvary had breathed his last and gone home to God. Immediately they

connected the two events. They said it was no mere coincidence. The death

of Jesus outside the city wall and the tearing of this curtain inside the temple

had somehow been related. They put two and two together and said that it

was cause and effect--it was the death of Jesus that literally split and ripped

that curtain once and for all.

Make no mistake: God targeted that veil. He didn't lift it from the bottom

up as we might do to take a look. He split it in two from top to bottom to

make absolutely clear that it was not some human act. It was his own hand,

demonstrating to us in the moment of Jesus death, and through a torn

curtain, three purposes in the Passion of the Christ:

1. The end of a secret

That torn curtain stands for the end of a secret and a laying bare of the

heart of God. When the Jewish people came to worship in the temple, they

were always sure that there must be something g behind the curtain. But

what? Nobody really knew for sure. Something awesome they thought.

Something terrifying and powerful. But no one dared get beyond that

curtain and find out for themselves. And so the secret lay hidden for

centuries.

The interesting thing about the temple was that as you passed from the outer

courts to the inner courts to the holy place the lights were progressively

dimmed until the holiest of all places, behind the curtain, lay in perpetual

darkness.

Then Jesus died, said the Gospel writers, and the curtain was torn, and the

sunshine went streaming in--and it was the end of secrecy in religion! The

heart of God lay bare.

Should we be surprised? Secrecy may be ok for national security. But it

was never in God's heart to keep you and me in the dark! And yet how

many people today are in exactly the same place as the Jewish people were

before the curtain was torn. They believe there is something behind the

world we see, some sort of something behind our veil of sense, But what???

And the lights grow dimmer as you get closer to it... Is it a terrifying force?

A heartless mind?? An indifferent watchmaker long since departed? For

how many of us did secrecy and ritualism and the fear of God drive us out of

the house of God and into years of wasted living--trying to find meaning in

relationships that fell apart or a job that one day disappeared and

disappointed us, or in a frantic pursuit of stuff that just ended up breaking

and not satisfying the holes in our souls?

And Jesus said, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never

walk in darkness, but will have the light of life." John 8:12 NIV Jesus laid bare

in his words, and in his dying, God's heart to bring us out of spiritual

darkness and into the light of his love! All of us have questions worth

asking about God--personal questions. Why am I here? What purpose or

plan do I have for living? Does God have anything to do with that? Does

He care about my life, my pain, and my frustrations in my little corner of the

world--How could he care?? Is he listening? Does he feel my pain and

frustration? Can he lay a hand of healing on me when I'm rushed and tired

and hectic? Has he got anything to give me of courage and hope and

forgiveness when I'm feeling wretched and ashamed?

God knew that words alone would not satisfy those questions--because

he'd been speaking to us for centuries. Jesus knew that even his greatest

Sermon ever preached--the Sermon on the Mount--would only light a

brief candle in the darkness. So when the last word had been said God did

something in the flesh, in Jesus Christ--when he could say no more, he gave

up his life for you and me, breathed his last and ripped that curtain from top

to bottom. It was a deed against which you and I can batter all our doubts to

pieces!

When God tore that curtain from top to bottom at the moment of Jesus death,

and when the sunlight came streaming in, God was saying then as he is

saying to you and me right now, "You don't have to live any longer in the

dark ness and futility of your own thinking, in a sense of meaninglessness or

quiet despair or frustration or fear! In the sunlight of my love and my heart

open for you, you can find answers to the questions worth asking!" And

more than that, God says, you will find me, personally and truly in the face

of the one who died for you. Paul put it this way years later: For God, who

said, "Let light shine out of darkness," made his light shine in our hearts to

give us the light of the knowledge of the Glory of God in the face of Christ.

2 Corinthians 4:6 NIV

2. The opening of a way

The torn curtain stands for something more than the letting in of the light.

It stands for the opening up of a road, a right-of-way right to God. You

see, in the temple there was not only a progressive dimming of the lights...

There was also a progressive heightening of the barriers the closer you came

to God. In fact, the layout was a carefully graded system of exclusion based

on contempt for the ordinary person. First you had the outer court where

anyone at all might come. Then the inner court, which was reserved for true

born Jews. And then beyond that the inner shrine, where only the

ministering priests might enter. And finally the holiest of all places, behind

the curtain, where only one man, on only one day in the year, was allowed to

bring one sacrifice for the whole nation.

And the result was predictable: Religion became a secondhand thing.

There was no mercy seat for you and me, no grasping God's hand in love

and forgiveness. People had to be content with whatever word or

interpretation the High Priest gave of his experience--IF he even decided to

share it. People had no personal relationship with God--whatever they had

was a leftover from the High Priest, a tidbit mediated by some other human

being.

Many people today are just like those pilgrims and preistes at the Passover.

Many of us are just like them. We've lived with the secrecy, the curtain,

and the second hand faith for so long that we no longer think it's even

possible to pierce the veil and encounter God for ourselves!

And then one day at a place called the Skull, Jesus allows his side to be

ripped open and his heart exposed as he dies for you and me--and in that

moment the curtain that had stood like as a warning to keep your distance

from God--that curtain was ripped apart... and there was

IMMEDIATELY an opening into the very presence and dwelling place of

God. The priests were horrified because ANYONE could see their way in,

and EVERYONE now had access...

And that torn curtain means that you and I today have a right of way, a

road of direct access the heart of God! No more second hand religion! We

have the possibility of a direct, personal encounter with God through Jesus

Christ alone...and that is so astounding that the author of Hebrews, thinking

about this torn curtain, put it this way: Therefore brothers, since we have

confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and

living way opened to us through the curtain... Let us draw near to God with

a sincere heart in full assurance of faith.

Hebrews 10:19-22 NIV

He calls it a new and living way because that's what it is: It's not

ritualism, it's not religion, it's not second-hand--it's a way to have a direct

and personal relationship with God that you yourself can count on, with

confidence and sincerity and assurance and genuineness of heart. Jesus died

to tear down that barrier so that you and I can enjoy daily friendship with

God.

3. The Power of God to remove the curtain over us

Our problem is not a lack of knowledge: our problem is that our hearts

have been ruined by living apart from God. And by living apart from

him, we have allowed the devices and desires of our own hearts to lead us

into places of ever darkening confusion. The Bible tells us that it's even

worse than that: our living and thinking apart from God becomes an open

invitation for the devil to confuse us even further. "If the Good News we

preach is veiled from anyone," writes paul, " it is a sign that they are

perishing. Satan, the god of this evil world, has blinded the minds of

those who don't believe, so they are unable to see the glorious light of the

Good News that is shining upon them. 2 Corinthians 4:3-4 NLT (New Living

Translation)

And you see, that's exactly why some of us keeping coming, and listening,

and asking the same questions over and over again, and the answers keep

bouncing off, because our minds have been "curtained" by the enemy so that

the truth never penetrates. You don't need more truth--you need the power

of God to lift the curtain so that the truth you've already heard and

received in Christ can settle in and change you!

...But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away... You and

I need a power encounter with the same God whose power to rip that

curtain in two can rip the curtain of spiritual oppression, frustration

and separation from our hearts so that we can receive the words of

Jesus, let them sink into our hearts and minds, and allow Jesus to come

into our lives and change us from the inside out with his love, his

acceptance and his forgiveness. And when we allow him to remove that

curtain from our minds and hearts, here's the promise: "And we, who with

unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his

likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is

the Spirit.

2 Corinthians 3:16, 18 NIV

If you're TIRED of living in fear of God and in the darkness of a religiosity

where you never experience for yourself God's love for you--Let Jesus

remove the curtain.

If you're TIRED of living with the frustration of being confused, of Jesus

words never seeming to settle in, and of questions that cannot seem to be

answered-- Let Jesus remove the curtain.

And if you're TIRED of second hand religion that never seems to offer you

the possibility of experiencing God for yourself--if you're TIRED of having

to jump through hoops just to stand at the edge of a warning sign that says

keep your distance from me... and if you're LOOKING for a direct access

and a personal relationship with God-- Let Jesus remove the curtain. Let

him usher you into the presence of God. Let his power remove the

confusion and let his death connect you to God and a life that will never

end.

The Rev. J. Philip Ashey

13314 Pennypacker Lane Fairfax, VA 22033