There it hung that afternoon, as it had year after year after year: the temple veil. Yards and yards of blue and purple and scarlet, twined linen with cherubim embroidered into it, tall and thick; a complete and absolute barrier. What was inside? The presence of the Almighty, holy, eternal God. Outside, all of us.
For centuries now, that veil had stood between the people of Israel and their God. Only one person ever went past the veil each year, and only in the prescribed way: with blood. If that high priest went behind the veil into the Holy of Holies without the blood of the sacrifice, he would die. And if anyone else ever ventured inside on their own terms, they would die. Simple as that. Sin cannot stand in the presence of the Holy God, and since all have sinned, no human can stand in His presence. In that light, the veil was a merciful provision to allow the people to come even that close to Him without being killed. The blood of the sacrificed animals, taken into the Most Holy Place by the appointed High Priest and sprinkled on the Mercy Seat once a year to cover their sins, made atonement for the people, allowing them to live near the Presence and worship Him.
But what the people did not seem to grasp was that all of this was only a shadow of the real thing. The blood of goats and rams covered their sins, but it could never take them away; it was mere picture of the true Sacrifice to come. The veil stood between the people and the Presence of God; but He did not want it to stay that way. The priest entered the Most Holy Place once a year to make atonement; but a High Priest was coming who would make atonement once for all.
That Friday afternoon in the Temple, the priests had no idea that the moment had come for God to reveal the spectacular beauty of His eternal plan. They did not realize that they were seeing the last of the shadow pictures, the system God had put in place to point to the reality. And never in their wildest dreams did they imagine that the blood of the true Sacrifice, the spotless Lamb of God, was shed that very day outside the city.
However, though they did not understand what was happening in the eternal realms that day, they saw the repercussions of it. For the moment Jesus gave up His life, the unthinkable happened: that tall, thick, beautifully crafted mass of a veil that divided God from His people was torn in two. Split, from top to bottom. Jesus entered the Holy of Holies to make atonement for us, not with the blood of bulls or goats, but with His own blood. And the moment His work was done and His blood brought before the mercy seat, He tore away that great dividing curtain forever.
Heb 10:19-22 “Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith…”
