At church on Easter Sunday last year, God surprised me in a really beautiful way. All Easter weekend I had been focusing and meditating on a couple of scriptures from Mark’s gospel:

“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

The final moment of Jesus’ death had captured my attention in a way it hadn’t before. I spent a lot of time picturing that scene, the moment where his final breath tore the temple veil in two, as well as contemplating what exactly that meant for us as believers… 

Then at church, during worship, I saw that a member of the art team was finishing a large canvas at the front, directly in line with where I was sitting. As I looked more closely at it, I realised that, amazingly, it was the exact scene I had been imagining, of the veil being torn in two! I found it moving to see what I had been intently reflecting on suddenly so vivid before my eyes.

Around Easter, there are certain images that will be very familiar, Jesus on the cross and the empty tomb being the pictures that understandably are at the centre of most Easter services. We celebrate the incredible fact that Jesus, the spotless lamb, died for our sins and rose again! But if we aren’t careful, we can stop there. It can end up seeming like the only reason Jesus came to earth was to cleanse us of sin. It is an amazing and very key part of Jesus’ work on earth, but it definitely is not the whole story. The question is, why did Jesus want to remove our sins? Yes so we could be holy and purified, but what for what purpose? 

The more unfamiliar yet very important image of the temple curtain being torn in two helps us to answer this question. He cleansed us with his blood and made us whole in order that he may give us eternal life (John 3:16). But what exactly is eternal life? 

“Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.” John 17:3 NIV

Eternal life is to know God. Jesus came, took our sins and gave us his righteousness, so that we could once again know God in an intimate, personal way. Receiving his in-dwelling Spirit at our salvation, we become one with him (1 Cor 6:17). We are one with him and know him in this present life. Eternal life began the moment you believed in Jesus and received him into your heart, right then, you entered in to knowing the one true God in the most intimate way. 

As I meditated on the scriptures from Mark, I had begun to see the veil being torn in two as a symbol of God’s desire for intimacy with us. As soon as the sacrifice of Jesus’ life had been given, He ripped the veil from top to bottom. Never again need those who believe in Jesus Christ be separated from the Lord. 

The veil torn was an instantaneous impact of Jesus’ death. His body broken, given, tore open the veil at his final breath. By taking our sins upon himself, the price of our guilt was paid and God’s holy presence no longer had to be kept at a distance. Those who believe in the name of Jesus now become his living temple, the place where he rests and dwells. Never again would the presence of God reside behind the curtain in the temple in Israel, it became just a building. He now dwells in us.

God’s true desire has been fulfilled, he can once again be one with his children. Jesus died and took away our sins so that intimate union with God could be restored. Nothing can separate us from him ever again, God tore the veil from top to bottom and it is torn forever!

(Painting by Jenny Whitfield)