“The Torn Curtain”
Original sermon given March 20, 2024, written and delivered by Pastor Jeffrey Leininger at First Saint Paul’s Lutheran Church.
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“The Torn Curtain”
Mark 15.33-39
Mark 15.33-39
In the name of the Living God and the crucified Christ. Amen.
In St. Mark’s account of the gospel, we’re shown three “tearing-opens”, each followed by three exclamations about the son of God. It’s a brilliant outline, or structure, as one incident comes at the beginning, another in the middle, and then a third at the end of the Mark’s gospel narrative.
Do you recall them? How about I remind you. The first is at Christ’s baptism, where the heavens are torn, ripped apart, the Spirit descends upon him, and a voice declares from heaven: “You are my son, my beloved.” (Mark 1.9)
The second is at the Transfiguration, where Christ appears on the mountain dazzling white, a cloud envelopes them, and a voice declares from within the cloud: “This is my son, my beloved, listen to him.” (Mark 9.7)
The third is here, at the end of the gospel, where the temple curtain is torn, or ripped in two, from top to bottom, and the centurion declares, “Surely this man was the son of God.” (Mark 15.39)
This third, which we recall this evening, is filled with foreboding and irony. Darkness spreads across the land from 12:00 until 3:00, the hours Christ hangs dying. His voice cries out quoting Psalm 22, a lament that God has left him. His last breath is expended upon a dramatically great cry, indeed, heard by all, including the centurion selected to oversee this brutal affair. Thus, we’re shown a great darkness, a great pain, a great cry, a great abandonment, and a great confession by a Pagan bystander.
The temple curtain torn most likely is the thick, woven curtain which veiled the Holy of Holies from the other, outer portions of the temple precincts.[1] This Most Holy Place guarded God’s presence. Only the high priest could enter once a year, on the Day of Atonement, to make sacrifice for the sins of the people.
But now it’s torn open, for all eyes to peer in, full access given to all—even Gentiles and the unclean sinners. Christ, the full final sacrifice offered on Good Friday, tears open access to the Holy God for us all.
I was surprised and moved in my readings about “The Torn Curtain” to discover some historic references. Jewish sources, outside the Bible and outside the New Testament, actually confirm that an event like this occurred about the time when Jesus died. I suppose it makes sense that such a dramatic event would have been remembered and recorded. Equally moving for me was the early Church Father Jerome’s description of the earthquake causing the great lintel (cross beam) which held the curtain, to break, thus tearing the curtain in two.
These historic confirmations are noteworthy and interesting, but they don’t get us to the main point. The Scriptures, however, interpret the torn curtain for us, and apply it to us directly. The writer of the Book of Hebrews explains that, through Christ’s sacrificial death, we all have access to God, intimacy with God, and atonement, which means “at-one-ment”.
Hebrews 10.19 says: “Therefore… since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body… let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance…”
That assurance comes to us because our Lord Jesus, in the darkness of Golgotha, suffered fully the wrath of God for us and offered his own body for all our sins. How could any of us dare to stand in the presence of the Holy God, or dare to gaze upon his glory, or claim to have access to Him by our own merits or works or worthiness? Surely, the barrier between us and the Almighty would be too thick and impassable, were it based upon our own efforts!
And yet the punishment meant for us was placed upon Christ, and by his wounds we are healed (Isaiah 53.5). The one who knew no sin became sin for us; the spotless lamb was sacrificed; the darkness of our sin surrounded him.
And now, because of Christ’s great work, the great divide between us and the Holy God has been torn asunder. We can enter the Holy of Holies with assurance because we enter through Christ’s body, his work on our behalf. “At-one-ment.”
Oh, how great a love this is, that our Lord would go the way of Golgotha for us! And what great power that by his blood we now have access to God, freely, through faith.
We’re all looking for it: access to the eternal, a pathway to the holy, a gateway to God, the promise that we will never be abandoned or alone.
We have all this now, in Christ Jesus, the son of God, whose dark death on Good Friday tore open life and light for us.
Come soon Lord Jesus. Amen.
[1] It is also possible that it is the outer curtain, veiling the Holy Place (not the Most Holy Place) from the outer courts.