I sit at my computer desk and find little notes I’ve left for my self – things that could be column topics. Things like:

“Feed your faith and your fears will starve”

“Yield to the culture which fears God” (I cannot remember what that means)

“If I knew more my awe would change”

Does any of that mean anything? I also look at a hand carved wooden figurine about 7 inches tall of a man holding a small child. You’d have to see it, I can’t explain how the man is holding the child under his chin on a board; how both man and child have too many fingers or the thumb is on the wrong side or the strange look of peace on the face of the child. It was titled Joseph and the baby Jesus but my wife thought it looked more like Abraham and Isaac. Anyway, it’s interesting, cultural, symbolic; my wife says I wasted twenty dollars on it even if it was carved on Rain Tree wood in Thailand. But today It lacks meaning and so is useless to the Kingdom.

In the mess on my desk I found one scribbled note that is meaningful. In the midst of all this creativity the only meaning I find is an act of destruction by the Father. The note says simply “He tore the veil”.

The Son of God died and the veil was torn; not a minor tear that could be repaired but ripped violently from top to bottom - I envision it jagged, shredded, laid to waste – intentionally destroyed to render it unusable.

Why? I’ve always been told it was to symbolize the openness we now have to God through Christ Jesus by His death and resurrection. Where our access to God was limited before Christ, now each of us may approach the Holy Place on the merits of Christ’s work on the Cross and His righteousness. I have no doubt this is true.

By why tear it…why destroy it? God does not waste His actions or His energy – so why didn’t He send a prophet to tell them to take it down? Why not release it from where it hung and simply let it fall to the floor? Why not just pull it aside as He did the stone covering the tomb? I don’t have the answer…

But what I do believe is that the veil was up because of our sin…the same sin that caused the fall of man…the sin that caused the separation of man from God has now caused the separation of God Himself. The Trinity was ripped apart as the Son bore those sins and the Father could not look upon Him. I imagine that God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah with less anger and rage than He expressed in tearing that curtain. And with His left over rage He shook the earth.
In other words, God the Father restrained Himself…
Now, IT IS FINISHED! The Son has declared it, and if sinful man does not go to the Father it is because they, themselves, have put the veil back up. Any veil we put up is despised of the Father and it denies the atoning work of the Son; God’s wrath is upon it. God tore the veil open; if we continue to hide behind it we don’t want God.
God rent that veil, He despised it; it is the symbol of sins’ consequences – it separated unholy man from their Holy God. The message of the torn cloth is an unforgettable reminder; do we want to stay behind the veil with our sin or step through with Christ into the Holy Place? Our choice!