A Cry, A Temple And a Tearing!

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)

There it was.  He reached the end.  Jesus had walked His walk on earth.  He had remained faithful and had stayed constantly with His Father.  Never had He left God as we so often do to turn to ourselves and be enticed by our own desires.  Jesus had given His testimony towards God.  He had instructed men of the love and Presence of the Almighty Father.  He had shown us our need for a Savior and a way to return again into that Presence.  He showed us by example that there with God is where we were meant to be and it was a lofty and rightful goal.  He carefully guided us through all the healing and helpful instructions which would assist our searching hearts.  He had given us insight into what to expect of times to come.  He gave us the most wonderful hope for a future together with our God the Father and His Son our Savior.

Now His work was nearly finished.  He needed only to complete the last of the requirements to secure salvation for our entire race.  He needed to lay down His Spirit and let death overtake Him.  He needed to die for our sins.  He had to pay with His own life for all the evil which His beloved children had allowed themselves to permit in their hearts.  Then, He needed to rise.  He needed to break the chains of death, evil and the grave.  He needed to return from where man cannot return.  He needed to do this to provide us a Way.  He needed to become the standard and the path for mankind to return unto God.  We can come to God and return to His Presence because in Jesus, it is now finally possible.  But were these last steps to take going to be easy for Him?  Was there any other person in all of history who could have accomplished all that He needed to do in these last acts of grace?

We view the scene and see how Jesus must have suffered.  The weight of the world´s sins upon Him.  The world at large set against Him.  The very people He came to save were maliciously and deliberately hurting Him and murdering Him.  So much hate, so much evil, how on earth could He bear it all?  And then, in that moment, when it finally came, He gave a mighty cry!  He let go of His Spirit!  He died!

As Jesus gave His last breath, the curtain in the Temple was torn in two.  Jesus made reference Himself to the likeness of our bodies and temple buildings.  Our hearts, our souls are to be sacred places dedicated to house and be filled with the Presence of God.  They are reverent shrines where lives the Spirit of the Most High.  When the scriptures read of the curtain in the Temple being torn, does it give us insight into the agony and sacrifice Jesus made that day?  Was our Savior´s parting with His Father, the most painful tearing which the world has ever known?  Yet did Jesus and the Father willingly go through with their sacrifice in the hopes of saving us?  How can we fathom that kind of love?

Dear Jesus, thank You and thank the Father for all that You have done for us.  When we consider the size and weight of sacrifice You have made, we feel so unworthy.  Please come to our assistance.  In Your great love, You have always known just how to lead us home.  So take our hands.  Walk us through our tendencies of flesh.  Keep us directed on our God and our Heavenly home.  Bring us safely through all that we must experience as we devote ourselves to following You.  Because of that cry You gave that day, because You let us tear Your life away, we now have found our Way.  We have a Way to come, to follow and to bring us safely home to our Father, our God.  Thank You! Thank You!

Amen