Of rips and repairs.

At the exact moment of Jesus’s death, the New Testament records that the veil of the Temple was split from top to bottom. Most commentators interpret this to mean that God had now made it possible for anyone to have direct access to Him through His Son rather than needing a priest.

What I wonder is how the Temple leaders would have reacted to this big rip. History doesn’t tell us, which isn’t surprising since few non-Biblical historical sources have survived, but if it happened as our Scriptures teach, it would certainly have been an issue. Most likely, I expect they would have been very surprised and then set about repairing it without asking too many questions.

After all, the implications for their lives, jobs, and entire religious system would have been devastating. And even if some of them had been mildly concerned, there weren’t any other obvious problems. The Temple itself stood and functioned for another three and a half decades. So as they repaired the divider, I suppose their attitude was simply, “Pay no attention to the man who ripped the curtain.”

But it does make me wonder how many times in my own life God has ripped open a problem and told me to do things a new way but I’ve just quietly tried to sew my old habits back together, hoping no one would notice the giant gaping discrepancy.