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Alan, as always feel free to edit and comment.

Mark 15:³⁸ “And the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.”

Recently I was finishing the book of Mark and I could see Jesus encouraging the disciples not to panic concerning his death.  He reminded them that He would be raised from the dead. 

The Mary’s went to find Jesus’ dead body at the gravesite.  The grave would not hold back God because He is a living God.  Jesus broke the bonds of sin, death and the grave.  Can you imagine how good it felt for God to overcome human death, fold up his burial garments and be clothed in His immortal body!  When Christians die neither sin, death nor the grave will hold us back either!   How liberating is this truth from the fear of death.

To say God overcame death but to keep Him in a tomb would minimize the significance of the resurrection.  Jesus interacted with His followers after His resurrection.  He commissioned them prior to His ascension in the clouds.  He reminded them He was returning and that we could advance His kingdom in the meantime.  So to look for Him in the tomb is counter productive to His revelation and our current assignment of reaching the lost through access to God in Christ.

Indeed God has made an access to His throne, kingdom, presence and favor now.  Truly this was evidenced by the tearing of the temple veil -from top to bottom.   This powerful passage has been used throughout Christendom to announce access to the throne of God.

We have taught we no longer need to:

1. Make a sacrifice to enter the presence of God because Jesus became the ultimate sacrifice. Saved by faith not by works.  Religions that teach salvation by works are considered cultic/apostate.

2. Go through a high priest to have access before God because Jesus became our high priest.  Protestants have moved away from religious leaders who grant them pardons before God.  We may still have an over emphasis on anointed leaders who can be leveraged to gain favor with God, but generally we have developed the concept of every member ministry and the equipping of the saints.

3. Be Jewish for all who believe have been given right standing before God through faith. Churches promote seeker friendly services and churches know to welcome everyone just as they are.

These are far reaching and liberating truths concerning access to God.  The implications have been evident in our theology and traditions; however, this passage is perhaps even more liberating when we recognize the tearing of the veil –from top to bottom, from God’s vantage point.  

Can you imagine how good it felt for God to escape the chamber of the holy of holies?   He broke out of the human abode that attempted to contain Him for our benefit.  He was set free from seeing a high priest annually to living as the center of each of His own!  We know that the temple was destroyed in 70AD, yet God had already moved out to dwell in each of us.  We are not a temple made by human hands but by God who seems quite excited to live in us.

Yes this passage speaks to access to God but perhaps even more importantly it speaks of Gods breaking out of the box we built for Him.  God complied with David to abide in a temple.  He seemed as reticent to living in a temple as He did in providing a king for the people or a certificate of divorce for the unfaithful. 

I get the sense that God is not tethered to the safe box we built for Him.  No, I think that He is free and running like wild horses in the clouds.  Since the tearing of the veil everything has changed.  There is no limit to His majesty, His love nor His dominion.  Human hands cannot construct a temple that will contain all that He Is. 

If we truly understand God’s tearing of the veil and “escape from the temple” then we realize our freedom to run with Him as His temple.  He himself said, “Destroy this temple and I will raise it up in 3 days.”  I Corinthians 3:16 tells us that indeed we are now His temple.  His idea of temple was far beyond that of the human concept. 

The recent emphasize of much of our attention is on when will the temple be rebuilt or seeking to get the community to come to church services.  What if the temple has been rebuilt in us and what if God has taken the church to the community?   

My sense is that now is the time when God in the church runs to the community.  We do not need to re-establish a temple in Jerusalem for Him to return to.  He is on the run for people and temples not built with human hands.  Let’s learn how to get out as the church of God.  Could it be that tearing the veil is more than access to God, that it is also evidence of the fact that He is on the move in much the same way that the tomb garments remind us that He is up and running.