February 15, 2016: Day 43 – Mark 15

We find Michelangelo’s Pieta` in St. Peter’s church in Rome.  It is stunning and it makes you realize the pain and the agony not only that Jesus went through but his entire family and those who followed him.  Even if Mary must have been a giant, if this sculpture reflects real life, her robe and her details are hard to believe that they are made out of marble.

I wanted to focus on what happens when Jesus is crucified and dies in vs. 38.   If you remember Matthew like Mark records that the veil of the temple, or the curtain, is torn in two.  This is a crucial part of our faith as Christians.  The curtain was found in the Temple in Jerusalem and the purpose that it served was to hide the Holy of Holies from the people.  The belief was that God resided in the Holy of Holies.  You can see this hashed out also in Hebrews 9:1-9.  With the tearing of the veil it means that no longer are we as a people separated from the living presence of God.  Rather, in Jesus Christ the veil is torn in two because he has become one of us and and we have direct access to him.  We are able to see through the veil, actually, we are now able to walk through the veil and into the Holy of Holies and be in the presence of the Lord through Jesus Christ.  The tearing of the veil was not insignificant.  It was a defining moment.