Matthew 27:51

And behold the veil of the temple was rent in two, from the top to the bottom.

The Ripping of the Curtain of the Temple

The miracle in this instance, other than its timing which is a feature of all these wonders, was that a veil untouched by human hands should have fallen into two equal pieces, in a progressive rending from top to bottom, the force which parted it coming, not from beneath as if violent hands had been laid upon it, but from above as though some unseen hand had passed down the center of it. This event occurred at three o'clock in the afternoon, at a time when the priests would have been busy with the evening sacrifice, going about their tasks with lighted lamps, with a very large number of them present; and it is from this group of eyewitnesses to that remarkable wonder that we may suppose is the explanation of why such a large "company of the priests believed" (Acts 6:7), being later converted to Christ. One may only imagine the fear and awe which attended the rending of that veil, witnessed by so many priests, busy with their lanterns, apprehensive of the enveloping darkness, and eventually associating the event with the final cry of Christ as he perished on the cross.

The rending of the veil, occurring simultaneously with the death of Christ, must be associated with that death; and, looking more closely, it is plain that the veil, in practically all of its functions and even in its colors, was a most instructive type of Christ. Again from Bishop Nicholson:

How strong a proof of the gospel narratives is the statement of the rending of the veil. The evangelists were bold to publish their accounts in the midst of the Jews, and under the very eyes of the priests. Were they ever contradicted? How it would have been caught at and used by those acute and watchful infidels, Celsus, Porphyry, and Julian! But no! The enemies of Jesus were silenced. They could not say that never before had they heard of it. The simple statement of the evangelists proves itself. It is the true story of the veil's destruction.[12]

The meaning of the veil and its tearing is extensive: (1) Its three colors, blue, purple, and scarlet (Exodus 26:81) symbolize the nature of Christ, blue standing for his heavenly nature, the scarlet for his earthly nature, and the co-mingled blue and scarlet (purple) standing for the perfect two natures in one, Immanuel. (2) The ancient worshiper (in the person of the high priest) went through the veil to the Holy of Holies; the present-day worship has access through Christ into heaven (Hebrews 10:19). (3) It symbolizes his death on Calvary. As the veil was rent, Christ's body was torn for the sins of the whole world. (4) The tearing also means the removal of obstructions between the worshiper and his God. No longer is there a veil. When some ecclesiastic would seek to put it upon again and hide himself behind it to hear confession or grant absolution, tear it down and trample upon it. God himself removed it. Christ's followers have boldness, freedom, and "access" (Ephesians 2:18; 3:12). (5) The torn veil means that the Old Testament can now be understood in the light of the New. Out of Christ, the Old Testament is a mystery; in him it is gloriously understood (2 Corinthians 3:14-16). Christ is thus the true "key to the Scriptures." Accept no other. (6) The rending meant that Christ has conquered death, the fear of it now, the fact of it ultimately (Isaiah 25:7,8). This figure also makes the veil a symbol of death, which of course it is: The "place" it occupied makes that certain. Squarely between the sanctuary and the Holy of Holies, it corresponds to death which lies between the church and heaven; and all who enter heaven shall pass through the veil of death, or be "changed" which is equivalent to it. Christ rent the veil of death in two ways, (a) by passing through it unharmed, and (b) by destroying it for his children.

Where is death's sting? Where, grave, thy victory? Where all the pain? Now that thy King the veil that hung o'er thee Hath rent in twain? Light of the World, we hear thee bid us come To light and love in thine eternal home![13]

(7) The torn veil abolished the office of the earthly high priest. The line of demarcation between lesser priests and the high priest was removed by God's hand. The office of the high priest on earth was no longer needed, nor is it now. All functions held and performed by earthly high priests, for a season, have now been taken over by the true high priest, Christ (Hebrews 9:11). He is the ONLY mediator (1 Timothy 2:5,6). There can be no use, then, for daily sacrifice, whether of the mass or of anything else. The true sacrifice has already been offered once and for all in heaven. Christ offered himself ONCE (the Greek term [@hapax] means "once" without repetition) (Hebrews 9:23-28; 7:27). All Christians are "priests" (1 Peter 2:9; Revelation 5:10). Since the only true high priest is in heaven, and all God's children are now priests, every human being who moves into a position between one of the Lord's children (priests) and tries to be something of a higher priest to grant absolution or perform other mediatorial functions is merely trying to patch up that old veil. But God has torn it down. Let no man, therefore, hide behind a veil to hear another's confession, to pass sentence, demand penance, make intercession, grant absolution, or to perform any service whatsoever. The veil has been torn in two. Do not let it come back. Take it away forever. Let it come no more between the face of the redeemed and that of the Redeemer. The access assured to the sons of God is not subject to human permission and does not derive from human authority, but is from God. Men are no longer children, hiding in the folds of an old veil. Let them walk in the light!

THE EARTHQUAKE

And the earth did quake; and the rocks were rent. Why was this earthquake a miracle, seeing that earthquakes are ordinary events? First, even the most ordinary of earthquakes would in this case, due to its timing, have been strongly suggestive of the supernatural; but this was far more and utterly different from any ordinary earthquake. The peculiar violence of the quake was sufficient in the vicinity of Calvary to rend the rocks, yet the great buildings of Jerusalem, not more than a mile away, were left undisturbed. Insinuations of skeptics and even some commentators that no earthquake occurred are dissolved in the plain light of the New Testament words that "the earth did quake" (Matthew 27:52) and that the people who witnessed it "feared exceedingly" (Matthew 27:54).

There is a historical occurrence of just this type of earthquake within very recent times, Three-quarters of a mile northeast of the village of Novice, Texas, during the 1950's, a violent earthquake took place in the center of a cornfield at three o'clock in the morning, while the village was asleep. My brother, David E. Coffman, was living there at the time, and I have seen the devastation wrought by that earthquake in which several hundred thousand tons of rocks, some of them ten feet in thickness, were rent and cast up from the earth in a very grotesque geological disturbance covering many acres in the heart of that field. Seismometry teams from a number of universities and colleges examined it and diagnosed it as an earthquake, having a very high epicenter, with the focus only a couple of hundred feet beneath. The strange story of that little earthquake received widespread newspaper coverage throughout the United States, especially in scientific journals; and there are many pictures of it, some of which were made by this writer, and which show the corn rows leading directly into it. Now this is related, not that it is thought to add anything to the Holy Scriptures, but because it dramatically refutes the allegations of some that an earthquake at Calvary would invariably and necessarily have wrecked the temple. As a matter of comparison, none of the houses in Novice was damaged by that violent little earthquake so near to it, although the shock was sufficient to rouse people from their slumbers for many miles in all directions. In the light of this, how unpardonable is the question of Plummer, "We seem to have here a tradition with a legendary element in it."[14] Any traveler to Golgotha needs only to consult his eyes to see that it happened. Alford took note of this, saying, "To this day, Golgotha is a proof of it, where the rocks were rent on account of Christ."[15]

If this extraordinary earthquake was of the type described above, its miraculous element would consist of its extreme rarity and timing; but there is the strongest evidence that it was far more than that. Again from Nicholson:

Now we say that this earthquake was not only supernatural, but non-natural as well that is, miraculous. It was supernatural in that it was an interference of God, and non-natural, in that it was not the result of any of the natural causes of earthquakes, or any combination of them.[16]

Note that the earthquake did not disturb the cross, that it discriminated among the graves of Calvary, opening those of the righteous but not the others; and, from these considerations, one would be hard pressed indeed to explain it as an ordinary earthquake, however timed!

The meaning of the earthquake does not lie solely in the opening of the grave but bears an independent testimony of its own. It was Calvary answering to Sinai. There was a great earthquake at Sinai (Exodus 19:18) when the Law was given; and that Law, so long associated with sin and death (Romans 8:2), was being removed and replaced by the law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus. Appropriately, the earth itself should have borne witness to the event that mercy had triumphed over justice, and grace had superseded law. Also, there was prefigured and symbolized the earth-shaking consequences of Christ's redemptive death and the gospel which would be preached and which was destined to shatter ancient empires and destroy the power of the devil himself (Hebrews 2:14).

[12] William R. Nicholson, op. cit., p. 24.

[13] Mrs. Chant, Hymn No. 137, The Great Songs of the Church (Chicago: Great Songs Press, 1960).

[14] Alfred Plummer, op. cit., p. 402.

[15] Alford, as quoted by J. R. Dummelow, One Volume Commentary (New York: Macmillan Company, 1937), p. 718.

[16] William R. Nicholson, op. cit., p. 32.