Demolishing Barriers, Crossing Divides
Deep Thought
Easter has come and gone for another year. It’s a wonderful time to celebrate the heart of our faith—the death and resurrection of Jesus and the hope that comes with it.
Now that Easter is over, it’s valid to ask, “so what?”
Sure, it’s a reassurance that death is not the end of it all, but what difference does it make to your life today, tomorrow or next week?
At Hobart Baptist Church, on Resurrection Sunday, I focussed on the event recorded in Matthew, where the Temple curtain is violently torn, from top to bottom. This happened the moment Jesus died.
The curtain was a massive fabric barrier made of purple, blue, and scarlet material, interwoven with fine linen. It was about 18 metres high and 100cm thick. Its presence was to set a boundary between the Holy of Holies, the most sacred space where God was present and humans were not, from the rest of the Temple.
Although God put this barrier in place in the design of the tabernacle, now God sets about destroying it. That’s the significance of it being torn from the top.
A Holy Place
The Jews thought they understood holiness, and the temple was central. Jesus, however, had a very different vision and that’s what got him killed. He was Immanuel, God with us, crossing that barrier that divides. Sure, God is holy, righteous and pure, just as the curtain illustrated, but not in a way that makes God distant and hateful of whatever is unholy. God is love, pure unadulterated love.
But that’s not all. The gospel writers record a second important event. At exactly the same time Jesus died and the curtain was ripped, the Centurion executing Jesus had a profound “ah-ha” moment.
As high-ranking officer in the Roman army, he had most likely witnessed hundreds of crucifixions. Yet, this one was somehow different, and he was deeply moved.
This is profound. Not only because he responded, “Surely this man was the Son of God” (Mark 15:39), but because God met him in a most unholy place. Here, in a pagan setting outside the temple and the city while executing God’s specially chosen Messiah, God is still at work, demolishing the barriers, crossing the divides.
This changes everything and should change our tomorrows. The God who is there, who Jesus revealed through his death and resurrection, is most surprising. Contrary to our expectations… if God can meet the centurion while he supervised the crucifixion of the beloved son, God can meet you anywhere. Your ordinary life, no matter where it is at, is no barrier to God meeting you, if you are willing to meet God.
This is a “so what” worth celebrating every day.
Stephen L. Baxter is Mission Director for Tasmanian Baptists
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