The Cries that Tore the Curtain

I have asked Kathleen to do the blog for today as, for a good number of years now, she has taken the Easter Sunday morning service in Falkirk for those who can't manage to join the main Conference service in Greenock. I'm sure you will be blessed and fed as you read what she has posted.
​
With love from Jennifer

Verses to think about: Matthew 27:45 / John 19:30 / Hebrews 10:19-22           

​“He is dying, and He is taking the light with Him”.

These unforgettable words from Dorothy L. Sayers’ play ‘The Man Born to be King’ paint on a desolate canvas the Light of the World being swallowed up in the darkness of the Divine judgement of sin. On the cross of Jesus, the wrath of God unrelentingly poured down on the sinless One in whom He delighted.

“For God made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, so that we could be made right with God”. (2 Corinthians 5:21)

As the One who was The Light was dying, the midday sun at its zenith was shrouded over in the ensuing darkness. A strange unease and disquiet surely rose up amongst the watchers who had gathered to witness the death of ‘The King of the Jews’. Then suddenly, that first loud, piercing cry from out of the darkness, saying “My God, My God why have You forsaken Me​".

The agony of separation from The Father.  The unspeakable pain of the absence of God.

How great the pain of searing loss
The Father turns His face away
as wounds which mar The Chosen One
bring many sons to glory.

But now the atonement completed, for the joy that was set before Him having endured the cross, the Lord Jesus gathered all His strength and uttered His victory cry: these immortal words, “It is finished!" (John 10:18) “No-one takes my life from me, I lay it down by myself.”

Lifted up was He to die,
“IT IS FINISHED!” was His cry;
Now in heaven exalted high;
Hallelujah! what a Saviour!

​Evidence of the acceptance of God in the price Jesus paid for our sin came as light returned and the Holy of Holies was revealed. The cries from the cross effecting that which with man was not possible — a new and living way opened up by the tearing of the curtain from top to bottom.
 
Josephus, the early Jewish historian, writes that the curtain was 30 ft wide, 30 ft high, as thick as a man’s hand, and that horses pulling against each other could not tear it apart. Yet the curtain was torn. God Himself removed the barriers by providing a spotless sacrificial Lamb. 

​“And all this is a gift from God, who brought us back to Himself through Christ... for God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself.”
(2 Corinthians 5:18)

No more veil! God bids me enter. The old covenant no longer necessary. The torn curtain now reveals the ever and only one meeting place with God - that is the cross. The day of grace has come. 

Please click on this link to listen to Crown Him with Many Crowns, sung by Robin Mark.

Kathleen