The Veil was Torn in Two
By New Christian Bible Study Staff
When Jesus died on the cross, there was an earthquake. Rocks were split. The centurion and his soldiers who had carried out the crucifixion orders were afraid.
In the heart of the temple, in the "holy of holies", in the very heart of Jerusalem, the sacred veil tore, from top to bottom.
The veil, "rent in twain"...
The veils in the tabernacle and later in the temple were important. They're described in great detail in Exodus and in 1 Kings. In Arcana Coelestia 2576, it says that, "Rational truths are a kind of veil or clothing to spiritual truths.... The veil represented the nearest and inmost appearances of rational good and truth....
And now, as Jesus dies on the cross, the veil tears. What does this mean?
Here's how Swedenborg describes the symbolism of this:
"...that once all appearances had been dispelled, the Lord entered into the Divine Itself, and at the same time He opened a means of access to the Divine Itself through His Human that had been made Divine." (Arcana Coelestia 2576)
Think about four watershed spiritual events:
1) The creation of the physical universe. (Current best guess: 13.8 billion years ago). Genesis 1:1-10
2) The beginning of life. (On earth, between 3.5 and 4.5 billion years ago.) Genesis 1:11-25
3) The beginning of spiritually conscious human beings. (Reasonable guess: 100,000 years ago). Genesis 1:26-31
4) The incarnation and resurrection of the Lord God Jesus Christ (2000 years ago).
God's love and wisdom have been flowing into the universe for a long time. Where you might expect entropy, instead we see a universe that seems to favor life and intelligence. Think what a fulfilling moment it must have been when God could tell that human minds were now responding to Him, after all that outpouring.
But the free response-ability has tragedy baked in, because we can also choose not to respond, and to go the opposite way.
As we humans grew more "sophisticated", God used new channels to reach us, notably prophets and spiritual leaders, and later the written word. And in those channels, from the earliest times, there are already prophecies that the Lord would one day come into the world in human form.
Why did He need to do that? He must have foreseen that people would need to have that human level of connection, in order for enough good and truth to exist for us to make the decisions that open us to salvation.
Let's go back to Swedenborg's description:
"... once all appearances had been dispelled the Lord entered into the Divine Itself..."
Throughout the Lord's life on earth, there was the appearance that he was a man, like us. He had a human body. He could be tired and hungry. He could be tempted (though unlike us, he always won). In his spiritual life, there were times when he felt keenly the appearance of his human separate from his Divine essence. At other times, that appearance thinned, and he felt his divinity more powerfully. As he grew up, and was baptized, and began his ministry, he must have been growing more and more fully aware of what was going on inside him -- the glorification of the human part of him. With the death of his body on the cross, the bodily human-ness was no longer in the way. That appearance was dispelled. A new connection was fully forged between the Divine and the human.
And then, there's the second part of Swedenborg's statement:
"at the same time He opened a means of access to the Divine Itself through His Human that had been made Divine."
The veil was torn. The old religion, which had placed ritual above real good, and where God was invisible, separated from human knowledge by a veil -- was torn. New light could reach people, through the new teachings of the Lord. We could respond to a God who, in His Divine Human, we now could understand and approach and love more deeply.
Matthew 23
1
Then Jesus spoke to the multitudes and to his disciples,
2
saying, "The scribes and the Pharisees sat on Moses' seat.
3
All things therefore whatever they tell you to observe, observe and do, but don't do their works; for they say, and don't do.
4
For they bind heavy burdens that are grievous to be borne, and lay them on men's shoulders; but they themselves will not lift a finger to help them.
5
But all their works they do to be seen by men. They make their phylacteries broad, enlarge the fringes of their garments,
6
and love the place of honor at feasts, the best seats in the synagogues,
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the salutations in the marketplaces, and to be called 'Rabbi, Rabbi' by men.
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But don't you be called 'Rabbi,' for one is your teacher, the Christ, and all of you are brothers.
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Call no man on the earth your father, for one is your Father, he who is in heaven.
10
Neither be called masters, for one is your master, the Christ.
11
But he who is greatest among you will be your servant.
12
Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.
13
"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you devour widows' houses, and as a pretense you make long prayers. Therefore you will receive greater condemnation.
14
"But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you shut up the Kingdom of Heaven against men; for you don't enter in yourselves, neither do you allow those who are entering in to enter.
15
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel around by sea and land to make one proselyte; and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much of a son of Gehenna as yourselves.
16
"Woe to you, you blind guides, who say, 'Whoever swears by the temple, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gold of the temple, he is obligated.'
17
You blind fools! For which is greater, the gold, or the temple that sanctifies the gold?
18
'Whoever swears by the altar, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gift that is on it, he is obligated?'
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You blind fools! For which is greater, the gift, or the altar that sanctifies the gift?
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He therefore who swears by the altar, swears by it, and by everything on it.
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He who swears by the temple, swears by it, and by him who was living in it.
22
He who swears by heaven, swears by the throne of God, and by him who sits on it.
23
"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint, dill, and cumin, and have left undone the weightier matters of the law: justice, mercy, and faith. But you ought to have done these, and not to have left the other undone.
24
You blind guides, who strain out a gnat, and swallow a camel!
25
"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and unrighteousness.
26
You blind Pharisee, first clean the inside of the cup and of the platter, that its outside may become clean also.
27
"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitened tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but inwardly are full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness.
28
Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.
29
"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets, and decorate the tombs of the righteous,
30
and say, 'If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we wouldn't have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.'
31
Therefore you testify to yourselves that you are children of those who killed the prophets.
32
Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers.
33
You serpents, you offspring of vipers, how will you escape the judgment of Gehenna?
34
Therefore, behold, I send to you prophets, wise men, and scribes. Some of them you will kill and crucify; and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues, and persecute from city to city;
35
that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zachariah son of Barachiah, whom you killed between the sanctuary and the altar.
36
Most certainly I tell you, all these things will come upon this generation.
37
"Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets, and stones those who are sent to her! How often I would have gathered your children together, even as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you would not!
38
Behold, your house is left to you desolate.
39
For I tell you, you will not see me from now on, until you say, 'Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!'"
