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.

625. Upon peoples, and nations, and tongues, and many kings, signifies with all who are in truths and goods in respect to life, and at the same time in goods and truths in respect to doctrine according to each one's religion, consequently to teach the Word in respect to the goods of life and the truths of doctrine. This is evident from the signification of "peoples and nations," as being those who are of the spiritual church and those who are of the celestial church; those who are of the spiritual church are called in the Word "peoples," but those who are of the celestial church are called "nations." Those who are of the spiritual church, who are called "peoples," are they who are in truths in respect to doctrine and life; and they who are of the celestial church, who are called "nations," are they who are in the good of love to the Lord, and thus in good in respect to life. (But on this signification of "peoples and nations" in the Word, see above, n. 175, 331.) Also from the signification of "tongues and many kings," as being those who are in goods and truths in respect to life and doctrine, but according to each one's religion; for "tongues" signify the goods of truth and confession of these according to each one's religion (See above, n. 330, 455); and "kings" signify truths that are from good, and "many kings" various truths from good, but according to each one's religion. (That "kings" signify truths from good, see above, n. 31, 553)

[2] "Many kings" signify various truths that are from good, because the peoples and nations outside of the church were for the most part in falsities as to doctrine, and yet because they lived a life of love to God and of charity towards the neighbor the falsities of their religion were accepted by the Lord as truths, for the reason that there was inwardly in their falsities the good of love, and the good of love gives its quality to every truth, and in this case it gives its quality to the falsity that such accept as truth; and moreover, the good that lies concealed within causes such when they come into the other life to perceive genuine truths and accept them. Again there are truths that are only appearances of truth, like those truths that are in the sense of the letter of the Word; these appearances of truth are accepted by the Lord as genuine truths when there is in them the good of love to the Lord and the good of charity towards the neighbor; and with such in the other life the good that lies hidden within dissipates the appearances, and makes bare the spiritual truths which are genuine truths. From this it can be seen what is here meant by "many kings." (But respecting the falsities in which there is good that exist among the Gentiles, see in The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem 21.)

[3] From what has been said and shown in this and the preceding article, it can be seen that "he must again prophesy upon peoples, and nations, and tongues, and many kings" signifies that the Word must still be taught to those who are in goods and truths in respect to doctrine, and thence are in life; but as it is said "upon peoples, nations, tongues, and kings," these words signify also that the Word must be taught in respect to the goods of life and the truths of doctrine, for these two are what the Word in its whole complex contains.

[4] This is the sense of these words abstracted from persons, which is the truly spiritual sense. The sense of the letter in most places has regard to persons, and mentions persons, but the truly spiritual sense is without any regard whatever to persons. For angels who are in the spiritual sense of the Word have no idea of person or of place in any particular of what they think or speak, for the idea of person or of place limits and confines the thoughts, and thereby renders them natural; it is otherwise when the idea is abstracted from persons and places. It is from this that angels have intelligence and wisdom, and that thence angelic intelligence and wisdom are ineffable. While man lives in the world he is in natural thought, and natural thought derives its ideas from persons, places, times, and material things, and if these should be taken away from man, his thought which comes to perception would perish, for without these he comprehends nothing; but angelic thought is apart from ideas drawn from persons, places, times, and material things; and this is why angelic thought and speech are ineffable, and to man also incomprehensible.

[5] And yet a man who has lived in the world a life of love to the Lord and of charity towards the neighbor comes, after his departure from the world, into that ineffable intelligence and wisdom; for his interior mind, which is the very mind of his spirit, is then opened, and then the man, when he becomes an angel, thinks and speaks from that mind, and consequently thinks and speaks such things as he could not utter or comprehend in the world. Such a spiritual mind, which is like the angelic mind, every man has; but because man while in the world speaks, sees, hears, and feels, by means of a material body, that mind lies hidden within the natural mind, or lives above it; and what man thinks in that mind he is wholly ignorant of; for the thought of that mind then flows into the natural mind, and there limits, bounds, and so presents itself as to be seen and perceived. So long as man is in the body in the world, he does not know that he has within him this mind, and in it possesses angelic intelligence and wisdom, because, as has been said, all things that abide there flow into the natural mind, and thus become natural according to correspondences. This has been said to make known what the Word is in the spiritual sense, which sense is wholly abstracted from persons and places, that is, from such things as derive their quality from the material things of the body and the world.