From Top To Bottom

The previous post really got me thinking about the 'best of' Biblical verses. Today I have a submission for “The Most Overlooked Passage.” It is Matthew 27:51a:

“And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom.”

This verse appears at the moment in the Gospel narrative when Jesus died on the cross. The “temple” was the place of sacrifice and worship for the people of Israel under the Old Covenant. Access to the most holy place within the temple was restricted to the High Priest, and he could only enter once a year, and only with blood. A curtain separated the holiest place from the rest of the temple.

So what makes this little verse in Matthew 27 so important? Here is what Maurice Roberts writes in The Happiness of Heaven:

“When the atoning work of our Savior was complete, Matthew says, the ‘veil of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom.’ That incident was neither natural nor accidental. God was the only agent in the rending (tearing) of the veil, for it was not torn from the bottom, which human agents could do, but from the top, which only God could do. By the rending of the veil, God indicated that the ‘way into the holiest of all’ was no longer closed but open due to the complete, perfect sacrifice of Christ. This torn veil meant that believers now had access to God in prayer. But it means more than that. The ‘holiest of all’ in the Old Testament tabernacle was a a symbol of heaven, where the shekinah glory of God was visible. In this symbolic manner, Almighty God taught us that the way back to heaven for sinners has been accomplished through the death of Jesus Christ.”

Amazing. All that from the few words “...from top to bottom.”