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gmark - Re: [GMark] Mark 15:37-39/ The Torn Veil

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Subject: Kata Markon

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  • From: "Monnie Sears" <msears AT amce.com>
  • To: "Kata Markon" <gmark AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [GMark] Mark 15:37-39/ The Torn Veil
  • Date: Fri, 25 Jan 2008 13:51:11 -0600

This is typical of what I teach on the rent veil:

THE VEIL OF THE TEMPLE WAS RENT



37And Jesus cried with a loud voice, and gave up the ghost. 38And the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom. Mark 15:37-38



Comparing this passage to the parallel passage in John 19:30 indicates that the words Jesus cried out with a loud voice were (if indeed it can be determined what these words were) "IT IS FINISHED". The sun had been supernaturally darkened for three hours and at the end of those three hours Jesus had cried with a loud voice, "MY GOD, MY GOD, WHY HAST THOU FORSAKEN ME?" Then he said, "I thirst", and they gave him a sponge full of vinegar to drink. At that point Jesus cried "again" (Matthew 27:50) in our text at Mark 15:37.



The oldest sermon I can find concerning this passage of scripture is the one penned by the great apostle Paul in the ninth and tenth chapters of his letter to the Hebrews.



9:2For there was a tabernacle made; the first, wherein was the candlestick, and the table, and the showbread; which is called the sanctuary. 3And after the second veil, the tabernacle which is called the Holiest of all (the Holy of Holies) . . . 6Now when these things were thus ordained, the priests went always into the first tabernacle, accomplishing the service of God. 7But into the second went the high priest alone once every year, not without blood, which he offered for himself, and for the errors of the people. 8The Holy Ghost this signifying, that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest, while as the first tabernacle was yet standing: 9Which was a figure . . . 11But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building; 12Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place (the Holy of Holies), having obtained eternal redemption for us . . . 24For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us . . . 10:19Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, 20By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh . . .



The veil blocked the entrance to the Holy of Holies. Men could not enter in to the presence of God. A "way in" was going to be made manifest, but not while the figure (the type, the copy, the imitation) was still in place. The Holy of Holies was the place that a mediator, the high priest, met with God on behalf of the people, and then only once every year. Jesus entered into the Holy of Holies (not the copy, but the real one in heaven) and was seated in the presence of God. There is now no need for the figure: God would no longer appear in the earthly copy of the Holy of Holies to meet with a temporal representation of the true High Priest because God and the High Priest are now in constant communion. The true High Priest, Jesus, now dwells with the Father to make intercession for us. Because of this we can now have boldness to enter into the Holy of Holies (the true one in the spirit realm) if we are washed by His blood. We then see that the veil was a figure of Jesus' flesh, which was rent for us.



Once Jesus' redemptive work on the cross was finished, the veil was torn in two: Firstly, to remain a true figure of the rent body of our Lord, Secondly, to remove the figure that the true veil have preeminence and Thirdly, to indicate that the entrance to the Holy of Holies is no longer blocked. Men may now have entrance, by the blood of Jesus, into the presence of the Father.





Monnie Sears, LS
Survey Department Manager
Allgeier, Martin & Associates
P.O. Box 2627
Joplin, Missouri 64803

417-624-5703
417-624-7558 Fax

www.amce.com

----- Original Message ----- From: <fguyette AT erskine.edu>
To: "Kata Markon" <gmark AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Friday, January 18, 2008 8:29 AM
Subject: [GMark] Mark 15:37-39/ The Torn Veil


I have been asked to work up a review of sermons preached on Mark 15:37-39,
"Then Jesus gave a loud cry... and the curtain of the Temple was torn in
two.."

1. I would be interested in hearing about "good" sermons that have been
preached on this passage, from the first century to today.

2. But more fundamentally, do GMARK scholars have anything to say about
what the "torn veil" means, or what a sermon based on this passage SHOULD
look like?

Thank You,
Fred Guyette
Erskine College and Seminary
Due West, SC





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