Bible Story · Matthew 27:45–54
The Curtain Is Torn
The Story
The darkness has lasted three hours. At three in the afternoon, the darkness breaks with a cry. Jesus calls out in a loud voice: "Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?" — "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" Some bystanders think he is calling for Elijah. They wait to see if Elijah will come and take him down. Jesus cries out again in a loud voice and gives up his spirit. At that moment, the curtain of the temple is torn in two from top to bottom. This curtain was no ordinary piece of fabric. It was sixty feet tall, thirty feet wide, and four inches thick — woven of blue, purple, and scarlet thread. It hung at the entrance to the Holy of Holies, the innermost chamber of the temple where the presence of God was said to dwell. Only the high priest could enter, only once a year, only with blood, only after elaborate ritual purification. Ordinary people — and all Gentiles, all women, all who were ceremonially unclean — could not approach. The tearing is from top to bottom. Not from the bottom up, as if a human hand reached up and pulled. From the top, as if the hand that tore it came from the other side. At the same moment: the earth shakes. Rocks split. Tombs break open. Many holy people who had died are raised to life and appear in the city. The centurion watching these things is terrified. He was a professional soldier, desensitized to execution. But he sees what is happening and says: "Surely he was the Son of God." A Gentile soldier at the foot of the cross becomes the first person to confess Jesus as Son of God after his death. He had no church, no catechism, no theology — only the evidence of what he had just witnessed. The curtain is open. The way into God's presence is no longer barred. There is no temple curtain between God and anyone who comes to him through Christ — no ritual, no status, no heritage required. The torn curtain is the physical sign of a spiritual reality: the barrier is down.
Background
The Jewish temple in Jerusalem was structured in concentric zones of increasing holiness: the outer court (accessible to Gentiles), the court of women, the court of Israel (Jewish men), the court of priests, the Holy Place, and finally the Holy of Holies, where the Ark of the Covenant once stood. The curtain (Hebrew: paroket) that separated the Holy Place from the Holy of Holies was an impenetrable boundary — to enter without authorization was to risk death (Leviticus 16:2). The Mishnah (Shekalim 8:5) describes the veil as enormously thick, consistent with Matthew's description.
Truth
The tearing of the curtain is one of the most theologically loaded events in the New Testament. Hebrews 10:19–20 interprets it directly: "We have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body." The curtain did not need to be repaired — because the Holy of Holies it protected had been superseded. The true sanctuary is now Christ himself, and access is open to all who come to God through him.
Application
The curtain is gone. There is no intermediary you need, no ritual to perform, no threshold to cross to reach God in prayer. Do you actually pray as if this is true? What would change in your prayer life if you fully believed that God's presence is not something you must earn your way into, but something Christ has opened freely?