Therefore, brothers and sisters, since 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,
Hebrews 10:19-20 NIV
Mark 1:9-11 records the baptism of Jesus. And it includes an interesting detail. When Jesus came up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open. The word translated here as “torn open” is used twice in the gospel of Mark. The second time is in Mark 15:38, and this time, the curtain in the temple is torn open when Jesus dies.
Surely this is no coincidence. At Jesus’s baptism, the divide between the earth and God’s realm was torn open. And at his death, the symbolic barrier between God and humanity was torn open. The first of these events would seem to be foreshadowing the second. Jesus’ mission on earth was to destroy the barrier that separated us from God. And he did that on the cross.
And what the torn heaven foreshadowed, and the torn curtain symbolized, Jesus’ death on the cross accomplished. A new and living way through the curtain has been opened for us. The curtain that is the body of Christ. Through Christ, we can enter the Most Holy Place of the heavenly sanctuary, into the very presence of God. And not with the fear that accompanied the high priest going into the earthly sanctuary. But with confidence. So “let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and the full assurance that faith brings” (Heb. 10:22) and “hold unswervingly to the hope we profess” (Heb. 10:23).
