The veil of the temple was rent in twain

Three men died that day at Golgotha. For one man with shattered legs and tortured frame, death was a welcome release as his soul entered the promised Paradise. For his erstwhile companion in crime, though death ended the agonies of crucifixion, it also secured against him the door of hope as he entered the darkness of hell!

The death of the Man on the centre cross was accompanied by strange and remarkable events. For three hours an unnatural darkness enveloped the land. No human eye would penetrate that mid-day night as His soul was made ‘an offering for sin’. From that darkness a cry was heard which has reverberated through time, as the scapegoat, laden and bowed beneath a load of iniquity, entered a land not inhabited. Maybe with a touch of human sympathy, one by the cross placed a sponge filled with vinegar to His lips, little realizing that his actions had been well documented a thousand years before, Ps. 69. 21. The living word continued to exert its force on the actions of men.

The darkness receded, a loud voice proclaimed that the suffering was ended, but still the life must be given. Not taken by the soldiers of Rome, or by the scheming of the Jews, but at the appointed moment, fully knowing there was ‘a time to die’, He exercised the divine prerogative and dismissed His spirit.

Some hours before, the high priest had rent his garments. Now the veil of the temple was rent from above. The earth shook and the rocks rent, fracturing the tombs of sleeping saints - significant events which announced the fulfilment and end of Levitical ritual and priesthood. The law also, engraved in rock, would no longer proclaim ‘This do and thou shalt live’; it was now not ‘do’, but ‘believe’. Three days later, reliable witnesses testified that some who were known to have died were seen walking in Jerusalem; the effects of Golgotha were astounding! The rich man came at the appointed time as foretold by Isaiah, Isa. 53. 9, and laid the precious body ‘in his own new tomb’. Not content with His death and burial, the chief priests then determined to prevent any suggestion of resurrection - how futile!

‘Vain the stone, the watch, the seal’, C. WESLEY