Separated By Choice...

“It was now about the sixth hour, and darkness came over the whole land until the ninth hour, for the son stopped shining…Jesus called out with a loud voice, ‘Father, into your hands I commit my spirit. When he had said this, he breathed his last.” Luke 23:44-46. “At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.” Matthew 27:51.

For three solid hours Jesus endured the unyielding wrath of God as He punished the past, present and future sins of mankind. Christ endured the darkness so that we can have Light. He was briefly separated from His Father so that we could be eternally connected to the Father. How that brief separation must have seemed like eternity but He endured, he atoned, He sacrificed and He paid the price for us.

At the time Christ died, the curtain had been the means of separating the two main rooms of the Temple. The veil had kept everyone except the high priest out of the Holy room where God dwelt. The priest could only enter one day of the year. The curtain being ripped from top to bottom at the time of the death of Christ symbolized that everyone now has the privilege and authority to approach God through the cost of Christ’s life. Entry into the Holy of Holies was now afforded to every one of us. Matthew is the only one who records ‘from the top to the bottom’. I cannot know if he shared my symbolism, but for me it seems to symbolize that entry into God’s presence is now afforded to the highest position of man to the lowest condition of man - from top to bottom. No matter what our circumstances may be no one or nothing is excluded from God’s presence or forgiveness. The curtain or the veil was torn for all; not for certain chosen ones.

For those who neither recognize God nor His plans for their lives will experience a time ‘when darkness reigns.’ We will not experience the Light of the Son if we choose disobedience even if we know Him as our Savior. We must commit our spirit and our will to God in all circumstances everyday. We must exemplify Christ in all we do.

I am so thankful for commentaries as they expound upon such priceless writings. The commentary states, ‘The loud cry demonstrates that He died in strength, not in weakness. The fact that He yielded up His spirit distinguished His death from all others. We die because we have to; He died because He chose to.' p. 1310.