23rd June 2010

Mark 15:33-42 – The Death of Jesus

• So many interesting things in this passage but I am hit today by one particular facet.
• The Curtain had separated the ‘Holy Place’ from the ‘Holy of Holies’ and only the high priest could pass through the curtain into the ‘Holy of Holies’ and only once a year.
• The parokhet [curtain – name describing this curtain in the dessert tabernacle] was torn from top to bottom and ripped in two when Jesus died on the cross.
• This of course symbolized the fact that God through Jesus was giving everyone access to Him. Jesus had become the atonement for the sins of Israel no longer would it be the blood of sacrificial animals.
• And here is an interesting bit of background…
• The Talmud is the collection of Jewish teachings including the Mishnah [oral laws] and the Gemara. It is not a Bible text but gives some historic information from that time from a Jewish source;
• Once a year [on Yom-Kippur] the High Priest would tie a piece of scarlet cloth between the horns of the sacrificial goat. If it later turned white they took it that Israel’s sins had been forgiven [they took this from Isaiah 1:18]. If it did not turn white – then they saw it as God had not forgiven them.
• Look at what the historical records of the Jews say…
• "Our Rabbis taught that throughout the forty years that Shim'on the Tzaddik served,... the scarlet cloth would become white. From then on it would sometimes become white and sometimes not.... Throughout the last forty years before the Temple was destroyed... the scarlet cloth never turned white." (Yoma 39a-39b)
• What does that mean?
• That immediately after Jesus dying on the cross for the sins of the world and the curtain being torn in two – the sacrificial goat never worked anymore!
• In the days of Shim’on HaTzaddik the atonement was effective.
• Later it was a bit hit and miss due to Israel’s spiritual decline
• After the death of Jesus it never worked because Jesus was the final sacrifice!
• Here is what I need to pray about today;
• The Jews have all this on record and yet many choose not to believe in Jesus.
• He does not fit what many of them see when they think of the Messiah; and so they ignore the facts before them and their experiences at the time.
• I will miss Jesus in my life if I ignore the facts and my experiences of God and choose not to believe.
• Belief is a choice.
• What has God shown me that I am choosing not to believe?