"Jesus let out a loud cry and breathed his last.
Then the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom."
Mark 15:37–38
It was the day of all days, the day that would become like night. Darkness over the land until around three in the afternoon. Insults, beatings, and chaotic hatred spilled out from the crowd. And this man, this Jesus, was hanging on a cross between two criminals, condemned to the most painful, gut-wrenching, suffocating death that mankind had ever come up with. This was the first day of the rest of eternity for the world.
It was on this day that all changed. Atonement was made, covenant instituted, blood spilled. The One who should receive the sacrifices became the sacrificed, the Lion became the Lamb who took away the sins of the world. He made a way when there was no way, the only way to the Father—Jesus, the Son of God, Prophet, Priest, and King.
Jesus cried out and breathed His last. After His cry came the splitting of the curtain in the temple, the ripping from top to bottom as the old became new to all who would believe. The rending of the curtain made it clear: no longer would there need to be a sacrifice in the holy of holies because Jesus did it once for all. Even the Roman centurion, a witness to so many similar deaths, proclaimed the truth of this man: "Truly this man was the Son of God!" (Mark 15:39) Yet so many, so often, choose to reject this God-man, Jesus, just as was done on that fateful day.
Good Friday, the day Jesus was crucified, was a somber day, not a day you would think would be "good." Yet it was indeed a good day, the day on which God made a way for all to come to Him who will believe in His Son. As you meditate on Jesus' sacrifice, remember and treasure the grace that He freely offered out of His love for you.
