Saturday: “The Veil”
I dream of you, O Lord
In the sweetness of summer days, I long for the shadows.
In the cool of the winter nights, I ache for the sun.
But even as the lengthening shadows
announce the arrival of ever more light
I wait for your faithfulness to be proved again.
Excerpt from “Symphony of Hope” by Julius Shumpert (2023)
Scripture Reading
“It was now about noon, and darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon, for the sun stopped shining. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two. 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)
Take With You
The Cross is the intersection of all time and space. Everything answers and flows through the cross. That dark day, Jesus was the center of a series of colliding opposites.
Just look at the symbol of the cross. It is quite literally an intersection; a collision point.
Jesus is crowned king and dressed in royal robes, but it was as a mockery before the crowds.
He meets with governors and kings, but he is on trial.
Jesus is lifted up, but on a cross; suspended between Heaven and Earth. He is on the middle cross, between one repentant criminal and one un repentant one.
He is both truly God and truly man.
He has a male body, but on the cross gives birth to the Church. That is why John mentions blood and water from his side wound and the gathered women who stand in symbolically as midwives.
Jesus is resurrection and light, but he is entering in to death and darkness.
His cries sound like defeat; but they echo a Psalm of vindication and victory. He is the victorious Lion of Judah, dying as a sacrificial Lamb.
Jesus appears as the ultimate victim of injustice, but he refuses to act like one.
Then, at the moment of his death, the veil in the Temple that separated humanity and the presence of God is torn. The rupture of Calvary’s cross split the very obstacle blocking us from access to the Father. Colossians 1:20 says it this way: “…through him to reconcile to himself all things…by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.” Peace came through the violent act of Jesus offering himself up to our depravity. Our failure to see God was used as God’s way of displaying how much he sees us.
