The Pulpit Commentary — Matthew — Volume 2 — Section 607

Vers. 51-56.-Witness to the Lord's Divinity. I. THE WITNESS OF PORTENTS. 1. The 'rending ef the temple veil. " Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us." It may be that Christ, the Lamb of God, yielded up the ghost on the day and at the hour when they killed the Passover. It was the hour of evening prayer. The priests as they entered into the holy place found the great veil, which hid the holy of holies from the eye of man, rent in twain from the top to the bottom. This had happened at the moment of the Lord's death; it was closely associated with that tremendous event. St. Matthew and St. Mark mention the Lord's death first, St. Luke puts first the rending of the veil; the two events were so very closely connected in time and meaning. The evangelists felt the deep spiritual significance of the rending of the veil; so doubtless did that great company of priests, who after- words became obedient to the faith. It was a supernatural event, not the result of the carthqna.ke or of any ordinary cause. It had a deep and blessed meaning. The holy of holies was the one spot in all the earth where God had been wont to manifest his immediate presence in a special manner. That manifestation had been surrounded with circumstances of awe. The sacred place where the Most High had dwelt between the cherubim was hidden from men by the great heavy veil, shrouded in awful darkness. Only on one day in the year might that veil be lifted ; only one mortal being might dare to enter, and that with solemn rites of propitiation, with great fear and trembling. But now the veil was rent; it was rent at the moment of the Saviour's death: and evidently by the Divine interposition. The solemn ritual of the great Day of Atonement was fulfilled in the one Sacrifice now offered upon the cross. Suoh rites were no longer needed. God himself opens the way into the most holy place. His people may draw near, very near, into his immediate preaence. All may come, not the high priest only, but all faithful Christians; for he who washed us from our sins in his own blood hath made us priests unto God and his Father, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, &eeeptable unto God through him. But the rent veil figured also the pierced body of tbe Saviour; for thus saith the Scripture, "Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which he bath consecrated for us, though the veil, that is to say, his flesh, . . . let us draw near with a true heart" (Heb. x. 19-22). The Diviae Word dwelt(" taber- nacled," JohD i 14) in the body of Christ. Now that tabernacle was rent. While he was in the flesh, that veil of mortal flesh hung, like the temple veil, between him and the true holy of holies. When it was rent, the way into the holiest was made manifest, and the Lord in his glorified humanity, "by his own blood entered in once into the holy place," that is, "into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us." Thero he is making intercession for us! ~nd in the power of that_ prevailing ~ter- cession we may draw near to God. The veil 1s rent. There was a veil over all nations (Isa. x:xv. 7, 8); it was destrc,yed when death was swallowed up in victory. There is neither Greek nor Jew, barbarian nor Scythian, but Christ is all, aud in alL The veil is rent. There was a veil upon the hearts of men, that veil is done away in Christ. They that are his, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, a1 e changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the OD, xxvn. 1-66.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MATTHEW. 613