Religion column by Seth Dombach: No more separation

A couple of Fridays ago was Good Friday, a day that the Christian Church remembers the death and crucifixion of Jesus Christ and all that that solemn day holds for us.

For the last three years, around seven-10 churches have gathered together to worship and remember this sacred day. This past year the churches involved were Life Covenant, Helena Alliance, Green Meadow Reformed, Buffalo Church, South Hills Baptist, Mount Helena Community, and Headwaters Covenant. Each church participated in the noon worship service.

This year I had the privilege of giving the homily. Below is an excerpt from that homily:

At the center of the Christian story stands a person and an event. The person is Jesus of Nazareth. The event is his death by crucifixion on a Roman cross. In the gospel of John, he tells us that just before Jesus breathed his last, he said, “it is finished” (19:30) What is finished? That’s the question at the heart of it. What is done that never needs to be done again? What is so completed, to which no one ever add anything else? The passage we are looking at this afternoon describes the events of Good Friday.

Good?

Had we been there that day, would we have used the word good? Perhaps violent Friday. Agonizing Friday. Terrifying Friday.

But good?

How can anyone use the word “good” to speak of that day? Let’s let the tax collector turned evangelist tell us about those three hours. Matthew 27:45-54, please read this text before reading further.

There is no more central or pivotal moment in history which is evidenced by five extraordinary events: darkness, the earth shaking, rocks splitting, graves opening up, and the curtain in the temple being torn from top to bottom.

Darkness.

What natural process can account for those three hours of midday darkness? I can’t think of one. It could not have been an eclipse; they don’t last that long. This truly was a God thing, it had to be from him. Throughout scripture darkness is a sign of judgment. Darkness over the land was one the 10 plagues which came over Egypt when Pharaoh would not let God’s people go. Also in scripture darkness is a sign of separation. In Matt 22:13 Jesus speaks of Hell using the metaphor of outer darkness. Paul in Colossians talks about being delivered from the domain of darkness 1:13. The prophet Amos tells that on the great day of the Lord, “I will make the sun go down at noon and make the earth dark in broad daylight. And I will make it like a time of mourning for an only son” (8:9-10). Is not the darkness of that Friday afternoon not only the judgment of God, but the mourning of a one and only son? The one and only son who bears the judgment?

And the earth shook.

Of course, it did! He is the son of God, the Immanuel, God with us. If he sustains the world by his word as Hebrews says in 1:3, shouldn’t the earth tremble when he trembles? Here he is! The Creator suffering and dying. Shouldn’t there be some sort of cosmic vibrations? Shouldn’t creation resonate with its Creator has he undergoes horrific pain?

And the rocks split.

Of course, they would! If the Rock of ages is splitting on the inside, shouldn’t the agony send shock waves throughout the universe? When Jesus came into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday the crowds were praising, shouting “Hosanna.” Then the authorities came and were indignant telling to disciples to stop all this blasphemy. Jesus then responds and says, “If they are silent the rocks will cry out.” On Calvary wouldn’t the rocks be crying out? The stones closest to the cross wailing out as they feel the impact of what the very God that created them is experiencing.

And the tombs broke open.

Without any human action. Corpses came to life. Here we see the victory of the cross. The son of God overcomes death through death. CS Lewis in the “Chronicles of Narnia” calls this the deeper magic. That willingly submitting himself to death, Jesus Christ robs death of its finality. So much so that at the moment he died, death so lost its grip that it could no longer hold its captives.

And the curtain in temple was torn from top to bottom.

Of all the extraordinary phenomena this is the greatest mystery and wonder. Matthew here is talking about the curtain which separates. Separates. This is the curtain which separates the Holy God from unholy sinners. The curtain that separates the rest of the temple from the Holy of Holies. The curtain was there to separate.

Behold says Matthew! Look! The curtain in the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. What did the priests think who were in the temple that day? They were there just outside the holy of holies offering up the sacrificial Passover lamb. The whole scene takes place right in front of that huge curtain. The curtain that separates is 60 feet high, 30 feet wide and nearly 12 inches thick. Torn from top to bottom. Did they immediately bow? Did they run for fear of their lives? Obviously, this was an act of God. No one could rip though something that thick.

What does it all mean?

Brothers and Sisters, it means that the separation between the holy one and sinners is gone!

In that act God is making visible the invisible reality that is happening on the cross. The separation is over. There is no longer any need for the curtain. As the Son of God overcomes death through death, so he removes the judgment of forsakenness by suffering the forsakenness himself. He endured forsakenness so that we would not. At the cross God suffers the abandonment so we never do! The cry from the darkness that shook the earth, split the rocks, opened the graves and tore the huge curtain has become the declaration: it is safe to enter the holy one’s presence. Everything that needs to be done has been done. Forsakenness, alienation, abandonment, all of it is finished.

Come. Just as we are? Really? YES! Shouldn’t we first get our act together? No. Besides, which of us can? Who of us, by even our own best effort can even come close? There is nothing we can do to gain access to the holy place. Ritualism will not do it. Moralism will not do it. Mastering right doctrine will not do it. Adopting the right lifestyle will not do it. Now it’s not that these things don’t matter. They do. It is just that none of them overcomes the separation. None of them opens up the curtain. None of them opens the graves and makes rocks split.

About the 9th hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” And when Jesus cried out again in a loud voice, He gave us his spirit. And look the curtain in the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. Brothers and sisters, the separation is gone. There is no more separation! Everything that needs to be done is done.

And that is why we call it Good Friday.