The Death Of Jesus (Day 67)

Read Mark 15:33-41
 
   Jesus did not ask this question in surprise or despair. He was quoting Psalm 22. The whole Psalm is a prophecy expressing the deep agony of the Messiah’s death for the world’s sin. Jesus knew that He would be temporarily separated from God the moment he took upon Himself the sins of the world. This separation was what He had dreaded as he prayed in Gethsemane. The physical agony was horrible, but the spiritual alienation from God was the ultimate torture. 
   Jesus’ loud cry may have been His last words, “It is finished” (John 19). A heavy curtain hung in front of the Temple room called the Most Holy Place, a place reserved by God for Himself. Symbolically, the curtain separated the holy God from the sinful people. The room was entered only once a year, on the Day of Atonement, but the high priest as he made a sacrifice for the sins of all the people. When Jesus died, the curtain was torn in two, showing that His death for our sins had opened up the way for us to approach our holy God. And it was torn from top to bottom, showing that God had opened the way (Hebrews 9) on this day of atonement.