The Torn Curtain

If you’ve ever stood before a locked door that you desperately needed to get through, one for which you cannot find the key, you know the feeling: the frustration of being kept from what’s on the other side. It is easy is such situations to be helpless, frustrated, and to feel powerless. This is the condition of us human beings before God. We are barred from Paradise. We cannot open the door; we are unable to enter the presence of God. The way is locked, and we do not have the key. This is the reality of what sin does to us. Worst of all, our sinful selves enjoy that the way is barred, even going so far as to delight in our sins and to justify and rationalize them.

Suffice it to say, the door is locked and there is no way for us to God. And if we are honest, we must admit that the locking of this proverbial door is entirely our fault. We are guilty, both by nature and deed. And, as such, we deserve nothing good, only guilt, shame, and punishment.
And no matter how hard we try, we cannot force that door open. No few people have tried. We human beings have tried being good, rather, good enough. We have tried meditation and religious rites concocted to appease God. We have tried moral perfection and cultivated charity. None of these have cracked the door even a sixteenth of an inch.

But today, the pen of the holy Evangelist Mark brings us to the moment when the door is opened. At the death of Jesus, something extraordinary happened: “The curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom.” With that miraculous act, God declared: “The way to Me is now open!” Christ’s death brings us access to His Father, not by way of punishment or wrath, but by grace, salvation, and everlasting blessing.

To hear the rest, listen to this sermon from St. John's Lutheran Church of Oakes, ND!