He was crucified, dead and buried . . . . 

     We’ve already established that Jesus was qualified to be a spotless lamb – worthy of sacrifice on our behalf. And we’ve also established why His sacrifice was necessary. But why is it so important to understand the death and burial of Jesus?

     This issue seems to be non-essential, but it’s far from that. Jesus died on the cross. It was necessary for innocent blood to be shed to cover our sin once and for all. It was the blood on the mercy seat that cleansed us in the old testament, and the blood of Jesus that cleansed/cleanses us in the new. Jesus had to not only shed his blood, but He had to die.

      Even before Jesus was nailed to the cross His blood had been shed. He had been beaten to within an inch of His life. It’s no wonder that He was unable to carry His cross all the way to the hill – He had lost an immense amount of blood already, his muscles had been ground to pulp and He had not had a chance to rest in hours.

     But when He died . . . oh the power that was unleashed upon the earth. Matt. 27:50-51 says:

          And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit. Then, behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth quaked, and the rocks were split.

     Jesus yielded up His spirit (that is, He gave up holding on to His life and died), and the veil was torn in two from top to bottom. This was the greatest thing of all. In order to understand what this means we must understand how the temple was made.

     When the Israelites were delivered from Egypt and went into the desert, God instructed Moses on how to make the tabernacle. It was precise in all ways. Later, Solomon constructed the temple of the Lord in the same manner that the “portable” tabernacle in the wilderness was made. It was simply much larger. 

     The tabernacle had three “courts”, or sections to it. The first was the outer court, where all the people could come in and out at any time. This was where they brought their sacrifices to the priests to offer up before God. It was also in the open. It had walls around it, but was open on the top and allowed natural light to illuminate it. The second was the inner court, or “holy place”.  Here only the priests could go. This was a smaller area that was fully enclosed. Here there were lamps with candles that had to stay lit 24 hours per day to illuminate the room.

     The third court was called the Holy of Holies. This is the place that the ark of the covenant stayed, and where the glory of God would reside. Only the high priest could enter this room, and only one day per year on the day of atonement.

     There was a veil that separated the holy place from the holy of holies – where the actual presence of God resided. This veil that was in Jerusalem had a veil separating the holy place from the holy of holies that history says was 60 feet tall, 30 feet wide and 4 inches thick. Imagine a hand-woven veil of such proportions! Yet this veil was ripped apart from top to bottom. This was an act that came from above.

     This shows us that the death of Jesus tore the veil of separation away – giving free access to the actual presence of God. For the first time since the fall of Adam and Eve, man had access to God!

     This happened at the time of Jesus’ death. His demise opened up the door for all mankind to have access again to the holy of holies – to the very presence of God, Himself. This is why His death was so vital.