Mark's gospel ripped apart

I’ve been doing some work on Mark chapter 1, and what I’ve found is really exciting!

Mark records in 1:10 that Jesus saw “the heavens opening” as he came out of the water. That is a bland translation. The word for “open” is the word for “rip”. It is used of ripped clothing in Jesus’ parable in Luke 5, and of the decision not to tear Jesus’ clothes at the crucifixion in John 19. It is used of Peter’s fishing net that did not tear even with 153 fish in John 21.

It is also the word used in Matthew, Mark and Luke for the tearing of the temple curtain at the moment Jesus died. Indeed, the only two uses of the verb in Mark are the tearing of the heavenly firmament in Mark 1 and tearing of the temple curtain in Mark 15.

This is no accident. The heavenly firmament is the boundary between heaven and earth. It is the tent, the egg shell, the crust around the earth the separates where we live from where God lives. We could be a little more precise, but not today! So in both Mark 1 and Mark 15, the curtain that separates our dwelling place from God’s is ripped apart.

First Jesus comes into the world and begins his ministry and curtain is torn open as the Spirit-filled Christ comes on the scene. God comes to earth, and for this to happen the firmament must be torn for heaven and earth to meet. Then at the end of Jesus’ ministry, the curtain is torn open again as we can now enter the presence of God through the death of Jesus.

Praise God that he is a God who rips apart! There are two barriers between us and God. The firmament is a barrier because God is God and we are not. He is the creator and we are the created. The other barrier is the temple curtain. Echoing the cherubim placed outside the Garden of Eden to guard it, this barrier is a barrier because we are sinful and God is purity. God tore open the firmament curtain so that he could tear open the temple curtain. We remain creatures – that barrier is intact for us (though not for Jesus). We remain sinful creatures – but that no longer presents a barrier for those who are in Christ, because of the incarnation and death of Jesus Christ. Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful!