Have you ever thought about the many ways in which we can feel torn?

We can be torn between two opinions or about making a difficult decision. A relationship can be torn apart by destructive circumstances. Sometimes we can feel as though our lives have been torn apart and shredded..

During this Easter season, I am drawn to the trial of Jesus in front of the Jewish Council and the High Priest, Caiaphas. The Pharisees had been endeavoring to trap Jesus by His words to prove that He was an impostor, so that they would have legal reason to put Him to death. They had paid off Judas to betray Him and had subsequently arrested Him in the Garden of Gethsemane. Now Jesus stood before them, on trial for the truth of His deity. Caiaphas questioned him point blank.

“I adjure you by the living God that you tell us whether you are the Christ, the Son of God.”  (Matthew 26:63, NAS)

I can feel the emotions rocketing to dizzying heights. The confession, implied yet left unsaid until this very moment, was chosen by God to be thrust like a two-edged sword into the heart of these law-keepers.

Jesus said to him, “You have said it yourself; nevertheless I tell you, hereafter you shall see THE SON OF MAN SITTING AT THE RIGHT HAND OF POWER, AND COMING ON THE CLOUDS OF HEAVEN.”  (Matthew 26:64, NAS)

At this point Caiaphas, overcome with distress, tore his robes as he roared, He has blasphemed! and the Council responded, He is deserving of death!  (Matthew 26:65-66, NAS)

It appears that the High Priest reacted passionately to preserve the Law of Moses and protect Judaism from false teachers, intending to silence Jesus and terminate this new movement that was daily winning over thousands of converts. But could Caiaphas have felt that his position was threatened and that this young teacher might replace him as High Priest? Could raw jealousy and fear have been the blinders that prevented Caiaphas and the council members from seeing the truth–that their Messiah had indeed arrived on Earth?

I feel that God answered Caiaphas when Jesus breathed His final breath on the cross, after having committed His Spirit into God’s hands. At that moment, there was a passionate response from God as …the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom…(Matthew 27:51, NAS).

The most amazing fact about that curtain’s width, measuring about the thickness of a man’s hand, is that it was an impossibility to be ripped apart. What adds to the amazement is that an invisible hand ripped it from top to bottom, not just from bottom to top. This is a miracle that only God Himself could perform.

The High Priest tore his robe as a protest that Jesus not be allowed to enter in as Messiah, but God Himself overruled Caiaphas. God had the last word in the conversation by tearing down the temple veil. He made it possible for all men to enter into a personal relationship with God through the blood sacrifice of His perfect Lamb, Jesus Christ. The Law of Moses was fulfilled to the letter, giving birth to the era of salvation through grace, which continues to this day.

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men. (Titus 2:11, NAS)

Is there something torn in your life? Bring it and enter in. Everyone is invited to come into the Holy of Holies to receive salvation and healing from God’s hand.  What better time than today?