I can’t read those words without choking up. It’s such a simple verse and yet, to me, it is the crux of not just Israel’s history, but humanity’s. Maybe it’s how visual it is, or how matter-of-fact. But the simple words of Mark 15:38 negate our darkest hour, man’s expulsion from the Garden. Adam’s sin, our sin, necessitated a barrier between mankind and God. For millennia, even the Lord’s chosen people could only approach him through one man and then only once a year. The punishment for passing through that curtain without being clean and bearing a perfect sacrifice was death. Sinful man cannot stand in the presence of the Holy God and live. Until that curtain tore.

Easter is my favorite holiday. Good Friday, though, has always been my favorite day to go to church. Easter is every day to a Christian and I celebrate it with each breath. But there was only one Good Friday. The book of Hebrews tells us over and over again that Christ died only once and, with that truly unblemished sacrifice, it was finished. The work that the Israelite priests repeated endlessly in the earthly tabernacle was perfected in Christ’s death on the cross. After the gift of his sinless blood, it was finished. The curtain was no longer needed.

On Easter we rejoice in the knowledge that we are forgiven and that our Savior, our Intercessor, sits at the right hand of God until we are all gathered to the true Promised Land. But Easter, of course, is meaningless without Good Friday. Most of us have either heard songs or seen those little painted signs for your house that say, “all of our sins are nailed to the cross.” For some reason, this never struck me in the gut like it should, but I recently heard a song that finally brought it home. Phil Wickham, in the song “Living Hope,” sings,

Next Friday, I will take time to imagine what it would be like to walk into church on Sunday morning with every ugly, dirty deed I’ve ever done plastered to my body. Just think of the disgust of my fellow churchgoers as they avoid eye contact. How many orders of magnitude harder was it for Jesus to bear the shame of the world and watch his Father God turn away. Words on a page cannot convey the agony of the Lord’s cry, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” And he endured that for me. On Easter we will celebrate Jesus’ victory over death. On Good Friday, we celebrate his victory over sin. Maybe they’re the same thing, I don’t know. All I know is that the curtain tore, and it only tore once.