Pay No Attention to that Man Behind the Curtain

Watching the Wizard of Oz on CBS was an annual tradition in my home growing up. I can still quote many of the lines from the film and sing most of the songs word for word. What I didn’t realize, until recently, was all the parallels the films storyline has to the biblical event of the tearing of the veil in the temple.

The Bible describes the moment Jesus cried out from the cross, “It is finished!” and died that the thick curtain in the temple was torn from top to bottom (Mt 27:51). What is troubling is that when the curtain was ripped in two, there was no magical deity sitting behind it. It was just a curtain; it was just a building. Which naturally should lead one to question what, if anything was really going on behind this veil once a year. Was the yearly priestly practice just another ploy for man-made systems to exploit God’s people?

Did God’s presence really dwell in a temple, isolated behind a curtain?

Scripture clearly states, in unmistakable terms, that God does not live in temples built by human hands (Acts 17:24). The curtain in the temple created a barrier between God’s presence and his people, and it separated those who had authority to go behind it from those who did not. When it was torn apart the power shifted away from the Religious authorities and was given to all people. The people no longer had to be threatened by the temple that hid the one and only big magic man in their midst. It’s like the scene in the Wizard of Oz when Toto reveals that the mighty wizard is really just a man behind the curtain. Likewise Jesus’ death is the ultimate anti-temple statement. The scam is exposed. There is nothing behind the curtain. Meaning, there’s no place where God is and isn’t. No more smoke and mirrors, God is found among us and we are the real temples where real communion with God can be experienced.

Some Thoughts on Pentecost

We are the Temple of the living God (1 Cor. 6:19). The reality of such an idea profoundly struck me this week. With the celebration of Pentecost only a few days away, our attention is once again drawn back to the outpouring of God’s Spirit on the early church. Before the construction of Solomon’s temple in Jerusalem, God revealed his glory in the tent or tabernacle that Moses constructed. It was there that God would come, dwell, and meet with his people. “Let them make me a sanctuary,” the Lord spoke to Moses, “that I may dwell in their midst” (Ex. 25:8). It was there that “the pillar of cloud would descend and stand at the entrance of the tent, and [there that] the Lord would speak with Moses” (Ex. 33:9). It was there that “the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle” (Ex. 40:34). The tabernacle was where the people of Israel would draw near to hear from God, to worship God, and to stand in his presence (cf. Lev. 9:23; Num. 14:10).

Any reading of Acts or John, the two main places in the NT where the Spirit plays a large part, reveals that Pentecost is a time of great awakening to challenges facing God’s people both in the world and in their own life, and of the urgent need for the inspiration, strengthening and guiding of the Holy Spirit. Pentecost is about God’s kingdom being established here on earth. It’s about heaven and earth coming together as they were always meant to be.

N.T. Wright says, “Pentecost is therefore to be seen as the moment when the personal presence of Jesus with the disciples is translated into the personal power of Jesus in the disciples; because Pentecost signals the mode and means by which the chief executive is putting his new authority into operation.”

According to Paul, God has established a new temple in us (1Cor. 3:16-17). In other words, we are the new dwelling place for God’s Spirit. Think about the implications that God’s constant abiding presence in us should have on how we conduct our everyday life. Pentecost is about the presence of God with his people; about the implementation of Jesus’ healing and whole life salvation for all; and it signals the final day when heaven and earth shall be one. It isn’t just that the Spirit is the ‘down payment’ of what is to come for us as his people; the Spirit is the advance sign of what God is going to do for the whole earth, the entire created order. God continues to pour out his Spirit on us so that we can both be and accomplish his new creation in our self and in the world.