Behind the Curtain

 

E

very morning, people go through the same routine. The alarm clock sounds, rousting them from a wonderful deep sleep, and they throw back the covers and start the day.  They head to the kitchen for coffee and breakfast and after cleaning up after themselves, they start the second most important part of the day—a shower! 

 

A lot of showers have a curtain that keeps the water inside instead of on the bathroom floor.  It really is a wonderful invention.  They pull back the curtain, climb in, close the curtain, and start the cleaning process.  What happens behind that curtain each morning ensures they are ready to meet the day ahead.  Anything preventing the body from being clean is washed off behind that curtain and they emerge better and cleaner than when they entered the shower. 

 

The only downside is that they have to perform this ritual every day. It would be nice to have to shower only once and then be done with it.  But this is just not the way things go here in the workaday world!  So, every morning they hit the shower to face the day ahead. 

 

Would it surprise you to learn that the idea of the shower curtain can actually be found in the Scriptures?  Long before hot water heaters, massaging shower heads, and ceramic tiled stalls, the idea of getting clean behind a curtain was already in force.  We need look no further than the Old Testament to discover the importance of a curtain behind which cleansing took place.  This however was not a shower curtain but a curtain that separated the Holy Place in the Temple from the Most Holy Place, also known as the Holy of Holies!   

 

It was here that the Ark of the Covenant was housed, and it was here that the High Priest entered once a year to sprinkle the blood of the atonement sacrifice on the top of the Ark.  To enter the Holy of Holies, the High Priest had to pass through a large curtain.  Behind this curtain he met with God and offered the atonement sacrifice to cover the people’s sins for the coming year.  Behind that curtain, the people were made presentable to God and their sins were covered.  The next year, however, the priest performed the same ritual, and this continued from one generation to the next. Each year the priest went behind the curtain and each year the people were cleansed. 

 

What was needed, however, was a permanent cleansing, a way to remove the grime and stench of sin instead of just covering it up. That is what we are celebrating as Easter Sunday approaches.  God provided a way for there to be a permanent solution and that way was found in the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ on Calvary’s cross. 

 

Hebrews 9:3-7 gives us a picture of what happened behind the curtain: Behind the second curtain was a room called the Most Holy Place, which had the golden altar of incense and the gold-covered ark of the covenant. This ark contained the gold jar of manna, Aaron's staff that had budded, and the stone tablets of the covenant. Above the ark were the cherubim of the Glory, overshadowing the atonement cover But we cannot discuss these things in detail now.  When everything had been arranged like this, the priests entered regularly into the outer room to carry on their ministry. But only the high priest entered the inner room, and that only once a year, and never without blood, which he offered for himself and for the sins the people had committed in ignorance. 

 

So now we can plainly see what happened behind the curtain.  Once a year, the High Priest went behind the curtain to cover up his own sins and the sins of the people.  But when Jesus came, he went behind the curtain, offered his own blood, and cleansed the stain and the stench of sin!  He removed it—permanently!  This is the wonderful news and the wonderful work of the cross of Jesus Christ.  Behind the curtain, once and for all, he cleansed the stain of sin, he eradicated the barrier that separated us from God, and he made it possible for us to come to God directly by accepting his sacrifice on our behalf. 

 

What wonderful news this is.  Are you still going behind the curtain, trying to wash away your own sins?  Are you trying to do as many good deeds as possible in order to earn your way to God?  You will never be able to do it. But Jesus has already gone behind the curtain for you and offered his own blood for you.  All you have to do is confess your sins and accept him as savior and lord of your life.  You will emerge clean, acceptable to God, free from the stain and the stench of sin. So, isn’t it about time you took that shower? How about right now!