Divine Romance: The Colors of Good Friday
Divine Romance
Romans 8:38-39
Throughout Scripture, the word covenant is used to describe God’s
promises to His people. What exactly is a covenant? It is defined as, “a
contract or agreement that brings about a relationship of commitment.” 1 It describes the bringing together of two and
making them one, often in legal terms, binding and unbreakable. The closest
relationship we have on this side of Heaven that models the meaning of covenant is the union of a man and a woman, and the
commitment they make to each other on their wedding day. “To have and to hold, for better or for worse, til death
do us part…”
At the time of writing this, my husband and I have been
married over 25 years, and we have six children together. We sometimes joke
that we have had twenty good years and about five
really, really tough years. The dreaded “D word” has been mentioned several
times, which is difficult to admit. I’ve learned that marriage is not only for
my satisfaction, but also often for my sanctification—a painful breaking of my own will for the sake of the
union. Despite the challenges, my
husband has loved me well, protected and provided for our family, and been
fiercely faithful even when I’ve been at
my worst. He has kept his covenant.
However, true confession: I still sometimes feel
insecure. Just this week, I attended an event for my husband’s work, and had to fight the temptation to constantly
compare myself to the strong, business-minded women with whom he shares an
office. They clearly have it together more than I do. How in the world do they
manage to work full time, have a family, and still find room in their schedule
for their weekly manicure appointment AND going to the gym? I’m just over here, a total hot mess who
hasn’t shaved her legs since last October and served pizza rolls for dinner
last night. Quite often, I can feel that
familiar doubt creep in—I’m either “not enough” or I’m “too much” for him. If I
unpack this insecurity even further, I would find that at the root of it is
FEAR. Fear that my husband will no longer want me, that he will find some other
woman more desirable and leave me for her.
Fear. Because we know that infidelity can happen.
Fear. Because we know that temptation is real.
Fear. Because we know that old houses can crumble.
Ugh. I loathe the thought. And it makes me want to fight
for my marriage even harder.
I am wondering how many of you on the other side of this
page have found yourself with some of these same feelings of insecurity?
Perhaps your one-flesh has broken the covenant and your fear has become reality.
Or perhaps you are just “co-existing”
in a passionless marriage that has been dulled by the demands of life. Maybe
you carry the weight of shame over a failed relationship or are walking out the
loneliness of unwanted singleness. It could be that you have lost your spouse
to death, and at least for now, you are facing life alone. No matter your story
or your current situation, can I bring some encouragement? Will you allow me to
paint a picture for you?
According to Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible,
in their commentary on John 3:28-29, this is said about Jesus our Bridegroom:
“through his great love to
them, he has them not only in his arms, from whence they can never be plucked;
but in his heart, where they are set as a seal; and by virtue of this love,
they are united to him, become one with him, are members of his body, flesh,
and bones; and are one spirit with him, and nothing can be able to separate
them... he loves the
saints, as a bridegroom loves his bride, with a love prior to theirs; with a
love of complacency and delight, which is single, chaste, and inviolable; free,
and sovereign, wonderful, unchangeable, and from everlasting to everlasting: he
sympathizes with them in all their adversities, and afflictions; he nourishes,
and cherishes them, and provides everything for them, for food, and clothing,
for refreshment and protection...”
Regardless of
the human situation on this side of heaven, the eternal reality for His Bride—those
with Jesus as their Bridegroom—is that we are inseparable
from
Him, "from everlasting to everlasting." This truth is demonstrated so beautifully in an unlikely place: the Old
Testament words of Exodus 26, where God gives instructions for the design of
the Tabernacle curtain that divided the Holy Place from the Most Holy Place. If
we look closely, we will find a powerful truth about our covenant union with
Christ hidden in the very fibers of these words. Hold on tight…I promise it will be worth it.
The Tabernacle was
the mobile place of worship for the people of Israel during their 40 years of
wandering. It consisted of an outer courtyard, where the public could make
their ritual sacrifices, and an inner courtyard that contained a divided room.
On the Eastern end of this room, the “Holy Place” contained several symbolic
items, including the table of showbread, the candelabra, and a table where
incense burned. On the Western end of this divided room was the Holy of Holies,
a space that was completely dark and contained the Ark of the Covenant, where
the Spirit of God dwelled. Dividing these two rooms was a thick, heavy curtain
which was estimated to measure at least 60 feet long, 30 feet tall and 4 inches
thick. Once a year, on the Day of Atonement, the high priest parted this
veil and entered the Holy of Holies in the presence of God. The other
priests tied a rope around his waist or ankle in case he died in the presence
of God, they could pull his body out. On all other days, if anyone casually
walked behind the veil, that person would immediately die, realizing God’s warning to Moses
in Exodus 33:20 (HCSB)—“You cannot see my face, for no
one can see me and live!” Think
about this: regular men and women like us did not have access to God during
those times. Only one man could enter into the innermost room and only one time
each year. That room was a sacred, holy, restricted place, with the curtain
serving as a protective division between God and man.
God gave special attention in His instructions regarding
the making of this colorful, thick curtain. Because Hebrew is a language
written in pictures, colors add significant meaning to the text. In Exodus 26,
the colors “blue, purple and scarlet” are repeatedly
mentioned in this same order in regard to the curtains and other items
decorating the Tabernacle. “You shall make a veil woven of blue, purple and
scarlet thread…” (verse 31 NKJV). I have learned that the cloth used to make
these curtains was formed by weaving the tiniest blue and red fibers together
so closely and so inseparably that the fabric appears purple. Imagine single
threads of blue and red intricately combined and closely positioned in a
repeating pattern over and over again, into a fabric three stories high and
several inches thick. Can you picture
it?
Now let’s take a
closer look at what the colors represent.
Scripturally, blue is the color of holiness and Heaven, God’s dwelling
place. We find a glimpse of this hue in Exodus 24 when Moses, Aaron, and the
elders went to worship God on Mount Sinai and experienced a vision of Heaven:
“And they saw the God of Israel: and there was under his feet as it were a
paved work of a sapphire stone…” (verse 10 KJV) Furthermore, we know that when Jesus
ascended into Heaven, He rose up into the sky and through the clouds. His
disciples were left standing on that mountain, staring up into the air—and what
color is the sky? It is blue because it reflects heaven! The blue thread
woven into the fabric of the curtains represented the holiness of God and the
Heavens.
Now, what comes to mind when you think of the
significance of red? It is the color of blood, symbolic of human life, but also
a reminder of guilt and sin. In ancient times, the colorfast nature of scarlet
and crimson dyes was a visual reminder of how difficult it is to “blot out” the red stain of sin. In modern Israel, the
word for blood is dam, which comes from the root word
for “A-dam,” the first man. Additionally, the
Hebrew word for scarlet has the same root meaning as earth. This fact reminds
us that God formed red-blooded “A-dam” from
the dust of the earth. Geographically, the dirt in the Middle East (the
birthplace of God’s story) is rich in iron, giving it a deep red hue. So quite
literally, mankind was made from red dirt.
The red thread woven into the fabric of the curtain represents man
and our sin.
And now, taking fibers of both red and blue, God gave
instructions to weave them together so tightly and intricately they appeared
purple, and then position this magnificent curtain over the door dividing God’s dwelling place from everything else. This curtain was
the place where human met Divine, where physical met spiritual, where man met God.
It may help to draw this picture in your mind. Two separate dimensions: the
holiness of blue on one side of the curtain, and the sinfulness of red on the
other, coming together in the purple curtain. From West to East: blue,
purple, red. God’s Word coming to life in this exact order of colors.
Think about it: Jesus Himself is PURPLE. He is the
supernatural collision of heavenly blue and humanly red—fully God and fully man!
Now, get ready for your mind to be blown: Scripture shows us that Jesus’ body IS the purple curtain. He is the One who stands between the
blueness of God and the redness of man, and whose death tore the veil,
extending an invitation for all to enter into the presence of God. “Therefore, brothers
and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by
the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through
the curtain, that is, his body...”
(Hebrews 10:19-20)
Three of the four
Gospels record a specific detail about the moment of Jesus’ death: “And Jesus
cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit. And behold, the
curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom.” (Matthew 27:50-51
ESV) While Jesus’ broken body was drawing its last breath, THE PURPLE CURTAIN
WAS TORN. Remember, the curtain was very tall and very thick. One source
explained that it took over 300 men just to carry the curtain when they were
moving from one place to another. No human hands could have ripped it by sheer
might. The fact that it was torn from top to bottom indicates that God
initiated it—He was opening the door to a relationship with Him through the
death of Jesus Christ.
Furthermore, it is no accident that our Savior was
dressed in purple as He was taken to the cross (Mark 15:17). This was
foreshadowed all the way back in God’s instructions for the Tabernacle. His
broken body WAS the torn veil that opened access to the presence of God. His
sacrifice destroyed that divide between God and man, bringing clarity to Jesus’
words: “No one comes to the Father except THROUGH me.”
(John 14:6, emphasis mine) We come to God through the torn veil of
Jesus’ body. This was the Father’s plan from the beginning to bring together
His Son and the chosen Bride.
THIS is a picture of our love story with Jesus. When we
are united in covenant relationship with Christ our Bridegroom, there is
absolutely nothing that can separate His Bride from His love. The divide has
been destroyed—it is FINISHED! Any attempt to tear us away from this new
covenant of love would be like trying to
unwind the individual fibers of that Tabernacle curtain, once again separating
them, red from blue— IMPOSSIBLE. Unlike
the insecurity we may feel from relationships on this side of heaven,
“Can
anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves
us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute,
or in danger, or threatened with death?…No, despite all of these things,
overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us. And I am convinced
that nothing can ever separate us from Christ’s love. Neither death nor life,
neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about
tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power
in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed nothing in all creation will ever
be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus
our Lord.” (Romans 8:35-39 NLT)
Praises! We can be 100% confident in His perfect love for us! He proved it on that bloody cross by paying the bride price in full. We are chosen. Redeemed. Beloved. Set apart. Secure.
What a privilege it is to be His
Bride!
There was a moment when the
lights went out
When death had claimed its
victory
The King of Love had given up His
life
The darkest day in history
There on the cross they made for
sinners
For every curse His blood atoned
One final breath and it was
finished
But not the end we could have
known
For the Earth began to shake
And the veil was torn
What sacrifice was made
As the Heavens roared
All hail King Jesus
All hail the Lord of Heaven and
Earth
All hail King Jesus
All hail the Savior of the world
“All Hail King Jesus” by Jeremy
Riddle
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