God’s Coming Out Party

Imagine yourself in Jerusalem 2,000 years ago. You own a bakery and work six days a week from sunup to sundown. It is Passover time and that is where you make your money. The population of the city doubles at this time of the year. You make close to half your yearly income at this time. But something is different this year. At the beginning of the week there was all kinds of noise over at the gate. Some guy came in riding on a donkey and everyone was yelling and waving palm branches. You wanted to check it out but you couldn’t leave your shop, not at this time of year.

The rest of the week was pretty quiet until last night. Last night you kept getting woken up by a crowd dragging some guy back and forth in the streets. Then this morning there was a crowd over at the governor’s palace. They go there every year because he releases a prisoner as a good will token for Passover. But today, the crowds were huge. They were chanting something but you couldn’t make it out. Next thing you knew the crowd surged by your shop and in the middle were three men on their way to be crucified outside the gates of the city. You wanted to find out what was going on but bread does not bake itself so you stayed at your post.

Then things got weird. It got dark in the middle of the day and has stayed that way all afternoon. It’s a pity because it was a beautiful spring morning before the darkness rolled in. Suddenly, the earth begins to shake. You run to hide under a table because you are used to earthquakes. This one is bad. Things are heaving, rocks are splitting, people are screaming. You are relieved when the shaking stops and you start to go back to work. Suddenly, you look up and your heart skips a beat. Standing in the doorway to your shop is your best friend from childhood. What startles you is that he died two years ago. You were at his funeral. But here he is. And there goes your grandfather, who died when you were ten, walking down the street… What is going on here???

This is my attempt to dramatize one of the weirdest stories in the Bible. It occurs in Matthew 27,

…when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit.

At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook and the rocks split. The tombs broke open and the bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. They came out of the tombs, and after Jesus’ resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many people. (27:50-53)

I used to think this passage showed God’s anger and indignation about the crucifixion. As if He was so angry He had to break some stuff. I no longer believe that is the case though. My understanding changed when I asked, why the dead people raised and wondering around? That would be a strange way to express anger. I now think that God was having a coming out party! The instant God, the Son, breathed His last, God, the Father, ripped His way out of the holiest place, through the veil, to get to us. He did it with such intensity that there was an earthquake, rocks split, tombs broke open, and people were raised from the dead. That intensity was not anger and frustration but thousands of years of pent up passion to be with His people. He no longer had to hold back His presence from mankind. He could now come in and dwell inside of His people.

This makes sense when we understand some things about God’s dwelling place with man throughout history. From the time of the tabernacle until the time of Jesus (with the exception of the years of the exile) God limited His physical presence on earth, for the most part, to a very confined space. This space measured fifteen by fifteen feet in the tabernacle and was later doubled to thirty by thirty feet in Solomon’s temple. We know this place as the holiest place.

In this holiest place was the ark of the covenant. A large gold box with angels on top of it. This was God’s throne room on earth and no one was allowed inside except the high priest once a year on the day of Atonement.

The problem is that the holiest place was not where God wanted to be. He contained Himself in that box out of mercy knowing that His holiness would have consumed any sinful flesh it came in contact with. But He did not desire to be separated from His people by curtains and veils forever. He longed to be with His people, to reestablish the intimacy of walking in the garden with them. He was literally dying to get out of that box. So much so that He sent His Son to be tortured to death on the cross so He could come out without His sense of justice requiring that all of us be incinerated!

When we look at the tabernacle as a pattern for approaching God, we seem to be forcing Him back into His box, sewing up the veil, and searching for ways to make ourselves good enough to come into the holiest place to visit Him. What a gross misunderstanding of what Jesus came to do! He came so God could get to us, not the other way around.

He wants to live IN US not buildings

Seeing the tabernacle as the way to approach God also contributes to the tendency to separate our religious and secular lives. If we understood that God broke out to be with and in us, we would understand that we cannot possibly visit Him on Sunday and then leave Him there in the church while we go about our daily lives the rest of the week. He does not dwell in tents, or a temples, or church buildings but in the hearts of His people.

Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him; for God’s temple is sacred, and you are that temple (1 Cor. 3:16-17)

God is not out there waiting for us to go through the rituals to approach Him. He is inside of us waiting for us to allow Him to work his way out in our lives.

The very Hebrew word for tabernacle, mqdsh, means holy place. Too many times we are caught up with the idea of making a physical building holy so God can dwell there. But He does not dwell in our church buildings until THE church (His people) gathers there. God is not hanging around our sanctuaries during the week waiting for us to drop by for a visit. Instead, He is in us at home, at work, at school, at the mall. And the entire time He is trying to get out through us to impact those with whom we come in contact.

We call our worship facilities sanctuaries. The very word, sanctuary, is derived from the word sanctify or make holy. It means a holy place. And the definition of holiness is being set apart for one purpose. Do we think God cares about our buildings being set apart or our lives? We need to stop worrying about making buildings holy and be concerned with setting our lives apart for one purpose, hosting the presence of the Living God.

The question is not whether God is comfortable in our church buildings but whether He is comfortable in our lives. Have you ever heard some one say something like, “How can you lie in church?” As if lying on a different piece of property or in a different building is acceptable. Why will we do and say things in our homes or workplaces that we would not do or say in a church building? Because we don’t truly understand that our lives are meant to be holy places for the presence of Almighty God.

He wants to come home with us

In 1 Samuel, we see that the Israelites had become too comfortable with the ark of the covenant which represented His presence. They treated it as a good luck charm and brought it out to battle with them. God, who never appreciates being treated as the cosmic candy machine, refused to protect them. This reminds us to always seek Him and not formulas to make Him do things for us. Since God refused to be with them, the ark was captured. Later, due to some very painful boils (hemorrhoids in the KJV), the Philistines sent the ark back to Israeli territory along with some golden hemorrhoid models (I have always wondered what that looked like).

For some reason, the Israelites never returned the ark to the tabernacle. Instead they left it at the house of Abinadab in Kiriath-Jearim for over forty years throughout the reign of Saul. We don’t hear much about what happened while the ark was there but we are told that the people mourned because it seemed that the Lord had abandoned them (1 Sam. 7:2).

When David became king, he had a heart to seek the Lord so he brought the ark up from where it had been. For many years I have focused on the lessons of David’s bringing the ark up to Jerusalem: worshipping with all of our heart, not depising those who worship, etc… Then, one day, a verse jumped on the pages of my bible. I had read the passage many times but had never seen what it said. It was as if someone had added the verse since I had read it last. It was 2 Chronicles 1:4-5.

Now David had brought up the ark of God from Kiriath Jearim to the place he had prepared for it, because he had pitched a tent for it in Jerusalem. But the bronze altar that Bezalel son of Uri, the son of Hur, had made was in Gibeon in front of the tabernacle of the LORD…

David did not return the ark to the holiest place inside the tabernacle. Instead, he pitched a tent for it right next to his house even though the tabernacle was still standing and in use! Later we are told that that Solomon built a separate palace for his wife, Pharaoh’s daughter because she …must not live in the palace of David king of Israel, because the places the ark of the LORD has entered are holy (2 Chron. 8:11). The ark had actually been inside David’s house. We are even told that David went in and sat before the LORD (2 Sam. 7:18). This implies that he sat in front of the ark even though he was not the high priest and it was not the Day of Atonement. It is interesting to note that of the three places built for the ark, the tabernacle of David is the only one with no mention of a veil to separate worshippers from the presence. It would seem that God did not mind being brought to David’s home. He has always desired closeness to His people. He wants to be brought into our homes today also.

This is what God was talking about when He said, In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen (Amos 9:11). There is no prophecy that God will raise up the tabernacle of Moses or the temple (at least not in a positive sense). But there is a prophecy that He will restore the tabernacle of David that was, in a sense, in his house. God wants His dwelling place to be as close to ours as possible and for it to be accessible to us. So why are we trying to rebuild the tabernacle and temple models for approaching God? He has already approached us. Let’s welcome His presence and let it permeate every area of our lives.