There are many haunting lines in the passion narratives. Who is not stirred in the soul when the passion story is read aloud in church and we come to the part where Jesus takes his last breath and there’s that poignant minute of silence, where we all drop to our knees? No homily is ever as effective as that single line (and he gave up his spirit) and the moving silence that ensues.

Another such line that has always haunted me is the one that follows immediately after. We are told that at the moment of Jesus’ death the veil of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom.

My imagination, particularly when I was a child, always pictured that in a dark way: It grew dark in the middle of the day and then at the moment of Jesus’ death, as if by a frightening strike of lightning, the temple veil was ripped from top to bottom while everyone looked on stunned, convinced now, too late, that the person they’ve just mocked and crucified is the Christ.

What’s really meant by the phrase that the veil of the temple was torn apart at the moment of Jesus’ death?

Biblical scholars tell us that the veil of the temple was precisely a curtain in the temple that prevented the people from seeing what was going on behind it, namely, the sacred rituals being performed by the temple priests. The curtain shielded the ordinary worshipper from mystery.

Thus, when the Gospels tell us that at the moment of Jesus’ death the temple veil was torn apart from top to bottom, the point they are making is not, as my imagination would have it, that God shredded what was most precious to the those who crucified Jesus to show them how wrong they were. To the contrary.

The temple veil was understood to shield people from mystery, from seeing inside the mystery of God. In the crucifixion, that veil is torn apart so that now everyone can see inside the real Holy of Holies, the inside of God.

We now see what God really looks like, that is, as One who loves us so unconditionally that we can crucify Him and he doesn’t stop loving us for even a second. God spills his own blood to reach through to us rather than wanting us to spill ours to reach through to Him. What’s meant by this?

There’s a centuries old question that asks why Jesus had to die in so horrible a manner. Why all the blood? What kind of cosmic and divine game is being played out here? Is Christ’s blood, the blood of the lamb, somehow paying off God for the sin of Adam and Eve and for our own sins? Why does blood need to be spilled?

This is a complex question and every answer that can be given is only a partial one. We are dealing with a great mystery here. However, even great mysteries can be partially understood. One of the reasons why Jesus dies in this way, one of the reasons for the spilling of blood, is clear, with profound implications. What’s the reason?

It has precisely to do with blood. From the beginning of time until the crucifixion of Jesus, many cultures sacrificed blood to their gods. Why blood? Because blood is identified with the life-principle. Blood carries life, is life, and its loss is death. Thus, for all kinds of reasons, religious and anthropological, in many ancient cultures the idea was present that we owe blood to God, that God needs to be appeased, that offering blood is our way of asking for forgiveness and expressing gratitude, that blood is the language God really understands.

And so, sincere religious people felt that they should be offering blood to God. And they did – and for a long time this included human blood. Humans were killed on altars everywhere. Thankfully most cultures eventually eliminated human sacrifice and used animals instead.

By the time of Jesus, the temple in Jerusalem had become a virtual butchery with priests killing animals nearly non-stop. Some scholars suggest that when Jesus upset the tables of the money changers, about 90% of commerce in Jerusalem was in one way or the other connected with animal sacrifice. Small wonder Jesus’ action was perceived as a threat!

So why the blood at Jesus’ death?

As Richard Rohr aptly puts it, for centuries we had been spilling blood to try to get to God and, in the crucifixion, things reversed: God spilled his own blood to try to get to us. And this reversal strips away the old veil of fear, the false belief that God wants blood, the false belief that God is not unconditional love, and that we need to live in fear of God.

God doesn’t need blood as an appeasement. God never stops loving us for even a second. When the temple veil was ripped open, this incredible truth was revealed.