Today’s household object are curtains and the Bible passage is Mark 15:33-39.
In the book of Exodus, we find some of the earliest instructions for making and hanging curtains. When Moses is given instructions for building the Tabernacle, these include two curtains of fine twisted linen and blue, purple, and crimson yarns (Exodus 26). Each curtain was about 42 feet long by 6 feet wide (my tall Victorian house has rooms that are over 10 feet high, which is not easy when it comes to decorating!) The curtains had to be joined together with blue loops and gold and brass clasps, making two sets of five. Another special curtain was made to separate the most holy place; this curtain had cherubim embroidered on it and were attached to four pillars of acacia wood overlaid with gold, which had hooks of gold and rested on four pieces of silver. These curtains were for concealment, to hide the most holy place from prying, unworthy eyes. (See ‘At Home In Lent,’ P 141)
To this day, we use curtains for privacy and to protect ourselves from the outside world, but at Easter, we read that the curtain in the Most Holy Place was torn from top to bottom. Given its size and height, this was no ordinary act, but a divine one, demonstrating that the barriers to God’s presence were removed and that now ‘we have confidence to enter the sanctuary by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that He opened for us through the curtain (that is, through His body.’ (Heb 10:19-20) The curtain has been torn; now we can enter God’s presence, cleansed through the sacrifice of Christ.