Children's Sermon-The Torn Curtain

Prepare ahead: find a piece of woven fabric that will tear easily. It should be a big enough piece that ripping it is somewhat dramatic. Put a tiny cut in the middle of one edge, so that you won’t have any trouble tearing it.
One of the interesting stories that should be told at Easter is often overlooked…probably because it is only one sentence long. Let’s look at Mark 15 which tells the story of how Jesus died on the cross. Verse 33 tells us that darkness came over the whole land from the 6th to the 9th hour…this would be from noon until 3 o’clock in the afternoon….not a time it is usually dark! Then reading in verses 37-38, “with a loud cry, Jesus breathed his last. The curtain in the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.”
(Rip the fabric in two from top to bottom, as you repeat , “the curtain in the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.”)
What curtain is being talked about here? (See if the children know about the curtain in the temple which divided the Holy of Holies from the rest of the temple. Draw out of them, or explain, that there was an area in the temple called the Holy of Holies. This is where the presence of God actually lived. It was not visible from the rest of the temple, and separated from it with a heavy curtain. No one could enter this area, except for once a year when a priest entered with a sacrifice for the sins of the people. If a person were to enter without a sacrifice for sin, he would be struck dead. In fact, the priest would have bells around the bottom hem of his robe, so that people standing outside could hear the bells ring as he moved around, and be assured that the priest was still alive.)
Because we are sinful and God is perfect and holy, we can’t go into His presence without a sacrifice for sins. When Jesus died on the cross, He paid the price for our sins. To show that Jesus’ blood covered out sins, and we could now enter His presence, God Himself ripped the curtain, opening the Holy of Holies.
We might be tempted to think that some human being ripped the curtain, but you have to understand that this curtain was extremely large….some experts say it was 60 feet high and 4 inches thick. It wasn’t as though someone could have climbed up and had the strength to rip it from top to bottom.
God loved us so much that He wanted us to be able to come into his presence. He wants us to come to Him by praying and sharing the deep feelings in our hearts with Him. He knew we could never pay for our own sins, so He provided His own Son to die in our place. Then He ripped the curtain so that anyone could enter His presence.