2 Corinthians 3:13 - 18
Women in Afghanistan have to wear a veil whenever they leave their homes. This veil is called a burqa, and it’s a fairly heavy garment that goes from the top of their heads all the way to the ground. They have a patch of net or some gauzy material that covers their eyes so they can see out, but the rest of their bodies is entirely hidden from view. These veils are hot and heavy and restrictive. The women who have to wear them feel like they’re smothering.
In many parts of the world, and in America depending on what state you’re in, when a convicted criminal is executed, a veil or hood is put over the face. This is so they can’t see what’s about to happen, and also so the people watching the execution won’t be upset by any facial contortions that might happen at the time of death.
It used to be traditional for a bride to wear a veil over her face as she walked down the aisle to meet her intended. When she reached the front of the church, the veil was lifted, and she and the groom could look into each other’s faces.
Veils are used for different things and for different reasons. In the case of the bride, the veil is looked on as a beautiful, meaningful part of a wedding service. In the case of the condemned criminal, it’s to keep people from looking into the face of death. In the case of the women of Afghanistan, it’s to control and oppress.
All these different veils are basically used for the same purpose - to separate. Veils come in different sizes and are made from different materials, but they still separate. They separate people from other people; people from things; people from places.
There was a veil in the Temple of the Lord in Jerusalem. It’s sometimes called a curtain, so we know it had to be rather large. It separated the people from an area within the temple called the Holy of Holies.
The Holy of Holies was basically a room within a room within a room. This is where the ark of the covenant was kept, and since God was generally believed to dwell in the ark, the Holy of Holies was where God lived.
Since no one could look upon God and live, no one was allowed to enter the Holy of Holies except the high priest, and he only once a year on the day of atonement, when he went in to ask forgiveness for all the sins the people had committed during the past year.
In today’s Scripture, Paul is writing to the church at Corinth about the new covenant in Christ. In this letter, he makes reference to Moses and his veil.
In Exodus 34, verses 29 through 35, we read the story of Moses and his radiant face. "When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the Testimony in his hands, he was not aware that his face was radiant because he had spoken with the Lord. When Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, his face was radiant, and they were afraid to come near him.
But Moses called to them; so Aaron and all the leaders of the community came back to him, and he spoke to them. Afterward all the Israelites came near him, and he gave them all the commands the Lord had given him on Mount Sinai.
When Moses finished speaking to them, he put a veil over his face. But whenever he entered the Lord’s presence to speak with him, he removed the veil until he came out.
And when he came out and told the Israelites what he had been commanded, they saw that his face was radiant. Then Moses would put the veil back over his face until he went in to speak with the Lord."
So Moses had gone up on the mountain, God had given him the Ten Commandments and had spoken directly to him. And this made Moses’ face glow.
After he spent time with God, Moses’ face was radiant and the people could clearly see God’s presence in him. They were afraid, so Moses covered his face with a veil to keep the people from being scared of him.
But Paul takes a little poetic license here, and he says that the reason Moses put a veil over his face was so the people wouldn’t be able to see that the radiance was fading away. It doesn’t say that in the account we read in Exodus.
I guess Paul is doing this to make a point. He’s using the veil to illustrate the fading of the old system and the veiling of the people’s minds and understanding by their pride, hardness of heart, and refusal to repent.
The church at Corinth was weak. Surrounded by idolatry and immorality, they struggled with their Christian faith and lifestyle. Through personal visits and letters, Paul tried to instruct them in the faith, resolve their conflicts, and solve some of their problems.
You’ll remember that First Corinthians was written to deal with specific moral issues in the church and to answer questions about sex, marriage, and tender consciences. That letter confronted the issues directly and was well received by most.
But there were false teachers who denied Paul’s authority and slandered him. So Paul wrote Second Corinthians to defend his position and to denounce those who were twisting the truth. In today’s scripture, Paul seems to be taking pot-shots at the Jews.
What he’s probably trying to do is make the people understand that the old covenant that God made with the Israelites is fading away. The contemporary, non-believing Jews have hardened minds when they read the old covenant because a veil lies over their hearts. In other words, they don’t see and understand what’s happening at the present time.
As Paul describes it to the Corinthians, Moses put a veil over his face so that the children of Israel would not see the end of what was fading - namely, the glory that was reflected on his face. When Paul says that in Christ the veil is set aside, he means that those who have already been restored to right relationship to God are given eyes to see and minds and hearts to understand not only what’s going on in God’s plan, but also that Moses and all of scripture still disclose God’s purpose and God’s will and provide guidance to all God’s people.
The veil kept the people of Israel from understanding the references to Christ in the scriptures. When anyone becomes a Christian, Christ removes the veil, giving eternal life and freedom from trying to be saved by keeping countless laws. Without the veil, we can be like mirrors reflecting God’s glory.
Those who were trying to be saved by keeping the Old Testament law were tied up in rules and ceremonies. But now, through the Holy Spirit, God provides freedom from sin and condemnation.
When we trust Christ to save us, he removes our heavy burden of trying to please him and our guilt for failing to do so. By trusting Christ, we’re loved, accepted, forgiven, and freed to live for him. As Paul says in verse 17, "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom."
So Paul is contrasting the old with the new. The old is Moses, or the first five books of the Bible, the Pentateuch. In these books are all the laws and rules that God set out for the people.
The new is the new covenant through Jesus Christ. Jesus came and with his death he freed us from having to follow all the rules and regulations in the Old Testament. All we have to do is believe in him and we’ll be saved.
Those who were still practicing Judaism were reading the old laws and trying to follow them, and they refused to believe that Jesus was the Messiah who had come and freed them from all those rules. So Paul says that they still have a veil around their hearts that keeps them from understanding Jesus and what he did for them.
But when the people read and understand the gospel, the good news, then the veil is taken away, and their faces reflect God’s glory. The only way the veil can be lifted is through Jesus Christ.
And when the veil is lifted from our hearts and minds, then our faces reflect the Lord’s glory, just as Moses’ did when he spent time with God.
Can people look at your face and see that you’ve spent time with God? Do we glow when God speaks to us? Can people actually see Christ dwelling within you?
According to Paul, when the old veil is removed, our unveiled faces will reflect the Lord’s glory. In other words, when we become part of the new covenant, when we’re filled with the Holy Spirit, then when we look into a mirror what we see reflected there will be the likeness of Christ.
When Christ died on the cross, the veil in the temple was torn in two. That which had separated humans from God was destroyed, and from that moment on we’ve been able to go directly to God with our problems, our requests, our needs, our desires, our hopes, and our dreams.
Christ is the one who removed the veil that kept us out of God’s house. His death opened the door to God’s dwelling place and put out the welcome mat. We’re all free to approach God anytime about anything.
But we don’t. There are still things we try to hide from the world, and from God. We put a veil around our hearts and try to hide the sinful, lustful, evil things that lurk within each of us.
There’s a veil over our eyes which blinds us to our own guilt and our need to change.
We’re blind to biblical truth. We put a veil around our minds, to keep us from acknowledging what God’s word tells us.
We read the scriptures and then interpret them any way we want to, any way that’s convenient or fun for us. We justify our own actions by picking and choosing what verses to read.
We have a veil over our eyes when we interpret the scriptures too literally to support whatever argument we’re trying to make, often to the detriment of others.
We have a veil over our eyes when we read God’s clear warnings, but don’t heed those warnings, thinking that they’re meant for someone else, or they don’t really pertain to us.
Christ removed the veil that physically separated people from God, but how do we get rid of all the veils we’ve put up ourselves? The answer is in today’s scripture, verse 16: "But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away."
It’s that simple. Turn to the Lord, and the veil - all the veils - will be taken away. Just like the veil in the temple, all the veils we’ve put in place will be torn in half, brought down, and taken away.
And with our newly unveiled faces, we’ll reflect the glory of the Lord. Verse 18 says that we’ll be transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory.
When we turn to the Lord, we allow his spirit to enter into us, and the glory that the spirit imparts to us as believers is more excellent and lasts longer than the glory that Moses experienced. By gazing at the nature of God with unveiled minds, we can be more like God.
When we study the gospel, we see the truth about Christ, and it transforms us morally. As our knowledge of Christ deepens, the Holy Spirit helps us to change and become more Christlike. The more closely we follow Christ, the more we’ll be like him, and the more people will see it in our faces.
Turn to the Lord and the veil will be taken away. Study his word, and the veil around your heart will disappear. Learn more about him and the veil around your mind will be gone.
Accept him as Lord and Savior and the veil covering your eyes will be lifted. Be filled with his spirit and the veil separating you from God will be torn in two. Turn to the Lord and be saved, and the veil will never reappear.
Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. Freedom from the veil of oppression. Freedom from the veil of ignorance. Freedom from the veil of sin. Freedom from the veil of death.
And that freedom is waiting for us, ours for the taking. All we have to do is turn to the Lord, and the veil will be taken away.
Shall we pray?
