"But when Christ came as high priest of the good things that are now already here, he went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not made with human hands, that is to say, is not a part of this creation. He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption."
Hebrews 9:11-12
When recounting the story of the Passion of Christ, the Synoptic Gospels mention a curtain being torn in two right after Jesus’ death on the cross but offer no further explanation of the relevance of this curtain (Matthew 27:51; Mark 15:38; Luke 23:45). The curtain was something of great importance in the culture in which these events occurred, and its destruction is interpreted to mean something of great significance in the Christian faith.
Centuries before, when God led the Israelites out of Egypt into the desert, he had Moses erect a large tent called a tabernacle that contained an inner area called the Holiest of Holies, which was separated from the rest of the tent by a large veil. In this space, the presence of God would dwell among his people. Only the High Priest was allowed to enter this inner sanctum, on a specific day of the year, to offer the blood of animals sacrificed to atone for the sins of the people.
In the time of Jesus, a space like this existed inside the stone temple at Jerusalem, in which the curtain mentioned in the Gospels was hung to separate the Most Holy Place, the innermost sanctum, from the rest of the temple. Like the inner area of the original tabernacle, this sanctum was believed to house the presence of God and was considered so sacred that only the High Priest was allowed to go inside, once a year on the Jewish feast of Atonement, to sprinkle blood from sacrificed animals.
This curtain had, until that time, represented a constant separation of God from His people, brought about by their sins. Their only access to God could be through prayer and sacrifice. This is what changed with what Jesus did for us on the cross.
After the cross, anyone could be reconciled with God by embracing Christ as Lord and Saviour. Jesus was the ultimate lamb of God who gave His life as a sacrifice to atone for the sins of all humanity. Through His sacrifice, the sin separating men and women from God like a hanging curtain had been done away with, the old sacrificial system had become obsolete, and the whole world outside the temple had been granted new access to God (Hebrews 8:13, Hebrews 9 & Ephesians 2:18).
The curtain is believed to have been between ten and twenty meters in height, about as thick as the width of a man’s hand, and so heavy that it required several priests to move. Matthew's gospel describes the shaking and splitting of rocks and earth while the temple curtain was torn, but this should not be taken to imply the curtain was damaged by an earthquake, because logically that would not have caused such a large and heavy object to split "from top to bottom" as both Matthew and Mark describe. The implication is that God tore the curtain.
The Temple at Jerusalem with its Most Holy Place, like the original tabernacle, was a representation of God’s temple in Heaven (Hebrews 8:5). The epistle to the Hebrews tells us that Jesus entered the Most Holy Place in Heaven once and for all by shedding of His own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption and granting us access to God through Him, without requiring any further sacrifice (Hebrews 9:12). It’s good news for animals and even better news for us.