The rending of the veil meant something to the Jews at that time. Even when it happened, priests and levites would have been in the holy place, because it was the time of day when the incense offering was made. They would soon understand, it was the end of the old order. The veil was rent. The time of sacrifices was over. The tokens and the symbols had come to an end. Christ had now achieved salvation. He had suffered and died and in six hours he had borne the eternal weight of punishment due to all those who would believe throughout time. The period of prophecy is fulfilled, and that was spoken not by words, but by this miracle in the temple, in the rending of the veil.
But even more to us the rending of the veil means, Christ has accomplished salvation; he has paid the price for us; now the way is open. We may approach God boldly. So we read in the letter to the Hebrews that the veil represents the flesh of Christ. With his death, the veil is torn; the way is open. We may have direct access to the Father through Christ, the eternal Son, who is equal to the Father, who has made atonement for our sin. Surely we can understand that. It speaks of the way salvation, how God has brought it about, the price paid, the accomplishment that secured it, and the access that we now have if we trust in Christ.
Between verses 38 and 39 there is something which Matthew 27:51 records for us, ‘And the earth did quake and the rocks rent.’ You might call it an incidental event of the cross of Calvary, but it's a mighty event. It used to be called the second miracle of the death of Christ. We are often being told that there are rocks in the area of Calvary that are unaccountably split, perhaps from that very date. Who knows? But the rocks were split. Why did it happen? Firstly, it is not surprising that something very dramatic should mark the death of Christ on Calvary. This is the most magnificent and astonishing event in history.
There are other reasons too. In Romans 8 the apostle Paul speaks of how the whole creation groans and travails. Paul personifies even inanimate creation. It is as if all creation is groaning and longing and straining, waiting for the last day of time when Christ shall come again. The day of judgment will come, and this earth will be destroyed and remade: somehow combined with heaven, made a physical, spiritual place, perhaps far larger in order to house all saved people in glorified bodies for all eternity. Paul calls us to think: when you see the constant movement and tremors in even inanimate creation, it’s as though the whole earth is groaning and waiting for its ultimate glorification. When Christ suffered and died, he made a new race possible, and even redeemed the creation itself. He made eternity possible, and the existing earth must pass away before the new heaven and earth can be created. So there is a significance in the rending of the rocks.
But then it speaks about salvation also. If the veil being torn speaks about Christ's atoning death, shattering the barrier between man and God, then the rending of the rocks speaks of how God will go about it. Are you a believer and do you love the Lord, and long for him, and you pray to him daily for his help and blessing? Do you go by his word and struggle for holiness? Are all these things true of you now? They weren't always true of you. There was a time when your heart was hard like a rock, when you wouldn’t listen. First of all Christ had to suffer and die for our sins, and then the Spirit had to come and smash the rock, and melt us down, and open our hard hearts and incline wills. This is a new thing. People are going to be moved in their hundreds of thousands and millions around the world, and granite hearts are going to be broken and new hearts are going to be given to them.
Even the graves split in Jerusalem, we read in Matthew's Gospel. That was a symbol that the grave of the believer is now opened. He will not die for ever. His soul will go to be with Christ, and his body will be raised up at the last day. No grave can hold him.