A Choice of ‘Temples’...
This article is written from the passage of scripture in Luke 21:5-19. Jesus and His disciples are visiting Jerusalem. This city is the center of their world, and at the city’s center stands the temple. The sight of the temple almost overwhelms them, and the more talkative ones go on enthusiastically about the beautiful stones and gifts dedicated to God that appear almost everywhere they turn there in the temple precincts.
These remarks can’t be dismissed because they come from the unsophisticated, folks whose piety predisposes them to be awestruck. By anybody’s accounting, the Jerusalem temple in the time of Jesus was a magnificent place.
The temple was the third one to stand on the site. The first one had lasted four hundred years until it was destroyed by the Babylonians. The second remained intact for five centuries before it was desecrated by Antiochus Epiphanes, also known for his persecution of the Jews. The third temple had been in place for nearly half century when Jesus and His disciples came for their visit. It was twice the size of the previous enclosure.
Almost everyone in Jerusalem was engaged in some work connected with the temple. There were the craftsmen, blenders of incense, dealers in sacrificial animals, innkeepers who offered hospitality to the pilgrims, and currency changers, such as those Jesus chased out of the temple one memorable day. All told, the temple personnel numbered about 20,000 people. Some liked to describe Jerusalem as a temple with a city attached. There a religion had become an economy.
In the light of this majesty and power, the words of Jesus seem all the more remarkable. When those with him cannot help but praise the glory of the temple, He speaks a prophecy of destruction: “As for these things that you see, the days will come when not one stone will be left upon another; all will be thrown down.” (Luke 21:5-6) This prophesy came terribly true a generation later when the temple was once again destroyed, this time by the Roman army.
Jesus while visiting the temple foretold its destruction. That solid, secure structure and the beliefs it represented would not last forever. All would be swept away within a generation. So then, the temple of Jerusalem is no more and other temples in the world will be gone someday. Is there another temple, one that will remain forever?
Is there a temple whose sacrifice, by God’s grace, is pure and Holy, where humanity, with a burning desire to meet the true God can find comfort and peace?
The answer is yes. We find that temple in a surprising spot. It is no vast structure that dominates the landscape horizon. The temple of which I am referring to is the body of Christ.
Jesus declared this. While in Jerusalem he said, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” (John 2:19) He did not mean a building; He meant His body. That body was destroyed in death, yet raised to unconquerable life. That body still abides. It includes ALL His people-the one church, the body of Christ.
This is the new temple, the everlasting temple, not raised by human construction, but by the mercy and victory of God. This temple is not a place where in any human sense a religion becomes an economy, or an economy becomes a religion. This real and mystical and visible body, welcomes all to live in this temple where the doors are ALWAYS open.
This holiday season, find the body of Christ where you feel welcome and wanted and loved (every Christian, universal church will serve that purpose) and worship our loving God. When the holiday season is over, stick around for the remainder of the year and grow with each of us, who daily serve our Lord and Savior with a fervor and burning desire to come closer to the One true God and the One Church and the One Body of Christ.
AMEN!