B, 2nd Last Sunday of Church Year, Proper 28 - Mark 13:1-2, Hebrews 10:11-28 "The Temple Body"
The temple in Jerusalem no longer
exists. In 70 AD the Romans levelled the
place, due to a revolt by the Jews that began in 66 AD.
When Jesus was crucified, the
curtain in the temple separating the Holy Place from the Holy of Holies was torn
in two (Mark 15:38). Christians
recognise this as the time when the Old Covenant ceased to function along with
the sacrificial requirements of the Law.
And along with the end of the sacrificial requirements was Jesus
Christ’s one time victory over death and the devil; sin and Satan.
As we are told in the book of
Hebrews, “‘I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds
no more.’ Where there is forgiveness of
these, there is no longer any offering for sin.” (Hebrews 10:17-18 ESV)
What the disciples didn’t know,
Jesus was the new temple, replacing the temple at which they marvelled. These mega stones and structures would be
wrecked and razed in a mega-destruction.
So, here we have a picture of
Jesus turning the attention of the disciples, from the temple, to him and his
word of promise.
But it is interesting that this
happens, since Jesus had overturned tables of trade in the temple (Mark
11:15-19). Through the parable of the Tenants, he revealed he was the stone the
builders rejected (Mark 12:1-12)
He told the Pharisees and
Herodians to render to Caesar what bears the image of Caesar and to God what
bears the image of God (Mark 12:13-17).
He told one of the Scribes, “love
the Lord your God with all your soul, mind and strength, and love your
neighbour as yourself” (Mark 12:28-34).
He taught in the temple, that the
Christ was the Lord of David, even though he was the son of David (Mark
12:35-37).
And just prior to the disciples being
impressed by the size of the temple, Jesus highlights the wealth of the poverty
struck widow, who put all she owned into the temple treasury, against the perception
of the scribes’ greatness and the greater condemnation they would receive (Mark
12:38-44).
All along Jesus was painting a
picture of himself as the temple but despite this, they didn’t get it. When Jesus told the Scribe in the temple,
“You are not far from the kingdom of God” (Mark 12:34), no one realised he was
speaking about himself. He was not talking about the temple, nor an abstract
understanding of the kingdom of God.
Jesus is the temple of God. He is the Curtain of Creation through which
we enter the presence of God, encouraged by the Holy Spirit to receive his
blessing.
“We have confidence
to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus,
by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain,
that is, through his flesh, and since we
have a great priest over the house of God,
let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our
hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure
water. Let us hold fast the confession
of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.” (Hebrews 10:19-23)
Jesus paints this picture. The disciples don’t get it. It is interesting
but we shouldn’t be surprised! Why? Because we too struggle to see Jesus as the
singular curtain through which we are led into eternal life! And we have a much better understanding of
this picture because Jesus has completed the picture. Jesus waits for our
response, now that he has been raised and ascended into heaven; the Holy Spirit
has been sent; and the temple now no longer stands in Jerusalem.
Yet we find the confession of our
hope in the church is being sorely tested at the moment. As a community of faith and as individuals,
hope appears to be suffering. Because our hope suffers, confession of our hope
is next to non-existent. But where a
confession of hope does exist, it’s a wavering hope, darkened with deadly doubt
and blended beliefs.
Rather than a confidence in Jesus’
return and restoration, one hopelessly doubts saying, “I hope Jesus
returns!”
What is going on in the core of
our being when this happens?
Like the disciples invested
interest in the wonderful temple, we too have invested in many other
temples. Like the temple in Jerusalem
all these other temples will end in decay and be devoted to destruction. Although our temples of worship, unlike the
temple in Jerusalem, have never served any function in the salvation of
humanity. Rather, they do quite the
opposite, and erode faith, hope, and love, breeding self-righteousness and arrogance,
hopelessness and despair, looseness and unappeasable desires.
Social media, advertising,
individualism and the pursuit of pleasure have had a subtle effect on us
all. But there is nothing subtle about what
our indoctrination in these things is doing to us as a society. The temples are taking our time and they are
taking our souls. Such are the temple
towns in which our hearts are deceptively drawn to in wonder, but end in disappointment,
dissolution and destruction.
Unlike the temples that licence
us for licentiousness, misery, and deathly desire, Jesus is the temple of truth,
and he is faithful in his deliverance from death.
Unlike the temple in Jerusalem
and the temples of our heart that end in death, he is the temple that begins in
death and ends in life. Where
disfunction caused the death of the temple in Jerusalem and where the decay of
our bodies will end in death, Jesus is the temple that begins in death that
restores faith to live, hope to die, and love to forgive.
One might ask why God would have
Moses receive and institute the Law, with the temple requirements, that would become dysfunctional? All the Law seemed to do was breed works
righteousness rather than love and faith in God who made the temple his
footstool on earth!
And despite Jesus being the new
temple that was destroyed and raised in three days (John 2:19), we still
struggle with unbelief, despair, and our desires to be divine in our temples of
goodness. And so one might also ask, “Has Christianity become just as
dysfunctional as the temple at Jerusalem?”
What is God doing?
He is waiting!
When
Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the
right hand of God, waiting from that
time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. For by a single offering he has perfected for
all time those who are being sanctified. (Hebrews 10:12-14 ESV)
Jesus is waiting for that time
until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet! In other words, he is teaching us and testing
us. Our Heavenly Father is teaching us,
Jesus is the only Curtain through which we have access to him, and through
testing us, his desire is that we learn from our weakness and failures and seek
him, rather than rejecting his help and becoming his enemies.
Saint Paul puts it best, “For
we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a
building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this tent we groan, longing to put on
our heavenly dwelling, if indeed by
putting it on we may not be found naked.
For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened—not that
we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is
mortal may be swallowed up by life. He
who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as
a guarantee.”
(2 Corinthians
5:1–5 ESV)
It is God’s will that the temple of
our body will be swallowed up by life, the temple of Jesus, where faith, hope
and love dwell.
In addition to this we can marvel
at the wonderful work of the Holy Spirit who comes to us in baptism and brings
us into Jesus as a community, by planting Jesus in each of us individually at
baptism. This is God’s guarantee!
John realised the greatness of
this guarantee and records it in his Gospel, “And the Word became
flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son
from the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14 ESV)
His dwelling among us, is Jesus making
us his temple community in which he tents or tabernacles. This is where our
Immanuel indwells. Doesn’t Jesus say, “For where two or
three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.” (Matthew 18:20 ESV)
So, since we have God’s promise,
his faithfulness, the certainty of hope of life through death, and Jesus’ love
from the cross through our baptism. “Let
us consider how to stir up one another to love (to forgive) and good works (confessing
God’s good works of forgiveness and our good confession of sins), not neglecting to meet together, as is the
habit of some, but encouraging one another, by confessing
your sins to one another, and praying for one another, that all of you may be
healed, and all the more as all of you see the Day drawing
near.” (Hebrews
10:24–25, James 5:16)
Amen.
