11132021 – Mark 13. 1-8
Nothing lasts forever…
This calls for a visual. But the visual must be in “the mind’s eye.” So, picture this, if you will:
As the disciples walked out of the Temple in Jerusalem Jesus paused, looked back at the Temple, and predicted, “Do you see all these great buildings. Not one stone will be left “on another.”
It was a weird comment to make. Out of context. Strange. Misplaced. Odd.
They had been there in the region, many times before. Comments and commentary never followed then. Why now? Why this particular visit?
And when they surveyed the horizon, this is what they saw…
This was the “rebuilt Temple” of King Herod the Great. This incredible remodeling project began about 19 BCE and was only completed around the year 63-64 CE…a mere seven years before its final and fateful and utter destruction.
So, it was a project that went on – seemingly forever. The project had been going on for a number of years…already…when the disciples were leaving that place…
Some of its stones were 12 feet to 60 feet in length. A great many of them were 8 foot high…and 9 feet in width. They were beyond huge. No mortar was necessary. The weight of the stones held them tightly in place.
The Temple itself was decorated and adorned with gifts from many other countries and nations and had elegantly adorned doors and gates of the finest of craftsmanship.
The exterior of it was covered in white marble and gold.
The shining structure seemed MORE THAN a fitting place to HOUSE God’s presence here on earth.
It was said that the Temple loomed over the city like a “snowclad mountain,” glistening in the sun. A great many referred to it as being, the Greatest Building in the entire known world.
It was more than beautiful. More than impressive. More than lovely or attractive. It was more than breath-taking. It was massively elegant.
To the disciples this was “bedrock.” It was permanent. Forever. Invincible. Nothing could ever bring down these walls. They were eternal.
“Look, teacher! What massive stones! What magnificent buildings!” this is what they said to Jesus.
The “smallest stones” in the structure weighed 2 to 3 tons. Many of them weighed 50 tons. The largest existing stone, part of the Wailing Wall, is 12 meters in length and 3 meters high, and it weighs hundreds of tons! The walls towered over Jerusalem, over 400 feet in one area. Inside the four walls was 45 acres of bedrock mountain shaved flat and during Jesus’ day – a quarter of a million people could fit “comfortably” within the structure.
No sports arena in the world today comes even close. You can then understand the disciples’ awe, admiration, and respect…Just look…WOW! AMAZING! Incredible! Unbelievable! Awesome!
You know as well as I do, that our world is littered with the bones of old churches, old synagogues, and old mosques. Our buildings are not meant to be forever. Nor are we.
This is part of Jesus’ teaching ministry.
When Jesus spoke these words to his disciples, he was continuing the task of “re-orienting them” in their lives of faith.
He was attempting to offer to them a resilience and a hope that they would need for “an uncertain future” – ahead.
God is not contained within the walls of this or any Temple. God’s love transcends those specific places we have assigned to him. God’s love is not to be found in buildings, but in people, in human beings…in those in need.
Jesus was challenging and critiquing the basic assumptions of his day and time.
God is bigger than this Temple.
You cannot house God. You cannot pin him down, capture him and place him nicely and neatly where you want him to be.
Your God is too small. God is greater than…God is bigger than…God is more than…
Stop minimizing God. Stop making him fit where YOU want him to fit. God’s love has always transcended specific places and is found IN PEOPLE. In YOU, in me, in “others,” “in all of creation.”
“The life of God’s people” was founded not on bricks, cinder blocks, mortar, stained glass, and wood, but on the love of people, widows, orphans, strangers, and aliens…God’s grace reaches out to all people. ALL. And always has…
The Temple is where we meet. The Temple is where we converge. It is our temporary gathering place. Our point of reference. It is our beginning place…and we go out from here…into the world.
The Temple is nothing. The Temple will vanish and be no more…but the people of God, ah, they will go on and on…God will always see to it that a “holy remnant” always survives…and his Name will be made known forever.
It is he and he alone who is eternal. Everything else vanishes.
Amen.