The Destruction of the Temple: A Time of Trouble

Transcription

We've just heard a very strange reading from the Gospel According to Mark. The subject is the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple in AD 70 during the first Jewish-Roman War. That's 40 years after the death and resurrection of Jesus. Why should the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple be important for us today?

We need to remember that the Bible is about more than our personal way of life, although it certainly has to do with that, or whether there is life for us beyond death. Some of us are particularly interested about that question in a very practical sense. As Janet loves to say, we have already passed our sell-by date. But these questions belong to a larger context, and it's a context that we may be reluctant or not equipped to deal with. A number of people that we know have chosen they don't want to think about these things. These questions are too complicated to work through, and they're too anxiety-producing. Who cares anyway? However, we who read the scriptures and take them seriously, know how important the whole flow of history is, because it is in this context that the creator of the universe speaks to us and enables us to manage living in the present time, and to look forward towards the future with confidence. And of course the biblical word for that is hope.

Our hope is not wishy-washy. It is our sure confidence that God keeps his promises, and that even when things get really rough, we can deal with it; because we know that the hand of the Lord is in all of these things. So as we, at this point in our history, are wondering what in the world is going to happen in the next four years, and some of us may be quite anxious on this subject, so we need to look at these things and try to see today's texts, in particular, in relationship to what God is doing on this planet in the historical process.

So to grasp the significance of today's reading from the Gospel, we need to remember the story of the Jews from the Exodus, at least, right up to the Roman occupation of the land of the Jews. What we're looking at is the time when a young Galilean rabbi summoned a small group of fishermen to follow him and to learn from him.

In order to understand today's reading, we have to go back to the first verses of Mark. By the way, the order of Sunday readings in our Book of Common Prayer was reorganized around the 1960s. The editors could see that the list of readings for Advent season was too short; and yet the sequence was very important, and so what they did was to change the Lectionary so that there are at least these two weeks' readings before the beginning of Advent, which in fact are Advent readings. They're intended to get us ready for Advent.

Last week the Gospel text was about the poor woman making an offering at the temple, and that doesn't seem to have anything to do with Advent; so suddenly, wham, here we are, and even this reading is suddenly dropped on us out of the sky, so to speak, and we don't know what was going on with Jesus and the disciples right before it. So I'm going to try very quickly to fill that in. Actually, the first part of my sermon today is just trying to get us in the historical context, and then I will have a very compressed three points, which of course you will remember.

So Jesus is with his disciples. This is his last visit to Jerusalem, and he's been trying to tell the disciples that he's facing arrest and his own death and his resurrection. He's trying to prepare them for this, but as we noted a few weeks ago, the disciples are a little bit slow. (That's why I feel so comfortable with them.) They couldn't really understand what he was talking about. But they still had their own preconceptions, which were very powerful; and are represented by the reading from Daniel.

Daniel was a Jewish prophet of the exile living in Babylon, and he was talking to the Jewish exiles in Babylonia and saying, "Hang on, guys. This is all within God's plan, and it's going to come out all right in a time and a time and a half of time." I don't really understand that chronology. Anyway, it's a long time, and whatever it is, the Jews had been waiting for about 500 to 600 years by the time Jesus showed up in Galilee. Waiting a long time is certainly not anything we Americans do very well. If I'm looking forward to something happening, I want it to happen right now, and you tell me I have to wait 600 years, forget it. That's never in my book. At least, I won't be here in 600 years. But Daniel gave this message to the exiles, and they took it very seriously, generation after generation after generation. This was a very powerful promise.

And so by the time Jesus and this bunch of simple fishermen turn up, and Jesus is trying to prepare them for this astounding event that is about to take place, the Jews have been waiting literally for many generations, 500 to 600 years, and they are on tiptoes because they believe that the time has come and that God is going to act again. "He's done it before. He'll do it again. He got us out of Egypt. He gave us King David, and he established the Kingdom of Israel; and then those Greeks came in and messed up everything, but we fixed them because the Maccabees rose up, these guerrilla fighters, and much to their surprise, not to mention the surprise to the Greeks, they were successful in driving the Greeks out of Judea. And their kingdom lasted, I think, almost 200 years.

They did some amazing things, and I have to not digress here because I get so excited about what the Hasmoneans, that's what the Maccabean dynasty is called, accomplished during these 200 years. For example, they invented the synagogue during this time. And they kept the faith of Israel alive. They did it by starting transferring the teaching responsibility of the temple to the synagogues.

The temple was still there, and it had been rebuilt, but they transferred some of that teaching of the temple scholars to the synagogue because the Jews had forgotten how to speak Hebrew, not to mention most were just peasants. They couldn't read or write, but what happened was that the Hasmoneans created public education for ordinary people in the context of the synagogue. And so these people learned how to read Hebrew, and the point of this was that the Hasmoneans knew that if this kingdom was going to hold together, they had to know where they came from-- they had to know about the Exodus, and they had to know the law of Moses.

So they needed the Torah, which is both narrative and law, and this was absolutely basic. So, in spite of the Greeks, and thanks to the Hasmoneans, the Jews still knew who they were, and were eagerly looking forward to the time that God would act to restore the kingdom to Israel. And that meant, by Jesus' time, getting rid of the Romans. Some of us are descended from the Romans, so I mean no offense; but if you were a Jew, you didn't have any patience with the Romans, and you looked forward to a mighty act of God which would take the form of a military action, and would throw out the Romans. And Jesus was trying to tell them it's not going to happen that way, but something huge is about to happen.

So I've got to back up a couple of verses to the beginning of chapter 13 in Mark, and it starts like this: As Jesus came out of the temple, one of the disciples said to him, "Look teacher, what wonderful stones and what wonderful buildings!" Have any of you ever been to the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem? Yeah, well, those are just the foundation stones, but they are huge, I mean one of the stones is about the size of, well, almost of the back wall here, and those are just the foundation stones.

And the second temple that Herod had built was really a stupendous building, and so all of the Jews were very proud of this second temple, and they said, "look teacher, what wonderful stones and what wonderful buildings," and Jesus said to them, "do you see these great buildings? There will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down." Oh boy, what a downer. It was as though, and try to picture this for yourself, it was as though Jesus had led us into Washington D.C. to the Mall, and said, "hey, look up there at Capitol Hill," and said, "do you see that magnificent building? There will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down."

How would we feel? Oh no, that building represents everything that is important to us, our common story, the ideas that shape our way of life, the experiences that fill the memories of our families going back many generations. One of us cries out, "I had five ancestors on the Mayflower in 1620. They were Puritans and wanted to create a society based on the Protestant Reformation and English common law." A second one of us said, "my great-grandfather was a French Calvinist, a Huguenot who came to America in 1760 to escape persecuton and begin a new life." And then a third said, "my father was sent to America as a 12-year-old to escape the ethnic cleansing of Armenians that began in Turkey in 1895." And if you thought about your own family histories, you could probably remember family stories that go back to when your people came to this country first, and what the cost and the reason for their migration was.

When Jesus warned his disciples that the temple would be destroyed in the near future, they would have reacted the same way as we would when confronted by the possible destruction of everything that we hold most precious to us in this country. But the people of Israel had lost their way. They had forgotten their covenant with God, the foundation of their national life. They assumed, like all the other nations, that peace and prosperity could be achieved through war. After all, as I have already said, they had been through a number of encounters with imperial powers which involved, sooner or later, some form of warfare. And they had come through it, and the nation had been established.

So, it was entirely plausible that the nation would expect that if they rose and rebelled against the Romans, against all odds... You know, the Romans were the superpower of the day. They were amazingly well organized as a military power. So, having listened to Daniel and the other prophets, the Jews were sure that at the right time God would act, and they believed that they would be victorious.

During the time that Jesus was walking in Galilee and visiting Jerusalem, the disciples believed the time for the deliverance of Israel was near. Most of the Jewish people believed that this was the time, and this was the state of expectancy that Jesus was addressing in his teaching. But he was really struggling to get these dear people to understand what he was talking about.

When Jesus stood on the Mount of Olives as he and the disciples were approaching Jerusalem that last time -- You know, the Mount of Olives is about the same level or higher than the city of Jerusalem. So, they were on the top of the Mount of Olives looking across the valley to the city. And Jesus was looking down with the other men, and he lamented, "Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it, how often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, but you were not willing." One of the most sad events that is recalled in the Gospels.

And then Jesus began to say to them, "See that no one leads you astray. Many, many will come in my name saying, I am he, and they will lead many astray. And when you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed. This must take place, but the end is not yet. Nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom, there will be earthquakes in various places. There will be famines, but these are but the beginning of the birth pangs. But be on your guard, for they will deliver you over to councils and you will be beaten in synagogues, and you will stand before governors and kings for my sake to bear witness before them. And the gospel must first be proclaimed to all nations."

This is where today's reading begins -- in case you're wondering, that's the background, that's the context. And maybe today's reading will begin to make sense if we understand this high sense of expectancy. Jesus struggled to get the disciples to understand what the situation meant. And so then the account in the Gospel of Mark goes on. "But when you see the abomination of desolation standing where it ought not to be, let the reader understand."

I hope you understand because I shouldn't take the time to unpack that right now. It's interesting historically, but the point is, it's a sign that things are really going to pop. "Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains." Jesus continued: If anyone says to you, look, here is the Christ, or look, there he is, do not believe it. For false prophets will arise and perform signs and wonders to lead astray, if possible. But be on guard, I have told you things beforehand." Okay, this is just the preface. So how does all this apply to our situation today?

This text is not about the literal end of the world. Some people read it that way and that causes profound confusion. It does not mean what we mean by "the end of the world." It doesn't mean that history will stop or that the planet will dissolve into dust. That's not what it means; but it does mean that the world as we know it, our way of life, everything that's familiar to us, everything that's important to us, will come to an end. That's what Jesus is saying.

So just to try to get a hold of this -- This is the start of the three points here. (1) The first is the symbolism of the temple. What does the temple mean to the Jews? (2) The second is what is Jesus' advice if we find ourselves in a time of trouble, in a situation that looks like imminent catastrophe? (3) And then the bottom line, the good news, and get a hold of this, everyone, Jesus is the temple. If you're paying attention, that's the bottom line. But that's kind of a weird way of talking about it. Okay, first of all, the symbolism of the temple.

(1) The temple, the Jewish temple is the symbol of national identity and unity. Okay? This is huge. Sounds something like the Capitol building, huh? And it's the repository of the national constitution. And, of course, what is the repository of the national constitution of the Kingdom of Israel? Of course, it's the Ark of the Covenant. And you know what's in the Ark of the Covenant? It's a big box covered with wonderful golden decoration. And inside are scrolls. And, the stone tablets on which the 10 words were written on Mount Sinai. But that wasn't all. There were two more things. There was also Aaron's staff. I had forgotten that. I didn't know that until I looked it up in the words of All Wisdom, the Wikipedia. But I did know that the fourth thing in there was a bowl of manna.

So these were the symbols, the objects that were associated with the events that both gave the people of Israel their freedom and their identity and their way of life. So it was huge. It was the national constitution. It was what gave their life meaning and shape. And the key point here, and I can't go into detail on this, is that the sacrificial system, (I'm just struggling afresh with the whole concept of sacrifice) but besides being a national symbol, the temple was a place of periodic, regular sacrifices.

The point of the sacrifices was, through the sacrifices, a place was made in human life where both heaven and earth overlapped and intersected. This is where heaven, which is where God is, and earth, which is where we are, where they overlap and intersect.

And, of course, God's purpose in his creation is that these two, heaven and earth, should be together. But because of our willfulness, there's been a gap created. And God's purpose, what he's doing in the historical process, is to close that gap and get his human creatures back together with himself. And that was what the temple represented, the meeting place of heaven and earth.

(2) Point number two, dealing with imminent catastrophe. When it looks like everything's going down the drain, how do we react? Well, actually, Jesus says, if it's really serious, get going. Get out! And that's what most of the church in Jerusalem did when the war with the Romans was imminent. They got out of town. And that was good advice. It sounded like something they told me in seminary. And that was, "Choose which hill you want to die on. You can't fight all the battles." There are times where you just take a powder. You just get out. However, that's not normal operating procedure for us.

We are not to chicken out. We are not to stick our heads in the sand. We are to stand and be good stewards. That is the situation in which most of us find ourselves today. Our calling is to listen for the guidance of the Holy Spirit and to do what he is telling us to do in our particular situation, even though it's costly for us and may look as though it's futile. That's what Jesus is telling us to do. So the options are escape or stewardship. And the basic message is, don't chicken out, guys. Hang in there. OK.

(3) Jesus is the real Temple, but he is not only the place where heaven and earth overlap and interlock, but Jesus' resurrection is the beginning of the New Creation. And we've already heard a bit about this, but we really need to get this in our heads. I don't know about you, but I am a child of the Protestant Reformation and, in particular, Calvinism, which I respect and appreciate. However, as Calvinism has come down to this generation, it looks like merely an escape mechanism. That is, if you believe the right thing and do the right things, your ticket is punched and you can be sure you will go to heaven when you kick the bucket. And that's all that matters. And I would say, well, that matters, but that's not all that matters.

This is the point. God has created this amazing planet and has brought these strange and wonderful creatures (us) into existence, and he's not given up on us. God does not make junk. That's a basic biblical principle. I hope you all got that. And he has started this process, and he's going to bring it to completion in spite of the powers and principalities and all of the forces that want to spoil God's plan.

So we are experiencing the birth pangs of the New Creation. And not only was it mentioned, in today's gospel -- Paul picks that up in Romans. He talks about the sufferings of the present age as the birth pangs of creation. And that is what our suffering looks like. So let's bring all of this in line. Let's pray together this wonderful prayer from our Book of Common Prayer:

Almighty God, who hast given us this good land for our heritage:

We humbly beseech thee that we may always prove ourselves a people mindful of thy favor and glad to do thy will. Bless our land with honorable industry, sound learning, and pure conduct. Save us from violence, discord, and confusion; from pride and arrogance, and from every evil way. Defend our liberties, and fashion into one united people the multitudes brought hither out of many kindreds and tongues. Endue with the spirit of wisdom those to whom, in thy Name, we entrust the authority of government, that there may be justice and peace at home, and that, through obedience to thy law, we may show forth thy praise among the nations of the earth. In the time of prosperity, fill our hearts with thankfulness, and in the day of trouble, suffer not our trust in thee to fail; all of which we ask through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.**

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**The recording of this sermon was converted online from mp3 format to text by https://turboscribe.ai/ and edited by the author.