As Jesus was leaving the temple, one of his disciples said to him, “Look, Teacher! What massive stones! What magnificent buildings!” – Mark 13:1

Today’s Scripture Reading (November 14, 2017): Mark 13

The terror attack in New York a couple of weeks ago served to remind many of the horrible attack the city suffered on 9/11. It is still sometimes hard to watch movies, or T.V. shows set in New York before September 11, 2001, and see the twin towers still presiding in majesty over the city. If on September 10, 2001, someone had commented that one day soon the Towers of the World Trade Center would be brought down, we would not have believed it could be true. The Towers seemed to be a permanent part of the New York skyline. How could something so majestic ever be destroyed?

Whenever we build and whatever we build, we seldom think that our creation will one day be brought low. And yet, even if it is just through neglect as all of those “The World without Humans” shows try to remind us, nothing is permanent – and walls, no matter how magnificent, eventually fall.

The Temple in Jerusalem has had a troubled past. Solomon’s Temple or the First Temple in Jerusalem stood for less four centuries. (Note: There is some discrepancy about how long Solomon’s Temple stood. The Jewish historian Josephus in the first century C.E. argues that the Temple stood for 470 years, six months and ten days. Seder Olam Rabbah in the second century C.E. maintains that the Temple stood for 410 years. But if we can assume that Solomon began his solo reign in 970 B.C.E. and that he started building the Temple four years into his reign [966 B.C.E – 1 Kings 6:1] and completed the Temple in seven years [959 B.C.E. – 1 Kings 6:38] and then was destroyed by the Babylonians in 587 B.C.E., then Solomon’s Temple stood in Jerusalem for around 372 years.) Zerubbabel’s Temple, or the second Temple, actually stood for a more extended period. It was not as impressive, at least originally, as Solomon’s Temple, but it was built in 516 B.C.E. and was not destroyed until the Roman’s took it apart in 70 C.E. – approximately 585 years after it was constructed. But Zerubbabel’s Temple received a significant overhaul by King Herod in the first century B.C.E. In fact, that overhaul was likely not yet complete as the disciples were making their comments about the “massive stones” and the “magnificent building.” Yet not even that Temple was permanent.

As I have made clear elsewhere in this blog, I am not sure that God ever meant for us to build a Temple to his name. It seems to be more our desire than his. The Temple that God planned to create was always in the form of his son, whom he loved. And there, his name would dwell forever. Paul reminds us that we are God’s Temple (Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in your midst? – 1 Corinthians 3:16). And that temple, built in us is sacred, and God will react against anyone who dares to attempt to destroy that Temple. And the Temple that God has made among us and in us is more beautiful and magnificent than any Temple that we could make from massive stones which would eventually fall down.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Luke 20