As he came out of the temple, one of his disciples said to him, “Look, Teacher, what large stones and what large buildings!” Then Jesus asked him, “Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown down…” Then Jesus began to say to them, “Beware that no one leads you astray. Many will come in my name and say, ‘I am he!’ and they will lead many astray. When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed; this must take place, but the end is still to come. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be earthquakes in various places; there will be famines. This is but the beginning of the birth pangs.” Mark 13
It seems to me that Jesus could have been talking about November 2024.
Jesus’ disciples are leaving the temple in Jerusalem that Herod the Great had just finished extensively refurbishing and expanding. The construction project was massive so it’s not surprising that the disciples are impressed. Jesus looks at his disciples, and knowing how impressed they are with the permanence of the stones, he takes a stick pin to the bubble they are living in and he pops it: “Not one stone will be left upon another; all will be thrown down.”
He’s just kind of like that sometimes, isn’t he?
Of course, Jesus was right. In 70 C.E., at the height of the first Jewish-Roman war, the temple was destroyed by the Roman siege of Jerusalem. Just like he said, there was wars and rumors of wars. There was destruction, false prophets, and famine.
And Jesus is still right. There is still one section of that temple wall from Jesus’ day that stands today. You might have heard it referred to as the wailing wall. And indeed there is much to wail about. This last year has seen such violence in the land called Holy. There is war there, not just rumors of war. There is destruction, there is famine, and there is little hope of it ending soon.
And all of this makes me wonder in what do we place our hope?
This week I started to wonder what my own bubble might be…what large stones am I so reliant upon still standing in my own life? What do I treat as eternal that is not? Maybe my own health and the health and safety of my family. How about the longevity of my denomination, the strength of the economy, or the fact that I can walk down the road without fear of missile attacks?
As his disciples gaze upon the temporary thing in which they place their hope, Jesus doesn’t say that having a temple is wrong; he personally spent a lot of time there. He just said that the temple still standing is not the ultimate sign that God is faithful.
There’s nothing wrong with wanting my family to be healthy, for this congregation to thrive, for my denomination to still be around, or for me to be safe on my own streets. But these things are not eternal. These things cannot love me the way God can love me.
God doesn’t cause the suffering and destruction. God just bears it. God bears all of our sins and our suffering. That’s what the cross was about: A God who became flesh and took all of our violence and hatred and all of our sins into his very own body.
God no longer meets us in the big shiny temple but in that very body of Christ. This is a servant God who disarms the violence of humanity and offers God’s own blessings and grace in exchange. Jesus is saying to his disciples that the temple in which they place their hope will be torn down but that doesn’t mean hope itself will be torn down. Jesus is the new temple and we tried to do it him too but he rose again, and with him, our hope.
Finally there is only one thing worthy of our trust and hope that will never be torn down.
