I wonder whether you enjoy visiting cathedrals. I find that there is something reassuring about a place that has been in prayed in faithfully for many generations. I am also astonished when I think about how big they are, usually, and how long they took to build. What was achieved with basic hand tools and very little mechanical assistance – nothing more than pulley systems to help lift stone really. Generations of stone masons devoted to bringing something into reality that they knew they wouldn’t see finished, but their great grand children might see complete.
It’s that kind of mindset that we need to get into our heads to understand how Jesus friends and followers were thinking when they visited the Temple in Jerusalem that day. It was a bit like us visiting a cathedral, but even more so.
The Temple wasn’t one among many, it was the only one. It was the spiritual centre of the nation, of the people of God. It was the place of the presence of God. The place of worship. It was an amazing construction, built centuries before our cathedrals.
The disciples are full of wonder, and can’t help but remark on it to Jesus.
“What massive stones! What magnificent buildings.”
Jesus’ response is not what they expecting. He doesn’t join in their wonder at the architecture. He doesn’t tell them about how he is going to restore the people of God as the Temple was rebuilt following the return from exile. He doesn’t reassure them that it will stand forever as the Romans are driven out of the Land.
None of that.
He responds with a tale of destruction, deception, and delivery.
Destruction. He tells them that the temple is going to be destroyed.
“Not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.”
There are a couple of ways of understanding this. One is to read this as a fairly straightforward prophecy of the destruction of the Temple by the Romans, which is what happened about forty years later.
Another way of understanding this draws on something that John tells us that Jesus said on another occasion when he was in the temple. On that occasion he had arrived to find one of the courts of the temple looking more like a market place, and had attacked the stall holders and driven them out. The religious leaders had challenged his right to do this and this is what we read in John chapter 2:
“Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.”
They replied, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?” But the temple he had spoken of was his body. After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said. Then they believed the scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken.”
So, it is possible that in Mark’s account of a different visit to the physical temple, Jesus is referring again to the destruction of his own body – looking forward to his own death.
Deception. Jesus warns that there will be those who will try and deceive his followers. It could be said that much of the Bible is taken up with the account of the conflict between the God of truth and Satan. Right back at the beginning of the Bible, Satan had lied to Adam and Eve about what would happen if they ate of the tree that God had forbidden them. As we read through the history of the people of God, again and again they are pulled away to the worship of false Gods. In John chapter 8 we hear Jesus describing the devil like this:
“He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”
In contrast, when Jesus talks about the Holy Spirit he says,
“But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.”
In this case Jesus is particularly warning his disciples to be wary of those who arrive claiming to be the Messiah, the one who can rescue God’s people from the mess they’re in, who try to usurp Jesus’ position. Anyone who points to themselves rather than to Jesus as the answer to the evils of the world is a deceiver.
Jesus might have been referring to the deceit that would be seen in the sham trials that he was to face in the run up to his own death. To the lies that witnesses would tell, to the self deceit of the religious rulers claiming they were doing this on behalf of the people. In one of those trials the judge, Pontius Pilate, even asked Jesus, “what is truth?”
Jesus might have been looking further forward to the days of early church, when there would be distortions of the good news of Jesus. We only have to read Paul’s letters to know that there were those who were more interested in lining their own pockets and building up their own influence and power by trying to persuade people there were hidden mysteries that they needed to be inducted into, for a fee of course.
Finally in our passage from Mark’s eye witness account of Jesus’ life and ministry we hear Jesus talking about a delivery. He tells us that all these things that are going on are the beginning of birth pains. There is something new about to be delivered.
In common with many pregnancies the people involved know it’s coming, but they’re not sure exactly when. There will be pain and joy, mixed together in a wonderful mess. It makes new life possible, but it is also risky.
What is it that is going to be delivered in this case?
Jesus doesn’t make it clear explicitly, but when we read this in the light of the rest of Jesus’ teaching, it seems to me that the most likely answer is the Kingdom of God. Jesus death and resurrection, a painful and bloody process, ending with joy and new life, begins the breakthrough of the Kingdom of God, the rightful rule and reign of God.
To push the metaphor a bit further, this breakthrough is only a baby one. We see it grow in the life of the early church as, inspired by the Holy Spirit, the disciples take the good news and share it with others. We see the kingdoms of the world changed by the Kingdom of God. That process has continued through history. It still hasn’t finished, we know that, but it is still growing.
So, what do these three “ds” have to say to us today? What questions do they present us with?
Destruction. When the disciples heard Jesus talking about destruction they were taken aback. When they saw the destruction of his body by whip and nail they were devastated. When the Temple was destroyed, it ripped the heart out of the nation. Those followers of Jesus who were Jewish would, I expect, have been heart broken. And yet. They would have come to see that it was necessary for that destruction to happen in order for a new thing to come. This isn’t always that case for things that are destructive. Some destruction is just that. But, it may be that there are things in our lives that need clearing out, that need to be destroyed so that something else can come. This might be really painful, but sometimes it is necessary.
Deceit. It is a bit of a cliché that we live in a post-truth world. For many it doesn’t matter what is true, or what evidence is provided, the important thing is what feels true, what is wanted to be true. A faked photo on social media, shared enough times becomes true, despite the reality of a situation. What are we to do? We are to be really careful, to do what Jesus says. “Watch out that no-one deceives you.” To ask the Holy Spirit to lead us into all truth, that’s one of the reason the Father has sent the Holy Spirit. Most of all to test things – is this pointing to Jesus or not?
Delivery. What new things is God bringing to birth in our lives, as individuals or as a community? I’m nearly fifty now. My children are 21 and 24. I have friends not far of my age who have much younger children. I’m not sure how they do it. I would not want to have a new baby at my age, I’ve pretty much shut myself down to the possibility. I wonder, though, if we do that spiritually as well. If we say to God, I’m not interested in anything new, in any further new life. I wonder if there’s a danger of us getting stuck in that place. What would it look like to get unstuck and be open to the possibility of there being something new born?