Sermon Tone Analysis

Temple

On the heels of a discourse about the failure of the religious system and its representatives, Jesus make the following statement:

Last week we talked about the fate of those who reject Christ and that their end is utter desolation - A barren place that is uninhabitable

It’s a place without the presence of Christ

People are seeking peace today but cannot find it because they are looking in all the empty places!

So what is happening here?

The disciples are giving Jesus a tour of the temple!

The temple was the symbol and center of Jewish life.

It was a symbol of their special relationship with God.

It had all the trappings of religiosity, ornate, mysterious, grandiose in appearance, inviting.

The problem was that it was only an outward show that trapped people in its lure!

God is not impressed by buildings!

Overkill in the show

You see ritual with relationship is empty!

Many times Christ tried without success to present Himself to the leadership of the day but they wanted nothing to do with it!

You see before the unconverted did not know the way but once they were enlightened they were accountable for their knowledge!

The knew what God wanted but had no way to get there!

Now with Christs’ exit from the temple he begins the journey of redemption destroying the ways of man to make a new way to God

“Then Jesus departed from the temple”

A significant act which the English translation does not give us the full picture

The word here in the Greek means “To pass away, Going on a death march, Going to death

The Greek God’s had a place for their favorite followers

Homer in the Odyssey on pages 563-568 talks about this journey to the Isles of the Blessed in their death journey!

In the Eleusinian Mysteries this is a privileged place for devotees of Pindar who have lived a difficult, righteous life to the very end!

I hope you can see the implications of choosing this word to describe Jesus exit from the temple?

It was signifying that its over!

I’m exiting the scene never to return to this mess you call religion!

Not only will the system come to an end but the physical structure as well!

The veil was torn in two signifying that the separation between man and God was over

The beginning of the end of the Temple

“After Herod's death, the country largely descended into anarchy.

The Roman governors oppressed the Jews and allowed lawlessness to reign.

Roving gangs and corrupt Roman officers plundered and killed.

Former High Priests – who had paid their way into the office and then been replaced – formed their own militias to control the Temple.”

4 segments vying for power

Pharisees - Separatists: concerned with ritual purity; Sadducees : reject the oral Torah - generally wealthy Jews who bought their way into the high priesthood; Zealots: Nationalists wanted to fight the Romans; Sicarii: Trained assassins who would target Roman sympathizers

In 66 AD the Jews began the revolt against Rome - Due to Governor Flores who ordered Roman troops into Jerusalem and the slaughtered more than 3600 men that day in an attempt to elicit a response from the Jews.

They had gathered to make peace with the Governor, but blood-lust of the soldiers led to this slaughter and then a charge on the temple which was repelled by the people

The rebels caused Rome many losses.

The Emperor Nero was sure that the Jews were rebelling against the Roman Empire itself, not just against the abuses of the governor Florus.

He sent his best general, Vespasian, with 60,000 Roman soldiers and the most advanced weapons, to quell the revolt.

Vespasian was joined by his son Titus.

They would begin in the Galilee, in the north of Israel.

Not being able to take the city, Titus blockaded the city and a great starvation fell upon the people 1000’s died.

The streets were soon filled with corpses, and, as it was hot summer weather, terrible epidemics broke out.

Hundreds of people were found dead every morning.

In their despair, many of the Jews tried to leave the enclosure of Jerusalem under the cover of night to seek something edible in the fields.

They were easily captured, and Titus had them crucified in plain view of the city's defenders on the wall.

In one night, Josephus tells us, five thousand Jews were discovered searching for food and were all crucified.

Titus saw that the Jews were now weakened by hunger.

He had his soldiers cut down all the trees in a thirteen-mile swath around Jerusalem in order to build a new rampart for their assault, and they began dragging their battering rams up again.

By the end of the month of Sivan, the Romans were once again battering the Antonia fortress, and this time the Jewish fighters did not have strength to resist.

In the beginning of Tammuz, the Romans gained the Antonia fortress.

Those who had been defending the fortress now retreated behind the high walls of the Temple complex itself.

Finally, after 3 weeks of fighting, the Romans breached the wall of the Antonia Fortress and the final phase of the conquest began for the Temple.

Titus did not want to burn the temple but his orders never made it to the troops so a soldiers firebrand began the blaze.

When it was done.

The order was given to tear down the remaining stones to get the gold from the treasury that had melted into the cracks.

Even the streets were torn up throughout the city in search for survivors leaving the city almost uninhabitable

While the First Temple was destroyed due to idol worship, illicit relationships and murder, our Sages attribute the destruction of the Second Temple to the baseless hatred that prevailed among the Jews.

If the Jews had been united, they would have merited G‑d's protection.

They would have withstood the Romans.

I say all of this to remind us first that the prophecy of the Temple being destroyed was fulfilled.

The reason…They had rejected the true cornerstone, Jesus.

You can hear the words of Jesus echoing int he back ground:

My friends, today the Scripture tells that we are the Temple of the Holy Spirit

The world rejects the message of Jesus as folloishness

Let me ask you today…have you rejected the saving grace of God through Christ?

The result of the Jews rejecting Him lead to disorder, chaos, self-seeking ambition,

The result of the world rejecting Christ is the same!

Next week: