Wednesday April 22

“what wonderful buildings”

After teaching in the temple prior to the cross and the resurrection

Mark 13:1–2 NASB95

1 As He was going out of the temple, one of His disciples said to Him, “Teacher, behold what wonderful stones and what wonderful buildings!” 2 And Jesus said to him, “Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left upon another which will not be torn down.”

Do we get it?

These were meant to be noticed

The work of Herod

Lexham Geographic Commentary on the Gospels Chapter 44: Magnificent Stones and Wonderful Buildings of the Temple Complex (Matt 24:1–2; Mark 13:1–2; Luke 21:5–6)

Temple Mount constituted one of the greatest feats of human engineering and construction ever known to man.

Lexham Geographic Commentary on the Gospels Chapter 44: Magnificent Stones and Wonderful Buildings of the Temple Complex (Matt 24:1–2; Mark 13:1–2; Luke 21:5–6)

The Jerusalem temple was “far larger and even more magnificent” than the temple of Artemis in Ephesus, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. What Herod accomplished was more than an engineering masterpiece: he “brilliantly used every architectural device to create a heightened feeling of religious community and invest the worshippers’ religious experience with a sense of grandeur and focused intensity.”

Lexham Geographic Commentary on the Gospels Jesus’ Response

This the disciples had failed to grasp, believing along with many in their nation that the temple was too new, too beautiful, and too marvelous to fall. But though the effort required the full power of the Roman legions in the year AD 70, the temple was destroyed, such that not one stone was left upon another.

False sense of connection

Grand building doesn’t mean a grand relationship

Cultivate and nurture your relationship with God

So later we can enjoy the building as a gathering place