The Destruction of the Temple

Welcome to New Horizon. Please open Bibles to Mark 13.

Forecast of where we are going over the coming weeks and months.

Where we left off:

Jesus had a triumphant entry into the city of Jerusalem, celebrated by the Jews as a misunderstood Messiah figure.

Jesus, a day later, entered the temple and disrupted the buying and selling that was taking place there.

The following day, Tuesday of Holy Week, Jesus returns and engages with various religious leaders, answering all of their challenges and trapping them with his own responses.

Once Jesus has finished with these interactions, he leaves the temple, never to visit it again.

Jesus and his disciples are leaving Jerusalem for the evening, once again to return to the Mount of Olives. It is on this short journey in which our text takes place.

Mark 13:1-4- And as he came out of the temple, one of his disciples said to him, “Look, Teacher, what wonderful stones and what wonderful buildings!” And Jesus said to him, “Do you see these great buildings? There will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.” And as he sat on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter and James and John and Andrew asked him privately, “Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign when all these things are about to be accomplished?”

Pray.

What are the implications of Jesus’ announcement concerning the full destruction of the temple, especially in response to the disciple’s statement about the majesty of the temple?

What exactly is Jesus communicating to His surprised disciples? We will find at least three implications.

1. Jesus corrects the vanity of the senses.

Our first point centers on the beauty and majesty of the temple, which the unnamed disciple noticed as they were leaving.

Truly, Herod’s temple was a glory to behold. Herod began projects to expand the size and grandeur of the temple, and His reforms were finished in the year 65 AD, a mere five years before it met its end.

But consider the words of Jewish historian Josephus, who wrote the following concerning the temple- “Now the outward face of the temple in its front wanted nothing that was likely to surprise either men’s mind or their eyes: for it was covered all over with plates of gold of great weight, and, at the first rising of the sun, reflected back a very fiery splendor, and made those who forced themselves to look upon it turn their eyes away, just as they would have done at the sun’s own rays.”

He went on to state that for strangers who didn’t know what the temple was but saw it from a great distance, many thought it to be a mountain, covered in glistening snow.

Finally, he writes that some of the stones of the temple were sixty feet long by eleven feet high and eight feet deep, each weighing more than a million pounds.

Thus, with it being so impressive, it naturally drew the attention of onlookers, even those who had been in ministry with Jesus for the past few years.

When men and women beheld the temple, they saw beauty, they saw permanence, and, if they were Jewish, they saw the very presence and protection of God.

How could the temple ever face a threat? There was a magnificence to it that could not be questioned or doubted.

And this is what the disciples noticed, and so they asked Jesus to look and observe the beauty of what stood before them.

What wonderful stones, what wonderful buildings. Jesus, look at what surrounds us!

There is this sense that Jesus is truly going to be impressed by what He sees. It is, after all, pure majesty.

But let’s think just a bit deeper about who it was that was marveling over the impressive nature of the temple.

It was a nameless disciple. One, again, who had been with Jesus. Consider what this disciple would have seen in the last few hours.

Jesus clears the temple, condemning the practices that were taking place.

Curses a fig tree, teaching the disciples of the looming end of the temple and all of its religious observances.

Then, He interacts with the leaders of the Jewish religion, whose proper place was in an authoritative role IN the temple, and one by one, He dismantles the way that they see and practice religion.

He traps a group of religious leaders, asking them a question about John the Baptist that they cannot answer.

He challenges the Pharisees and Herodians, alluding to the fact that they were not giving to God what was rightly His.

He corrects the Sadducees, who had made a horrible mistake in their denial of eternal life beyond the grave.

And finally, He impresses the Scribe with His answer concerning the most important commandment.

What Jesus has just done, after cleansing the temple, is dismantle every argument of those who were running the Jewish religion IN the temple.

Any high view of the temple and the practices which took place in the temple had been completely demolished by Jesus in the past few hours.

And so we come back to the disciples. Of all the head-scratching things to say… “Hey Jesus, look at the beauty of this building! Have you ever seen anything like it?”

Senor Dona Lopez.

Imagine what the disciple expected as a response. And then notice the response that Jesus gave. “It will be utterly destroyed.” Imagine the reaction of the disciples.

What Jesus is doing here is correcting the vanity of the senses, letting the disciples know that they have been fooled by what they have taken in and beheld. The senses, after all, can be pretty vain.

The senses of mankind are most drawn to whatever is most attractive to us. Consider just a few examples.

Sight- We pass over what is commonplace in order to see what is truly worthy of our visual focus.

Story- thinking dad had put in new tile that had actually been there since I was born.

Smell- We hold our noses when we sense a foul odor, or don’t even think about the smells that we are used to, but love to breathe in that which is pleasant.

Sound- We will flip through radio stations that are playing music we don’t care for in order to get to the songs we love.

This is the nature of our senses. Whatever we are impressed by will be what grabs our attention.

Why is all of this so important? Because Jesus is taking the vain thoughts of the disciple, who focuses only on the beautiful exterior, and redirecting those thoughts. He corrects the vanity of the senses.

Again, we look to what is most attractive, what is most beautiful, often at the expense of seeing what is commonplace.

And for so many, this has become the focus of our lives, and sometimes, the focus of our faith.

We love that which is impressive, that which is beautiful. We love ministry that happens in big ways. And we love to witness the fruit of our efforts.

Richard Phillips, in his commentary of Revelation, writes that prayer meetings are so poorly attended anymore in churches. He makes the argument that this is tied directly to the desire to see quick and tangible results. He writes, - “Christians are more eager to engage in activities that have a visible effect.”

I find this to be so true, we are so driven by results that we are often guided by our vanities.

Faithfulness in the quiet things of life seem far more difficult.

When Paul writes to the Thessalonian Christians and tells them to live quiet lives, minding their own affairs and working with their hands, we are blown away. We expect something different. We want to make a real difference. And we want to watch it happen. We want to be observers of the change that we bring about.

What must be taken into account is that God so often works through the quiet and faithful efforts of trusting men and women.

What is far more likely than a Billy Graham reaching millions of people is someone quietly discipline someone else. Praying for him. Teaching him. Walking in life beside him. Gently correcting him. This will often be the plain yet powerful method of ministry to which we will be called.

Further, the vain temptation in each and every one of us will be to minister, regardless of method, to those who are most appealing in our own eyes.

Remember, vanity of the senses will cause us to overlook what is common in order to see what we truly value.

There is a reason that James commanded the early church to not show partiality to the wealthy over the poor. It is because that is our temptation. We desire to minister to those who seem to have easier fixes.

Isn’t this what Matthew 25 is all about? Jesus separates the sheep from the goats, believers from non-believers, and differentiates them by who cared for the least of these. Well, who are the least of these? They are those who are overlooked by just about everyone. Faithful, obedient ministry requires the work of setting our gaze where it will not naturally fall.

If we are unwilling to do this, then the people who would require the highest amount of effort are passed by in order that others can be sought out.

And the biggest problem here is that we convince ourselves that godly, Christ-like ministry is still happening.

It’s almost like we are the priest and the Levite in the parable of the good Samaritan, passing by true need on the side of the road in order to go minister to folks in other, less demanding ways. And then thinking that God is somehow still pleased with our efforts.

So we continue in this vain sort of ministry, believing ourselves to be doing the will of God, while needing to be reminded by Jesus that the beautiful temple and all that it stands for will come tumbling down.

We find ourselves in the shoes of the unnamed disciple. Drawn to what is big, powerful and influential, not considering what is plain and quiet and ordinary.

Vanity will always drive us into a method of ministry that is more appealing which focuses on the people to which we are attracted, but Jesus corrects vanity by stating that the beautiful temple will be destroyed.

And this leads us directly into our next point.

2. That which is most impressive may not prevail.

Let me briefly rephrase…that which is most impressive to our own vain senses may not, and surely will not, prevail.

It does not matter how impressed the disciples are by the stones and the buildings of the temple. They could have been one hundred times bigger and more glorious, and Jesus still would have spoken of their utter destruction.

There is an expiration date on everything that tends to grab our attention.

The reason that Jesus corrects the vanity of the senses is because those things that we are most drawn to, such as the beautiful and majestic temple, will come to an end.

And they will reach their expiration date while other, more important things, will endure.

Throughout Mark’s gospel, Jesus has been referring to this end of the old kingdom, and the enduring nature of His new Kingdom.

The temple, and the people’s obsession with it, proved that their allegiance was still to an old system, a system that was coming to a quick end.

So Jesus not only communicates that the temple is lacking, but goes further in order to say that it will soon be completely destroyed, along with the religious system that was being practiced in the temple.

As always, Jesus’ words are meant to be a reminder for us. Where is our attention turned? To the things that will pass away, or to the things which will endure for all of eternity?

Think of this conversation with the disciple from a different angle.

The disciple brings up the temple, its majesty and glory and beauty. Jesus says, in response, “That old thing? That’s nothing. It’ll be gone soon.”

From this angle, Jesus is not saying something for shock value, but instead is trying to get His disciple’s mind off what is coming to an end.

How much of our attention, our focus, our thought, our passion, is spent on that which ultimately will come to a conclusion?

Please understand, this doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t have hobbies, or that God somehow wants to rob us of anything that we might enjoy. Instead, I just wonder about the ratios in our life.

There have been so many times in my life where the things of God have taken a backseat to everything else. Busyness so often robs us of our ability to focus on what is most important to our walk of faith.

Times in which Bible reading, prayer, fellowship takes a backseat to everything else. I’m too exhausted for the things of God.

I forget about the words of Jesus in Matthew 24:35- Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.

If it is true that the words of Jesus will endure while everything else in existence passes away, shouldn’t it also be true that these words ought to be a highest priority in my life?

Isn’t this the point of the entire temple narrative here in Mark’s gospel? Our sight is limited, and Jesus needs to redirect our vision.

How much of our lives are spent on that which truly matters and endures? How much of our conversation? Are our minds, lives, thoughts and conversations too cluttered?

There are times where I ask my kids to find their shoes. They go to the door and look in the shoe bins and cannot find them. So they go up to their room but their room is an absolute mess. They can’t find them.

So I go up with them, and once we pick up, move some things around, we find the shoes. Had the room been clean, this never would have been a problem.

All this to say, I wonder how disordered our lives are by being so focused on the things of the temple, and how much the clutter of meaningless things clouds our abilities to think and speak of that which is truly meaningful, namely the Gospel and the grace of Jesus Christ.

How much more might we grow in faith and in our likeness to Jesus if we were willing to remove much of what distracts us from Him. What would change in our lives if Jesus became a greater priority?

Jesus speaks of the destruction of the temple. And in doing so, we are reminded of the finite nature of the temple and its practices. At the same time, it pushes us into the presence of that which is lasting, that which should take up most of the real estate in our lives- Jesus Himself. And that is the final point.

3. No matter what happens, Jesus is everything.

When Jesus foretells the destruction of the temple, we are meant to ask the question- What will become of God’s people?

If they have lost their central location, as well as the religious practices that took place there, what is the path forward for right worship?

Jesus is the answer to all of it. He is the way forward, He is the object of worship, He is the example of true worship, He is the example of a worship-saturated life. He is the Messiah. He is God Himself.

So all roads in our text here lead to Jesus. And we will see this made even more clear in the coming couple of weeks as Jesus discusses His second coming.

We, then, are meant to leave behind these verses with a renewed focus on the person of Jesus. Especially as a path forward for our lives in devotion to God.

Jesus becomes the aim of life and the means of life.

And it is important to note that Jesus is the aim and means of life in the most difficult of circumstances.

Remember, the idea of the temple being destroyed is bad news for the Jews. The circumstances surrounding its destruction are gut-wrenching. It will not be an easy path forward, especially for Jewish Christians.

Roman historian Tacitus wrote, “The history on which I am entering is that of a period rich in disasters, terrible with battles, torn by civil struggles, horrible even in peace. Four emperors fell by the sword, there were three civil wars, more foreign wars, and often both at the same time…Italy was distressed by disasters unknown before or returning after the lapse of the ages.”

Roman Christians would have been immune to none of this. But in the midst of war, and abuse, and suffering, and strife, there was Jesus. There was no temple, but there was Jesus, crucified and resurrected.

And His was the example that was and is meant to be followed. But we have to enter into His example with both eyes open. Jesus doesn’t save FROM hardship, but saves IN hardship.

The temple was all about glory and beauty, Jesus is all about the life of humility and sacrifice.

And so even as the temple will come toppling down, an event that will cause massive amounts of heartache for so many Jews, Jesus is meant to stand front and center. And He calls His followers to a life that mirrors His. We share in His suffering knowing that one day we will share in His glory. But this is easier said than done.

John Calvin- “Since all men naturally shrink from annoyances, combats, and every kind of cross, the dislike of these things urges them, without moderation and without hope, to rush forward unseasonably to the fruit of hope. Thus no man wishes to sow the seed, but all wish to reap the harvest before the season arrives.”

Notice the point being made- the natural temptation is to skip the difficult processes in order to get to the reward. We don’t want to sow, but only to reap.

Such a mindset draws us in to temple-like ministry, that which is glorious, when instead Jesus calls us to His path that leads to the cross.

In conclusion, I wonder if there is an opportunity this morning for repentance and refocus.

First, its helpful to see the ways in which we have historically been drawn only to visible, impressive and rewarding ministry. Likewise, we must be aware of when we have overlooked those who needed help because it would require too much time, too much thought and care, or even too much prayer. We must also see where our life is too cluttered by lesser, expiring things to be able to focus ourselves on that which will last for eternity, such as the Word of God.

These are the temple realities, so to speak. It is when we follow the vanity of our senses, and for these, we must be willing to repent.

But repentance is not all that is required.

We must refocus ourselves, our hearts, our faith.

Our prayer must be that God would open our eyes to all needs, especially those which result in little pomp and acclaim.

We must ask God to open our eyes and our sensitivities to those who are overlooked by everyone else.

May our hearts and ministries be guided and empowered by Jesus alone, and may our sights always be set on His cross, knowing that our life requires a carrying of our own crosses and hardship. May we do the work of sowing before we reap God’s rewards.

Let’s pray.