Time with the children of God
Wooden toy blocks are great fun. You can build really high towers, which is fun, but its great fun to knock them down a few minutes later. That’s the thing about blocks like these—they’re designed to build things that might only last a few minutes before the and knock them down.
These are real bricks that we can build real buildings with. I’ve stacked some here, but the real buildings built with bricks like these last a lot longer than toy blocks. Buildings last a long time, and this stack of bricks could last a long time here too as well…but they can’t stay here because they’re in the way, so I’ll move them. Even things made with real bricks don’t last forever.
Well what about these? These are stones of the Temple in a place called Jerusalem. The stones used for the temple were massive. The largest is around 13 metres long and 5 metres high! I couldn’t bring that in with me today! So I just showed you a photo instead.
We’d think that buildings with stones this big would last forever. In today’s Gospel reading one of the disciples looked at the beautiful Temple at Jerusalem with its big stones like these. He said to Jesus: “Look, Teacher! What massive stones! What magnificent buildings!”
The disciple thought the beautiful buildings were something that would really last.
But Jesus said: “You see these great buildings? Not a single stone here will be left in its place; every one of them will be thrown down.”
Jesus was right. That’s what happened.
Jesus wants us to know the difference between the things that which won’t last long and that which will last forever. There are many big, strong, beautiful things in life, which may last a long time—even longer that we will live on this earth. But everything on this earth won’t last forever, even the strongest buildings or biggest mountains.
Jesus is eternal. What Jesus did was forever. He loved people then, and he loves people now. He died to forgive the sins of the people at that time. His death still pays for our sins today. He rose from the dead then. He is still alive today. Because Jesus has saved us, we will live forever too with him in heaven.
Prayer
SERMON
Today Mark brings us to the incredible Temple complex at Jerusalem. The Temple was an imposing structure; one of the architectural marvels and great engineering feats of the ancient world. As we’ve heard in the children’s message, the Temple stones were huge. The largest is calculated to weigh 415 tonnes! There was no mortar used to cement the stones but they were so well-cut that even a knife blade cannot fit between them.
The Temple was where God promised to dwell on earth and minister to his people by forgiving them their sins. Because the Temple was the particular location of God’s favourable presence with his people, it was a symbol of God’s enduring blessing and therefore encapsulated the people’s hopes and dreams of national might, triumph and prosperity, as the people anticipated freedom from the rule of the Roman Empire. From a human point of view, the Temple had a sense of permanency about it. This puts into perspective what we hear at the beginning of today’s text: as Jesus was leaving the Temple one day, one of his disciples said: “Teacher, Look! What great stones and what great buildings!”
Jesus replied: “Not one stone will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.”
Peter, James, John and Andrew asked Jesus: “Tell us, when will these things happen? And what will be the sign that they are all about to be fulfilled?”
Jesus didn’t answer them with a precise date but progressed the conversation beyond the question on the end of the Temple, to the end of time itself:
“Watch out that no one deceives you. Many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am he,’ and will deceive many. When you hear of wars and rumours of wars, do not be alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places, and famines. These are the beginning of birth pains” (verses 6-8).
Just as birth pains come before the birth of a baby, and indicate his or her imminent arrival, Jesus is saying that these signs are the indication that the end of time will be soon, but not yet. No one knows when that will be. So instead, their focus is to watch out that they not be deceived by many false prophets who will come, claiming to be the Christ.
Some 40 years after Jesus had said this, the Romans captured the city of Jerusalem and destroyed the city and the Temple. Just as Jesus had said, not one stone was left upon another. This magnificent structure had been toppled like a tower of toy blocks. The people’s hopes seemed dashed, and they were confused as to why the Temple had fallen. Had God forsaken them? How could he allow this to happen?
I wonder if the disciples remembered what Jesus had to them: “When you hear of wars and rumours of wars, do not be alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come.”
There on the Mount of Olives, the disciples had come to the new Temple—a Temple even more incredible than the one made by human hands the disciples had marvelled over. It was the Temple Jesus. That is why the Temple at Jerusalem was toppled. It was no longer where God would be. God would no longer reside in a specific building to bestow his grace and favour upon sinners, because he has come to earth in a Person—the Person of Jesus.
When Jesus discussed the disciples’ questions, he sat with them on the Mount of Olives opposite the Temple. That’s very significant detail. The mention of the Mount of Olives points ahead to another occasion Jesus went to the Mount of Olives with his disciples. It was after Jesus had celebrated the Passover, instituted his holy supper, and sang a hymn, that they went to the Mount of Olives. It was there, on the night that he was betrayed, that Jesus told them they would all fall away and Peter would deny him three times. Then, the next day an even greater devastation than the Roman siege on Jerusalem was inflicted on Jesus.
In the most brutal method of execution, nails were hammered through Jesus’ wrists and feet, and his side torn open by a soldier’s spear. A crown of thorns was pressed into his head. Those who passed by hurled insults at him. The chief priests and the teachers of the law mocked him also: “He saved others, but he can’t save himself! Those crucified with him also heaped insults on him. At noon, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon. And at three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Mark 15).
Israel’s hopes of a Saviour to free them from the Roman Empire seemed dashed, because it seemed as though Jesus had been dashed too. But it was different idea of salvation to what God had provided. Jesus had not come to save them from the Roman Empire, but by his own holy and precious blood that he poured out on the Cross he freed all people from other masters—the enemies of sin, death and Satan.
In the Jerusalem Temple, God dwelt in the Most Holy Place. The High Priest entered that Most Holy Place once a year on the Day of Atonement, to sprinkle the the blood of a sacrifice on the mercy seat—the cover of the Ark of the Covenant where the commandments were kept. The sprinkled blood of the sacrifice covered the commandments the people had broken, and made payment for the sins of the people.
Now Jesus is both the Most Holy Place where God dwells, and the sacrifice which is his own body. In today’s New Testament reading the writer to the Hebrews says that it is no longer the blood of animals that is the sacrifice for sin, but Jesus’ once for all sacrifice of his own holy and precious blood which covered the Cross to redeem the entire world. God says: “Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more” and “where these have been forgiven, sacrifice for sin is no longer necessary.”
The end times are not something still to come. We have been in the end times ever since Jesus’ birth. At the beginning of the Book of Hebrews, the writer explains“In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various: ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe” (Hebrews 1:1-2).
We are already in the end times—the time of the birth pains. There are wars and rumors of wars. Nation has arisen against nation and kingdom against kingdom. We see our world at its worst in the news, with wars and terrorism decimating peace and good order. There is political upheaval across the globe. We see people at war with one another in our own community too, with repeating cycles of violence, revenge and retaliation rather than love. There are many false teachers. Many have coming promising they are the Christ, and deceiving many, making disciples of all kinds of cults, leading people away from the true God. There have been earthquakes and famines, and all kinds of catastrophes.
Life as we know it now is not permanent. The destruction of the Temple was a part of the birth pains Jesus spoke of—the beginning of the end. As we live in the end times, perhaps anxious and fearful of everything that threatens good order and peace, we have the hope that there is one thing permanent and enduring: Jesus and his word. Jesus is the Temple that could not be destroyed, not even by death itself. Jesus had earlier said: “Destroy this Temple and in three days I will raise it up” (John 2:19).
Jesus’ death and resurrection shows that even death is not more powerful than God. Jesus is the unbreakable Temple, and he is with us always. Whatever threatens good order and peace in the world, in your life, and in the church is not more powerful than God. Jesus elsewhere promised that not even the gates of hell would overcome the church (Matthew 16:18) for it is built on the foundation of his word through the apostles and prophets, with Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone (Ephesians 2:20). And when he had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, and since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool (Hebrews 10:13).
By his precious blood Jesus has opened the way for God’s favour to come directly to you. The Most Holy Place was separated from the rest of the Temple with a thick curtain, about the width of a handspan. When Jesus died the thick Temple curtain was torn in two. By one sacrifice—the sacrifice of his own Son—God has made perfect forever those who are being made holy—his communion of saints of all times and places, including you here today. There is now no barrier, no restriction for you receiving blessings from God in Christ Jesus, even as Paul would say: “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38-39).
So no matter what happens in the tumultuous world around you, no matter how rapidly things change and disappear, no matter how much this fragile planet and the things in it made by human hands disintegrate, you can have confidence that Jesus, the new Temple, is eternal, and even though heaven and earth will pass away, his word will endure forever. Even though, for a time, Jesus was God-forsaken as he hung on the Cross, you are not forsaken by God. All of those who have faith in Jesus have direct access to all of God’s favour, mercy, grace and blessings. For wherever Jesus’ word is, Jesus is, and wherever Jesus is, the fullness of God dwells in bodily form. In the Person of Jesus, God ministers divine grace and blessing through his powerful, life-changing and life-giving word and sacraments to all who are spiritually poor.
Therefore, by Jesus, you can have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place―to come into the presence of God himself. Because of the precious blood of Christ, you are able to draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings and be cleansed from a guilty conscience.
You are not separated from the Most Holy place by a thick curtain. You have access to the Most Holy Place in the Person of Jesus, who ministers to you here again today. The grace of God is right here for you, symbolised by the gap in the Sanctuary rail. There is no gate on this gap. There is no chain, or rope. The opening to God’s grace in this sanctuary is permanent, just as the opening in the heavenly sanctuary is also. God sends his favour in Christ to you. Here you receive from your Heavenly Father all his mercy, favour and blessing from his sanctuary in heaven, right here in this sanctuary on earth. No matter what you go through in these last days, your Heavenly Father has all things in his hands—even you. Because you already share in Jesus’ triumph over the world and nothing will snatch you from his hand, you will live with all the other saints, and the angels in the heavenly sanctuary, forever. Amen.
