Text: Mark 13:1-8 (The Message)
Doomsday Deceivers
13 As he walked away from the Temple, one of his disciples said, “Teacher, look at that stonework! Those buildings!”
2 Jesus said, “You’re impressed by this grandiose architecture? There’s not a stone in the whole works that is not going to end up in a heap of rubble.”
3-4 Later, as he was sitting on Mount Olives in full view of the Temple, Peter, James, John, and Andrew got him off by himself and asked, “Tell us, when is this going to happen? What sign will we get that things are coming to a head?”
5-8 Jesus began, “Watch out for doomsday deceivers. Many leaders are going to show up with forged identities claiming, ‘I’m the One.’ They will deceive a lot of people. When you hear of wars and rumored wars, keep your head and don’t panic. This is routine history, and no sign of the end. Nation will fight nation and ruler fight ruler, over and over. Earthquakes will occur in various places. There will be famines. But these things are nothing compared to what’s coming.
In the Name of God, the Holy and Undivided Trinity. Amen.
What do the Mayan ruins, the statues on Easter Island, the Parthenon, the pyramids of Egypt, the Jerusalem Temple, and St. John’s have in common?
They are all examples of structures built, first, in answer to our innate human religious impulse, and, second, as monuments intended to last throughout the ages.
And there are countless other examples – in practically every museum in the world, you’ll see stone carvings commemorating the victory of some long-dead king in some long-forgotten battle, or carved pillars – called stelae – on which are inscribed songs of praise to whatever god their creators believed in.
Legacy. Permanence. Heritage.
These are words that resonate with every one of us here today. We all know that we are but sojourners on this earth, and deep within us is the desire, the need, to leave something behind. Those of us who are parents want to leave our children, not just with fond memories of us, but we also want to give them the tools and resources they need to be successful in life.
One of the major things we want to impart to our children is faith. We want them to have the same love and reverence for God that we do, the same sense of caring for others, the same desire to “do unto others as you would have them do unto you,” and all the rest. And that’s why our religious forebears built a church on this spot 155 years ago, and this building 124 years ago. We owe them a huge debt of gratitude for this holy place. It may not be as grand as some churches, or as large, but it is the place generations of faithful people have called home.
So, we can easily understand the reaction of that unnamed disciple in today’s lesson, when he sees the magnificence of the Temple, built by their people as the very home of God, the very center of their universe. The Temple in Jerusalem was a huge, grand, and imposing building. Jerusalem is built on a mountain, and the Temple was built in the highest part of Jerusalem. The Temple building was covered with heavy plates of gold that made it glow like the sun in the morning light. It was visible from miles and miles away. The stones that were used to build it were so massive that no mortar was needed to keep them together. Some of the individual stones of the walls were 40 feet long by 12 feet high by 18 feet wide. This building was the height of achievement – it was a wonder of the ancient world. People came from far away to see it and worship within its walls. It seemed so vast and solid that it would stand forever.
That is exactly what the Temple was meant to convey – permanence, strength, confidence, even invincibility. And all of these things were in very short supply in Palestine at that point in history. The glory days of Israel were pretty far back in the past. The last great leader they’d had was Judas Maccabaeus – “Judas the Hammer” – some 200 years before Jesus. And even he had gotten famous for leading a revolt against invaders. The sad fact was that the Romans were just the latest in a long line of invaders and conquerors of Israel.
This was not the only Temple to have been built on that site, either. The first one, known to history as Solomon’s Temple, was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BC. This Temple was the Second Temple – and, like the first, faced destruction. 50 years after this conversation took place between Jesus and that unnamed disciple, this Temple, as massive as it was, was razed practically to the ground by the Romans in 70 A.D. during the Siege of Jerusalem. One of the few remaining parts of this once-grand structure is what has become known as the Wailing Wall, a place of pilgrimage for Jewish people to this very day.
One invader after another had come and gone. And yet the Jews never doubted that they were God’s chosen people. Despite their experiences, despite the setbacks, they never doubted that – one day in a future of God’s choosing – they would occupy the place in the world that they deserved. And, as proof, they could point to their magnificent Temple, the very place where God lived – and that God, the God who had led them out of slavery in Egypt, who had led them through the wilderness, and who had given them this land, the Promised Land, would yet set things right.
This chapter of Mark is a very “Jewish” chapter, because it deals with themes and concepts that are intrinsically Jewish in nature. This concept of being the people chosen by God is at the very core of their entire belief system. And the Temple was the symbol of God’s favor.
So imagine the surprise, the shock, this disciple must have felt when Jesus says, “There’s not a stone in the whole works that is not going to end up in a heap of rubble.”
This bordered on blasphemy! In fact, Peter, James, John, and Andrew – the “executive committee” of his group of disciples, maybe thinking that they’d misheard what Jesus had just said, took him aside later on to make sure that he had actually said, and – more importantly – why.
And Jesus makes his point: Nothing that is made by human hands will last, or can last, forever. He warns us against placing our faith in things which cannot save, things like buildings, or governments, or rates of return. These are all just objects or human innovations. If we place our faith in them, our faith is disastrously misplaced. For in the end, they will all fail. It seems to be a quirk of human nature that we place ultimate value on the gifts of God, rather than on God, the giver.
There is a hymn, “All My Hope on God is Founded,” by a man named Robert Bridges, who was Britain’s poet laureate in the early 20th Century. One stanza goes like this:
Pride of man and earthly glory,
Sword and crown betray his trust;
What with care and toil he buildeth,
Tower and temple, fall to dust.
But God’s power,
Hour by hour,
In my temple and my tower.[1]
In other words, it’s not this building, or any building, or person, or group, or technology that brings and keeps us close to God. It’s what’s written on our hearts. It’s the gift of faith that lives there. It’s the love of God for us and the love we share with the world that burns there like a welcome flame.
When we look at the world that way, suddenly recognize that the terrible things that happen are not permanent. We realize once again that God is in charge, and that love has the first, and the last, word.
In the Name of God, the Holy and Undivided Trinity. Amen.
[1] Quoted in Barclay, William, The Gospel of Mark, Louisville, Kentucky, Westminster John Knox Press, 2001