The Gospel of Mark was written around the year 70. That is the same year that the temple in Jerusalem was destroyed.
The destruction of the temple was a terrible tragedy. It made it difficult for people to hold on to hope, or to believe that there was any good news left. But Mark includes this story - in which Jesus predicts the destruction of the temple - precisely because it shows a path to hope and good news.
It was a magnificent temple. I used to think that descriptions of the temple that we read in scripture were hyperbole, that they were full of exaggeration, but now I realize that these descriptions actually didn’t even do the temple justice.
The temple in Jerusalem was built by Herod. Herod wanted to be known as the king of the Jews, and although he reported to Caesar, he also thought quite highly of himself as a ruler, and he built the temple as a monument to his own glory as much as a monument to God. He built it as a way of keeping the Jews under control. It was his way of saying, “Look, you Jews; look at this magnificent temple I built for you. Be grateful to me and honor me and obey me, since only I am great enough to have done this for you.”
The temple was built on a hill, the same location as earlier temples that had been destroyed over the years. It was massively huge, bigger than any other structure in that part of the world, the most impressive thing this side of the pyramids of Egypt. You could see it for miles as you approached the city. Its walls were gleaming white - blindingly white. From a distance, it looked like a giant, snow-capped mountain rising up into the sky. And when the sun got low, the many gold accents glimmered, making the temple look like an incredible blaze of fire.
It really was an engineering marvel.
The temple authorities - the high priests, in particular - carefully guarded the temple and the rituals connected with it. Unfortunately, because it was Herod’s temple, the temple priests also did not dare challenge Herod on issues of justice. They pretended that the kingdom of Herod and the kingdom of God were perfectly compatible with one another.
Scripture has a name for Jews who were so aligned with Herod that they supported him and his policies even when they went against Biblical ideas of justice; scripture calls them Herodians.
But even for those Jews who understood that God’s kingdom was not Herod’s kingdom, the temple was an important, central, symbolic place of worship. It represented what worship of God could be, even if current reality didn’t reflect that.
As Jesus began preaching about the kingdom of God, he knew that he would eventually have to go to the temple, the place that symbolized the clash between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of Herod.
When Jesus arrived in Jerusalem, he was proclaimed a king by the crowds, who made his entry into the city a royal procession of sorts. It was a procession like the emperor would have when he arrived in Jerusalem, except that instead of chariots and warhorses, Jesus rode a donkey; and instead of armies holding swords lining the road, it was peasants holding palm branches.
Their expectation was that Jesus would reclaim the temple and the seats of power, taking them away from Herod and his successors, and establishing a new kingdom centered at the temple in which God truly was the ruler above all rulers.
This happened around the year 30. Remember, that Mark was written around the year 70. And 70 is the year when Roman troops came in and destroyed the temple.
Which means that when Mark wrote down this story in which Jesus predicts the destruction of the temple, that destruction was already taking place. For Jesus in the story, it was a future event, but for Mark, writing about this, it was happening right now. The temple’s destruction was today’s front page news for Mark.
And the people for whom Mark was writing - it was the worst possible news. I said it once and I’ll say it again: even though there was a lot of politics involved in the building of the temple, it was still the symbol of Jewish faith, and a symbol for the Christian Jews who began evolving into the Christian church in the years after Jesus.
Today, one could easily say that there has been far too much politics involved in the Catholic church, in the goings-on at the Vatican, and in how popes over the years have interacted with various world leaders. Many recognize that, too often, the Vatican has been more interested in power and control and asserting its own authority than it has been in following the will of God, and working for the justice God requires.
And yet, if the Vatican were ever to be destroyed, it would be devastating for millions of faithful Catholics around the world.
The same with the temple in Jerusalem. Even the suggestion that it might one day be destroyed would bring horrified gasps…
So you see how, when the temple was destroyed in Mark’s time, it was a devastating event.
To say all this another way: in Mark’s time, all the news headlines were bad. The church was being persecuted. The temple was being destroyed...and many Jews were giving up hope...
Nothing good was happening. Everything the people stood for, everything they fought for, was eroding away. The kingdom of God that Jesus talked about was being taken away from them. They thought that it was coming, they thought that it was near, they thought that it was about to become a reality… but then, it all fell apart.
I think for a lot of people in our country, that same feeling is present today. For many, when Obama was president, it felt like we were closer than ever to an America that was living up to its ideals, an America in which all people were recognized as being created equal, an America in which there truly was liberty and justice for all.
I’m not saying Obama was the perfect president. His administration’s policies regarding immigration and deportation, for example, weren’t much better than what we have now. Maybe it was unrealistic, the hopes many placed on him. But now, whatever hopes we had for equality and justice in America have been dashed by the current administration. And many feel discouraged and disheartened, just like the people felt when the Temple was destroyed.
Mark knew that people were feeling discouraged. Mark knew that people saw the temple’s destruction, and were losing hope. So Mark included in his gospel this story in which Jesus predicts the temple’s destruction, as a way of showing that this is all part of God’s plan, that Jesus knew the temple would be destroyed, yet his hope and the love and life he stood for would continue on.
A quick reminder of the details of the story: Jesus and his disciples were walking out of the temple, descending down one of the long stairways, emerging out into the open sunlight at the base of one of the massive temple walls. The disciples turned their heads, squinted their eyes, and gazed up at the walls. They were awed into silence, until one of them exclaimed: “Teacher, look! What awesome stones and buildings!”
But Jesus was not impressed. Remember that picture of gymnast McKayla Maroney, after she won silver (but not gold) in the 2012 Olympics? I picture Jesus looking at the temple with a similar expression. Everyone else was staring with mouths open, but not Jesus. Jesus was not impressed by giant stones, cut into shape and placed by underpaid workers and slaves. Jesus was not impressed by gleaming gold and shiny whitewashed limestone.
And right away, we are reminded that so many of the things that impress us really aren’t that important to God; and so many of the things that are important to God, really don’t impress us much. Repentance needs to be a daily discipline for us, because every day we find ourselves struggling to align our hearts and minds with the heart and mind of God.
The disciples were impressed by the temple, but Jesus was not. He didn’t even turn his head to look up at the massive stone walls. Instead he said, “Do you see these enormous buildings? Not even one stone will be left upon another. All will be demolished.”
Once again, the disciples were speechless, this time by Jesus’ harsh proclamation. They remained silent as they walked away.
They made their way to the Mount of Olives. From there they had a great view of the temple off in the distance. I’ve never stood on the Mount of Olives, and looked across to the temple, but I have stood on top of Glacier Point in Yosemite, and looked across to Half Dome. I think the view was kind of like that. The disciples were some distance away from the temple, but because of how big it was, it looked like they could reach across the canyon and touch it.
Peter, James, John and Andrew went up to Jesus, and whispered a question to him. They were afraid to even talk about the temple being destroyed, but in hushed tones they asked, “when is this going to happen? When will the temple be destroyed?”
But of course Mark’s readers knew when it would happen. It was happening now, in their own time. The event that was so hard for the disciples to even talk about was happening.
Jesus said: “Don’t let anyone deceive you. When you hear bad news, don’t be alarmed. Things will get difficult. There will be great struggles.
Think of it all as labor pains. Difficult. Painful. Excruciating. Such things must happen, but they happen to make way for new life. New life does not occur without a struggle. New life does not occur without some pain. You do not reach the mountaintop without experiencing the uphill struggle.
Stand firm until the end. Stay strong. Do not be deceived by those who make false promises of an easier, shorter route to the top. There is only one way to get to the top, and that is by going up.
I don’t suppose this made any sense to Jesus’ disciples. After all, they were still staring at the temple across the way, wondering how it could be possible that such a magnificent wonder could ever be destroyed.
But it made perfect sense 40 years later, to the readers of Mark’s gospel.
And maybe, it makes sense to us. In these difficult days, life is a struggle. We’re seeing more and more hate in our world, more violence, more injustice, more prejudice; and these things are appearing more openly and more violently. Truth is being cast aside
Life for the church has also become a struggle. In these changing times, the church is struggling to stay relevant, struggling to provide a much-needed word of hope, struggling in some ways just to survive.
Clearly, we are still on that uphill climb.
But we are committed to the struggle. We are committed to allowing God to work through our church - work through us - to bring wholeness to this fragmented world. We are committed to the kingdom of God that is indeed in our very midst. We are continued to the struggle for equality, for justice, for peace.
Climbing up a mountain is not easy. I’ve been to the top of Half Dome several times in my life. The trail that goes up there is not easy, but it’s worth it.
Giving birth is not easy. The difficult struggle is worth it, though, because in the end is new life.
That’s why we hold on to hope. That’s why we are committed to the struggle. That’s why we keep on doing the work of the church, the work God calls us to, supporting our shared ministry with our time, our labor, our hard-earned money.
Because the end result is new life. New life for us, new life for our community, and new life for our world.
The end result is God’s kingdom of shalom becoming a reality on earth, as it is in heaven. The temple may be destroyed, but hope is alive. Hope is alive in the church. Hope is alive in us.
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