the red pill forum: holy week: the intentionality of Christ prophesying about the temple

it is now day three of holy week. a full day has passed since the triumphal entry. the crowd has not yet turned on Jesus. we know this, because mark mentions that the people were "delighted at his teaching." the chief priests and elders and scribes have been unsuccessful at finding fault with Jesus and his teaching. oh, they were plenty mad because they knew that the parables He was teaching were all about them, but there was nothing they could do. they feared the people, which is another reason we know that the crowd had not yet turned on Jesus.

we know that He was teaching in the temple, which was a common theme in His ministry, because this was the social center of the city. you would commonly find crowds in the temple, and even more so now during the week of the passover, as worshippers were making preparations for the big day. in Jesus' day, passover week would be akin to our CHRISTmas week in the western world. the city, and consequently the temple, would have a significant increase in visitors. this was why Jesus would spend this week in jerusalem. due to the large crowds of people, we also see Him teaching on the side of the mount of olives, which was a short distance from the eastern gate and the temple, as mentioned earlier. there were many lessons that He taught these few days, but one in particular is mentioned in all of the gospels: the destruction of the temple. most of His messages this week were on the kingdom of God, and the last days, including the signs to look for. but then, as the disciples were leaving the temple, they made a point to comment on the beauty of the temple. Jesus responds, not by agreeing with them, but by saying that the temple would be destroyed so thoroughly that not one stone would be left upon the other. while the disciples thought that Jesus was referencing last days' events, He was actually commenting on the idolatry of the temple itself.

in order to understand how the temple had become an idol, you have to have a brief understanding of the history of the temple. prior to having a temple, which was the housing for the ark of the covenant, a tent tabernacle was set up and moved around with the ark during the israelites' wandering in the wilderness. king david acquired the land where abraham took his son isaac to be sacrificed for the purpose of building a permanent temple to house the ark of the covenant, but due to his many sins, God took this task from him and it was passed down to his son, solomon. solomon, during his building campaign, took david's vision for a temple and upscaled it, building a lavish temple complex that was considered a marvel of the time. this was done in the 10th century b.c. in 586 b.c, the temple was destroyed during the sack of jerusalem by the babylonians, and the jews were sent into exile. the ark of the covenant disappeared, and much debate has occurred as to its whereabouts, whether it was captured by the babylonians, destroyed, or hidden by secret societies before it could be captured. in 513 b.c., after the jews were allowed to return to israel, a new temple was rebuilt, though not to the scale of solomon's temple. this would be rectified in 20 b.c. by herod the great. herod was considered a half-breed jew, due to his edumean heritage, and was also seen as a roman sympathizer. he was put into power by the romans, and in an effort to win the hearts and minds of the jews, he decided to rebuild and greatly expand the new temple. herod spared no expense in building the temple, having the walls covered in gold and jewels. it was the pride of the jewish world. this is the temple that Jesus taught in, and that the disciples were commenting on that third day of holy week.

so why was this included in the gospels? Jesus was making a statement about the temple, but it was not meant to be in passing, nor simply a prophecy of the last days, which was what the disciples initially thought. He had already made statements about His body being a temple, and being destroyed and rebuilt in three days, to which the jews replied that it took 46 years to build. the problem with the temple, was that it had become an idol to the jews. they began to see the temple as a sort of "good luck charm," and because God's presence dwelt in the temple, it gave them special protection. it was said that jerusalem could never fall as long as the temple was there. as mentioned in the previous entry, the jews placed more importance on the temple building itself, and the rituals that took place inside, than they did the God that the temple was built for. Jesus was again reminding the disciples that He had come to fulfill the law, and the need for the temple was to be no more. this was made evident during his death when the thick veil to the holy of holies was ripped into, allowing all men direct access to God the Father through Christ. it is important to note that the prophecy came true in 70 a.d., when the romans sacked jerusalem during titus' reign. the romans not only destroyed the temple as a message to the jews, but they also took every stone from the temple with them for the gold and jewels that were in the walls. this made the prophecy come true down to the detail about stones not being left on top of each other. the only thing left is the retaining wall for the temple mound, which is now what we call the western wall, or the wailing wall.

for us today in the western world, it can be argued that the same attitude exists as did in the jews, with the church building becoming almost an idol to itself. we have forgotten that the Church proper is not a building, but the collective body of believers. we have relegated worship of God to one day a week, in multi-million dollar buildings adorned with lavish accoutrements, much in the same way as the temple during Christ's time. during covid, we saw a shift in attitudes towards the church building, but unfortunately that attitude also shifted towards the Church body. people not only abandoned the building, but the gathering of believers as well. this misguided belief that the church building and the Church body was the same thing has caused a drastic decline in church attendance. meanwhile, in countries like ukraine, we see believers gathering together in underground bunkers to worship. in closed countries like china and iran, we see believers gathering together in secret to worship. however, in the western world, we have the errant belief that worship somehow consists of a style, a ritual, or a building, or that worship is entirely a personal endeavor. we have placed our own personal preferences above the commands of God, thereby making an idol of a building, a style, a preference. anytime we place any thing above God and His commands, we have created an idol. we would all do well to remember Jesus' teaching on true worship and the temporal nature of a building, and instead choose to worship Him in spirit and in truth, as part of a daily practice, as well as a regular corporate gathering of believers.