Mark
13:1-8 (NRSV)
The
Destruction of the Temple Foretold
13As he came out of the temple, one of his disciples said to him,
‘Look, Teacher, what large stones and what large buildings!’ 2Then Jesus asked him, ‘Do
you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left here upon another;
all will be thrown down.’
3 When he was sitting on the Mount of Olives opposite the
temple, Peter, James, John, and Andrew asked him privately, 4‘Tell us, when will this
be, and what will be the sign that all these things are about to be
accomplished?’ 5Then Jesus began to say to them, ‘Beware that no one leads you
astray. 6Many will come in my name and say, “I am he!” and they will
lead many astray. 7When you hear of wars and rumours of wars, do not be alarmed;
this must take place, but the end is still to come. 8For nation will rise
against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be earthquakes in
various places; there will be famines. This is but the beginning of the birth
pangs.
The disciples were just like us – easily taken in by
impressive sights – not least wonderful architecture. By all accounts, Herod’s
Temple was a marvel of architecture and wealth and it had been a feature of
great significance for hundreds of years. Jesus prophecies its destruction: Some
scholars suggest that this might not have been a prophecy of the physical
destruction of the Temple; it could have been Jesus talking about the
importance, not of the impressive physical, but the more important Spiritual
Temple. We will never know for certain.
This is a well-used passage when referring to the end of
time and is controversial because it often becomes part of the package of those
who become obsessed with it. In this first reflection, I offer an illustration
from that excellent website
www.esermons.com
:
Gregory
L. Fisher in Leadership magazine tells of teaching a class at
the West African Bible College. One day the class was discussing the Second
Coming of Christ. A student asked Fisher a question that took him by surprise.
The question was this: “What will he say when he shouts?”
The
student said, “Reverend, 1 Thessalonians 4:16 says that Christ will descend
from heaven with a loud command. I would like to know what that command will
be.”
Fisher
wanted to leave the question unanswered, to tell the student that they must not
go past what Scripture has revealed, but his mind wandered to an encounter he
had earlier in the day with a refugee from the Liberian civil war. The man, a
high school principal, told him how he was apprehended by a two‑man death
squad. After several hours of terror, as the men described how they would
torture and kill him, he narrowly escaped. After hiding in the bush for two
days, he was able to find his family and escape to a neighboring country. The
escape cost him dearly: two of his children lost their lives. The stark cruelty
unleashed on an unsuspecting, undeserving population had touched Fisher deeply.
He also saw flashbacks of the beggars that he passed each morning on his way to
the office. Every day he saw how poverty destroys dignity, robs people of the
best of what it means to be human, and sometimes substitutes the worst of what
it means to be an animal. Fisher says even now he is haunted by the vacant eyes
of people who have lost all hope.
“Reverend,
you have not given me an answer,” the student demanded. “What will [Christ]
say?”
The
question hadn’t gone away. “Enough,” Fisher said in answer to the question. “He
will shout, Enough! when he returns.”
A
look of surprise opened the face of the student. “What do you mean, enough?”
And
Fisher said firmly, “Enough suffering. Enough starvation. Enough terror. Enough
death. Enough indignity. Enough lives trapped in hopelessness. Enough sickness
and disease. Enough time. ENOUGH!” (Gregory L. Fisher, Leadership “Second
Coming,” 1991. Adapted by King Duncan)
This
puts it into – in my mind – its proper perspective.
J C Ryle writes: “Chapters like this ought to be deeply
interesting to every true Christian … The rise and fall of worldly empires are
events of comparatively small importance in the sight of God … are nothing in
His eyes by the side of the mystical body of Christ …”
It was good and interesting to read this because I have to
confess that passages like this are not my favourite and this is one of the
reasons why the discipline of following the Lectionary is so good for me. I
need to preach on this passage on Sunday – and I have not been looking forward
to it. So what is Ryle’s contribution that makes it – in his opinion – such an
important passage.
The disciples’ admiration for the splendour of the Temple
gets an unexpected response from Jesus who ‘… expresses no commendation of the
design or workmanship of the gorgeous structure before him …’ Ryles exposition
continues.
The true glory of any place of worship has nothing to do
with its physical presence and splendour; but in the faith and godliness of its
members. It is interesting to note that, even though Jesus, the Jew, knew that
the Temple contained the Holy of Holies, the golden candlestick and the altar
of burnt offering – all central to Jewish worship at the time, Jesus could find
no pleasure in looking at what was obviously a magnificent building! The same
holds true for Christians and churches today: what matters is that God’s Word
(written and living) and His Spirit are honoured – that is all.
Yet today, Christians are fixated on buildings. Ministries
are diluted because people refuse to close churches and chapels that have long
since been not viable and millions are spent on the restoration of impressive
piles, when people are starving and going in need.
We are naturally inclined to judge things by their outward appearance.
Ryle continues:
We are too apt to suppose that
where there is a stately ecclesiastical building and a magnificent ceremonial,
- carved stone and painted glass, - fine music and impressively dressed
ministers, there must be some real religion. And yet there may be no religion
at all. It may be all form and show, and appeal to the senses. There may be
nothing to satisfy the conscience, nothing to cure the heart.
What matters is that Christ be preached and the Word of God
is expounded. The ministers might be ignorant of the Gospel and the worshippers
may be dead in their trespasses and sins. Sadly this is true in many places.
I can identify completely with what Ryle is suggesting here:
“ … the meanest room where Christ is preached at this day, is more honourable
in his eyes than the cathedral of St Peter’s at Rome …’ if the Word is not
faithfully preached and the lives of those present are not living letters to be
read of all.
It goes without saying that the opposite is also not true.
As Ryle adds:
There is no true religion in
having a dirty, mean shabby, and disorderly place of worship … But let it be a
settled principle in our religion, however beautiful we make our churches, to
regard pure doctrine and holy practice as their principle ornaments. … It has
no glory if God is not there.
I have mentioned this before, but one of the most beautiful
places of worship I have ever attended was the ‘Motherwell Cathedral’ made of
throw away, rusted wrought iron, in a squatter camp outside Port Elizabeth in
South Africa. It’s Cross and furnishings were fashioned from material from the
rubbish dump – but it was spotlessly clean and lovingly maintained. God was
there, more than the Cathedral I left behind. In Ryle’s words, sound doctrine
and holy practice – Godly lives – ‘… the humblest cottage where the Gospel is
preached, is lovely and beautiful …’
Jesus was intimately expanding on his prophecy of the end
times to his inner circle, this time including Andrew. Jesus was aware that,
before the end of time there would be heresy. And it was early in the history
of the Church that heresy arose. Barclay makes the following comment suggesting
that heresy arises from three main causes:
Heresy arises from
constructing doctrine to suit oneself: Humans have a great ability for
wishful thinking. Many people today do this – they claim, for instance - that
there is no God because they do not wish
there to be a God because it suits their lifestyle. They made outrageous claims
that science has proven that there is no God, where the scientific community is
saying that there probably is! If the Big Bang is true as the origin of everything,
then the choice is either it happened by chance or someone or something started
it off. “Chance” – philosophically speaking – requires more faith than God –
even if at a minimum as deist God. Even Professor Richard Dawkins – the great
anti-theist of our time (he is much more than an atheist) – admitted on Channel
4 to Mark Dowd, the producer of that fantastic documentary, Tsunami – where was God ? – that a deist
God is probable. But people want to do as they please – and God makes this
uncomfortable for them. One of the great heresies of our day is secularism –
and it has been found wanting. Possessions, status, position, wealth and all
the other trappings of a Godless society have been shown to be empty and
meaningless. Our ethics seems to be dominated by the 11th
Commandment – “Thou shalt not be found out!” The whole idea of been accountable
– even if no one else knows or finds out – is uncomfortable; the idea of
judgement – is a harness on what ”I” want. Barclay comments: “Can it be that
the doctrine of hell and the Second Coming have both dropped out of much
religious thought because they are both uncomfortable doctrines.
So, this leads to the second cause of heresy, the
establishing of a religion that suits
people, a religion that will be popular and attractive. To do this, it
needs to be watered down. As Barclay writes: “The sting, the condemnation, the
humiliation, the moral demand, have to be taken out of it.” Barclay concludes
most aptly: “It is not our job to alter Christianity to suit people, but to alter
people to suit Christianity.” Some of the Churches in the world have courses
that are very popular, but offer quick fix solutions to some of the great moral
dilemmas of our time. There are those that simply quote bible passage after
bible passage as the answer – and they are full to overflowing boasting
thousands upon thousands of members. It is these that people like Dawkins can
tear apart – in fact, even my Year 9 class at the grammar school would not be
satisfied. We should never be impressed by numbers alone, though we should all
rejoice at true revival, but as Jesus was constantly doing with his first
disciples, we must make clear the cost of discipleship.
Heresy comes from not
being part of a Christian fellowship: When people act in isolation, they
are in danger of getting it wrong. Our churches have always stated that our
sources of authority are the Bible, reason and tradition (which is the Church
of England position) but the Methodists include experience as well. What the Bible says to us today can never be
the sole preserve of a person working alone. From the earliest times the
Council, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit (experience) came to a like mind
of what God was saying – is saying to His people.
Heresy also comes from trying to be completely intelligible: Yes, we are under a duty to try to
understand our faith, but it is also true that we are mere finite, contingent
beings and the God we seek to know and understand is infinite and we will never
fully be able to understand Him and His ways. This means that any expression of
our faith that is ‘… neatly stated in a series of propositions and neatly
proved in a series of logical steps like a geometrical theorem is an
impossibility and a contradiction in terms … As G K Chesterton said, “It is
only the fool who tries to get the heavens inside his head, and not unnaturally
his head bursts. The wise person is content to get his head inside the heavens.
“’ Barclay concludes that “Even at out most intellectual we must remember that
there is always – and will always be place for the ultimate mystery before
which we can only worship, wonder and adore.” Tertullian put it this way: “I
believe, because it is impossible.”
Why is it that people claim that the existence of suffering,
war, natural disasters – and all the other realities of human existence – make
them challenge God’s existence. From the earliest time, Jesus has told us that
this is going to be the case.
