Luke 21:5-19 NRSV

The Destruction of the Temple Foretold

5 When some were speaking about the temple, how it was adorned with beautiful stones and gifts dedicated to God, he said, ⁶‘As for these things that you see, the days will come when not one stone will be left upon another; all will be thrown down.’ Signs and Persecutions 7 They asked him, ‘Teacher, when will this be, and what will be the sign that this is about to take place?’ ⁸And he said, ‘Beware that you are not led astray; for many will come in my name and say, “I am he!”^* and, “The time is near!”^* Do not go after them. 9 ‘When you hear of wars and insurrections, do not be terrified; for these things must take place first, but the end will not follow immediately.’ ¹⁰Then he said to them, ‘Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; ¹¹there will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and plagues; and there will be dreadful portents and great signs from heaven. 12 ‘But before all this occurs, they will arrest you and persecute you; they will hand you over to synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors because of my name. ¹³This will give you an opportunity to testify. ¹⁴So make up your minds not to prepare your defence in advance; ¹⁵for I will give you words^* and a wisdom that none of your opponents will be able to withstand or contradict. ¹⁶You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers, by relatives and friends; and they will put some of you to death. ¹⁷You will be hated by all because of my name. ¹⁸But not a hair of your head will perish. ¹⁹By your endurance you will gain your souls.

Once again the commentators begin this section as Barclay does, with words like ‘... from verse 5 onwards this becomes a very difficult chapter ...’ Barclay suggests that beneath it lie four different conceptions:

Firstly, there is the conception of the ‘day of the Lord’: The Jews regarded time as being in two ages: the present age, which was altogether evil, incapable of being cured and fit only for destruction; the age to come which was a golden age of God and Jewish supremacy. In between there would be a ‘day of the Lord’, which would be a terrible time of cosmic upheaval and destruction because this would be the birth pangs of the coming of the new age. The Old Testament prophets are full of passages referring to this. They speak of the day of the Lord coming suddenly and that the world would be shattered and the entire cosmos would be in uproar. This idea formed one of the basic conceptions of religious thought in the time of Jesus and so everyone would have had some idea of what was meant here. (Verses 9 and 11)

Secondly, there is the conception of the prophesied fall of Jerusalem: We know that Jerusalem fell to the Romans in AD 70 after the most dreadful battle and a time of horrific hardship and over a million Jews perished and 97,000 were taken away into captivity. The Jewish nation was in effect obliterated; the Temple was destroyed and became a desolation. (Verses 5-6)

Thirdly, there is the conception of the second coming of Christ: Jesus was sure that he was to come again and the early Church waited eagerly for that coming but before this, there would be many false claimants to be the returned Christ and there would be great upheavals. (Verses 7-9)

Lastly, there is the conception of the persecution to come: Jesus foresaw and foretold the terrible things that his people would need to endure for his sake. (Verses 12-19)

It appears that it was the splendour of the Temple that moved Jesus to say something. The pillars of the porches and the cloisters were columns of white marble, forty feet high, each made of one block of stone. There was a great vine made of solid gold and each of the clusters was as tall as a man. [We get all this detail from Josephus.] There were plates of gold of great weight and when the sun rose, reflected a fiery splendour making people turn their eyes away. It appeared to strangers (from a distance) like a mountain covered with snow because those parts that were not covered with gilt, appeared white. To the Jews of the day, it was unthinkable that this wonderful building would ever be raised to the ground!

But Jesus was astute enough to be able to see ahead and could prophesy of the disaster to come. He was also completely honest and made it clear to his disciples that being one of his disciples would not mean an easy life. Barclay tells of a man in the middle of a great struggle who wrote to a friend: “Heads are rolling in the sand; come and add yours.” Barclay comments: “Jesus believed in men enough to offer them, not an easy way, but a way of heroes.”

But he does not leave us with this troubling news, adding that we would never need to face the troubled times alone. It is the testimony of history that great Christians have experienced, even in the midst of torture and when they were awaiting death, they knew the depth of the presence of Christ with them. Even in my insignificant way, when I was struggling with the pancreatic tumour so many years ago, I too knew the presence of our Lord in the most intimate and beautiful way. Barclay writes: “A prison can be like a palace, a scaffold like a throne, the storms of life like summer weather when Christ is with us ...” and concludes: “The person who walk with Christ may lose his life but they can never lose their soul.”

I turn now to Tom Wright for inspiration ...

                 

All the evangelists deal with Jesus prophesying about the end times, but Luke’s account addresses the question most specifically. What was shocking to the disciples was the thought that their magnificent Temple would be torn down. Tom Wright writes: “... the most beautiful building one could imagine, adorned and decorated by the skill and love of hundreds of years, and occupying the central place in the national life, religion and imagination – would be torn down ...’ seemed unthinkable. Jesus seemed to be suggesting that the Temple was wrong, and this was impossible for the average devout Jew to ever contemplate this idea just as it would be for an American thinking about the devastation of the White House or the Washington Memorial. But the Temple was even more important to the Jews because it represented a thousand years of God’s dealings with his people.

It is interesting to me that Tom Wright gives examples from America. It has made me wonder what British buildings might occupy a similar place in our hearts: Buckingham Palace, St Paul’s Cathedral, York Minster (where I was ordained)?

Their confusion would have been added to by the thought that Jesus would no longer be with them in person and yet they would be identified with him and suffer as a result. There would also be all sorts of disasters and much suffering. Even their own people would not be friendly, because they will see Jesus as having corrupted their religion and led Israel astray; families would be split and Christians would be blamed for all sorts of catastrophes; they would become the one’s everyone loved to hate!

So much for the bad news!

Jesus also promised that he would provide them with everything they needed to be able to deal with all this – wisdom – and the security that whatever happens to us, our souls will always be safe and secure.

We need beauty in our lives, but do we often mistake it for things that are majestic and splendid in their size and expense. I would like to suggest that the example of our Lord would suggest that it comes in much simpler ways. One of the most beautiful places for me is Mount St Bernard Abbey just up the road from where we live. It is the Church of a community of Cistercians and epitomises their simplicity of life and worship. It is stark in appearance, but filled with an aura that can only come with years of prayer and silence.