Finding Grace in the Waiting
Published on 15 Nov 2009 at 4:51 pm.
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Mark 13:1-8
As he came out of the temple, one of his disciples said to him, “Look, Teacher, what large stones and what large buildings!” Then Jesus asked him, “Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown down.”
When he was sitting on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter, James, John, and Andrew asked him privately, “Tell us, when will this be, and what will be the sign that all these things are about to be accomplished?” Then Jesus began to say to them, “Beware that no one leads you astray. Many will come in my name and say, ‘I am he!’ and they will lead many astray. When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed; this must take place, but the end is still to come. For 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 birthpangs.
Have you ever been to Jerusalem to see the Western Wall. It’s all that remains of Herod’s temple in Jerusalem. Solomon, of course, built the first temple in the 10th century BC, but it was destroyed by the Babylonians when they invaded in 586 BC. After the Jews returned from exile in Babylon, they rebuilt the temple, dedicating it in 516 BC, seventy years after the previous one’s destruction. And for five centuries that temple was the place where the Jews worship.
Then,19 BC, Herod the Great was the Roman “king” in Israel. You know Herod from the nativity story that we’ll hear in just a few weeks, he’s the one who was visited by the Magi on their way to see the new-born Jesus. He’s the king who ordered the death of all boys under two in Bethlehem and its vicinity. While Christians remember Herod for this villainous role in the nativity story, scholars and historians, particularly archeologists, remember him for the massive building projects in and around Jerusalem. One of those projects was a massive renovation and expansion of the now 500 year old Second Temple. So that the top of the Temple Mount could be turned into a large square platform he built retaining walls around the sides. Huge stone blocks were laid down, some weighing well over 100 tons. One of them, in fact, was 44 feet by 11 feet by 16 feet and weighed around 570 tons. Most of them were still 2.5 by 3.5 by 15 feet and weighed about 28 tons. Atop this massive wall sat the temple, not made by stone, but instead from imported white marble, standing in sharp contrast to the entire city. The Western Wall in Jerusalem, the place you see in pictures where the Jews go to pray is all that remains of that great structure, the wall itself being one of the retaining walls used to create the massive structure.
So, I can picture the disciples and Jesus, after having spent the previous day (and the previous several chapters of our text) inside the Temple, now standing outside of those massive walls, some ten stories high. I could imagine how the disciples would have been struck by the sight. I’ve stood at the corner of the Western Wall, next to stones that are 4 feet tall and fifteen feet long, massive stones. And I can imagine one of the disciples reaching out and touching these massive stones and saying to Jesus, in the words from our Gospel reading, “Look, Teacher, what large stones and what large buildings!” And I can imagine the shock of the disciples when Jesus responded, “Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown down.”
Because the disciples saw the buildings of the temple and marveled. Jesus saw the building, though, quite differently. Just two chapters previously in Mark, when Jesus entered the temple, he saw people buying and selling. He overturned the tables of the money changers and toppled the seats of those who sold doves, proclaiming, “My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations, but you have made it into a den of robbers.” The religious leaders were furious, they demanded to know by what authority he did these things, and he told the parable of the Vineyard, where the religious leaders are cast as wicked servants who have stolen the vineyard and murdered the owner of the vineyard. Jesus insists they will be turned out of the kingdom on their ear.
The disciples saw the buildings of the temple and they marveled. Jesus saw the buildings and he saw a religious establishment that had gone far from its original call. He saw the court of the Gentiles profaned by those leaders, used it to sell animals and to exchange money. The leaders figured it was only the court of the Gentiles, so it didn’t really matter. Jesus saw that and turned over those tables. Jesus saw the building and saw a religious leadership more intent on keeping their share of power than in seeking out the lost sheep of the children of Israel, a religious establishment concerned primarily with the “great” in society and largely ignoring the least. Jesus saw it, and said the whole thing was going to be upturned.
And I find this all a little disconcerting. Of course, as a priest, I find myself currently aligned with today’s religious establishment. Perhaps you might find it disconcerting as well, as you look around and realize that we are also sitting in a magnificent structure wherein God is worshiped. And we consider other great structures in our society, perhaps giant towers reaching to the sky, that have been reduced to rubbish. Jesus’ words are unnerving, seeming to come from a God that delights in destruction. So you and I join with the disciples in asking Jesus, “When will this be? What will be the sign that all these things are about to be accomplished?”
But our fear may be premature. After all, the author of Mark’s Gospel didn’t want to instill fear in the early Christians with this story. He did not write about “wars and rumors of wars” so that authors could sell books on the “last days” and the “end times.” The first audience of Mark’s Gospel likely read it around AD 70. That means that they read these words after the temple was destroyed by Rome. Furthermore, the Gospel of Mark was written for an audience of Greek speaking Gentiles, as is clear from the several explanations of Jewish tradition found throughout the Gospel. And those Christians, aware of the choice of religious leaders to profane the part of the Temple that had been for Gentiles, those Christians, aware of the religious leader’s readiness to bow to the establishment rather than stand up for the oppressed, those early Christians would have read this passage and been hopeful.
When those Christians joined the disciples in asking, “When will this be? What will be the sign that all these things are about to be accomplished?”, they are asking that sign hopefully. They knew the first part of Jesus’ words in Mark 13, the part about the destruction of the Temple, had been fulfilled. So now they reached out in hope that the second part, the part where Jesus comes again to bring justice and peace to a shattered world, they reached out in hope that it was coming soon. Because Christ’s coming meant the lifting up of the least of these.
If you look at our society today, if you look at your life, what are you hoping for? There are still massive stones in our society, massive stones that surround oppression and injustice. There are people all around us who feel isolated, unwelcome in the world, and yearn for a place that they can call home. And each of has have wounds, broken pieces within our lives where we yearn for Christ to finish that which he began in our baptism. So with the disciples and early Christians we turn to Jesus and ask, “When, Lord, when? When will you set all of this right?”
And Jesus pointed the disciples to their future. In the verse following our text from this morning, he told them that they would stand before kings and governors, proclaiming the radical truth that the Rabbi from the countryside was God incarnate, and that he had come to call all people into relationship with God and one another.
Jesus pointed the early Christians to their past. He showed them the rubble of the once great temple. Sic transit gloria mundi,, as the saying goes, “Thus passes the glory of the world.” This great temple is not as impervious as it seems. It will fall. Thus passes the glory of the world. The author of Mark’s Gospel also pointed the early Christians to the story right before our text from today, when many rich people came to the temple to put in great sums of money and then a poor widow put in two coins which, together, where worth about a penny. If he spoke Latin, I suppose he would have pointed to that woman and said, Sic transit gloria ecclesia. Thus, in that, passes the glory of the church.
And you and I? Here this evening, considering all that we would like Jesus to put right? Christ points us to the present. He tells us not to fret because of wars and rumors of wars, because of evil all around us. He says they are just the birth-pangs. Advent is right around the corner, after all, so it is the appropriate time to be looking for Christ to come and set things right. So see the pain in your life, the oppression around you as a sign that you are seeing clearly. See the gift of clariy of sight and then reach out to those who need welcome. Speak up for those who have no voice. Our Lord is coming and so we need not be afraid. Our Lord is among us, and so we must work to heal that which is wounded. Amen.
Blessed Lord, who caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning: Grant us so to hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, which you have given us in our Savior Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
