The true temple of the living God.

Luke 19:45-48. November 18, 2022 - Friday, 33rd Week

The temple of Jesus’ time looked magnificent. “What massive stones! What magnificent buildings!” (Mark 13:1), we read in the Gospel. Its structure was surrounded by huge walls and divided into many sections. There was the section for the priests, for the Jewish men, for the Jewish women, and finally the one for the Gentiles. It was in the court of the Gentiles that the business of the temple was being conducted.

But, for many Jews of Jesus’ time, that temple was illegitimate. It did not possess the holiest objects of the first temple built by Solomon, namely the two tablets of stone with the Ten Commandments, the manna, and the rod of Aaron. Moreover, the high priests were appointed by the Romans. The negative portrayal of the temple is also evident in the Gospel of Luke. In the beginning, it is a place to which the infant Jesus was brought by his parents, Mary offered a sacrifice for her purification, and later on, Jesus was found “sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions” (Luke 2:46), but then it is described as “a hideout of bandits” (Luke 19:46).

Jesus doesn’t come to the temple to offer a sacrifice or to pray. He comes there to teach and his teaching is so powerful that the people were hanging on his words (Luke 19:48). After his resurrection, his disciples would come to the temple to preach salvation in Jesus alone, and one of them, Stephan, would even declare the irrelevance of that temple quoting prophet Isaiah: “Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. Where is the house you will build for me? Where will my resting place be?” (Is 66:1). In both cases, the temple authorities tried to destroy Jesus and his movement, but they were unable to succeed.

Since the court of the Gentiles was occupied by business, which did not allow the Gentiles to pray, Jesus sent his Church to the Gentiles with the Gospel of salvation. Now, they can in their places worship the true and living God. Then, in the Church of Christ, there is no more division into different sections, because as Paul writes: “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Gal 3:28). Finally, at the centre of our worship is Jesus Christ - the living Word of God, the true Bread of Life that came down from heaven, and the High Priest that lives forever and constantly intercedes for us with the Father. The Church is the true temple of the living God.