Some people were talking about the Temple, saying how wonderfully it was decorated, with its beautiful stones and dedicated gifts.
‘Yes,’ said Jesus; ‘But the days will come when everything you see will be torn down. Not one stone will be left standing on another.’
‘Teacher,’ they asked him, ‘When will these things happen? What will be the sign that it’s all about to take place?’
‘Watch out that nobody deceives you,’ said Jesus. ‘Yes: lots of people will come using my name, saying “I’m the one!” and “The time has come!” Don’t go following them. When you hear about wars and rebellions, don’t be alarmed. These things have to happen first, but the end won’t come at once.
‘One nation will rise against another,’ he went on, ‘and one kingdom against another. There will be huge earthquakes, famines and plagues, terrifying omens, and great signs from heaven.
Before all this happens they will lay hands on you and persecute you. They will hand you over to the synagogues and prisons. They will drag you before kings and governors because of my name. That will become an opportunity for you to tell your story. So settle it in your hearts not to work out beforehand what tale to tell; I’ll give you a mouth and wisdom, which none of your opponents will be able to resist or contradict.
‘You will be betrayed by parents, brothers and sisters, relatives and friends, and they will kill some of you. You will be hated by everyone because of my name. But no hair of your head will be lost. The way to keep your lives is to be patient.’
Josephus, a Jewish historian contemporary to Jesus’ time, once confronted a rebel zealot during the war that eventually led to the destruction of the Temple in 70ad. He was trying to convince this guy to stop his ridiculous attempts to attack the Roman Empire and seek another way to gain the results he so passionately longed for. Josephus had seen the pure carnage that the Roman empire was capable of, and they didn’t even have a Death Star or drone planes! He says to this young man ‘metanoesein kai pistos emoi genesesthai’ which translates “Repent and believe in me”. It is obvious that Josephus was trying to save this lad from self-destruction as well as bringing this destruction down on those around him. When Jesus uses the same phrase he certainly means the same thing, certainly more, but at least that. Come and see, there are four levels of ‘understanding’ (Ephesians 3v7-19):
P'shat - literal, simple - BREADTH
Remez - parable, allegory - LENGTH
Derasha - anagogical - DEPTH
Sod - inner, mystical - HEIGHT
‘And the one on whom seed was sown on the good soil, this is the man who hears the word and understands it; who indeed bears fruit and brings forth, some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty.’
and again...
'Who then is the faithful and wise manager, whom his master will set over his household, to give them their portion of food at the proper time? Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes.'
Now then, let's look...here some fourty years earlier than Josephus spoke those words, Jesus has been calling and sending out his messengers… gathering people into ‘another way’, the way of peace, the only Way to the Father. Most rejected Him though, Jerusalem herself would reject him. The Temple that was once the place ‘where God was’ with his people had itself become and idol. The very symbol of God’s faithfulness had become corrupted, the people were willing to kill and die over a symbol, to sacrifice the true temple where God intended to dwell by the Spirit for the sake of the shadow. The time had come though, as Jesus said to the Samaritan woman ‘an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth.’ A time was now here when God would be with His people and would comfort them, heal them and transform them. The destruction of their idols and those holding on to them would come swiftly, like a thief in the night, the darkness would be overtaken by the Light, but it won’t happen all at once. So do not be deceived by these people who think they are something when they are nothing. It is precisely these who will be the catalyst for their own destruction and the destruction of anyone not wise enough to see it. Young men fighting old men’s wars, when God is doing a new thing…it’s a recipe for disaster or new birth. Isn’t it true that no one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the wine will burst the skins, and the wine is lost and the skins as well; but one puts new wine into fresh wineskins. Only when we repent and turn to the Father in the Name (character, nature and Spirit of Jesus), only when we are still enough, humble enough, contrite enough to hear that still small voice so that we can proceed boldly with the only wisdom that is wisdom, that which comes down from above, that hold all things together, sustains all things, makes all things new, that which is our peace…the Word.
In the beginning was the Word, The Word was close beside God, and the Word was god. In the beginning, he was close beside God. All things came into existence through him; nothing that exists came into existence without him. Life was in him, and this life was the Light of the human race. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness didn’t overcome it…the true Light, which gives Light to every human being…and the Word became flesh and tabernacled in our midst…
Repent and believe! The Kingdom of God is here, the New Heavens and New Earth has been inaugurated… this is true in Him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true Light is already shining! Jesus is Lord and that is Good News! Please people…keep yourselves from idols.
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