​Sermon: Mark 13:1-13
See also Daniel 12:1-3; Hebrews 10:11-25
November 17, 2024
       In today's Gospel reading, Jesus' disciples are tourists at the Jerusalem temple. They had traveled to the holy city of Jerusalem for the upcoming Passover festival, but they weren't above appreciating the sights a little. And the best sight to see in Jerusalem by far is the temple, built to honor almighty God.
       So Jesus and his entourage go through the temple, take in the beauty, do a little learning, a little teaching, and then, on their way out, one of the disciples comments innocently enough, "Boy, what a cool place!"
       To which Jesus replies, "Oh yeah? You think this temple is pretty cool? The whole thing will be violently destroyed one day. The destruction will be so thorough that not one stone will be left on top of another."
       Geez, Jesus, way to poop on the party. That was the first thing I thought, anyway. Can't the poor disciple just appreciate a little architecture without being chastised?
       Yet Jesus had a purpose in his harsh words, as he always does, and that purpose was not simply to make a guy feel bad for admiring a building. Jesus instead saw a weakness in his disciple that maybe isn't immediately obvious to us, and he wanted to address and correct that weakness while he was still with them. It was just a few days after he said this that he was crucified, after all.
       So what was Jesus' problem with what his disciple said? To answer that question, you first have to understand a bit about how the Jews thought of their temple.
       The Jewish temple had a long history before Jesus' day. The original temple was constructed by King Solomon, arguably the wisest man ever to live and the son of David, the greatest king Israel had ever had. Solomon built that temple at God's command, according to God's plans. It was massive; it was beautiful; it was inlaid with gold, filled with treasures; and most importantly, it was the physical dwelling place of God on earth.
       In one sense, God is omnipresent—you know, he's everywhere—but in another very real sense, God was present in the Most Holy Place of that temple in a way that was different than any other place on earth.
       Solomon's temple, unfortunately, was torn down and plundered when God allowed the nation of Babylon to conquer Jerusalem. It was a major, majorblow to the Israelites' morale. They were devastated. Some of them had come to see the temple as a sort of good luck charm: "The temple is God's house, and God would never allow his house to be destroyed!" So even though God warned them repeatedly of coming destruction if they didn't change their ways, the people didn't listen until it was too late.
       Seventy years later, a new generation of Israelites was allowed to return from captivity in Babylon and rebuild the temple. Led by a man named Zerubbabel, the returned captives built a new temple for the Lord, the Second Temple. The Second Temple was inferior to the first in every way—it was smaller; it had far fewer treasures; and worst of all, God never dwelt in that temple the way he did in Solomon's temple.
       Some 400 years later, though, King Herod the Great—the same Herod that tried to kill baby Jesus—commissioned a massive rebuilding of the Jerusalem temple. He didn't live to see its completion, but it eventually became a glorious building: absolutely enormous, with huge stone columns, multiple concentric courtyards, porticos, and regular priestly worship.
       The presence of God still wasn't there like in Solomon's temple, but it was hard to tell with such an incredible building. I'm sure it certainly felt like God was present there in a unique way. It was hard not to feel closer to God in the midst of such beauty and majesty.
       All that to say, when that poor disciple admired the temple out loud, he was doing more than appreciating architecture. He was, in a way, idolizing the temple, similar to how the Israelites idolized Solomon's temple before the Babylonians came and destroyed it.
       "Look at how awesome this temple is! You know, doesn't that just prove how awesome our God is?" It sounds innocent enough, but do you see the danger in that line of thinking? What will happen to his faith in God if and when God's temple is destroyed? Unless that faith is anchored in something greater than the temple, they will both likely crumble together.
       When Jesus abruptly told his disciple that the temple would be violently destroyed, he was challenging the disciples' faith. "You think this temple is great, huh? What about after it's gone? What will you believe in then? Is your faith based on the strength of the nation of Israel, or is it greater than that?"
       See, Jesus' prophecy here represented more than just the destruction of a building; he was predicting the fall of Jewish society itself. The temple wasn't standing in the middle of a field, you know? It was in the heart of the Jewish holy city. If the temple is going to be destroyed so thoroughly, that means that Jerusalem itself will also fall.
       This prospect terrified the disciples. They were dying to know more. "When? How?" And Jesus was frustratingly silent to their questions—he never answered them. Instead, when they asked him to clarify the details on the temple's destruction, he completely changed the subject.
       Why would he do that? Because what they're asking about is not important. The disciples were worried about bricks and stone; they wanted to hear how long their beloved temple would last, how their nation would fare. Jesus wanted their focus to be on the kingdom of God, not of men. That temple obviously wasn't a part of God's plan for his kingdom—it was destroyed about 40 years after he gave today's prophecy. So if God wasn't concerned about the temple, then his followers shouldn't be, either.
       Instead, Jesus says, they should be concerned about seeing that no one leads them astray. Jesus isn't done predicting the future here: the fall of the temple is just one example of the coming destruction. In the midst of that tribulation will come false teachers, false messiahs, who claim to be what Jesus is and lead his people astray. People will hear of wars and rumors of wars as nation rises against nation, kingdom against kingdom; There will be earthquakes and famines, and that's just the beginning!
       Why is Jesus telling them that? Because such troubled times pose a much greater danger to their soul than their body. Jesus is gonna restore their body no matter what happens to it, but if they allow false teachers and desperate circumstances to lead them astray, they might just fall away from the faith.
       I was once discussing the Sixth Petition of the Lord’s Prayer with a group of confirmands in class: "Lead us not into temptation." And I asked the kids, "What do you think is the most dangerous kind of temptation?"
       And they thought about it and replied, "Probably murder. Killing someone is pretty bad."
       So I followed up: "Can God forgive you if you murder someone?"
       "Of course!" they said. They knew that God can forgive any sin, no matter how great.
       "But," I continued, "what if they refuse to repent of their sin? What then?"
       "Well, then they wouldn't be forgiven no matter what they did."
       And that's when I showed them what's really the most dangerous temptation: the temptation to reject God's forgiveness.
       In warning his disciples here, Jesus isn't worried that false teachers are just going to get a few things wrong here and there. He's warning his disciples to watch out for false teachers who would ultimately lead them into the most dangerous temptation: rejecting God's forgiveness. Maybe they'll teach that you can earn your own forgiveness; maybe they'll drive their poor followers into despair, into thinking that God could never forgive them. Pride or shame? Doesn't matter: both will drive you away from the true Gospel of Jesus Christ.
       So be not deceived, Jesus warns them. You can't trust your government; you can't trust your buildings; you can't even trust your family. "Brother will deliver brother over to death," Jesus says, "and the father his child." The only person, the only message you can trust, is Jesus.
       Jesus is the only one who can save you. He is the only one who loves you enough and is strong enough to carry you through to eternity. He loves you so much that he died for you, and his power is so great that it overcame death. Trust in him, and him alone, and you will be saved.
       Even when you are delivered over to the authorities, Jesus says, you don't have to worry. The Holy Spirit whom Jesus sends will give you the words to say. And the Holy Spirit will dwell within you as he formerly dwelt in the temple.
       See, that's another reason why Jesus didn't want his disciples to focus on the temple: not only was it just a building whose days were numbered; but also its primary function was about to be rendered obsolete. The temple served as the physical dwelling place of God on earth in the Old Testament era. But when Jesus stepped onto the scene, God's physical dwelling place was…well, it was him! And now that Jesus has returned to heaven, he promises to be with youalways, to the end of the age.
       And so the apostle Paul tells the Corinthian Christians: your body is now a temple of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit enters you by his means of grace: the Word and the Sacraments. Every time you repent and are forgiven; every time you hear God's Word spoken to you; every time you receive Holy Communion, the Spirit is entering into your heart anew.
       And that's good, because you're gonna need him. We may not suffer the same physical persecutions that the earliest Christians did, but there are still plenty of temptations to draw us away from Christ. Your faith will be tested in every sphere of your life: are you ready? Jesus promises that he will never leave you nor forsake you; he will never let you be taken by any evil powers.
       All you need to do is endure. Endure to the end, and you will be saved. Cling to your faith and don't wander from it when times get tough, or when you don't know everything that's going on. Trust in Jesus like a child trusts his parents. He's got you.
       Thinking about confirmation class again, I always get hung up on this point when it comes time to actually confirm our students: the confirmation vow includes a promise—two, actually—that you will sooner die than forsake your faith. I get hung up on it because that's an awfully big promise for a kid to make, you know? Can you imagine a 14-year-old kid choosing death over denial? It's happened before! And yet, can you imagine how much worse, on an eternal timescale, it would be for that teenager, or for anyone, if he did forsake his Savior?
       "The one who endures to the end will be saved." Doesn't matter if the end comes when you're 14 or 114. God has appointed a day for each of us to die. All that matters is, will you endure? It's my prayer that you do.
       Jesus is the only one who can usher you through death and to eternal life, and he does so at absolutely no cost to you. Never let the devil or anyone else lead you astray from that promise. Stay true to Christ even unto death, and he will give you the crown of life. In Jesus' name, amen.