And He said to them, “Do you not see all these things? Truly I say to you, not one stone here will be left upon another, which will not be torn down.”
The temple buildings must have been impressive. After all, this is the only occasion where the disciples came to Jesus and pointed something out. They never came to him and said, “Check out this tree,” or “Check out this snake,” or Have you ever seen a well like this.” At least not that we know from the holy evangelists. But they did point out the temple buildings, those magnificent edifices that began with King Solomon, ended with King Herod, and were utterly destroyed by the Romans in 70 A.D.
It is not as if the One through Whom and by Whom the heavens were made did not know every detail that went into those buildings. As for the disciples themselves, as far as we know, they had no part in using their own hands to build them. It could very well be that, as they spoke and pointed to those buildings, the builders were still at work, putting the finishing touches on them. And of course, there is always cleaning and maintenance to be done.
The bottom line however, is that they must have been impressive to the eye. Impressive, even though the Tower of Babel and long since been largely forgotten and the Great Pyramids of Egypt were already weather worn and beaten.
This arrangement of matter by human hands, the fashioning and building of temple buildings that are not only meant to endure, but also to glorify God, indeed, were to be the very place on earth where God manifests Himself gloriously in the presence of men. Not just a holy God, but a Holy Holy Holy God Whom no eye has seen or can see directly without the consequence of sudden and eternal death.
As for fashioning things with the hands in general, you do that a lot, don’t you? You might not be building the Empire State Building or the St. Louis Arch, but your hands have been busy, haven’t they? So has your mind and body in general. What kind of edifice have you been building? Take all of your cooking, all of your cleaning, your planting, harvesting, drilling, lifting, exercising, hunting, searching, rearranging, shopping and buying more things to rearrange and lose, your digging, hammering, filing, creating and saving, your talking, planning, collaborating, and everything else you do or have done.
What do you come up with? What do you have? Does it even come close to those temple buildings? How about your reputation. Are you trying to build that? How about your body? Are you trying to build that? Your bank account? Your future home? Maybe you cast forth in your mind that time when you can experience what Van Halen sings about: “All the bills are paid. I’ve got it made in the shade.”
But you don’t experience that, do you? That garden you dream of, it’s never done. The dream home you want, it’s never complete. You might have that one bill paid, but here comes another one, and it’s bigger. The vanities written of in Ecclesiastes are yours by experience. The struggling and striving never cease.
There is a reason for that. You inherited it. It is an unholiness unfit even to draw near to the temple of God let alone look at it or dwell in it. It is your sin.
Are you a sinner? “Yes,” you say, “I am a sinner, but so is everybody else.” You take comfort in that don’t you? That, since everyone else is a sinner and we’re all in the same boat, at least you don’t have to fear anyone else condemning you since they are right there with you, right?
You forget, however, it is the Holy Holy Holy God Whose temple is being discussed here, and that you, AS AN INDIVIDUAL, must stand before His holy and perfect judgement. Do you think He is impressed with all your work? All your attempts to build an edifice for yourself, whether it is your home or your reputation before God and man, with man coming first?
The LORD of heaven and earth declares there is not one stone that will be left stacked upon another. It was true for the temple in Jerusalem the disciples laid their eyes on, and it is true for you even as the Holy Spirit spoke to you through St. Peter only one week ago: “The heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up.”
Nothing will be left out of this new arrangement of matter. Nothing you built. Nothing King Solomon or King Herod supervised to be built. Nothing Joseph Son of David the carpenter who taught Jesus the Carpenter built. Nothing any man has ever built, whether it be a great building built by great men, or a Lego town built by a young child, will be left out of the remaking and completion of all things at the Last Day, because that completion will be tied into the LORD of the Heavens and the Earth, Whose intent is not to leave things as they are, but to make them new.
New. New, not in a way you can imagine because you, by virtue of your inheritance from Adam, are stuck in the old, but new because the Creator will rearrange things in such a way that no man has yet directly to know.
Yet this He has begun and done as the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. This He has begun and done in and through His Only Begotten from eternity, and He has done it for you. You need not marvel in any other edifice or have any other edifice. You need not build your own, or struggle on your own, even as before you call, He will answer; and while you are still speaking, He will hear, because from the foundation of the world He ordained to plunge Himself out of pure love into the very heart of the fallen creation you now experience, using His own blood sacrifice to draw you from this wobbly world of crumbling chaos and into His very presence.
That is what He is doing here. That is what He has done by baptizing you into His name. Baptizing you with water. Again as the Holy Spirit says through St. Peter: “By the word of God the heavens existed long ago and the earth was formed out of water and by water.” That same water comprehended in the Word of God has been applied to you in such a way that everything Christ Jesus has accomplished in His flesh as a perfect sacrifice of love before the Father has now been delivered to you, concretely and bodily.
The demands of the Holy Holy Holy LORD God of Sabaoth have been met in this Christ Jesus, and now they are delivered to you, completely and fully, so that your works need not be considered or worried about, because His works have become yours.
No, it does not look like it or feel like it. Why should it? All things are not yet complete. The Gospel has not been preached in all the world. The end has not yet come.
And yet the end and the beginning are all comprehended in Christ Jesus, and it is He who has delivered Himself up for your sin and has joined Himself to you, so that your hope, your building, your works, are His, given to you. The tree of the cross is that building most precious. Sweet, and pure. The snake eats dust and his head is crushed. Your food of heaven is brought to you here in the very body and blood of Christ given up for you. Death and the shedding of blood are attached to His name, a death and shedding of blood that completes and satisfies the wrath of God against all sin. This is precisely what you proclaim when you kneel and partake of Him at this altar.
You know that no creature could make satisfaction for your sin; your propensity to build your own edifice in honor of yourself. Only Christ Jesus, Whose works are complete, and Whose works are bundled up and delivered here, can do that.
As the Lord Jesus Christ has redeemed you by His holy and precious blood, purchased and won you by His innocent suffering and death, and as you are justified and righteous by His grace, through faith in His Resurrection, so then, live an orderly and disciplined life in faith and love. Not to justify yourself or build for yourself, but in the sure and certain hope of His perfect righteousness given to you and for you. For even now you live under Him in His Kingdom, in His righteousness, innocence, blessedness and purity.
Sure, there seems to be no end to the apparent worries of this life on earth, no lack of things that are incomplete even as lawlessness is aiming to make your heart turn cold — you name it — but none of these worries undo the Cross and Resurrection of Christ Jesus; nor can any or all of them separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus. Do not give yourself over to pride or despair, but be on your guard and keep on the alert by listening to the Word of Christ and by availing yourself of His Gospel. Hear and heed His Word, receive and trust His good gifts, no matter how you feel.
Yes. Enjoy the many good gifts of His Creation, for they are His, and it is good. Receive His benefits in faith and with thanksgiving, sanctified by His Word and prayer. It does no good to “get drunk” on any of His good gifts, to worship or abuse what you receive daily and richly from His hand, but let your grip on this world be light and easy. Don’t throw it all away, but hold on loosely, and be ready at any time to let go of anything and everything that is not Christ Jesus.
After all, look around you, and notice that everything in this world is passing away. This is not your future. This is not your true and permanent home. This is a pilgrimage in a foreign territory.
But your dear Father in heaven has opened His heart to you in Christ Jesus, and He has His eye on you in love. His Kingdom is your fatherland. His holy city is your hometown. His house and castle is your real home, and this sanctuary is a simple start, where you are welcome, where you belong. He is with you, here and now, in the Word of the Cross, and in the fruits of that Tree.
Thus, dear ones in Christ Jesus, He grants you the strength to escape all perils, to stand before the Son of Man in His glory, justified by His blood and redeemed by His victory, to live by His grace, mercy and peace, both now and forever, even as He has spoken from the Cross for you: “It is finished.”
