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The Greater Temple on the Cross
“And those passing by blasphemed him, shaking their heads, saying, ‘He is the one who would destroy the Temple and in three days rebuild it — You save yourself! If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross also!’”
(Matthew 27:39-40)
“And those passing by blasphemed him, shaking their heads, saying, ‘Ha! He is the one who would destroy the Temple and rebuild it in three days. You save yourself by coming down from the cross!’”
(Mark 15:29-30)
This sounds much like the language of Luke 23:35-37, but it seems that this is an ongoing taunt from the people. “Let him save himself.” Matthew and Mark both are very clear as to the fact that these people are intentionally blaspheming Christ as they mock him. The difference perhaps between this group and the group that Luke is referring to is that here we have recorded the words of people passing by, while Luke is referring to those who are standing by, gawking at the spectacle. Here, you can almost picture them shaking their heads as they pass, but not stopping either, going about their business as if this event had no more significance than any of the other crucifixions that the Romans had performed.
At the heart of the comments here is Jesus’ remark about tearing down the Temple and rebuilding it in three days (John 2:18-22), a reference, of course, to his body. Yet, to really understand this reference, one needs to go back a little further into the Old Testament prophets. After the Temple of Solomon was destroyed the people went into exile. We read in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah of the people’s return to the land and of the rebuilding of the Temple and of the city walls. During a slump in the rebuilding project, God sent the prophets Haggai and Zechariah to prod and encourage the people. As part of his prophesy, Malachi promises the people that the latter glory of the new Temple will be greater than the glory of the former Temple.
Now, here is where the people of the day (and some even today!) misunderstand the language of the glory of the Temple. All too often, they attribute this glory to the physical structure…hence the people took great pride in the years it took to build on the second Temple in Herod’s time (John 2:20) and the disciples even marveled at the size of the stones (Mark 13:1). Yet, where is the glory of this house? Surely it is not in the stones and workmanship, but its glory comes from the presence of God dwelling in the house. Thus, after the Tabernacle was completed, the Glory of the Lord entered into it (Exodus 40:34) and similarly, after Solomon finished the Temple, the Glory of the Lord entered into it (2 Chronicles 7:1).
Yet, prior to the fall of the Temple, the prophet Ezekiel receives a vision of the Glory of the Lord exiting from the Temple and from Jerusalem (Ezekiel 10:4;11:23). And though Ezekiel also receives a vision of the Glory of the Lord entering a new Temple (Ezekiel 43:4), this language speaks of an eternal kingdom, not the restoration of Jerusalem during Ezra and Nehemiah’s day. Why does the Glory of the Lord not re-enter the physically rebuilt temple? Because Ezra’s Temple and Herod’s Temple expansion are not the new Temple of which Haggai was speaking…Haggai was speaking of Christ, the greater Temple. And thus, the language of tearing down and rebuilding the Temple, properly belongs to Christ, the greatest Temple and could never apply to another. Further, an understanding of that principle today will preserve us from falling into the trap of thinking we will be building a new Temple in Jerusalem one future day. Christ the greater Temple has come, so what is this house that we would build for God?
Yet, they did not understand what Jesus was talking about — and how often it is also true that professing Christians as well neither understand nor care to understand what it is that Jesus was talking about. They just make things up as they go and pronounce it to be “Christian,” but without grounding the ideas in a consistent reading of the Scriptures. Were we living in a Biblically literate world, such practices would never be tolerated or followed. But “Biblical Literacy” is something that only rarely inhabits our homes and even our churches in these last days. Judge a tree by its fruit, loved ones, and be warned of the dangers that surround us in the west these days.
The Last Generation
“Going around Zion, encircle her,
counting her towers,
You will establish your heart — the ramparts through her palace.
You shall continually write this for the sake of the last generation.”
(Psalm 48:13-14 {verses 12-13 in English})
So the singing is continued (previous verse) and while singing those who are in Jerusalem are to encircle her in songs of praise to our God…filling the air with the sound of their worship. They are to count and number her towers and examine the ramparts (defensive walls built around the city), and establish their heart. Now this phrase (the establishment of the heart) may sound a little awkward to our western ears, but it is a figure of speech that implies that we are to pay close attention to something even to the extent of placing our affections on that something, whatever it may be.
Yet, why would the psalmist command that the people of God place the fortifications of Jerusalem on their heart? The answer seems to be two-fold. First, as we have discussed previously, the focus of this psalm is not so much on the physical, earthly Jerusalem, but on the eternal city of God — the New Jerusalem — that is being kept preserved in heaven until the return of our Lord (1 Peter 1:4-5). The Jerusalem here that is in the experience of the psalmist is but a shadow of what is to come…and with the coming of the New Jerusalem comes the new creation where God and man will once again dwell without separation. There is indeed a reason to set your heart on such things.
The next verse, though, also gives us a clue as to what the psalmist has in mind. He says to the people that not only are they to observe Jerusalem, they are to write down those observations for the sake of the “last generation.” Most of our Bibles seem to translate the term, NOwr≈jAa (acharon) as “next” or “future,” implying that this writing is for those who will follow in the future. Yet, if this writing is simply for future generations through time, then we might expect that the term rOw;d (dor — “generation”) would be plural, not singular. Thus, we should recognize that NOwr≈jAa (acharon) can also refer to the last of something — “the last generation.” Yet, who will be the last generation for whom these people are writing? I would suggest that these writings are to benefit the last generation to see Jerusalem and the Temple standing proud — to remind the last generation what would be lost when the Babylonians were brought in by God to punish the people for their perpetual sin — to remind people of the glory they exchanged for the lusts of their flesh and for the pride of their hearts. Oh, how far we fall when we take our eyes off of God and rest them on ourselves.
We are long past the last generation to see the temple. Even those who rebuilt the Temple realized that the second-temple was a far cry from the glory of the first and from the promised restored glory. Jesus is the greater temple and the temple that Ezekiel anticipates is yet to come. All things revolve around Christ and the Temple and all of its former glory are meant solely to point toward our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ. It is his glory, not ours, of which we write.
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