DYNAMIS!
A publication of St. George Orthodox Christian Cathedral
Wichita, KS
St.
John
2:12-22
(5/2)
CHRIST IS RISEN!
Gospel for Friday of Bright Week
The Temple
Is Restored: St. John 2:12-22, especially vs.
19: “Jesus answered and said
to them, ‘Destroy this Temple,
and in three days I will raise it up.’” The
long history of ancient Israel’s national shrines spans a turbulent 1500
year period from the portable Tabernacle used in the wilderness during the era
of Moses (fifteenth century BC), until the third Jerusalem Temple, built by
Herod the Great and destroyed by the Roman armies under Titus in AD 70.
Worship in these
successive Temples followed the design given of
God at Mt. Sinai (see the book of Leviticus). The principal ceremonies were
sacrifices, as described in Exodus (chs. 25-31). Later, a permanent national shrine,
similar in pattern to the desert Tabernacle, was built by king
David’s son, Solomon, in 960 BC.
Babylonian armies razed that Temple in
586 BC, but construction of a second Temple was
begun by Jewish exiles from Babylon
in 536 BC under the leadership of Zerubbabel. That Temple, finished in 516 BC, was in nearly
constant use thereafter until it was replaced by Herod in a mammoth building
project started in 20 BC. The new
inner sanctuary for the services, a shrine of immense proportions, was
completed in 18 months. Its outer
porticos, courts, and surroundings, however, were finished just two years
before the Jewish revolt in AD 66.
It was the largest and most imposing of all the Temples (Mk. 13:1). This was Temple from which the Lord Jesus drove the
merchants “doing business” (Jn.
2:14). No Jewish Temple has ever
been built on Mount Zion (Temple
Mount) since AD 70.
Of course, the Lord
Jesus’ challenge to “destroy this Temple” as recorded in today’s
reading, referred to Himself and not to any structure. However, when the Temple authorities thought they had destroyed
Him, the Lord kept His promise. He
restored in three days “the Temple”
that they had executed. When one
fully appreciates what Christ our Lord meant by saying He would “raise
up” this Temple, one touches both the inner mystery of His
“cleansing” of the old Jewish Temple and “the power of His
resurrection” (Phil. 3:10).
Consider the role of the various Temples
under the Old Covenant and how the Lord forever replaces them.
The desert Tabernacle
and all the subsequent Temples were created to serve as a single holy place for
God’s Covenant People to worship, a common shrine where all the tribes
could gather, “the tribes of the LORD, as a testimony for Israel, to give
thanks to the name of the Lord” (Ps. 121:4). At times God indicated His presence with
His People by visible manifestations (Ex. 19:18-20; 1 Kngs
8:10-11). However, His abiding
concern was that their lives be pure in His sight. Therefore, through His Prophets, God
declared that He would not accept their sacred assemblies if the people
permitted evil and injustice to exist (Is. 1:12-17). Most of all, God
opposed false, alien, or pagan worship mixed with true worship (Ezek. 8:13-18). The unity of the People with God had
always to be “in righteousness and justice” (Josh. 24:14).
In the Person of
Jesus, God the Son become man. At
that moment, the conditions for the worship of Almighty God were radically
revised: “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell
with them, and they shall be His geople, and God
Himself will be with them, and be their God” (Rev. 21:3). The Lord has never removed His demand
for holiness of life. Thus, He
acted to purify a building dedicated to His worship, driving out the money
changers. Later, He would make a
perfect offering of Himself for all the sins of all mankind, eliminating
forever the need for any blood-sacrifice of animals, for His Passion and
Resurrection opened the gates of Heaven to all who truly repent, unite
themselves to Him, and strive to walk in His ways.
O Lord, save Thy
people and preserve the fulness of Thy Church;
sanctify those who love the beauty of Thy house and forsake us not who put our
trust in Thee.
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