Temple 7.0

Seeing the temple through Jesus’ eyes

08/16/2019

Matthew 17:22-27 As Jesus and his disciples were gathering in Galilee, Jesus said to them, “The Son of Man is to be handed over to men, and they will kill him, and he will be raised on the third day.” And they were overwhelmed with grief. When they came to Capernaum, the collectors of the temple tax approached Peter and said, “Does not your teacher pay the temple tax?” “Yes,” he said. When he came into the house, before he had time to speak, Jesus asked him, “What is your opinion, Simon? From whom do the kings of the earth take tolls or census tax? From their subjects or from foreigners?” When he said, “From foreigners,” Jesus said to him, “Then the subjects are exempt. But that we may not offend them, go to the sea, drop in a hook, and take the first fish that comes up. Open its mouth and you will find a coin worth twice the temple tax. Give that to them for me and for you.”

One of the most fascinating ways to study the scriptures is to examine the evolution of the temple. The temple motif runs like a golden thread through the scriptures. The building of the temple, the destruction of the temple, and the ultimate restoration of the temple give us an insight not only into the intention of the inspired authors of the bible, but ultimately into the whole plan of salvation. I would suggest to you that the temple undergoes seven iterations, or versions, that span the scriptures – from Exodus to Revelation – but also span all salvation history. This will help you understand today’s gospel, where Jesus and Peter pay the temple tax. Would you join me in a stroll or survey of scripture as we study these seven versions of the temple? Or, you can take a nice nap. But then you might miss something that could change your life, like the apostles fell asleep in the Garden of Gethsemane and missed something that changed the whole world.

The first temple was really a tent in Exodus 4:1, where we read: “Then the Lord said to Moses: ‘On the first day of the month you shall set up the tabernacle of the tent of meeting’.” You might remember that God gave Moses specific instructions for the tabernacle and the tent on Mt. Sinai, and he was supposed to build the tabernacle according to a heavenly blueprint. In other words, the temple was always intended to orient us to heaven, like a beacon or compass, to help us find our way home to heaven, like the tabernacle helped the people wandering lost in the desert for forty years.

The second iteration of the temple was built by King Solomon. We read in 1 Kings 6:1, “In the four hundred and eightieth year after the Israelites went forth from the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign over Israel, in the month of Ziv (the second month), he began to build the house of the Lord.” Solomon’s father, King David, had wanted to build a temple for the Lord, but he had shed too much blood in his many battles. Rather, Solomon built the temple because Solomon’s name means peace (shalom). We come to the temple, therefore, to find peace, not to wage war. Indeed, as Isaiah 2:4 prophesied: “They shall beat their sword into plowshares” and they would be taught that in the temple.

The third iteration of the temple was built by Ezra and Nehemiah in 520 B.C., after the Jewish exiles returned from the Babylonian Captivity. You will recall that Solomon’s temple was destroyed in 587 B.C. We read in Ezra 4:1, “The exiles were building a temple for the Lord, the God of Israel.” In other words, the Jews could not practice their religion without a temple. Indeed, the temple for Jewish society was tantamount to the White House, the Pentagon, the Library of Congress, Wall Street, and Oxford University all rolled into one. The temple was the cornerstone of Jewish culture, so it was the first order of business upon return from Babylon.

The fourth version of the temple was built by King Herod, and therefore it’s fittingly called the Herodian Temple. It far surpassed in splendor and opulence the temples of Solomon and Ezra. That Herodian temple is what Jesus refers to in Matthew 24:2, saying boldly: “Amen, I say to you, there will not be left here a stone upon another stone that will not be thrown down.” And that is precisely what happened in 70 A.D. when General Titus and the Roman army leveled the Herodian Temple. If you visit the Holy Land and Jerusalem today, what’s left of that temple? You’ll only find one wall, the west wall, the wailing wall. The Jews weep and wail that there is no temple, the cornerstone of their civilization.

The fifth iteration of the temple was Jesus own Body, the Incarnation, the Word become flesh. In short, Jesus physical presence was the new dwelling of God among men and women, like the Jerusalem Temple had been previously. That’s why Jesus makes this connection explicit between the old temple of Jerusalem and his body the new temple in John 2:19, declaring: “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.” And two verses later, John adds: “But he was speaking about the temple of his body.” Can you hear how harsh Jesus’ words would have sounded to Jewish ears, who revered and loved the Temple of Jerusalem? But he was trying to help them move from the fourth iteration of the temple to the fifth. But they were slow to understand, and so are we.

The sixth version actually turns us into the temple. St. Peter tells us in 1 Peter 2:5: “Like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house (temple).” And St. Paul will add in 1 Corinthians 6:19: “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you?” Most of us would answer: “Heck, I didn’t know that!” Well, now you do: the sixth temple is me and you.

The seventh and final temple will be found not on earth but in heaven, a sort of Temple 7.0. We read in Revelation 21:22: “I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God almighty and the Lamb.” In other words, on earth we are God’s temple, but in heaven, God will be our temple.

Keep all seven iterations of the temple in mind when you read the bible: (1) Moses’ tent, (2) Solomon’s temple, (3) Ezra’s temple, (4) Herod’s temple, (5) the temple of Jesus’ Body, (6) you and me as the temple, and (7) the heavenly temple which is God himself. Why keep all these in mind? Because that is exactly what Jesus had in mind when he told Peter to pay the temple tax for both of them.

Praised be Jesus Christ!