Proper
28 :: Malachi 4: 1–2a / Psalm 98 / II Thessalonians 3: 6–13 / Luke 21: 5–19
This
is the homily given at St. John’s, Huntingdon, Pennsylvania by Fr. Gene Tucker
on Sunday, November 17, 2019.
“THE OLD IS PASSING AWAY.
THE NEW IS COMING”
(Homily text: Luke 21: 5-19)
Jesus
and His disciples are walking through the precincts of the Temple in Jerusalem,
and some of those who were also there marvel at the beauty and the grandeur of
the place.[1] In
response, the Lord predicts that the time will come when “one stone won’t be
left on top of another.”
Jesus’
prediction seems to cause alarm among his disciples, for they ask, “When will
these things take place, and what will be the sign…?”
By
the time that Luke was writing down his Gospel account, (perhaps late in the
first century) Jesus’ prediction had come to pass, for the Temple (and the city
of Jerusalem) were destroyed in the year 70 AD, at the conclusion of the
Jewish-Roman War (66 – 70 AD).
Returning
to the Lord’s comments, we read His prediction that the loss of the Temple will
be accompanied by war and tumult. Luke’s record of His comments tracks well
with those that Matthew and Mark also recorded. Matthew’s account may be found
at 24: 1–31, while Mark’s is found at 13: 1–27. These three passages often
carry a superscription, applied by biblical scholars, entitled the “Little
Apocalypse”.
With
the destruction of the Temple, an old way of worshiping God also passed into
history, for the Temple was the only place, where, under
the provisions of the Law of Moses, that sacrifices could take place. (The
local synagogues, scattered around the Roman Empire and also in the Holy Land,
were places were Scripture was read and discussions were conducted. They were
not places where sacrifices could take place.) Following the destruction of the
Temple, much of the priestly caste that existed under the Law also vanished. In
place of the loss of the Temple, Judaism continued without its sacrifices. But it continued the traditions of the
synagogue, being led by rabbis.
Now,
let’s do some theological work around the Temple’s role as the place of
sacrifice. We’ve just noticed what happened within Judaism with the loss of the
Temple. For Christians, however, the loss of the Temple signified something
else entirely: It marked the end of the sacrificial system that existed under
the Law of Moses. For now, the sacrifice of Christ on the cross was the new,
enduring and perfect sacrifice. (The Letter to the Hebrews contains an
extensive explanation of Christ’s sacrifice, explaining that He was not only
the sacrifice, but He was also the priest at whose hands the sacrifice was
completed.) Gone were the sacrifices under the Law that had to be repeated
again and again, for they were imperfect and lacked the ability to completely
wipe the slate of our sin clean. Jesus had perfected those sacrifices, once and
for all.
Moreover,
now all who had come to faith in Christ had open and complete access to God
through his perfect life and sacrifice, for the Temple’s curtain which blocked
access to God, whose presence resided in the Holy of Holies in the Temple, had
been torn in two on Good Friday.
Continuing
our theological inquiry, we also see that, now, those who come to faith in God
and who worship Him “in spirit and in truth”, as Jesus said to the woman at the
well in Samaria (see John 4: 23), would be able to worship God anywhere, not
just on the holy mountain in Jerusalem (Mount Zion).
The
old has passed away, and the new has come. Now, all people everywhere, not just
those who were descendants of Abraham, could come into relationship with God.
Now, they could enter into a holy relationship with God by virtue of Christ’s
perfect sacrifice, which wiped away the stain of sin in them forever. Gone was
the awful distinction of who was ritually clean and who was ritually unclean.
Thanks
be to God!
AMEN.
[1] At the time of this incident, construction
on the Temple was not yet complete. Its construction was begun by King Herod
the Great in the year 19/20 BC. Its construction took about 64 years. But
apparently, by the time Jesus and His disciples were walking through it, it was
completed enough to impress its visitors.
