Mark 13:1-2
And as he came out of the temple, one of his disciples said to him, "Look, Teacher, what wonderful stones and what wonderful buildings!" And Jesus said to him, "Do you see these great buildings? There will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down."
And so, we now begin the so called "Olivet Discourse" because it was given to the disciples from the Mount of Olives.
We begin with Jesus prophesying the Romans destroying the temple in 70 AD. And the disciples and others couldn't imagine how such a thing could happen. The future Roman emperor Titus besieged Jerusalem. His soldiers destroyed pretty much everything but had left the temple walls intact. And during the excitement of the siege some of these soldiers launched flaming arrows into the temple and effectively cremated everyone inside. These great walls that were constructed of massive stones perfectly and masterfully fitted together, now served as a great furnace. The heat became so great that the gold sheets that lined the temple ceiling melted and filled the joints between all those great stones. And so in order for these soldiers to loot that gold, they pulled apart and threw down all those stones and they took that gold. During that five-month long siege, the Romans destroyed the city, including the Second Temple.
The end for those people of Jerusalem was horrible. The great city that stoned the prophets and crucified our Lord and God Jesus, was now ravaged by murder, famine, and cannibalism. Jewish sects such as the Sadducees faded into obscurity while the followers of Jesus and his "Way" began to spread throughout all the nations of the world.
And so it goes, these Jewish people had challenged Jesus and His authority and have asked Him questions that were designed to incriminate Him. They felt powerful enough to do that because they thought their temple and their priesthood and all its traditions could overcome anything, even a great prophet from God, even The Son of God. These religious authorities were exactly like the vineyard servants who killed the landlord's son in the parable Jesus told them. And now, their faith which was built upon those great massive stones, has been thrown down.
Jesus taught that His Kingdom is a spiritual kingdom. The gospel talks about worship that is built upon Spirit and Truth, not stones fashioned by men into structures that give glory to men. Yet, so many, even today, look to manmade structures and traditions. And they look for a future physical kingdom, and a great warrior king ushering in a new era of "The Church".
Let's back up for a moment:
After cursing the fig tree which Jesus referenced as an allegory for the Temple, Jesus said to His disciples:
Mark 11:22-23
And Jesus answered them, "Have faith in God. Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him."
He's talking to them about the Temple Mount. Josephus, the Jewish historian, compared the temple to a mountain. Jesus is clearly prophesying that the Kingdom of God would be taken from the Jews and given to others. All their counterfeit piety, all their traditions and rituals were of no value to God. All of it would be taken from them.
Isaiah 65:15
"And you will leave your name for a curse to My chosen ones, And the Lord GOD will slay you. But My servants will be called by another name."
This judgement isn't a global universal judgement. This is strictly focused upon the nation of Israel.
Why is Jesus judging them so harshly?
He tells us, in tears, in the gospel of Luke.
Luke 19:41-44
And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, "Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation."
The nation of Israel had rejected Jesus as their Messiah, and they still do. Jesus came to them in person and in peace. And they killed him. Jesus came to them to explain to them that their focus must be on Him, and not this Temple Mount. He also brought that gospel message to everyone all throughout the nonJewish world. He began that gospel message among the so called "gentiles" in Samaria. Beginning with the Samaritan woman at Jacob's well (see John 4). Jesus said to here that there is a time coming when no one will worship God at Jerusalem. He didn't tell her that the Jews would fail to understand this. He didn't tell her that the Messiah would be murdered by them. What he told her, and by default us, was that the shadows, the glass darkly, the temple of worship was no longer going to be a building made by human hands. He told her the temple is being replaced by reality.
The Jewish systems of the law were a shadow of the heavenly kingdom to come. It is said that the law is like a mirror, it reveals our sin, it shows us our filthiness. And the traditions created by these religious men were an attempt at washing themselves with that mirror.
Jesus came to bring the gospel of truth. To proclaim it and set free all those who would be free. The apostle James said that the Church, the body of Christ, was this tabernacle of David. The "church" is the people of God. They are that tabernacle. They are the body of Christ, not built with stone and wood. Not meant to be worshipped in Cathedrals and Temples.
In Jesus' own words he explains that the Temple sacrifices, the traditions and rituals are a band-aid that must be replaced by another over and over again, a band-aid that covers a wound that can' heal.
John 4:13-14
Jesus said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again."
That drink, that water that brings eternal life, is not a physical thing, it's a spiritual thing. It's a thing that true worshippers MUST do.
John 4:23-24
"The hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth."
Jesus revealed to the Samaritan woman that he is The Messiah, and he explained that worship is a matter of Spirit and not a place, not a mountain, not a temple, not anything made by human hands. And she went away proclaiming that good news. Those who could not accept this gospel truth were eventually destroyed.
Why?
"Because you did not know the time of your visitation."
Because they rejected Jesus and his gospel. They missed it willfully.
Is what He said truth?
Do you believe him?
This is a question of faith, isn't it?
It's not a question of buildings and traditions, it's about faith.
I believe Jesus. I believe his gospel. I believe the prophecy. I know as a matter of historic fact that the judgment that came upon the temple confirmed the truth of His prophesy. All He predicted came to pass. The historian Josephus sums up the consequences of the siege on Jerusalem in one sentence: "There was left nothing to make those who had come thither believe it had ever been inhabited."
John, who wrote about that Samaritan woman, lived long enough to see that the temple destruction had indeed come to pass. And so, he and us and anyone else with eyes to see and ears to hear can now realize that in the destruction of that Temple the mirror (the law) that they were trying to use to cleanse themselves of their sin has been completely shattered. And what's left now is Spirit and Truth.
It's interesting that John’s Gospel is missing the Olivet Discourse. John also fails to mention the siege of Jerusalem in his epistles and the book of Revelation. Whatever the timing of his writing, I don't see a conflict in the truth of any of his writings. And as for the book of Revelation? Keep in mind, all he was doing was writing what he saw in that revelation given to him from Christ. It wasn't given to serve as a historical document. It's a prophetic book. And I see it as prophecy. I accept it for that. I don't need it to confirm historical facts. In fact I believe it will one day, but we haven't seen its fulfillment. There's more to come, literally. But at that point I don't believe there will be a need to study it anymore.
Come Lord Jesus, come.
Amen.