Whose creation catches your eye?
This week's verses are Mark 13:1-2:
In these verses, the disciples are playing tourist a bit in Jerusalem. They're a bunch of small town guys in the big city marveling at the tall fancy buildings. Jesus isn't impressed.
It's only human to be impressed by that though. Who among us hasn't marveled at a cathedral, or a skyscraper, a beautiful song, or some technical feat? It's the same thing that drove our ancestors to build the tower of Babel. We're given the ability to create, and to work together to accomplish things, and sometimes we can fall in love with ourselves a bit.
In this case, the temple was something that God had directed Israel to build, so there was also a spiritual aspect to what the disciple was saying when he was pointing it out to Jesus. We always feel good praising something that is Christian, right? It's the safe thing to start a conversation about in church. We don't know if the disciple was genuinely impressed with the temple, or whether he was filled with nationalistic pride ("Look at what our ancestors built! Beat that, Romans!") or whether he was cruising for some safe smalltalk with Jesus. ("Jesus, look at that temple!" "Yes, my disciple, praise the Lord.")
Jesus puts things back into perspective though. He reminds them that it's all coming down some day. The temple, like everything here, is temporary. On the other hand, God and his relationships with us, are eternal. What we build now, in terms of character and intimacy with God, will last forever. Our bodies and our buildings, and our civilization, and even the world as we know it, will all disappear in time.
When something catches your eye, it's useful to put it in the eternal perspective. How does that thing really stack up on the eternal scale? It's nice, but isn't God nicer? And isn't his creation even more impressive? What's a building compared to the human body, or really good sunset?
If we stop and only marvel at what we have done, we risk falling into idolatry. If we start worrying more about having a nice building, or how many people we can fit in there, or how much revenue we have handled in the last year, or what the ethnic breakdown is of our congregation, are we really serving God, or are we marveling at the temple? Same on a personal level, if we are proud of our career, or our physique, or the number of followers we have, or how much money we have in the bank, we risk making idols of them. Sometimes a statue is just a statue. It's when it seems like a little more than just a statue that we are in danger.
Historical accounts describe the temple in Jesus' day as pretty spectacular. The disciples couldn't help but be impressed with it. But Jesus was looking at something even more impressive, and gave his life to make sure his disciples would see it too.
Now as Jesus was going out of the temple courts, one of his disciples said to him, “Teacher, look at these tremendous stones and buildings!” Jesus said to him, “Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left on another. All will be torn down!”
In these verses, the disciples are playing tourist a bit in Jerusalem. They're a bunch of small town guys in the big city marveling at the tall fancy buildings. Jesus isn't impressed.
It's only human to be impressed by that though. Who among us hasn't marveled at a cathedral, or a skyscraper, a beautiful song, or some technical feat? It's the same thing that drove our ancestors to build the tower of Babel. We're given the ability to create, and to work together to accomplish things, and sometimes we can fall in love with ourselves a bit.
In this case, the temple was something that God had directed Israel to build, so there was also a spiritual aspect to what the disciple was saying when he was pointing it out to Jesus. We always feel good praising something that is Christian, right? It's the safe thing to start a conversation about in church. We don't know if the disciple was genuinely impressed with the temple, or whether he was filled with nationalistic pride ("Look at what our ancestors built! Beat that, Romans!") or whether he was cruising for some safe smalltalk with Jesus. ("Jesus, look at that temple!" "Yes, my disciple, praise the Lord.")
Jesus puts things back into perspective though. He reminds them that it's all coming down some day. The temple, like everything here, is temporary. On the other hand, God and his relationships with us, are eternal. What we build now, in terms of character and intimacy with God, will last forever. Our bodies and our buildings, and our civilization, and even the world as we know it, will all disappear in time.
When something catches your eye, it's useful to put it in the eternal perspective. How does that thing really stack up on the eternal scale? It's nice, but isn't God nicer? And isn't his creation even more impressive? What's a building compared to the human body, or really good sunset?
If we stop and only marvel at what we have done, we risk falling into idolatry. If we start worrying more about having a nice building, or how many people we can fit in there, or how much revenue we have handled in the last year, or what the ethnic breakdown is of our congregation, are we really serving God, or are we marveling at the temple? Same on a personal level, if we are proud of our career, or our physique, or the number of followers we have, or how much money we have in the bank, we risk making idols of them. Sometimes a statue is just a statue. It's when it seems like a little more than just a statue that we are in danger.
Historical accounts describe the temple in Jesus' day as pretty spectacular. The disciples couldn't help but be impressed with it. But Jesus was looking at something even more impressive, and gave his life to make sure his disciples would see it too.
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