The Temple Distributed
Jesus said to them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” John 2:19
Destroy – They did destroy the “temple.” They hung the Savior on the cross, watched Him die and put Him in the grave. Three days later, God raised Him from the dead. But there is more irony here than Yehsua’s reference to His own death and resurrection. The Jews mocked Yeshua, thinking that He was referring to Solomon’s temple, a fifty-year construction project that seemed as though it would stand forever. In 70 AD, Solomon’s temple came down – and it has never been raised again.
God allowed His Son to be destroyed (the Greek verb is luo – to loose, to dissolve, to break, to destroy) so that He could raise up that “temple.” But God also allowed the architectural structure of Solomon’s temple to be destroyed in order that He could raise up a different kind of temple – a temple that resides within the heart of every believer. God removed man’s monument to religion in order to re-establish temple worship in our hearts. We are the living temple of the Most High. We are the temple distributed – a temple without walls, doors and pretty glass windows. We are a temple that has hands that serve and feet that rescue, minds that obey and hearts that worship. The building is gone because it was never about the building. It still isn’t!
God allowed the temple to be destroyed so that we would gather in households and return to Exodus community, a holy nation of families of priests. For centuries, every adult male in Israel gathered at the temple three times a year. National corporate worship occurred on those three specific occasions. All the rest of the time, worship was a function of the synagogue and a synagogue was the collection of ten families. The foundation of God’s plan for His teaching, preaching and glorifying is found in the kitchen, the living room and the bedroom. God is present in the family and the collection of families dedicated to His path.
But the church building is not the Temple. It never was. God is absent in the church building. The church is not to be the place of His abode. Whenever we gather to join in holy acknowledgement of the One Who rescued us, we need not invoke His presence. He resides within us. For now, His temple stands on your feet.
We all like to have our own shrines. It’s the human way. We seem to think that if we build a structure dedicated to the God of community, He is waiting there until we show up on Saturday. We would prefer to keep God out of the kitchen and the bedroom. It’s so much easier when we can visit Him on a day off rather than have Him present in the classroom or the boardroom. But it’s a big mistake. For now, the only temple that God endorses today is the one inside you. And if He isn’t there, everywhere you go, then you won’t be able to find Him at your church either.
Raise up the eternal home of the Almighty – in your heart. All the rest is merely human monuments.
