The Temple of the Living God

In this evening's service at St John's we reflected on the place of the Temple in Christianity following readings from Haggai 2. 1-9 and John 2. 18-22.

Extracts from the writings of Margaret Barker led into a song by Neal Morse from his ? album:

“A temple stood in Jerusalem for over a thousand years. According to the biblical account, the first temple was built by Solomon about 950 BCE and was severely damaged by the Babylonians about 350 years later. It was rebuilt towards the end of the sixth century BCE by people who returned from exile in Babylon, and was rebuilt again by Herod the Great at the end of the first century BCE. The structure was finally destroyed by the Romans in 70 CE, but the influence of the temple and its world has far outlasted its physical existence.

Jesus would have known Herod’s temple and he prophesied its destruction. Not one stone of it, he said, would be left standing (Mark 13. 2). From this we might assume that Jesus was opposed to the temple, but in fact … the world of the temple was the world of the first Christians, and they expressed their faith in terms drawn almost exclusively from the temple. Jesus and his followers opposed what the temple had become; they identified themselves as the true temple, with Jesus as the great high priest.

When Jesus was arrested by the temple authorities, one of the charges brought against him was threatening to destroy the temple and to rebuild it in three days (Mark 14. 58). Another was claiming to be the Messiah (Matt. 26. 63-64). These were two aspects of the same charge, as can be deduced from the Book of Enoch, a text which the early Christians regarded as Scripture. The Book of Enoch described the judgement of the fallen angels, and then how the Lord of the sheep would carry away the old temple and set up something greater in its place (1 Enoch 90. 28-29). This is the reason for the two questions at Jesus’ trial: Did you claim that you would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days? Are you the Messiah, the Son of the Blessed One? This same passage accounts for the exchange between Jesus and the Jews recorded in John 2. 19-21: ‘Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” The Jews then said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?”’ Later reflection led the evangelist to add, ‘But he spoke of the temple of his body’. Jesus was claiming the prophecy of Enoch, that he was the Lord of the sheep who would destroy and rebuild the temple …”

“The Temple was a model of the creation, and the liturgy of the temple preserved the creation. Genesis 1 was not an account of the historical process of creation, but a record of the great vision granted to Moses and others of how the world is made. In the six days when Moses was on Sinai, before the LORD called to him (Exod. 24.16), he saw the six days of creation, and was then told to replicate these when he built the tabernacle …

The holy of holies represented Day One, the state of the angels … The veil of the temple represented the second day, and the table with bread, wine and incense was the third day, when the plants were created. The seven branched lamp represented the lights of heaven created on the fourth day, the altar of sacrifice represented the non human creatures, and the High Priest was the human, male and female as the image of God … The Second Adam [Jesus] was the Great High Priest, and if we are the body of Christ, we all have this high priestly role.”

“Jesus was … [the] great high priest (Heb. 4.14) … raised up by the power of an indestructible life (Heb. 7.16) who had offered the final atonement sacrifice to fulfil and supersede the temple rites (Heb. 9.1-14).” Atonement was the ritual self offering of the Lord to renew the eternal covenant and thus heal the creation. This is what Jesus’ death achieved and is the covenant renewed at the Last Supper.

In this way the New Testament reverses the story of Eden and brings Christians back to the original Temple meaning that the “kingdom of which Jesus spoke was the state of the holy of holies, the unity at the heart of all things which secured the eternal covenant … This must be the original context for ‘Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven’ and for ‘This is my blood of the covenant, poured out for many for the putting away of sins’ (Matt. 26. 28).”

Inside His Presence

And in this place of gold [1 Kings 7:50]
The ancients walked this road
There is no death [2 Tim 1:10]
There is no time [Ecc 3:15]

There is a love unknown [1 Pet 1:8]
There is a scent of home
A rainbow wreath [Rev 4:3]
A blazing throne

From a grave of stone to a world unknown
From the smoke and ash comes true life at last [Isa 61:3]
Among earth and sod
the very life of God is here [Rom 8:11]

From a list of laws seeing all our flaws [Rom 8:3]
To the blind, the lame, we are all the same [Acts 10:34]
Our High Priest has come to make us all as one in Him [Gal 3:28]
The temple of his throne [Acts 7:48]
Is now not made with stone

Your very heart is now his home [1 Cor 3:16]
He will come and live if you’ll only give [John 14:23]
Him a place inside that the world can’t buy
And the Holy Place is now face to face in Christ [Heb 9:24]

When he died and was born the temple walls were torn [Mat 27:51]
And God’s Spirit poured out to all the ones without
Now the temple of the living God is you [Eph 2:21]
The temple of the living God is you [Rev 3:12, 1 Pet 2:5]

The Temple of the Living God

And then after all with our backs against the wall
We seek the temple of the living God
And now that it’s done the heart of every one [2 Cor 6:16]
Can be the temple of the living God
Can be the temple of the living God [Rev 21:3]

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Neal Morse - Solid as the Sun.