However, if the
Temple fell, as Jesus apparently predicted it would, and if the message about
Jesus and about His words included the insistence that Jesus was, in fact, the
new Temple, that the Temple continued in those that believed in Him as Messiah
(as the place in which the Creator God, by His Spirit, truly dwelled), that Israel’s
God had raised Him from the dead, and that He was the Son of Man that had now
gone before the Ancient of Days and received the power of the long-awaited
kingdom of God, then a shift in loyalty and allegiance (faith) would be a very
natural thing to occur.
If the Temple fell,
and did so in line with Jesus’ predictions (perhaps one can think about the
report of the abomination of desolation standing in the holy place and the
author’s comment about the reader understanding), and if it was all tied-up
with Jesus’ ministry, His crucifixion, His Resurrection, His ascension (understood
to be the joining of the realm of the Creator God and the realm of man---the
coming together of heaven and earth), the witness of the church, and the coming
of the Son of Man to receive kingdom authority, then it would be more than
clear that the Creator God had acted just as decisively within history as He
had when the Temple had been destroyed by the Babylonians.
If the Temple had
come to its end, and if the person that had predicted such a thing, who had
been said to have been raised from the dead by the Creator God, was also
reported to have insisted that He received His kingdom at the same time, then
it would make all the sense in the world for the covenant people of the
covenant God travel all the way down that path, worshiping Him and honoring Him
as so deserved. Of course, historically, the actions of Gentile
Christians did much to dissuade the Jews from traveling that path.
It would be one thing
to go and preach a risen Lord. That would be a matter of meta-physical
speculation and, when you get right down to it, faith. It would be quite
another to go and preach a risen Lord, with a desire to accurately share the
message that He preached, speaking about the Creator God’s kingdom coming
through Him, with that tied to the fall of the Temple while the Temple of
Jerusalem still stood. With a clear understanding that Jesus did, in
fact, predict the fall of the Temple, then it may very well have been the most
important issue at hand in the witness of the early church. The
destruction of the Temple, with it occurring within the time frame that Jesus
very clearly gave in one of His most straightforward answers, and as it appears
that this is actually something that He must have said (otherwise it would not
be so stringently reported and insisted upon by the Gospel authors), would be
the thing that, rightly and understandably, gave weight to all other claims
about Jesus.
Frankly, if He was
truly going to be considered as a legitimate prophet, then the Temple had to
come crashing down. It would be one thing to predict such a thing in a
time of relative peace and stability under the Romans, and another thing
altogether to insist upon such an occurrence when Jerusalem is surrounded by
armies and the Jews are in the process of open rebellion against Rome.
Here, one is forced to think about Jesus’ statement that many would come in His
name (Messiah, Son of Man, etc…), claiming to be the messiah (Matthew 24:5) in
the midst of wars and rumors of wars, and to consider his talk about people
saying “Look, here is the Christ!” or “There He is!”, while adding that those
that say such things during times of duress are not be believed (as it is only
natural to make predictions about the possible destruction of the Temple when
the Jews are in open revolt against Rome). So when Jesus says “For false
messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders to
deceive, if possible, even the elect” (24:24), and then adds, “Remember, I have
told you ahead of time” (24:25), better sense of this can be made.
Jesus spoke about the
fall of the Temple “ahead of time.” Yes, Jesus made His prediction in
association with the time of relative peace and stability. This was risky
stuff for Jesus. There is great faith on display. If He was to be
held up as anything but a failed messianic pretender, then it was ultimately necessary
for the Temple to be destroyed. The Resurrection only mattered if Jesus
received His kingdom as the Son of Man, and He had very clearly said that He
would come to His reign (or His reign would be confirmed) when the Temple
fell.
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