Though I planned to end the Temple blog series with the previous blog, Christ the Theotokos and the Temple, one additional thought came to my mind about the Temple. This is an idea I remember reading somewhere but I no longer remember where I read it, so I can’t give a proper citation for the idea, but want to fully acknowledge it did not originate with me.
The idea is a particular reading of Mark’s Gospel, 12:38-13:2 which follows:
And in his teaching he said, “Beware of the scribes, who like to go about in long robes, and to have salutations in the market places and the best seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at feasts, who devour widows’ houses and for a pretense make long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.” [12:38-40]
And he sat down opposite the treasury, and watched the multitude putting money into the treasury. Many rich people put in large sums. And a poor widow came, and put in two copper coins, which make a penny. And he called his disciples to him, and said to them, “Truly, I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the treasury. For they all contributed out of their abundance; but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, her whole living.” [12:41-44]
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.” [13:1-2]
Frequently in homilies it is verses 12:41-44 that get the attention: praise for the sacrificial giving of the poor widow.
But I remember once reading a commentary which advised keeping Mark 12:41-44 in context: namely sandwiched between 12:38-40 and 13:1-2. Mark 12:38-40 condemns the kind of religion which and the kind of religious people “who devour widows’ houses.” This kind of religion is rejected by Christ who then sits down to watch happen what He just condemned about a certain kind of religion.
No sooner does Christ speak the words about those who devour widow’s houses (12:40) then along comes this widow who puts into her last 2 pennies into the temple treasury. Here at the Jerusalem Temple is the kind of religion which convinces a widow to give all she has and which takes it from her! It’s the temple religion which is being condemned. The widow is not being condemned, but a religion which would convince her to give away all that she had to get to heaven or to avoid hell is condemned by our Lord. A religion which impoverishes the poor is not being upheld as the model for the truth faith!
And then in Mark 13:1-2, no sooner has the woman contributed to the great temple building then the disciples begin to marvel at the great stones of which the temple is built. Does Jesus join them in admiration and praise of the temple building? NO! He tells them the entire building complex is going to be completely destroyed and leveled. The poor widow is wasting her money! That is the bankruptcy of a religion – taking the last pennies from the poor and giving nothing in return.
The “contextual” reading of Mark 12:38-13:2 suggests that maybe Jesus isn’t so much praising the poor widow but more condemning the kind of religion which takes every last penny of resource from such people and gives them a massive structure which all comes tumbling down into a pile of rubble.
This reading of Mark 12:38-13:2, certainly calls to mind the Prophecy of Malachi 3 where the Lord suddenly appears in the temple (3:1) and confronts in judgment “those who wrong the widow and the fatherless” as well as those who cheat the laborer of his wages and those who thrust aside the alien (3:5). All of these are related to charges Jesus brought against those who were running the Temple.
It is another view of the Temple – or perhaps of the wrong idea of Temple or of a false Temple.
The Temple is God’s vision of how He might dwell with His people, how His people become His Temple, and in the end the Temple is God Himself. It is a mystical reality that has nothing to do with a religion of rules that sucks every last penny from a poor widow and gives nothing in return.
The Temple is to be an experience of the eternal God, not a way for some to control and manipulate others on this earth.
All four Gospel writers report that Jesus engaged in a cleansing of the Temple (Mt 21:12-17; Mk 11:15-19; Lk 19:45-48; John 2:12-25). From what we have learned about the complex mystical and theological nature of the Temple, the fact that Christ the Lord thought the Temple needed to be cleansed – that it was defiled – shows how far the Temple had fallen from its ideal as the place where God dwells with humans. The verses we see above from Mark 12:38-13:2 are very consistent with what we see throughout the Gospels: namely, the Temple is no longer about God but has become merely about religion.
The Temple is something God revealed to Moses and to David. That archetypal Temple is God’s and not made by hands like an idol. The Temple in Jerusalem was from its beginning a copy of the original. It was a symbol drawing the world of humans and of God together, and a sign – pointing to the reality of which it was a copy, symbol and sign. It was not meant to be worshiped As Daniel says to King Cyrus in the story of the idol Bel, “I do not worship idols made with hands, but only the living God who created the heavens and the earth” (Bel :5, OSB). God not only created the heavens, but is the Temple in the New Jerusalem. No temple built of magnificent stones could ever replace that reality.
The Church is the Body of Christ and we are to be the living Temple of God. Our concern should be what we need to do to make this a reality and not to become another form of the Temple which is nothing but inorganic stone. Wisdom tells us that water can be the living kind of the baptismal font washing away sin, or the substance that petrifies the body’s bone into lifeless stone. The presence of God gives reality to the Temple, the Temple does not give reality to God.
The entire blog series on the Temple is now available as a PDF: Envisioning the Temple (PDF).
Fraternized 