Holy Courts on Two Great Hills

We are just like the first disciples of Jesus in this one way without question. They live in a dangerous world, and so do we. They are vulnerable to things that are out of their control, and so are we. In the Gospel last Sunday, Jesus mentioned that as big and impressive as the Temple built by Herod the King was, that it was all coming down. Jesus was forecasting the destruction of that grand center for spiritual connection with God. The temple was the ultimate place for people to meet with God and know God’s presence. Jesus told the disciples that every great stone would tumble.

As Jesus came out of the temple, one of his disciples said to him, “Look, Teacher, what large stones and what large buildings!” Then Jesus asked him, “Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown down.”

When he was sitting on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter, James, John, and Andrew asked him privately, “Tell us, when will this be, and what will be the sign that all these things are about to be accomplished?” Then Jesus began to say to them, “Beware that no one leads you astray. Many will come in my name and say, ‘I am he!’ and they will lead many astray. When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed; this must take place, but the end is still to come. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be earthquakes in various places; there will be famines. This is but the beginning of the birthpangs.” (Mark 13:1-8)

The disciples were blown away with the colossal stones and everything about the temple, but Jesus declared that even this huge complex was vulnerable to imminent destruction. This is not a prediction for the end times, and the apocalypse, this is his foretelling of something to happen in history, by forces already present.

Notice, the storyteller of this Gospel has Jesus and the disciples just leaving the temple, and in the next section, they are all the way across the valley opposite the temple mount on the Mount of Olives. So picture these two mountains: one with the Herodian temple, the formal place for the religious to meet God. On the other a simple circle of men from Galilee in an orchard of olive trees. Mark set up the truth-telling, as Fr. Wismer explained from the pulpit last Sunday, that Jesus, in his person, displaces the function of the temple. To meet with God, enjoy God’s presence, one has to find fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ. There were courts for every class of people at the temple. The life and presence of Jesus provided a court for all people to connect with God. Let me share this free-verse poem or reflection, on the scene from Mark:

Temple Courts

Five people stand in the high grove
peering through the olive trees
at the gleaming site across the way:
Stones in place, forming the masterpiece 
massive and holy on Mount Moriah,

Ancient trees with roots sunk into the hill
above the Kidron Valley and among them,
this little crew: how small these people were.
How grand the stone structures on the other hill
Artful bridges, gates, and porticoes
giving passage to pilgrims and priests
who gather in their sectioned courts
The followers wonder why he would say it would all be undone:
Not one stone left upon stone.
Begun only five decades before,
some sections still seeking completion.

What does he know, that no other knows
for making such a prediction?
Over there devout-folk gather in the grandeur of
stone temple-courts,
Here simple fisherfolk unknowingly
discuss with him who is rock of ages—
the grandest court of all in the shade of the Mount of Olives
Two pairs of brothers, Peter and Andrew, James and John,
learning from their teacher
He provides the true temple that
brings them close to God
Soon they will learn that as his body is torn
from his spirit on the tree of Calvary
the curtain hiding the holy of holies in the temple
would be rent, top to bottom
Access as never before—Holy presence
God with us as promised of old.
(David W. Price, Nov. 2021)

Let’s you and I focus on how we regularly and fervently place ourselves in the presence of Jesus Christ. In the sacrament, in prayer and meditation, in service to the poor, and in holy fellowship and study, we know his presence. If a temple provides a person a place to meet God, Jesus himself lays out for us a spiritual temple-court with no walls or pavement and no geographical restriction. It grants us the ultimate divine connection. In this way, Jesus comes to dwell in us, and we in him.