Matthew 24 - Part 1

 

Read Matthew 24

 Jesus had bested the Pharisees and silenced the Sadducees and then went into an extended monologue chastising the religious hypocrites who should have been shepherding God’s Chosen People but who were spiritually blind and manipulated God’s directives to their own liking.

Then Jesus left the temple but the disciples sought his comments on the structures.  They were surely magnificent.  If Jesus was the Christ—if he was there before Abraham—then surely he had seen Solomon’s Temple as well.  He must have something to say about this temple made to glorify his Father.

Jesus did not admire the structures.  It was if he was indifferent to them.  There will come a time where not one stone will be left upon another.  Jesus had chastised the religious hypocrites.  Now he admonished his disciples for their Tower of Babble thinking. 

The disciples had not yet realized that their very bodies were much more valuable temples. God had previously presented himself in all his glory in a tent in the wilderness.  The architecture was surely something that God’s people had wanted to do to honor God, but the greatest thing that his people would do would be to live in the way that God prescribed.

The greatest thing that we can do is to follow obediently the Spirit of the living God that resides within us. We put the words of our Lord into practice.  That’s the best building ever—the one built on solid rock.

There was nothing wrong with the temple.  Some had defiled it by their practices, but it was a structure build by humankind that would not endure.  Only God and his word will endure.

We are advised to build our lives upon him. He must be the cornerstone of our lives.

Amen.