Temple Ideas

Another day of exciting adventures. First of all: I have mail! A wonderful letter from my mom :-) I carried it around with me all day and re-read it on the bus to Bethlehem. If anyone is interested, I love getting letters! The address here is:

Lauren Rook
Jerusalem University College
PO Box 1276, Mt. Zion
Aravnah HaYevosi 3
Jerusalem, 91012  ISRAEL



 
Today began with a trip out to Dome of the Rock. It is right next to the Western Wall (often referred to as the Wailing Wall - it is the last remaining wall of what is believed to be Herod's temple). The scene you see in the picture to the side is of the men's side of the Western Wall. Further to the right is the women's section.

Dome of the Rock is the mosque built on the Temple Mount where the old Jewish temple once stood. The site is holy to Jews because it is the location of their old temple, and it is sacred to Muslims because it is where Mohammad is believed to have ascended. Modesty is a MUST at both the mosque and the Wall - neither men nor women will be allowed near if not properly dressed. We saw a man and woman near the Western Wall who were wrapping towels round their waists because their shorts were too short and were considered disrespectful. Once we entered the grounds at the Dome of the Rock I put a scarf over my hair but a guard asked me to lend it to my friend to wear over her shoulders as she was wearing a shirt that had a wide neckline. We were allowed to walk around the Dome of the Rock, but because we are women and non-Muslims we were not allowed inside.

 

Some of the people I was with said that they felt a sense of spiritual oppression while on the Temple Mount. I can’t say that I sensed that. I did feel like I was in a place that was foreign to me and that I didn’t belong there, especially because I was wearing pants and a t-shirt and was taking pictures with a camera while other women were covered head to toe, completely wrapping their faces in scarves. I felt admiration for the beauty of the mosque and the care that had been put into every detail of it. It is certainly one of the most beautiful buildings I have ever seen. It was amazing to see the dedication of the people who worshiped at the mosque and the Western Wall and their reverence for holiness.

Now here is where I may lose you, and that’s fine. This isn’t just a travel blog – it’s a record of the changes in me and the thoughts that I have while experiencing new things. So be warned – my thoughts sometimes tend toward the religious. I started reflecting on all of these things: holiness, temples, reverence, worship, presence of God, etc. Although I think that the Wall is symbolically beautiful, and the Mosque is physically so, I think there is even more beauty in the Temple idea that is presented through Christ. The Jews of the New Testament period were very proud of their new temple which Herod had built for them – it was far larger than the temple of Solomon’s day and was a glory to see. They were waiting for God to indwell it with his living presence – his Shekinah glory, just as he had indwelt Solomon’s temple centuries before, making it so beautiful and powerful that the priests could not even enter the building (2 Chronicles 7:1-3). God’s presence eventually departed and the temple was later sacked and destroyed but Israel looked forward to the day when he would return and judge their enemies. They waited in vain – it never happened. Paul took their centuries of hope and flipped it around when he was writing to the church in Corinth, suggesting that God had indeed returned and indwelt his temple but that it wasn’t the temple everyone was expecting. This time it was a living, universal and mobile temple, one where he could dwell in and be worshipped throughout the world by Jews and Gentiles, male and female. Worship of God no longer belonged to one people group to hold over the heads of others, he wasn’t just to be found in one geographic location or building. And sacrifices no longer needed to be made on a regular bases to absolve people of sin and purify them - there had now been a perfect sacrifice which ended the need for sunstitutes.

The new temple was the body of Christ (recall John 2:13-22 where Jesus refers to himself as a temple that would be destroyed and raised back), and since we have Christ living in us, we are part of his temple; when we are gathered with other believers he is in the midst of us (Matt. 18:20). Paul specifically uses “temple language” throughout 1 and 2 Corinthians reminding believers that they are the temple of the Holy Spirit and are to treat their bodies and each other as though they are holy. He redefines what the return of God looks like by making the Kingdom of God a spiritual kingdom.

Paul wasn't the first or only one to view Christians in this light – the book of Acts records Stephen once saying in the presence of the pre-Jesus Paul, “The Most High doesn’t live in temples made by human hands” (Acts 7:48). Paul repeated this in Athens saying, “Since he is Lord of heaven and earth, he doesn’t live in man-made temples and human hands can’t serve his needs” (Acts 17:24). Peter, too, used the symbolic reference when referring to Christ as a living cornerstone of the new temple, placing believers as its living stones built on top (1 Peter 2:4-9). These stones, these people, were rejected by the Jews as worthless, even proving to be stones that cause them to stumble, people that were just in the way, but God has a greater purpose for them. Perhaps this is what Paul had in mind when he referred to God using those things despised by the world to bring what the world considers important (like a really big temple building) to be nothing (1 Cor. 1:28).

I think it is amazing to be in Jerusalem and to see the continuation of these temple buildings and how people continue to respect them. I also am amazed by the reverence that many Christians here have for their own holy sites, like the Holy Sepulcher and the Church of the Nativity. Then I see how Christians treat each other here and the hatred that denominations have for each other as they fight about who has the right to certain sites. It seems that some of them have entirely missed the point. In God’s wisdom, worship of him was to be transformed so that it would be embodied in our relationships with each other and would be performed when we gather together. He is the God of the universal kingdom and a universal temple. He has indeed returned to his temple and it is not just a house where he lives, or a church where he is worshipped and taught about – 1 Corinthians specifically uses the word temple to describe the body of Christ. A living, breathing temple, made up of all of his worshippers wherever they are. It is associated with a life of constant prayer, a constant reminder of the only sacrificial death to give us life, a constant sacrifice of ourselves as we follow that example. The closest place we can be to God while we live on this earth is when we are in relationships with other believers, worshipping him.