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We move on this week to Chapter 21 of Luke’s Gospel. Please read verses 1 to 7 every day this week and, if possible, use a different translation each day, asking God to open your eyes to fresh revelation from His Word.
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Luke 21:5 (New Living Translation – NLT)
‘Some of his disciples began talking about the majestic stonework of the Temple and the memorial decorations on the walls.’
I can’t say that I’m all that enamoured with architecture or art for that matter. I can look at something and have an appreciation for its beauty but I don’t get too excited when taking a walk through historic buildings for example.
I have visited some famous cathedrals and walked away with nothing more than ‘that was ok’. Fortunately, Cath has the same attitude and so we don’t have the conflict of one wanting to stay longer than the other. I remember on one occasion, we were with a group of friends on a bus trip and we made a stop at a service area that was right next to an art gallery. The driver informed us that we had 1 hour for the break and so we had a considerable amount of time ‘to kill’. Our friends suggested taking a tour of the gallery and, as Cath and I had never been to one before, we agreed. Less than 10 minutes later, we were sat on the bus having ‘looked’ at everything and moved on rapidly. We just saw the paintings and kept on walking. Our friends however, were late back to the bus and were recounting every exhibit as if it had been the most amazing thing they’d ever seen. Not only did we have to endure looking at each piece, now with even less enthusiasm we had to sit through hearing a description of them.
Despite all I’ve said, Jesus is standing before a temple that is truly spectacular. The historian Josephus describes it like this: ‘The exterior…being covered on every side with massive plates of gold, the sun had no sooner risen than it radiated so fiery a flash that those straining to look at it were forced to avert their eyes as from the solar rays. To approaching strangers, it appeared from a distance like a snow-clad mountain, the reason being that whatever was not overlain with gold was purest white. He who has not seen the temple in full construction has never in his life seen a glorious building.’ Not only was it beautiful, it was also huge. Some of the stones were roughly 15m long, 2m high and 1.5 m deep. This was a massive construction that was awesome to behold.
It is no wonder then that the disciples were marvelling at that kind of stonework and the gold panels on its walls. We’ll look at Jesus’ comments tomorrow but I want briefly to remind us all that while this building was majestic, there is another temple that God wants us to be aware of. Acts 7:48 tells us that ‘the Most High doesn’t live in temples made by human hands.’, while 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 says ‘Don’t you realise that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price. So you must honour God with your body.’
Many denominations spend countless thousands on making their buildings magnificent. It’s right that we worship in a building that is well maintained but our real focus should be on the ‘temple of the Holy Spirit’. Each one of us has God’s Spirit living in us and because of that we should honour Him with that body. That doesn’t mean that we have to all look like models but it does mean that we use our bodies for His glory! May our activities always bring Him praise and reflect the beauty of who He is.
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