I remember as a little girl being taken by one of my aunts every year to Regent Street to see the Christmas lights.
There was often a man there wearing a sandwich board proclaiming that the end was nigh. To be quite honest, we both thought he was a bit odd, as did probably most people.
But, in the opening verses of Mark 13, Jesus was indeed beginning to proclaim the end.
He was in Jerusalem, and as he left the temple that day it was to never return, because he was rejecting its corrupt practices and leadership.
He rejected it because he knew that God was about to begin building something even better and far more beautiful than the then Jewish temple.
God was planning a new temple, in a new city of Jerusalem. Something far more wonderful than anyone could imagine.
But his disciples didn’t understand Jesus, how could they?
Because the sight of the temple in Jerusalem, from far and near, truly was breathtaking.
The Temple in Jerusalem
Herod the Great had been perfecting it, to his liking, for nearly fifty years over 35 acres, or about the space of twenty-three football pitches.
The temple was considered his architectural masterpiece.
The sanctuary walls were one hundred and fifty feet tall. Some of the blocks of stone were sixty feet long and weighed over a million pounds.
The columns were so thick that it took three men to reach their arms all around them.
Ancient historians said that, from a distance, it looked like a mountain of marble decorated with gold.
So yes, the Jerusalem temple was absolutely stunning and people thought that it would stand for a thousand years, or more even.
But Jesus was not impressed by it.
He told his disciples that it would soon be completely destroyed, so much so that not one stone would be left on top of another.
And it was razed to the ground, along with the city of Jerusalem, in a brutal battle between the Romans and Jews just 40 years later.
This confirmed what Jesus said, because he knew that his mission was to replace that temple with a temple in a new heaven and a new earth, and in a new city of Jerusalem.
Isaiah and The Book of Revelation
When Jesus spoke of the destruction of the temple he was also alluding to the destruction of the world as we know it today,
to allow for God’s new heaven and earth.
The prophet Isaiah initially wrote of this, when the Lord spoke through him and said;
17 For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth:
And then;
19 And I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in my people: and the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her, nor the voice of crying Isaiah 65-17-25
The Bible has a way of being opaque with some explanations, and much must often be left to faith.
But we could understand the destruction of the modern-day world to be;
at some point in the future, of which no one knows when;
all that is bad in the world today will be destroyed and replaced with;
all that is good in God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit.
The new world order, or renewed Jerusalem was also foretold of by St John in the book of Revelation.
He refers back to the prophet Isaiah when he speaks of a new heaven and earth, of which he says;
4 And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. Book of Revelation 25:4
John goes on to describe a glorious temple city (the new Jerusalem) that would have no need of a man-made temple as it would be a living temple created by the Lord and the Lamb.
But his description of the new world with pearly gates and streets made of pure gold is not to be taken literally.
Because the new temple city will be so wonderful that words today could not possibly describe it.
If you can imagine trying to tell an indigenous person of the Amazon jungle, who has never experienced the modern world, about how an iphone could be of benefit.
It would be impossible to describe to this person how two people at different ends of the country could speak to each other through a tiny tin box, and how this small box would need to be regularly charged with a thing called … electricity.
So too the new Jerusalem in a new heaven and earth is impossible to describe in physical terms today.
But St John illustrated it as the most amazing thing he was able to imagine at that point in time.
What does this mean for us today?
The disciples wanted to know when the of end time would come, but no one knows when that will be.
Not even the sandwich board man on Regent Street, who is no doubt now, long since gone and resting within the heavenly realms.
But despite his rather odd evangelising method – although we all remember it today still!
He understood that Jesus was foretelling of an end to the way the world operates today.
The sandwich board man could see that Jesus was speaking of a new order in a renewed world, in which He would reign with God, and the Holy Spirit.
But still today we do not really know what that means.
Our modern-day minds are just not capable of comprehending the unadulterated beauty of the long-planned new and holy temple, any more than the person in the Amazon jungle could comprehend how iphones could be of use today.
But we can allow our imagination to explore how it might feel to live without the pain of condemnation, fear, death or grief that both the prophet Isaiah and St John spoke of.
We can perhaps also imagine how it would feel to live feeling truly alive, totally accepted in our unique personality, completely fulfilled in our day to day life; and content and at peace, in a world at peace with itself.
Then as we live with faith and hope in Jesus; we will begin to experience less stress and more peace and contentment as we hand all that binds us over to him.
And although this is probably impossible for most to imagine, we can live in the hope we have through Christ’s death and resurrection.
Because He has already started the creation of the new world, with the temple of his body which rose from death, and of which we are now living members.
And each one of us is called in our own way to be involved in helping to build the new Jerusalem, and we are called to remain faithful despite trials and tribulations.
Because in the end times all Christians from the time of Jesus to then, will be assembled, as one of the living stones in the ultimate and most glorious, reformed temple.
And although I have no doubt it will be a very beautiful place to look at, as all God’s creation we see today is glorious.
I rather suspect it will be more about how we feel within that new world.
How we can then finally feel the peace that passes all understanding.
But we can also begin to feel that peace to some extent during our journey through this earthly life
Because there are special times, when the veil between heaven and earth thins,
and during those moments, we can sometimes catch a glimpse of that precious peace.
