7) The Temple
Repeatedly in the Gospels, the charge that seems to tip the scale in the balance of Jesus' guilt is the accusation that he says he will tear down the Temple and rebuild it in 3 days. That is quite a matchstick to gasoline claim.
The Temple in Jerusalem seems to be quite a touchy subject. It's the center point for so many prophecies, disputes, and is a symbolic housing for God's presence. Twice torn down, the Jewish and Christian faiths look to it's third rebuilding with the thought that it will signify God's return to the world. (I have HUGE issues with this, but that is for another post.)
The second incarnation of The Temple was torn down by the Romans @ 70 CE (or AD if you wanna go old school). So if we go with the time of Christ's execution being around 33(ish) CE/AD then that is within a generation that the Temple is destroyed. Already you have a very unhappy population having to live under Roman occupation, The Temple is a symbol of their strength, a symbol that God is still amongst them in the midst of these idol worshiping outsiders. And here comes this upstart man, making claims about being the awaited Messiah, preaching to outsiders, mixing with the heathens, the unclean, etc. I can honestly understand why they were threatened by him. It wasn't a stable environment in the first place, so when accusers say Jesus threatened The Temple (whether it was a false accusation or not), well...
So what about this threat? He allegedly says that he will tear down The Temple and rebuild it in three days. That would be quite a feat since it took armies to tear it down both times, and years to rebuild it. What did this puny upstart think he was going on about? But let's remember that Christ claims to be the Temple (I think in Matthew...don't have a Bible handy right now so correct me if I'm wrong) and that is where the metaphorical comes in.
I'm sure if you were raised Christian, you have heard over and over again about our bodies being a temple and to keep the temple sacred. But I don't see this temple being a truly physical entity as more of an ethereal one. If you think of it, and again if you were raised Christian you've heard this many times, what I believe Jesus was really refering to was the "body" of the faithful. When they talk about the earthquake and the Veil of the Temple being rendered in two, I'm less inclined to believe in a physical manifestation of these events as opposed to an allegorical situation.
Think about what this act of Jesus' execution and resurrection accomplished. I'm reminded of a song I sang in a church musical once. "He took the old rules steeped in tradition, he tore the holy veil away." I admit when I originally did that musical the words didn't really mean anything but pretty poetic license, I was more focused on the rest of the song which focused on Christ's death for us all. But as I was reading the Easter story this year, it suddenly clarified for me. It's amazing how many times you can study something and every time find a new insight, at least that's one thing I love about the Bible, when I take the time to read it...
Anyway, when you take the moment of Christ's death and look at what it symbolically did then yes, it shook the foundations of everything. For those watching it must have felt like the ground beneath gave out from their grief, for the meaning of this faith that was open to only those who were considered "God's chosen" the beginnings of a great chasm was starting. In those few days, the 'veil' of the 'temple' was ripped in two. On one side was the traditional Judaism as it had always been practiced, filled with it's mysteries and sacrifices. With the leaders who were the only ones allowed to walk into the inner sanctums and know the holiest of rites. On the other was a new version that was striving to spread out and include all people. To stop hiding behind a building and walls (after all how often did Jesus preach inside of a building) and to take the faith out into the open. To draw back the curtain and reveal all the mysteries to those who wanted to believe. Not a religion of seclusion but one of inclusion. You didn't need to be born into it by earthly parents, but born into it by accepting the Heavenly Father and Son.
Though the ramifications and real strength of the religion would take years to spread and grow, in those hours, what Jesus did was tear down the 'temple' of believers who walled themselves off and rebuilt a 'temple' of believers who wanted to go out and share their word. This is all in an ideal Christian environment, of course. To get briefly into it, The Temple that houses God was never a physical building (I understand human need to have tangible objects for 'proof' but God at the sake of sounding too hippie, God is tangibly in everything around us since he created everything) but the group of believers themselves. That is where He dwells, that is where His power lies. How could a building ever house anything so powerful as God? How could man make any structure that could withstand His strength, His glory? But when we think about how we all carry a piece (we were made in His image) then that power, that glory, that strength is spread out. As a group, the faithful can hold that power.
Take a scientific approach. Let's use the overused metaphor of a rippling body of water. Drop a rock on top of a drop of water and that water will be split into other tiny particles or absorbed by the rock. Drop that same rock into a body of water like a lake or ocean and suddenly the whole can sustain the impact and spread the impact out across the larger mass so that the whole body of water takes the impact and lessens the strength of the rock's force. It is absorbed and redistributed out in ripples, but the whole remains intact. For me that is what the 'temple' of believers is. Individually we would be crushed under God's impact, but as a body, as a massive whole, we can absorb that power and spread it out. And this wouldn't be one rock dropping in, this would be a rainstorm of rocks, constantly dropping. United we stand, divided we fall. Could that be more true when standing in the way of God's awesomeness?
Getting in touch with the hippie side again, I say that the universe at large is the cathedral, we are all in the 'temple' everyday. Didn't Jesus say something along the lines of "Where two or more gather in my name, there also am I"? Everything you do you are doing in this 'temple'. Listen to the birds, feel the breeze, go out and laugh with friends, volunteer for a cause, sit in silence and meditate...whatever you do you are attending service because this church never closes. This 'temple' never shuts, the doors are never barred, there are no hidden rooms here so long as you seek. And attendance is at an all time high.
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