2021. 11. 14. Yonsei University Church Sunday Service

Pastor Hong, Ji Hoon

Daniel 12:1-3/ Hebrews 10:11-14/ Mark 13:1-8

Not Any Stone on Another!

As I was reading Mark 13, a thought suddenly came to my mind. When Jesus pointed to the temple in Jerusalem, he said, “Not one stone will be left upon another, but all will be destroyed.” This means that the priests of the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem really wanted to kill Jesus. Of course, even outside of this passage, there are several instances in the Bible where the religious leaders of Judaism wanted to kill Jesus after hearing Jesus’ words. This was true not only of the priests, but also of the teachers of the law and of the Pharisees.

The actions of Jesus recorded in the Gospels were a clash with the religious leaders of Judaism at the time. As his deeds became known and many people followed Jesus, religious leaders also came to Jesus and conducted the so-called “verification” in various ways. However, each time Jesus spoke to them, they were ashamed, angry, and eventually killed.

This prophecy of the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem will come true in AD 70. The Romans destroyed the temple built by Herod. However, what is important in this text is not to question whether the prophecy of the destruction of the temple has been fulfilled, but rather what is Jesus' inner heart when he refers to the destruction of the temple. Wasn't it the reality of Judaism hidden in the symbolism of the collapse of a magnificent structure carved out of a huge stone that Jesus wanted to refer to?

Hebrews 10, the epistle we read together, is the scripture that contains an excellent definition of Jesus. It started with the first confession, “Jesus is the Christ.” The book of Hebrews says that Christ was the one who offered himself as a priest. And by offering that sacrifice only once, it sets us free from all guilt.

However, this verse depicts a priest who is completely opposite to the Jewish priests in the Gospels. Therefore, Jesus gave his life to fight Judaism and its religious leaders to make Judaism a religion that conforms to God's will. By this, the book of Hebrews recognizes Jesus as the true High Priest.

Therefore, Jesus' prophecy of the destruction of the temple contains a deeper meaning than the physical destruction of the temple in Jerusalem. In other words, it contains the teaching that religious acts in the guise of which the true meaning of religion has disappeared, rather than containing the sincerity of the religion, will only become a religion that imposes a yoke that is difficult to bear on people.

An elderly priest was troubled by the rats that gathered at the offerings for the sacrifice, but he found and raised a cat, and tied the cat to the bridge of the altar and offered sacrifices every time he offered sacrifices. So the mouse disappeared. One day, the old priest died, and a younger priest took over and offered the same sacrifice, but the cat also grew old and died. The rats no longer interfered with the ritual, perhaps because the cat was afraid. Nevertheless, the young priest went to the market, bought a cat, tied it to the altar, and offered a sacrifice. He knew that the ritual would begin only then. The meaning is gone and only the form remains.

When these religious practices accumulate and begin to be enforced with certain intentions, they become outrageous superstitions, destroying the original spirit of the religion. As for who did it, we need to think deeply about whether Judaism in the time of Jesus was like that, Christianity in the Reformation era was like that, and maybe we are today as well.

When Jesus said that the temple in Jerusalem would fall, leaving no stone upon stone, he did not mean that he truly wanted the destruction of Judaism. Similarly, the temple purification incident, in which the people who traded in the temple were driven out with a whip, was a struggle to revive the religiosity buried in formality. Hebrews 10:11 says, “All the priests stand on the altar day after day and offer the same sacrifices over and over while performing their duties, but such sacrifices cannot take away sins.” A shell is just a shell.

The reason Martin Luther, who started the Reformation 504 years ago, criticized the Catholic Church was to find the direction of faith that had lost its essence. The 95 theses he published are remembered only as “refutations of indulgences” to us today, but if you find and read the 95 theses, Luther's love and patience for the church overflows.

There are 95 theses that contain the sincerity that one indulgence cannot forgive the guilt just as the sins within me cannot be forgiven just by offering one sacrifice. The first thesis says: “Jesus Christ told us to repent, which means that the life of a believer should be a life of repentance.” Here he says that life should be repentance. So it means that it is impossible to put repentance and forgiveness in any external form.

But between the issuance of indulgences by the church and the purchases of believers, Luther says, lies the endless “greed” of man. Sellers and buyers alike have the same problem. The church is holy because it proclaims “the gospel with the grace of God.” The gospel is the good news that allows us to bear the yoke of Jesus and bear the burden of our lives with that yoke. But when the church carries the burden of life even more with the burden of greed, it is no longer a holy church, and the gospel cannot be found there.

At the <Korean Lutheran Society>, a meeting of scholars who majored in Lutheran theology, 95 theses were “contemporized” and presented at the request of the Korean Lutheran Society. Then it really shows that we have a lot to repent of today. The same applies to theologians, pastors, and members of the church as well. It seemed to me that Luther's strong voice demanded to distinguish whether the gospel is contained in the vessel of faith, or whether self-greed is contained in it.

In Luke 13:1-2, an unnamed disciple tells Jesus: “How awesome is a stone?” “What a great building.” This refers to the size of the stone from which the temple was built and the scale of the building. The attempt to boast of the majesty of the religious headquarters with such an architectural method was paid off. 13:1-2 is connected with verse 3 and below, after the place was moved to the Mount of Olives. This time looking down on the temple from a distant mountain, Peter, James, John, and Andrew asked Jesus. “When will the temple fall down, and what will be the sign?”

The disciples are still obsessed with form. If one disciple saw the great structure of the temple and said as if admiring its majesty, now the other disciples were surprised to hear that the enormous structure was completely collapsed and asked Jesus when and how it would collapse again. is.

Jesus' answer to this question goes on and on with the story of the end of the world, regardless of the questioner's intentions. Wars ensue, nations conflict, nations fight each other, earthquakes and famines are everywhere, the Lord answers.

Jesus' words about the phenomenon of the end times seem a little boring to us today. Because the end has not yet come. And over the past 2000 years, mankind has not been at war once or twice. Wars have been fought so many times that the history of war has to be written in a book, and wars and terrorism still take place. The same goes for earthquakes and famines. There are also unbearable disasters caused by environmental problems. Even so, mankind is still living well.

What is clear, however, is that we have a feeling that we are becoming more and more sympathetic to Jesus' apocalyptic prophecies. Perhaps the disciples who heard the prophecy of the end 2000 years ago felt the same way. However, this feeling is important because there is a deep allusion to the role of religion in that era in the apocalyptic story that began with the destruction of the temple.

The meaning of the prophecy of the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem is that the emergence of a religion that is only a shell of a lost mind is the beginning and end of the end. Religion has been deeply involved in all the wars mankind has waged over the past 2000 years. Sometimes wars were fought within the same religion as well as between different religions. So, aside from other religions, we need to reflect heavily on the fact that Christianity should not do that.

The history of the transmission of Christianity in Korea is 230 years for Catholics and 130 years for Protestants. Our history is very short compared to the Christian history in Asia as well as the churches in the West. However, during those 130 years, along with the history of our people, Christianity in this land had a very complicated experience. Christianity and the church stood in the middle of the history of colonial rule and liberation, division and war, and the conflict that has continued to this day. If you look at the history of our Korean church today through the eyes of Jesus, who is sitting on the Mount of Olives and looking down at the temple in Jerusalem, what would you say?

In the past two years, COVID-19 has destroyed the form of religious life that the church has maintained. Because brothers and sisters could not gather in the church. In the face of the power of COVID-19, the chapel, the gathering place, and the forms of worship and fellowship created by the church were useless. And the church that clings to such forms and gatherings was being criticized as being anti-social. Looking at this Korean church, what would Jesus say?

Jesus said to his disciples, “Are you looking at these great buildings? Not one stone here will be left upon another, but all will be destroyed” (13:2), I think, contains a warning about the disciple's simple thoughts before the literal destruction of the temple. If the building is a Korean church, it means a warning to the Korean church, which has been focused on growth for 130 years, obsessed with the number of members, church finances, and the size of the chapel. Although it is not possible to evaluate all the churches in Korea with the word Korean church, I am saying this with the intention of reflecting on it together.

In today's text, it is natural to talk about the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem and then move on to the story of the end times. However, we must find a clear meaning in the apocalyptic story that has lasted more than 2000 years. The end that Jesus teaches is the present end that the kingdom of God has already come to this earth before the future end that will come someday. It means that God is already with us.

And the proclamation of Jesus does not mean waiting blindly for the day when everything will end, but rather a request to cooperate properly with God who is with us and requires of us. When Jesus’ disciples heard the prophecy that “that temple will fall down, leaving no stone on it,” they thought that if God intervened, everything would be over, but Jesus’ teaching was the exact opposite. It was the teaching that “the time has come for you to cooperate in the work of the kingdom of God.”

Dear brothers and sisters,

It is said that Jesus' original occupation was a carpenter. If you look at the original text, it is “techton”, which literally translates to a stonemason. We call them carpenters because they build their houses out of wood, but they are masons because they build their houses out of stone. Then Jesus' occupation was a builder. What did the builders mean when they looked at the temple and said, “That building is falling down”? Doesn't that mean "wrongly built"? If we expand the meaning a little, wouldn't it mean, "The building will work well when it is demolished and rebuilt!"? In the eyes of Jesus, who knew how to properly build a house of faith, that temple building must have been a building that would soon collapse.

When Jesus, the builder of the house, looked at the temple in Jerusalem and said, “It is falling,” I think it is not an “attack” on Judaism, but a “challenge”. The kingdom of God is being realized on this earth, but it is a pity that we are still confined within the Jewish fence, so I think it means to break down that barrier and come out. It means to run along the path that God has made. If there is no road, even if you want to go, you cannot go, and if there is no one to run, the road is useless.

So, let's hope that our faith will not be confined to a formality anymore, but that it will be a faith that moves forward along the path that the kingdom of God has opened. Jesus saved us by sacrificing Himself and led us in the path of truth and wisdom. I sincerely hope that you will find true joy along the way.

(Prayer)

Lord, give us hope rather than despair.

Lord, help us to take on Your yoke and carry the burden of our lives.

Lord, guide us with joy as we walk the path of your kingdom.

I pray in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.