Wednesday - Advent Week 4

Gospel

LUKE 1:57-66

When the time arrived for Elizabeth to have her child she gave birth to a son.  Her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown his great mercy toward her, and they rejoiced with her. When they came on the eighth day to circumcise the child, they were going to call him Zechariah after his father, but his mother said in reply, “No. He will be called John.”  But they answered her, “There is no one among your relatives who has this name.” So they made signs, asking his father what he wished him to be called. He asked for a tablet and wrote, John is his name,” and all were amazed. Immediately his mouth was opened, his tongue freed, and he spoke blessing God. 

Then fear came upon all their neighbors, and all these matters were discussed throughout the hill country of Judea. All who heard these things took them to heart, saying, “What, then, will this child be?" For surely the hand of the Lord was with him.

Question

What does it mean to say Jesus himself is the new temple?

Reflection

From the beginning of revelation, mankind in general and Old Testament Hebrew times thought and prayed spiritually but expected answers that were physical in form. Good health, freedom from bondage, wealth enough to comfortable or safety from enemies. The temple built by the ancients and rebuilt Herod served as a physical reflection of God on earth. It was where the holy of holies was held in solemn separation. The prayers of sabbath and ritual were sang within the temple. The economic engine of Israel hummed within the walls of the temple because of the need for money changers and purveyors of sacrificial holocausts. The temple is where the heart and soul of Judaism resided. Destruction of the temple the first time was catastrophic and it took centuries for the Jews to recover and reconstruct what was lost and ironically the temple that existed in the first century had been rebuilt by Herod, a faux Jew detested by the population. 

Jesus was the new temple, a human connection to the divine where true spirituality existed. The temple of Jesus is timeless, perfect and enduring. In him is the completion and fulfillment of all things but the buying and selling of goods for sacrifice ended and what was asked for by God was conversion of the heart and soul that in turn changed to focus from the things of passing value to the priceless pearls of salvation. All humans are welcome in the temple with the only price for entry being desire.