The Temple complex in Jerusalem in which Jesus appears in today’s Gospel, was still under construction. It was undergoing an extensive renovation and embellishment program, and its precincts were being vastly expanded – doubled, in fact. Of course, in order to accomplish all this, no capital campaign was necessary, and the zoning board didn’t have to be petitioned; things were obviously different back then. When Jesus and his disciples saw the Temple in Jerusalem, it was on its way to becoming bigger and better than it had ever been. At the time of Christ, the Temple had been under re-construction for some thirty or forty years, and construction would continue for yet another thirty or forty years. When it was finally completed, the first-century Jewish historian Josephus described it thus:

The exterior of the structure lacked nothing that could astound either mind or eye. For, being covered on all sides with massive plates of gold, the sun was no sooner upon it that it radiated so fiery a flash that people straining to look at it were compelled to avert their eyes, as from the rays of the sun. To approaching strangers it appeared from afar like a snow-clad mountain; for all that was not overlaid with gold was of purest white.

Josephus also records that eighty years in the making, the Temple at Jerusalem was destroyed only seven short years after its completion. Jesus’ prophecy of its destruction came to pass in the year 70 A.D. during the Jewish revolt against Roman occupation.

However, while prophesying the destruction of the Temple might have been offensive to the religious and political establishment in Jerusalem, it can’t have been a shocking pronouncement then, and it really shouldn’t amaze us now, even though we know it came true. The landscape of human history is littered with the remains of temples. From Angkor Wat in Cambodia to Luxor in Egypt, from the Parthenon in Athens to the pyramids of Copan in Central America, the world over, the fate of temples seems to be ruin. Furthermore, first century Palestine was pockmarked with mounds that had been temples and shrines. Not to mention, the Temple in which and about which Jesus prophesied had a long history of destruction and desecration, having been pilfered and ransacked rather often by marauding invaders and corrupt Israelite kings alike. And Israel’s prophets warned of its tragic fate almost from its establishment by Solomon. Therefore, neither Jesus’ prophecy nor its fulfillment are astonishing. Anyone acquainted with Hebrew Scripture and history could have said such a thing without going too far out on a limb.

So why mention it? The Temple in today’s Gospel is an emblem. Gleaming white and radiant, it represents all that a culture and a people can hold dear: its impressive edifices, its cherished institutions, yes even its families. With his own Passion and death drawing ever-nearer, Jesus reminds his disciples that all these things have limits and are limited in their power to sustain them, if they are to follow him. If they are to follow Jesus, they will ultimately have to rely utterly on him, their relationship with him, his words to them. Jesus assured them, and he assures us, that the time will come when the disciple must stand alone and stand up and despite the tide of chaos and darkness confess the truth that Jesus reveals.

In entering into his passion, Jesus shed everything that a human holds dear: stripped of clothing, abandoned by his family, robbed of dignity, even his life. Yet the image of him hanging on the cross reveals more of God’s truth than the splendor of any temple; it tells us more about God’s justice than any court of law; it tells us more about God’s love than even human parents can.

Yes, the cross is the key to this morning’s Gospel; the Cross reveals the true meaning and weight of the foretelling of the destruction of the Temple. For in his suffering and death, Jesus gave his disciples then and now a new emblem to cling to and treasure. He gave his followers a cultural icon of the true relationship between God and humankind. More marvelous and indeed more durable, that which crowned Mount Calvary displaces that which crowned the Temple Mount as the destination of all true pilgrimage. And when the Christian arrives a that place of alienation and ridicule, that same icon, the cross, assures us that there no place on earth holier, no place on earth where God is more present with us than in the suffering of his children.

After Temples and kingdoms and empires rise and fall, the Cross will remain, and its light does not compel onlookers to avert their eyes, but rather invites all likewise to radiate the truth of God in Jesus Christ through following in its way, the way of the Cross.

Amen.