PROPER 28 11/17 And while some were speaking of the temple, how it was adorned with noble stones and offerings, he said, “As for these things that you see, the days will come when there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.” (Luke 21:5-6) I. In the year AD 70, the Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed by the Legions of Rome. Im going to ask your indulgence this morning because Im going to give a little more history than even I usually do. I think its important to put things in context. The Roman Empire stretched through time from 800 years before Christ, until the last Emperor was deposed by the Muslims in 1463. Yes, AD 1463. Only a handful of decades before Columbus sailed the ocean blue and Luther wrote the 95 Theses, there was still a Roman Emperor throned in Constantinople. If there was a consistent message being sent to the world during these 2, 223 years it was this: dont mess with the Romans. Heres just a few examples of why. The great nation of Carthage was an agricultural power on the Mediterranean sea. They used their trade connections and naval might in an attempt to hem in the Romans; to keep them from expanding. After two wars and several attempts at treaties, the Romans had HAD ENOUGH. In a final war against Carthage, they accepted no surrender and took no prisoners. They simply ground Carthage down into the dirt of history. In a final blow to destroy Carthage for all time, the Romans forced what was left of the citizenry into slave gangs, and coerced them to plow sea salt into the once fertile soil of their homeland. They poisoned the earth itself. The agricultural might of Carthage would never be rebuilt, and that area (which is now in modern Libya) remains infertile to this very day. Then there were the Dacians. A violent race from Eastern Europe, the Dacians were alot like the Spartans before them and the Vikings who came later: their culture revolved around a warrior cult which prided itself in strength and manliness. The Dacians made the mistake of intruding into Roman territory. After a few wars, and a few failed treaties, the Romans had HAD ENOUGH. They obliterated the Dacians, annihilating their armies, and burning down their villages. Then they summarily executed every male in Dacia over the age of 12. They settled their war veterans on the land they had conquered and allowed them to take multiple Dacian wives by force in an effort to repopulate the region. That country still exists. But for the 2,000 years since the Roman purge it has not been called Dacia. It has been and still is known as: Romania. Then, in AD 70, a rebellion began among the Jews in the Province of Judea. By this time there had been many rebellions against Rome in Judea, and many different strategies attempted in order to maintain stability. So, finally, the Romans had HAD ENOUGH. Just as they did with agriculture in Carthage and with the warrior cult in Dacia, the Empire struck at the very heart of what made the Jewish people a nation: their religion. Most of the Sacred Capital of Jerusalem was destroyed, and the Temple of the Jews there knocked into rubble. Over time, the Romans would rebuild the city along the lines of THEIR culture, and build in the ruins many temples to ROMAN gods. Many Jews fled Judea and spread across Europe and north Africa. Some stayed put and continued to cause sporadic disturbances, BUT there would never be another uprising that threatened Roman interests. The Romans had HAD ENOUGH, and you didnt mess with the Romans. II. How in the world did it EVER come to this? How could Jerusalem and the Temple be subjected to the terror of pagan armies? We find the answer in another question: what were the Romans doing in Judea in the first place? When reading the New Testament, have you ever wondered just how and why the Romans got into this story? Most of us probably havent. Their reputation is STILL well known, and most of us probably have gotten enough from television and movies that we just assume that we know. The Romans were imperialists. I guess at some point they just conquered the Israelites. We probably have felt sympathy for the Jewish rebels, assuming they were fighting the good fight against a foreign invader and thinking that they were the people of God. BUT thats just not so. It was Greek armies under Alexander the Great and his generals who carved up his Empire after his death who conquered Judea. Then coalitions of Egyptians and Persians and everyone else in that part of the world keep taking that territory from one another, while the Jews suffered. When the Jews reasserted their independence under the dynasty of the Maccabees, they needed HELP. They were trapped between many nations and weak. The Maccabees sent ambassadors around the world to plead for help, to veritably BEG for someone, anyone, to recognize their independence and help them hold on to their freedom. There was only one nation that was willing to help them. It was by a treaty of invitation and friendship that the Legions of Rome marched into Judea and teamed up with the armies of Israel to re-establish Jewish nationhood. Thats right, the Romans came to Israel as friends! They didnt conquer Judea. In fact, it was one corrupt dyansty of Jewish Kings after another that weakened Judea. It was scheming Jewish noblemen, coveting the throne and power but lacking the resources to make it happen, who happily turned over more and more and then more of Judeas land and loyalty to the Caesars of Rome. They literally SOLD OUT! This great nation founded by GOD Himself at the end of the Exodus, had truly stopped trusting in God a long time before the Temple fell. It was only the sudden resurgence of religious fervor that drove Zealots and Scribes and Pharisees and Sadducees into rebellion. They reneged! They tried to take back by force a country they had already sold off peice by peice. The Roman response was predictable and actually, quite right. III. And what about that Temple in Jerusalem? You may not have noticed, but not once in this sermon have I called it the Temple of God, because it wasnt. The truth is, that Temple had stopped being the Temple of God a long time before the Legions toppled it down. The body of believers are the Temple in Christ Jesus. Thats why, when He died on the Cross, the curtain in the Temple tore in two. Christ is our Lamb, Christ is our Atonement with God, Christ is our Testament, and His Church is our Ark. For forty years the Israelites wandered in the wilderness of Sin under Saint Moses before being allowed to enter the Promised Land. By AD 70, the Jewish people had been given forty years to hear and believe the Gospel of Jesus Christ. For those who did not believe, the earthly Temple had continued to reinforce their false religion of one or another Jewish cults. Now, God took that pale facade away from them. God had been patient with the Scribes and Pharisees and Sadducees and Zealots, but no longer. God had HAD ENOUGH. The Temple, which had been empty of power since Christ Jesus, crumbled to the earth. Ironically, it was brought down by the very worldly power of Rome which the Jews had once traded their nationhood for. In the centuries since God had freed the Israelites from bondage in Egypt, they had started relying on their own wisdom and cunning for preservation. In the end, they sold themselves back into slavery: this time, to Rome. They had chosen slavery to the powers of this world over the eternal God revealed in Christ Jesus. They made their bed, and lay in it in the ruins of a Temple which they had twisted into a Temple to themselves and their false religions. IV. There is a moral to this story. Its a very timely one because Judgment Day is coming. When the Temple fell into ruin, it was judgment day in Judea. People had gone about relying on their own reason, their own skill and their own cunning. They put their faith, hope and trust in the things of this world. They created a religion that was ultimately a reflection of their own ego. In their sins and their cult of self-reliance, they stood condemned. The facade of their temple collapsed. God had granted them time to hear the Gospel but let them go their own way. Then He brought their world to ruin. And we know that we sinful people are often like the Jewish cults which stood condemned on that day. Too often we place our faith, hope and trust in the things of this world. Too often we venerate our reason and skill and cunning. We pride ourselves on what good people we are, as we go about, like the Pharisees and others, judging ourselves in our own eyes and not Gods. Our judgment day is coming. Maybe thats why part of us fears the second coming of Christ; deep down we know what we have done in erecting our temples to ourselves. Armies of Angels are ready to descend at any moment to topple our temples and shatter our pride. The wheat will be gathered into the barn and the chaff burned up with unquenchable fire. Our idols will come to ruin. But there is another moral to this story. It falls along the lines of the parable of the Wedding Feast. In the Gospels it says that the Kingdom of Heaven is like a King who holds a wedding feast for his son and none of the invited people come. In judgment, the King decrees that those who were invited were not worthy to come. He sends out messengers to invite, well, any old slob they come across. In fact, he says, Compel them to come in, that my house be full. So it was when the Temple fell in Jerusalem. The Israelite people, who had stubbornly rejected the Gospel, were among those first invited. God played a song for them, but they would not dance. God had longed to gather them under His wing like a mother her chicks, and they WOULD NOT. BUT the destruction of the Temple brought even more Roman Legions to Judea. More Romans settled there, more of them lived out their lives there and, many of them, heard the word of the Gospel there. Within two centuries of the Temples fall, the overwhelming majority of Romans had become Christians! For twelve hundred years Rome would set the standard of what it meant to become a Christian nation. Many later Emperors (such as Constantine and Justinian) are counted as Saints of the Church. Many more Churches would be built in Judea. The faithless conniving of Jewish leaders had brought them there. Those who were first invited were unworthy. God welcomed the gentiles to His land. God called them by the Gospel out of darkness and into light - even as He has called us! God straightens all things out in the end. Every valley is lifted up and every mountain and hill brought low. There is evenness with God: perfection. Brothers and sisters, we have nothing to fear when Christ comes again in judgment. He has already promised us the Kingdom of Heaven. As the Glory of God once dwelt in the Temple in Jerusalem, it now dwells here with His Church. We receive the Glory of God hidden in the Sacred things of Baptismal Grace, Absolution and the Lords Supper. We should REJOICE! We should celebrate with great anticipation in our souls, that Christ Jesus, who dwells and lives among us in resurrected splendor, will soon come again for our final deliverance! He will bring to ruin all the things which bring us anguish and suffering. He will cast down Sin, Death and the Devil to their permanent prison. He will bear us up, lifting us to eternal life. May we, with the Saints mentioned in Revelation, say always in our hearts and minds, Amen! Come quickly, + Lord Jesus!
Posted on: Sun, 17 Nov 2013 18:23:23 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015