Temple Abandonment

Abandono del Templo Oración de Esperanza

Temple Abandonment

Image_of_the_Holy_Spirit_in_the Church_20230407

Jesus answered them, Destroy this temple,

and in three days I will raise it up.

The Jews then said, It has taken forty-six years to build this temple,

and will you raise it up in three days?”

(John 2:19-20)

By Stephen W. Hiemstra

The Holy Spirit is the presence of God among us. For the Jew, God’s presence was associated with the Shekinah cloud found presumably in the Jerusalem Temple. This is why temple sacrifices were important—the sacrifices were presented directly to God. When Jesus spoke about destroying the Jerusalem Temple, the Jewish people would think about the Shekinah cloud and the sacrifices.

Religious and Economic Conflict

For the Sadducees (the high priestly class), it was a threat to their livelihood and the livelihood of the many people in and around Jerusalem providing animals for sacrifice. It would be like threatening to shutdown Wall Street in New York City or the casinos in Las Vegas. Some scholars have suggested that Jesus was crucified, not so much for claiming to the Son of God, as for clearing the temple marketplace (e.g. Luke 19:45) and threatening to destroy the temple (e.g. John 2:19-20).

Yoder (1994, 60) would add that Jesus’ life was treated because he advocated Jubilee, an important reference of which was found in Isaiah 61:2—the text referenced in Jesus’ call sermon (Luke 4:19). Jubilee implied: “Four prescriptions: 1. Leaving the soil fallow; 2. The remission of debts; 3. The liberation of slaves, 4. The return of each individual of his family’s property.” Three out of the four prescriptions would sound highly contentious to the ruling class in Jerusalem. Think about the stir created recently in Washington as the President has advocated forgiving (remitting) student loan debt.

Temple Abandonment

Temple abandonment is a phrase that implies that God is withdrawing his presence, a sort of divine curse or “dark night of the soul.” King David spoke of this same concept when he wrote: “Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me.” (Ps 51:11) David had witnessed first hand how withdrawing God’s presence from King Saul had left him a tormented individual and how he had eventually lost his kingship (e.g. 1 Sam 16:1).

In Luke’s writing, temple abandonment is hinted at many times, but let me focus on just two: The tearing of the curtain in the temple during the crucifixion (Luke 23:45) and the stoning of Stephen (Acts 7:58) that was precipitated by the accusation that he repeated Jesus’ statement about destroying the temple (Acts 6:14).

Strictly speaking, the tearing of the curtain in the temple was temple abandonment because access to God no longer was restricted by priests in the temple, but it was not abandonment of the faithful. It was more of a change in access to the Holy Spirit much like when Jesus declared people’s sins to be forgiven. Forgiveness of sins was previously only available via temple sacrifice (e.g. Lev 4:35). Nevertheless, access to God could no longer be rationed out by temple priests.

Absolute destruction of the temple was the ultimate threat to Jewish priests, not only because it put them out of a job, but because the Jewish faith required sacrifices that could no longer be made and because the temple was an enduring reminder of the Davidinic kingdom. How could God’s messiah restore the Jewish kingdom if its most important symbol were destroyed? Even Jesus’ own disciples asked the Risen Christ: “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1:6)

Dark Night of the Soul

The phrase, dark night of the soul, is attributed to Saint John of the Cross (1542-1591), who was a Spanish mystic and Carmelite priest writing during the counter-reformation period. This dark night of the soul presumably arises when God cloaks his presence from us as a test to see if we truly love him, not just seek after his blessings. Zimmerman writes: “The purpose of these trials is, however, not to throw the soul into despair but to wean it from all comfort so as to leave it with no other support than God himself.” (Saint John, 2006, xxi). In the context of discussing temple abandonment, God’s withdrawal from the temple should be seen as a teaching moment, not total abandonment, much like the period of the wilderness pilgrimage (Num 14:26-35).

Your Body God’s Temple

Obviously, when the Apostle Paul wrote—“Your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you” (1 Cor 6:19), his comment suggests that the Jerusalem temple was no longer the symbol of God’s presence that it once was. If your body is designed to be a temple of the Holy Spirit, then failing to invite the Holy Spirit in is tantamount to inviting demonic possession—a practical result of temple abandonment (Niehaus 2014, 130-131).

The ultimate statement of temple abandonment arose in Jesus’ prophecy on the Mount of Olives (Luke 19:41-44) that anticipated the destruction of Jerusalem and its temple by the Romans, which took place in AD 70. The temple was never rebuilt, which denied biblical Judaism adherents the ability to perform required sacrifices. Rabbinic Judaism, which was formalized about four hundred years after Christ, was an attempt to fill in this gap.

References

Niehaus, Jeffrey J. 2014. Biblical Theology: Volume 1: The Common Grace Covenants. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.

Saint John of the Cross. 2006, The Dark Night of the Soul. London: Baronius Press.

Yoder, John Howard. 1994. The Politics of Jesus. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.

Temple Abandonment

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