Mark 13:1-2
Find a way to separate yourself from whatever’s going on around you so you can fully enter into today’s passage. if you haven’t read the introduction to Mark’s Gospel, read it here.
Read Mark 13:1-2 imagining that you are seeing the temple buildings along with Jesus’ disciples.
The temple complex Jesus and his disciples are passing isn’t the original temple built by King Solomon. This one is a rebuilt and renovated version that had been expanded just about 50 years earlier by Herod the Great. In other words, it is just a building. The important thing is what is supposed to be happening inside the building.
God is certainly not limited to a physical space and never was, but beginning in the time of Moses, God instructed the Israelites to build physical structures in which they could focus on God and worship God without distraction. First the tabernacle and later the temple in Jerusalem were structures designed to help God’s people tune in to God’s presence.
Jesus is God in the flesh, and he is walking with the disciples, yet they almost seem more impressed with the architecture than with the architect of life who is there with them.
With this in mind, read Mark 13:1-2 again.
Physical reminders are good when they point us to Jesus. It is helpful to have a special place to meet with Jesus every day and it is fine for us to gather in a building on a regular basis to focus on God as a faith community. The danger lies in ascribing some kind of magical status to these places and forgetting that we who follow Jesus have his Spirit living in us at all times and in all places.
The Apostle Paul said that the followers of Jesus are the temple of God, and that God’s lives in us (1 Corinthians 3:16). In what ways have you experienced the presence of God with you wherever you are?
If you are not sure how to answer that question, stop for a moment and talk to Jesus about it.
How are the people you encounter each day experiencing the presence of God in you?
Take a few moments to reflect on this.
What might Jesus be inviting you to do in response to this time of reflection? Before you move on, write down anything you sense from Jesus and come up with at least one action step to put into practice today.
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