Finding Church: What if There Really Is Something More? by Wayne Jacobsen

Author:Wayne Jacobsen [Jacobsen, Wayne]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Church, Christian Life
ISBN: 9780983949152
Google: __HSoQEACAAJ
Amazon: 0983949158
Barnesnoble: 0983949158
Publisher: TrailView Media
Published: 2014-10-14T22:00:00+00:00

Characteristic Two:

Trusting Jesus’ work over human effort.

During my travels I have found myself near the most opulent palaces, castles, and cathedrals in Europe, and I am always fascinated with the scale, architecture, and art that fill those buildings. As impressive as they are, and all the more so that they were built without modern technology, my appreciation is always restrained by the realization that they were built by the enslaved for the benefit of a privileged few. As I stood in the immensity of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, my stomach churned knowing that many such cathedrals were built on the twisted theology of indulgences and the guilt money it garnered. Obviously if you’re building something for God, or at least if you say you are, you spare no expense, especially when you need the grandeur to intimidate the masses with wealth and power.

When I read the Old Testament, however, I get the idea that God doesn’t share our penchant for such extravagance. He never asked for a temple to be built, seemingly content with the less permanent tabernacle. But David grew uncomfortable living in a palace while the ark was in a tent and thus decided God needed a more stately home. Though he wasn’t allowed to build it, God allowed his son Solomon to do so and it became the focus of Israel’s faith.

When Jesus came on the scene he didn’t view the temple as an asset for Israel, but as a distraction. It served the illusion that God could be contained in a building, far from the daily lives of those he wanted to engage. It wasn’t even a house of prayer anymore but a place of commerce. Jesus found it offensive and upended the tables of the moneychangers declaring, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.” (John 20:19)

His words were layered with meaning. The disciples point out that the temple he spoke of was his own body. They would destroy it and he would raise it up in three days. But the religious leaders interpreted these words to mean their temple, and that may have been partly true. Not that he needed them to destroy it physically, but he at least wanted them to destroy what it had come to represent in their minds, that the transcendent God of the universe could be contained in a building, opulent though it may be. He didn’t want a palace of gold and silver, but to be at home in the hearts of his people. Yet the idea that God is more present even in the remains of its stone walls is still prevalent today as any visit to the Western Wall will attest.

The tabernacle was not God’s true home, much less the temple. It was a contrivance to let Israel think God was among them at some distance, since knowing he was in their tents was more than their shame-based hearts could bear. The Incarnation demonstrated that our fear of God was a perception on our part, rather than what God wanted or deserved.

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