There’s a story in the gospels where Jesus entered the temple and became angry. He turned over tables, drove the animal sacrifices out, and expressed his frustration at why they had turned his Father’s house into a market.
The Jews didn’t exactly LIKE this little outburst so they challenged him, “What miraculous sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?”
His answer, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.”
The Jews argued that it had taken 46 years to build the temple, and questioned him how would he raise it in 3 days.
Jesus knew the temple was about so much more than the building.
During this time, the temple was the meeting place between the God of Israel and God’s people. Sacrifices were offered during religious festivals and at special times in people’s lives, such as in honor of a birth or in thanksgiving for a harvest. The temple was a holy place. It was a place where human life and divine blessing met.
But Jesus changed all that.
In John’s Gospel, the body of Jesus is the new “holy place.” “The Word became flesh, and lived among us,” John writes. In the incarnation, with the birth of Jesus of Nazareth, God’s dwelling place is WITH human beings, and AS a human being. So Jesus baits the Jewish leaders: “I dare you: destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”
Connection and presence with God no longer became dependent on a building. It became dependent on a state of being. Being with and in God.
What connects you with God?
It is so easy to let life, it’s distractions and burdens to separate us from the love of God. But Jesus shows us that God is everywhere . . . in each of us.
God is just a breath away.
Pause and take a few moments today to breathe in the presence and peace of God.