We are walking temples

Every incidental item and its purpose for the Israelite's traveling temple, and the temple in Jerusalem also, translates to an important part of our spiritual lives. We are now God's indwelling homes, his traveling temples. The gospel from Mark this Saturday well completes the overwhelming picture of how difficult this story is, yet how remarkable the connections fit together. 

Jesus' historical imprint upon creation, both as a divine consubstantial person and a man born of a woman, does not easily work its way into our conscience. Jesus' own family were flabbergasted that he would explain himself as such a man/God. Later he sent his Holy Spirit to indwell in us.

Image by noamhen

We are walking temples

By John Pearring


https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/012321.cfm
Hebrews 9:2-3, 11-14
Mark 3:20-21


I remember first hearing about the connection between the mobile temple of the Israelites as a dwelling place for God and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in us as temples. God's desert design of the Holy of Holies and the Ark, given to his chosen people, symbolizes a prototype, a model for how our bodies would be the eventual dwelling places of God. The explanation came through an online bible study about 20 years ago. Our reading in 1 Corinthians for today reminded me about that remarkable destination of God. Our human being existence, a composite of both spiritual and physical characters, has always been God’s intended temple homes.

The design of the house of God as the Israelites traveled in the desert seems quite complex. It is rebuilt every time the Israelites settle in a new spot during their journey throughout the wilderness, wandering in a peninsula called Paran, a section about the size of Colorado just East of Egypt. Scholars have identified 42 places where the Israelites camped over that 40 year trek. Each stands today as a memorial of God's presence, intervention, and revelations to the Hebrew nomads. 

We have quite a few terms to describe the multi-roomed dwelling area of the temple area constructed in the desert. It's a quite complicated affair which sets up the Ark of the Covenant within the inner sanctuary, and that sanctuary placed within another holy place. One further space housed other religious functions that took place nearer the outside confines of the temple proper. Our reading simplifies the structure for us:

“A tabernacle was constructed, the outer one, in which were the lamp stand, the table, and the bread of offering; this is called the Holy Place. Behind the second veil was the tabernacle called the Holy of Holies.”

Imagine, first, the design of the Holy of Holies, an inner sanctum room. In here is placed the Ark of the Covenant. The Ark included the tablets etched with the commandments, and a few other important items. A veil of cloth separated the inner sanctum (Holy of Holies), and another one before the larger tabernacle space (Holy Place). The second veil, into the Holy of Holies, is the one that split in half upon Jesus’ death upon the cross. The splitting of the veil, a rip from the top to bottom, signifies the end of the Holy of Holies location as the dwelling place of God. The new temples are the believers.

The larger room called the Holy Place, sitting before the Holy of Holies, housed the lamp stand and the showbread table stood. The outer veil closed this area off to the temple entry area where the sacrificial altar and the cleansing pool were placed.

The entire operation is very specific in its placement of items, and even the kinds of materials materials (skins, metals, and wood) that are to be used. Innumerable studies have been done on the coincidental arrangement of the temple materials and furnishings, and many scripture passages that align the materials to bodily functions. The research is fascinating, but lengthy. In essence, our physical design, the shape and function of our body parts, is considered the outline for the temple and its particular elements. 

Some important elements for today's reading should be pointed out. Only the high priest entered the Holy of Holies. This was the location of direct contact with God’s Spirit. The minor priests were tasked with the care of the outer area, where the sacrifices would take place, and some others were allowed into the Holy Place for placement of the showbread. Today’s reading describes Jesus' mission in accomplishing the final sacrifice, through the prophesied purpose of his high priesthood.

“But when Christ came as high priest of the good things that have come to be, passing through the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made by hand, that is, not belonging to this creation, he entered once for all into the sanctuary, not with the blood of goats and calves but with his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption.”

Jesus’ death effected the splitting of the veil, but not the end of temple dwelling. Rather than render a temple location no longer useful, Jesus' death, resurrection, and ascension provided the procedural shift of God's dwelling into our bodies, the initial representation of the temple’s design in the first place. This took place in grandiose fashion at Pentecost.

The whole indwelling process has taken thousands of years, technically speaking. The first tabernacle was mobile. Even within the Jerusalem temple, the temple’s furnishings were mobile in their structure. We, too, are mobile beings. Even Pentecost, where the Spirit comes to all those present, God indwelled his Holy spirit similarly to the cloud and fire that descended upon the tabernacle, built over and over again in the desert. 

That God incarnated as one of us, and became the ultimate sacrifice for sin, the significance of every detail in the temple is fulfilled. 

“For if the blood of goats and bulls and the sprinkling of a heifer’s ashes can sanctify those who are defiled so that their flesh is cleansed, how much more will be the Blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from dead works to worship the living God.”

The Church, which includes all of us in the Royal Priesthood and our ordained who represent our High Priest in Jesus, recognizes our gathering as temple bodies, and our acceptance of the holiest of showbread in Jesus’s body and blood in bread and wine.

Every incidental item and its purpose for the Israelite's traveling temple, and the temple in Jerusalem also, translates to an important part of our spiritual lives. When God, who lives in us, commiserates with us as a priestly people, we seldom realize how significant our relationship to him and to each other makes everything in our lives make sense. The gospel from Mark this Saturday well completes the overwhelming picture of how difficult this story is, yet how remarkable the connections fit together. Jesus' historical imprint upon creation, both as a divine consubstantial person and a man born of a woman, does not easily work its way into our conscience. Jesus' own family were flabbergasted that he would explain himself as such a man/God. 

“Jesus came with his disciples into the house. Again the crowd gathered, making it impossible for them even to eat. When his relatives heard of this they set out to seize him, for they said, “He is out of his mind.”

Later, Jesus sent his Holy Spirit to indwell in us. Who would dare to go so far to explain himself? “Eat this body,” and “Destroy this temple and I will build it back up in 3 days,” and “I go, so that the Spirit may come to you.”

With each growing realization of the amazing details that roll throughout scriptures, from Genesis, to Exodus, to the New Testament writers, and to the living God in all of us yearning to become saints, we are continually astounded that our God loves us this much to convince us of who he is and how he loves us.

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