A Fire In Paris

The news report came on my phone.
Notre Dame was burning.
The cathedral known for its flying buttresses, was burning to the ground.
The spire collapsed; the rose windows threatened to be destroyed.

I had been to Notre Dame when I was fifteen years old.
It was right after my mother died.
After the death of my mother, my father wanted to run.
He booked a whirlwind trip to five countries over the span of two weeks.

The memory of the trip is fuzzy to me, since it was such a hard time in my life.
I do remember a few things that stand out above the rest.
I remember the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, and the sheer beauty of the Swiss Alps.
I did not understand the importance of what I was seeing all those years ago.

Seeing the cathedral burning, brought back some of those memories.
As I ponder this, the cause of the fire is unknown.
Some people on the news were speculating as to the cause.
I appreciated the news anchors who cut them off before they had a chance to speculate.

A burning cathedral is painful enough.
There will be time to discover the cause.
There is grief over the treasures that will be lost.
There is sadness among the people of Paris and around the world.

When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple courts he found people selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple courts, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. To those who sold doves he said, “Get these out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a market!” His disciples remembered that it is written: “Zeal for your house will consume me.” The Jews then responded to him, “What sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?” Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.” They replied, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?” But the temple he had spoken of was his body. After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said. Then they believed the scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken. (John 2:13-22)

The temple was known as The Place by the teachers of the law.
Many people believed in Jesus when they heard His teaching.
Many people believed in Jesus when they saw Him heal the sick.
The teachers of the law were getting nervous; they worried that everyone would follow Jesus.

They worried about their position.
They worried about their status among the people.
They worried that they would lose their Place.
To them the temple building was everything.

Jesus told them that if they destroy the temple, he would raise it up again in three days.
They did not understand.
How could Jesus raise a building that had taken forty-six years to build?
How could one man do that on His own?

Jesus was not talking about a building.
Jesus was talking about His body.
Jesus knew that He would suffer, die, and be buried; yet rise again on the third day.
Jesus would indeed raise the Temple, just like He said He would.

However, the people selectively listened to Jesus.
They only heard what they wanted to hear.
They blocked out those things that were hard.
They put aside those things they did not understand.

We do the same thing.
We listen selectively.
We hear what we want to hear.
We put aside those things we do not understand.

However, the Holy Spirit (the Comforter and Advocate) makes God’s Truth known to us.
The Holy Spirit will bring to mind a seed of Truth we heard or read and grow it into faith.
The Holy Spirit brings clarity to those things that are hard to understand.
On our own, we will never understand even the smallest nugget of Truth.

Can you imagine the sadness the Jews experienced when their temple was destroyed in 70 AD?
Their Place was gone.
Their sacrificial system was gone.
They were lost, since the hub of their worship was destroyed.

The point is that under the terms of the old covenant, the temple was the great meeting-place between a holy God and his sinful people. This was the place of sacrifice, the place of atonement for sin. But this side of the cross, where Jesus by his sacrifice pays for our sin, Jesus himself becomes the great meeting-place between a holy God and his sinful people; thus he becomes the temple, the meeting-place between God and his people. (D.A. Carson)

Because of Jesus’ death and Resurrection, the temple building is not necessary.
Jesus Himself is the Temple.
Jesus Himself finished the sacrificial work once and for all.
Jesus Himself is the Bridge between a holy God and sinful men and women.

It is terribly sad when great cathedrals burn to the ground.
It is devastating when places of worship are destroyed or defaced.
Even as the ashes are smoldering, we can find comfort in the Temple to which we draw near.
We can rejoice that Jesus offered Himself as the perfect Sacrifice for sin.

I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it. On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there. The glory and honor of the nations will be brought into it. Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life. (Revelation 21:22-27)

We should mourn the burning of a cathedral.
We should be sad about the destruction of things that are irreplaceable.
However, we can rejoice that the true Temple is a Person.
We can rejoice that true worshipers worship the Father in Spirit and in Truth.

Jesus cannot be destroyed.
Jesus is the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End.
Jesus was, and is, and is to come.
Jesus destroyed the power of death in His Resurrection.

And we rejoice…

 

2 responses to “A Fire In Paris”

1. This is so true–thank you, Gina

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2. Amen

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