The New Temple Really Exists Now

Saturday of 20th Week in Course

It’s always interesting when a reading from Scripture begins with the words “afterwards. . .” or “after this. . .” because when we hear those words we ask the question “after what?” So when we go back to chapter 42 of Ezekiel, we get the answer. Ezekiel, a prophet who was also an Israelite priest, is speaking to people from Jerusalem who years earlier had been forced into exile by the forces of Babylon. He has told them, perhaps for that entire time, the answer to their questions of “why?” Why did they lose their kingdom? Why was their beautiful Temple of Solomon destroyed, burned down? And he has told them it is because they turned their back on the covenant made between Israel and their God, the Lord of hosts. He covenanted with them to protect and enrich them if they would live rightly, morally, and worship Him alone rightly. They offended God year after year and finally the covenant was ruptured. The impure temple that had been abused by idols was cleansed with fire; the people who had been proved unworthy of the land of promise were taken to a land of bondage.

But here, toward the end of Ezekiel’s prophecy, we see what God was preparing for a people to be purified in Babylon, once they returned to eretz Israel. For three chapters Ezekiel has been in conversation with “a man, whose appearance was like bronze, with a line of flax and a measuring reed in his hand.” This person, probably an angel of God, was showing the prophet a vision of a new Temple, an idealized temple with new measurements, pure and staffed with purified priests who would engage in right worship of the one God. So here, when we read “after this,” the angel has led him to the east gate of the new Temple. Now earlier in his prophecy, Ezekiel had stood watching the glory of the Lord leave the old Temple by the east gate, finalizing the breach of the covenant and leaving His people to be conquered, and the Temple razed. Here, Ezekiel sees the place where the Lord will put His feet and dwell with a renewed people of Israel, who would be faithful to a new covenant.

And so the people were allowed to return to their land, and they rebuilt the city and the Temple, but human nature had not changed, and even though they mostly adhered to right worship, they went back to lying and cheating and stealing and committing adultery, and turned worship into mere ritual. Jesus is pictured in the Gospel taking out after the Pharisees, the separated ones, who had turned the Law of Moses into something oppressive, making their followers obey each and every one of the six-hundred plus regulations of Torah, but missing out on the most important law, truly loving God with all their heart and loving the neighbor as themselves. And then, maybe worst of all, these Pharisees, having bound their disciples with inflexible cords, they insist on being honored as the best of all Israelites.

Jesus tells us that if we want to be leaders, we have to be servants. Pride has no place in our ministry to a world in need. Perhaps you have had the experience Jesus expounds in the last sentence of this Gospel. You’ve done something right and expect people to recognize it and acknowledge your good work. But they ignore it, or just tip their hats and go on. Or maybe something happens right afterwards that makes you realize that you weren’t so great after all. So what we should do, routinely and habitually, is commit ourselves to acting rightly and then do not expect any reward, any promotion. Be happy that you did the right thing and give thanks when there is a good result. After all, the Lord is the ultimate cause of everything that is good. Blessed be His Name forever.

Oh, and what about the promise of the new Temple? Read the final chapters of Revelation and you'll see that it exists already, because of the passion, death and Resurrection of Jesus. That's what we lock into every time we come together to celebrate Eucharist.