“And the curtain of the temple was torn in two.” Luke 23:45 ESV.
Any religious building today is considered as the sacred place. Religion is more often connected to the religious facility, irrespective of a religion. It is the same with Church buildings too. People turn violent if their religious structures are affected in any ways. The incidents of riots in history as a result of attacks on religious structure has cost so many lives, and we are all aware of such incidents. People are always willing to sacrifice themselves for their religious place and building because they believe it is the dwelling place of god. Usually, people are attached to the sentiments of a religion, rather than the actual essence of it.
Churches are no different. Today, with thousands and thousands of denominations all over the world, Christendom is fragmented and divided in many ways. Christians are holding on to the denominational and Church sentiments more than the mission God has entrusted to the Church and individuals. People who are part of the Church are blissfully convinced that they are going to meet God. The members of the congregation today are willing to do anything for the church building and programs of the Church, but rarely demonstrate their obedience to Christ’s mission. Church mission is converted to activities and programs inside the four walls. Churches are called as sanctuary and the decorum of it is meant to portray and convince that God lives inside the Church building and therefore frequent visits can transform their life issues.
Let me state the significant observation the Bible records about the most noteworthy incident which happened when Jesus was on the cross of Calvary. “And the curtain of the temple was torn in two.” Luke 23:45 ESV. This incident is conveniently ignored, but it has so much to say about the temple of God and the new definition of Church. There is no more the holy place inside the temple, however grandeur it may be. If you read the Bible carefully, Jesus was already claiming Himself to be God in many ways, but people were not willing to accept Him at all. In one instance, He makes this powerful remark. It says in Matthew 12:6, “I tell you that something greater than the temple is here.”. Jesus wanted to convince the Jewish people that He is the God of the Temple. In other words, He was saying the ‘place’ has been moved to ‘person’ already and the most holy temple is substituted by Jesus Himself. But they weren’t willing to accept this fact. They wanted to remain comfortable with the Temple and its ritual than the God of the temple and follow Him. They wanted to continue holding to the concept of the most holy place, the sanctuary, because it can be used to exercise power, and more importantly money.
Jesus’ prophecy regarding the temple which was recorded in the Bible was fulfilled in 70 A.D. Luke 24:1-2, ‘As Jesus left and was going out the temple, his disciples came up and called his attention to its buildings. He replied to them, “Do you see all these things? Truly I tell you, not one stone will be left here on another that will not be thrown down.”. But sadly, today Christendom is trying to give all the importance back to the Church building and ignore what He has already replaced with. He introduced the new term Church and that too on the person ‘Jesus’ rather than on a place. Christianity is radically different than any other religion. Church can happen anywhere and in any setting. The day Christians realise it, the beginning of revival is going to be certain. Why do you think the Christians are not serious about being the Church and be part of the movement? It is just because the people are made comfortable staying true to the Church activities, like paying the tithes and offerings (Luke 18:12), and all other things become superficial.
To be continued.
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