Eucharistic meditation, Fifth After Epiphany

2 Kings 10:26-27: They brought the sacred pillars out of the temple of Baal and burned them. And the broke down the sacred pillar of Baal, and tore down the temple of Baal and made it a refuse dump to this day.

One day, some people came to Jesus with a story about the brutality of Pilate: “There were present at that season some who told Him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices.” Jesus did not give them the expected answer: “And Jesus answered and said to them, ‘Do you suppose that these Galileans were worse sinners than all other Galileans, because they suffered such things? I tell you, no; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish.’”

As NT Wright points out, this warning is not a generic warning. It is very specific: “you will all likewise perish,” you will perish in the same manner. Those who refuse to repent will have their blood mingled with their sacrifices, when a Roman more powerful than Pilate comes to destroy the temple in Jerusalem. Jesus’ allusion to the future destruction of Jerusalem’s temple was not random. His declaration of a prophetic threat against the temple and the Jews who abused is was at the heart of His ministry. “Repent,” he told the Jews, or you will face a destruction and dispersion more permanent than the Babylonian destruction of the temple. Jesus, in short, was a greater Jehu, a temple-destroyer.

For Jesus, though, that is not the end of the story. Jehu mingled the blood of the Baal worshipers with their sacrifices, but then he went off to Bethel to offer sacrifice to a golden calf. Jehu carried out the Lord’s threat against the house of Ahab, but did not keep the law with a whole heart. But Jesus did, and because Jesus did all that His Father required, and did it with a heart that was complete with His Father, He was given a kingdom that lasted beyond four generations – He was given an eternal kingdom.

And, Jesus was not only a temple-destroyer but a temple-builder. Jesus Himself was the living temple destroyed by the Jews, but raised after three days. Jesus judged the temple in Jerusalem, but raised up a temple of living stones, which temple we are. Jehu destroyed the temple of Baal and left not one stone upon another; and that temple site was turned into a refuse heap. Jesus destroyed the temple of Jerusalem, leaving not one stone upon another, but from the mess of sacrificial and human blood he built a new temple.

We gather at this table to offer our spiritual sacrifices, the sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving, and to be fed on the flesh and blood of a final sacrificial victim. For we are that temple, raised up from the blood of the human sacrifice Jesus, a temple that will never be destroyed.