The End of What Was, The Beginning of what is.

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF MARK

THE END OF WHAT WAS

THE BEGINNING OF WHAT IS

Mark 13:1-2

13:1 As he was leaving the temple, one of his disciples said to him, "Look, Teacher! What massive stones! What magnificent buildings!" 2 "Do you see all these great buildings?" replied Jesus. "Not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down." 

NIV

We are about to enter a great discourse by Jesus regarding the end of what was and the beginning of what will be, but first we should deal with this first statement regarding the great temple that had been built in Jerusalem. It is said by historians that stones referred to here were made of marble and each stone was fifty feet long, twenty-four feet broad and sixteen feet thick. So we can imagine how magnificent the temple must have looked. Jesus was leaving it for the last time, he would never again set foot inside of it and as leaving when his disciples were calling his attention to the greatness of this place, he makes this statement. Well, once again because we have perfect hind sight, we know the temple was destroyed, but that was not all. Jesus may have been speaking just of the temple, but he may also have been speaking of the whole of the Jewish system. It was going to be over, no more sacrifices, no more economy, no more of anything that looked like what was. Christianity would be on the raise, it was being built, while all of Judaism was going to be destroyed. Mankind certainly builds kingdoms for itself. Some, who profess to be great preachers of faith, build for themselves great empires, mini-cities, for their followers to come and visit, spend money, enjoy the greatness of their kingdom. But each one of us also could be guilty of building our won little kingdoms. We might gather onto ourselves all the material goods we can, even more then we have room enough to contain so we rent a storage place to store more treasures of our kingdom, or we buy a bigger home with enough storage space of its own. The Jews placed a great deal of value on their temple, it was no doubt a great place, and even though they had built it for God, it was their most prized possession. Jesus said it would be broken down, not one stone upon another. We have to be careful not to make anything in our kingdom of more value than our relationship with Jesus. Perhaps once before we knew Jesus as our Lord and Savior our treasure was all our material goods in our kingdom, but now all those have been laid to waste and we have given up our kingdom to become citizens of his. That was the end of what was and the beginning of what is.