When The Cookie Crumbles

The disciples must have been shocked when Jesus told them that the Jewish Temple would be destroyed. Begun forty or more years before and still unfinished, it was already in its own way, one of the “wonders-of-the-world.” Some of its huge blocks of green marble were nine feet wide and seven and one-half feet high. Portions of the walls were covered with gold plate; the rest was sparkling white. Inside were the ornaments and votive offerings, permanent memorials placed there by the rich and famous: a chain given by Agrippa; a golden vine by Herod the Great; a table by Ptolemy. The Temple was so large and magnificent that for it to cease to exist was unthinkable.

Massive buildings have an aura of the solid and the enduring. We feel secure standing in the shadows of a great Cathedral. It provides us with a solid link with the past and, with spires pointed heavenward, a sure indicator of where our future lies.

Though…