Mark 13:1-2 1And as he came out of the temple, one of his disciples said to him, “Teacher, Look at what sort of stones and what sort of buildings!” 2And Jesus said to him, “Do you see these great buildings? There will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.”
The events at the temple must have left the disciples marveling at the activities, splendor, and wealth of the temple precincts. The exclamation of one of the disciples in verse 1 stands in sharp contrast to the lesson Jesus had just taught them by watching the poor widow give all she had. This unnamed disciple represents the worldly thinking the whole group was struggling with. The temple may have been one of the ancient architectural wonders, but it had a spiritual emptiness. At least one disciple was impressed by the stonework and the exquisite buildings. The stones were huge. Josephus (War 5.189) wrote that some of the stones were even sixty feet long, which would make their weight more than a million pounds. The Jewish temple was one of the greatest in size in the whole world of that time. Most of the disciples were from the countryside and would have been considered unsophisticated and uneducated by the elite of Jerusalem. Yet, it was these twelve men Jesus called to learn from him the ways of the kingdom.
Jesus’ pronouncement that no stone would be left standing must have shocked the disciples. It would not take much brain power to realize the time, expense, and great effort involved in building the temple. Herod had started the renovation of the Second Temple around 20 BC. The construction was not finished until around AD 64. The Romans destroyed the temple, along with most of Jerusalem, in 70 AD under General Titus. Nothing discernible was left of the temple precincts. Later, the Romans banned all Jews from Jerusalem and built a pagan temple there.
This was the last time Jesus would be in the temple. His departure was a sad commentary on the type of reception he received there, especially from the leaders. His prediction echoes the status of the fig tree that caught the disciples’ attention in 21:20-21. The religion of the Jews looked impressive but was dead at its roots. The people had missed the core message God had communicated through the Law and the Prophets. Their faith had become compartmentalized and without life. When Jesus brought news of the kingdom and showed the power of God in his ministry, the Jewish leaders refused to believe because they were afraid to lose their power and position. It is easy to slip into the hypocritical position of comfort in our religious practices. We must realize that God’s kingdom is not dependent on how many pious acts we do but on the power of the Holy Spirit transforming us and our community.
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