The Holy Apostles and Deacons Prochor, Nicanor, Timon and Parmenas (1st-2nd c.)
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Romans 15:30-33; Matthew 17:24-8:4
Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!
Why do the Pharisees care whether Jesus pays the temple tax? Perhaps it’s because they were trying to figure out what Jesus believed about the Temple itself. Earlier the Pharisees had challenged Jesus about his seemingly lax observance of the Sabbath – in response, he pointed out that priests performed duties in the Temple on the Sabbath without incurring guilt. But the kicker comes when Jesus says that “something greater than the Temple is here.” Now, to a first-century Jew, that’s a shocking statement – what could be greater than the Temple, the place where God dwells on earth and is worshiped by his chosen people?
The answer is that Jesus is greater than the Temple. Everything that the Temple was about (God’s presence among humanity, sacrifice that atoned for sins, the place where the Law was taught) was in fact pointing to Jesus. Everything that the Temple was supposed to accomplish for the people of Israel was actually accomplished by Jesus. It is in Jesus that God comes to dwell with his people – in John 1:14 (“the Word became flesh and dwelt among us”) dwelt among us is a translation of a phrase that literally means “set up his tent among us,” a reminder of the tabernacle in the wilderness, the original Temple. The kingdom of heaven, prefigured in the Temple’s establishment by the ancient kings of Israel in their capital Jerusalem, will be established by Christ, the Son of the Father who, as an obedient and humble child, gives himself for the life of the world.