Description
Why Jesus is Greater Than the Temple: A Deep Dive into Matthew 12:6
In this episode, we explore Jesus’ provocative stat… (visit YouTube for more)
Transcript
Gosh, Jesus could be really offensive sometimes. This is what he says in Matthew 12, verse 6. "I tell you, something greater than the temple is here."
He’s talking to devout Jews, Jews who love the temple because it’s the place where they go to meet with God. It’s the place where they go to offer sacrifice, to restore their relationship, to be reconciled. And here Jesus is saying, strongly implying it’s Him, that there’s something even better than that in their presence, right now.
And so how is Jesus better than that temple? Well, because in the temple, you could offer a sacrifice and be clean for a while, but then you’d fall again, you’d stumble, you’d become unclean, you would fail.
And you could come to the temple, and you could worship God, but you couldn’t have a relationship with Him. You could only communicate with Him through the priests, through the High Priest.
So Jesus is so much better than that temple. The sacrifice that he made in his person is once and for all. That previous system, the imperfect system that couldn’t make us permanently clean, is dispensed with.
And also, Jesus is our High Priest, and he is God. And we can communicate directly with Him, we can speak to Him, we can speak to God, and know that we will be answered without having, first, to go through the mediation of some other priest. And I know that for some watching, this will be a shocking claim, but this is one of the basic claims of Christianity that Jesus is our High Priest and we need no other.
So when Jesus said this claim, knowing that it was going to rub some of his listeners up the wrong way, he was telling the complete truth. Sometimes the truth is difficult to accept.
Lord God, you are great. Jesus, our Messiah we love you and thank you for what you have done for us. Holy Spirit, thank you for being part of our lives and showing us the way to communicate with God and growing your fruit in us so that we become more like Jesus. Amen.
