Not One Stone Will Be Left Upon Another : birth pangs
Hearing Jesus’ admonition about the temple, “Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown down?” (see Mark 13.1–8 below), immediately my mind leaps to images seared on my heart; one hundred and ten stories of the Twin Towers in New York City crumbling to dust, the 2008 — 2009 U.S. crisis of banks too big to fail, then in January 2021 watching the U.S. Capitol building, battered, trashed and dishonored. Peeking through the eyes of Jesus’ disciples at these icons of civilization, we spy a glorified way of life that insists it is too powerful and important to crumble.
But the Jewish teacher Jesus’ vision penetrates external appearances. He sees beyond the impressive edifice, the grand walls and elaborate rituals. Jesus shines light on the shadow-side, the underbelly of our high-handed institutions.
Just one day before we encounter Jesus sitting opposite the temple on the Mount of Olives, we find him standing inside the temple quoting the prophet Jeremiah, “My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations, but you have made it a den for robbers.” (Jer 11.17) Gasping, we watch as Jesus chases the money changers away, releases the animals and curses the temple. Peter, James, John and Andrew are with us so they should not be shocked when the very next day we hear Jesus say, “Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left here upon another…” There is no reading between the stones. Jesus stands in opposition to the religious and economic life of intemperate temple culture. Holding nothing back, he predicts the Temple’s demise.
Thirty years later Jesus’ prediction is fulfilled. The Temple to which the people bring their sacrifices hoping to attain God’s favor, the Second Temple in Jerusalem, the very center of Jewish life for hundreds of years, is utterly destroyed by the Romans in 70 CE. But this is not the end of the story. As Jesus insists, “It is but the beginning of the birth pangs.”
Following the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem, in the throes of the terrible birth pangs, the rabbis are compelled to reimagine what it means to keep a Jewish life without centralizing the power and presence of God in a Temple. They come up with 613 mitzvot, ways of consciously living in right relationship with other people and with God, the way of living a life of holiness when the community of Jews is in diaspora (decentralized).
The rabbis teach that the greatest mitzvah is “a favor that cannot be repaid, a favor that helps someone become self sufficient.” Is it not interesting, this is precisely what Jesus is doing long before the temple is destroyed? feeding, healing, comforting, and freeing people to be self-sufficient, people who will never pay him back?
Returning our attention to birth pangs, in most cases the anguish and suffering of birth pangs are productive labor. Productive labor because something new is being born.
Considering the present moment, it seems birth pangs bear down on us from every corner. We hold our breaths as hurricanes and mud slides swoop across the nation in the wake of rampant wildfires and melting glaciers. Images of war and rumors of impending doom break into our living rooms. Birth pangs.
Mass marketing aims to delude, distract and tempt us. Social media blows wind on words meant to coax and craze us. Pundits of every persuasion smugly warn us, “If you listen to the other guy, you and the whole world are going straight to hell in a hand basket.” Is this what Jesus is talking about when he warns the disciples and us, “Beware that no one leads you astray. Many will come in my name and say, ‘I am he!’ and they will lead many astray.” Who then are we to believe?
I cast my vote for Jesus; Jesus, whose words ring with the wisdom of the prophets. “Not one stone will be left here upon another” because the way of life governed by gross abuses of power, selfishness, injustice and failure to care for the human community must come to an end. Birth pangs.
We are meant to live in humble relationship with the One sovereign and merciful God and extend God’s mercy to all people, all nations, without expecting to be repaid. Birth pangs. Thousands of years ago and today our religious and political institutions are intended to support and sustain the life of the people in communion with God and each other. For people of faith, this is the bottom line.
But woe to us when our institutions’ aim is to sustain them selves and pamper those in power regardless of the consequence to others.
Woe to us when we lose sight of right relationship with God and human community.
“For nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom” until false gods are tumbled, the arrogant humbled and the fear mongering are tamed. Birth pangs.
When our religious and political institutions fail to foster right relationship with God and people of every nation, these grand icons of civilization must come tumbling down. From the time of Israel’s prophets thousands of years ago the central summons to humanity is this; be in right relationship with God and one another. Dare I suggest, we are not doing very well?
We love and preserve our historic buildings but deny resources to care for children, the homeless and refugees. We ceaselessly argue the fine points of our constitution and canons while failing to act decisively to right the wrongs and relieve the troubles of the thirty seven million people living in poverty in the United States today.
Birth pangs. Meaningful anguish and suffering. Productive labor. Dear people of God, here looms the lynchpin of our faith. In God’s economy anguish and suffering are the productive labor that lead to new life. Christians symbolize this with the sign of the cross, the inevitable way of death and resurrection. Whether our anguish and suffering are deeply personal (fraught family relationships, struggles with addiction, loss of employment or health) or collective troubles (community ravaged by fire, flood or heat, economic crisis, social and political unrest, violence, war) we remember, “what batters (us) becomes (our) strength.”* Birth pangs. “Not one stone, not one stumbling block, will be left here upon another…” so that new things may be born.
Debra Asis
All words are generated by grace and the grit of this real human being.
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*Marcus Aurelius
Mark 13:1–8 As Jesus came out of the temple, one of his disciples said to him, “Look, Teacher, what large stones and what large buildings!” Then Jesus asked him, “Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown down.”
When he was sitting on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter, James, John, and Andrew asked him privately, “Tell us, when will this be, and what will be the sign that all these things are about to be accomplished?” Then Jesus began to say to them, “Beware that no one leads you astray. Many will come in my name and say, ‘I am he!’ and they will lead many astray. When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed; this must take place, but the end is still to come. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be earthquakes in various places; there will be famines. This is but the beginning of the birth pangs.”
