Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“Then Jesus asked him, ‘Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown down.’”
NL Daily Devotion for Sunday, March 17, 2024
by Madison Johnston, Clergy Stuff
Main Idea: Our life of faith is about the journey and the destination.
Are you familiar with the term “mandala?” It’s a Sanskrit word that translates roughly to “circle,” and it usually refers to a round frame full of colorful and very intricate combination of shapes and patterns used to guide meditation. In some traditions, monks will create mandalas using colored sand. It is a painstaking venture whether you do it on your own or with a group, but the finished product is stunning.
A short time after he or she puts the finishing touches on the mandala, a monk will shake the sand loose and wipe the entire design away. When you first think about it, this doesn’t make sense! Why put all that time and energy into creating something so beautiful when your plan from the beginning was to destroy it? But this, too, lends itself to meditation: the disappearing of the mandala reminds us that impermanence plays a role in our lives. Just because the mandala isn’t here anymore doesn’t mean it wasn’t beautiful. The attention the monks paid to every curve, every line and every grain of sand made a difference not only for them, but for their community. And now that the mandala is gone, they can craft a new, different one with everything they have practiced and everything they have learned.
This is a helpful visual in framing the opening lines of our text this morning. As they disciples admire the grandeur of the buildings around them, Jesus begins prophesying about the end of the world as they know it—the eventual crumbling of those very same buildings, the onslaught of natural disasters, the inevitability of war, the shaking and passing of earth and the heavens and the Son of Man coming with power and glory and a host of celestial beings who will help him bring God’s word to life. Jesus is talking about the end of one thing and the beginning of something completely new.
If you were one of the disciples hearing all of this for the first time, you might be tempted to ask yourself, “Then what are we doing here? If the kingdom of God on earth is going to be destroyed, why are we working so hard to establish it and to build it up?” In fact, you might be tempted to ask that question as a modern-day believer, here and now. If we believe that Jesus is coming back to judge the living and the dead, then why are we trying to figure out how to live faithfully in this season—in this moment?
It's because the attention we pay to every curve, every line and every grain of sand in our mandalas makes a difference. The love we show our neighbors and the justices we fight for, big and small, grow into beautiful patterns that help us focus on what is most important—that help us learn and practice for the time of judgment we know is coming. In Jesus, the attention we pay to our present doesn’t have to be different from the attention we pay to our future.
