Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“But when you see the desolating sacrilege set up where it ought not to be (let the reader understand), then those in Judea must flee to the mountains”
NL Daily Devotion for Tuesday, March 31, 2020
by Daniel D. Maurer, Clergy Stuff
Okee dokey. Let’s get one thing clear and out of the way.
There are many interpretations as to what Jesus meant by his prophecy of the “desolating sacrilege.”
By far the most popular is that the Romans set up a statue of Zeus (some say Jupiter) in place of where the temple once stood after its destruction in 70 CE.
One other interesting theory that Jesus was actually referring to his own death on a a cross. Truly, when you think about, the murder of God on a cross would be the highest of all sacrileges!
But what does it mean for us?
Well, not a whole lot.
I know we don’t like hearing this, but it’s true: sometimes the Bible is actually just a historical document, and well . . . that’s it.
But we might start by thinking what a sacrilege itself is, and where today those sacrileges lay. It’s easy to devolve quickly into politics and interpret this party or that candidate as the “true” sacrilege. But that’s not what I’m calling you to do here.
If your body, your thoughts, and your life are a temple to God, in what way do the things you do (or not do) constitute as a sacrilege? This isn’t to make you feel guilty or devolve into moralism. Instead, it’s meant to drive you to Christ who will be there for you always.
What are your thoughts on this passage and what it means?
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