On Sept. 7, 2001, a surgeon named Jacques Maresaux performed a relatively routine, non-invasive surgery on a patient. What made this surgery newsworthy is that, for the first time, the surgery was performed over the internet from a distance. It wasn’t just a small distance either, the doctor was in New York, and the patient was in France. This was made possible through telecommunications and robotics, and the technology has only gotten better since then, as you might imagine. The very real actions in one place have a very real impact in another place. This might seem like a strange comparison, but that is how the temple works.
In the mind of the ancient Hebrew people, the temple was a kind of link between the heavenly and the earthly so that the rituals, ceremonies, and prayers done and said there were thought to reverberate in both heaven and earth. Think of it kind of like the movement of a hand in New York making a scalpel cut in France. Two very different places connected, as if the distance simply vanished.
Theologically, this is called a “thin place” where the distance between heaven and earth somehow seems not as great. This term, “thin place” is one I can’t find the origin of, but think of it like the bottom of a too-full water balloon over your head—as you look up you can see the pressure straining and the places where the rubber is nearly at its breaking point, and the single thinnest place is where the sudden deluge will come bursting through. The temple was the thinnest place, where heaven burst through to earth, and earth could touch heaven too. That is why people pilgrimage there to this day, and that is why Jesus did too.
But thin places are not magic, and they can easily become idols for us. The presence of God, and that connection to heaven is not something that can be manufactured or controlled. No, God wants to be found where he wants to be found, and he won’t be manipulated. So how do we apply that to the temple?
Think of a snowplow. If you have a plow on the front of your truck, and if there is snow, you can drop it on the road and clear the way. Once the snow is cleared, you lift your plow, not only because it isn’t needed, but because leaving it down will damage it, probably the truck, and even the road.
The purpose of the temple as a thin place was one of clearing the way for Jesus. All the laws and rituals were ordained to point to the one moment when Jesus would die for our sins and rise from the dead. Jesus became the thin place. This also helps us understand why we don’t need the temple—it would be like dropping your snowplow in summer.
Lord God, your glory fills the earth like the water covers the sea. In Jesus, your presence isn’t tied to a location, but it fills our hearts, and we take it with us to share with the world around us. Make us faithful to this calling. Amen.
Questions for reflection:
- Have you ever been to a place that felt like a “thin place to you?” How do you describe it? Maybe it is tied to a memory or has historical significance or natural beauty.
- How do the temple rituals in our reading point to Jesus? How is Jesus better?
- Why do you think verse 16 talks about leaving a will? Whose will is being talked about, and who are the beneficiaries? Why do you think that death was such a big part of the temple rituals?