Jesus was speaking of himself when he said, ‘Something greater than the temple is here.’ He also declared, ‘Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.’ (John 2:19–21). He was speaking of his body, but also of the mystical temple he would raise up through his death and resurrection—the temple made of living stones, confirmed by Saint Peter when he says, ‘Like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house.’ (1 Peter 2:5)

This temple is held together by our unity, our love for one another, and—most importantly—by Christ himself, the cornerstone.

Our tendency is to cling to transactional systems of worship—to ritual, to law, to the predictable structures that bring a sense of certainty and control. These can help us manage the unmanageable, contain the uncontainable. But in doing so, we risk missing the very substance of what we are doing.

Jesus continually challenged this transactional paradigm—not to reject the temple, but to reveal what it was always pointing toward. He embodied the freedom and communion with God that the temple system could only prefigure.

May we not grow too comfortable with a God we can fit into our routines. May we instead allow ourselves to be disrupted—pursued by the God of love, who calls us to surrender control, and trust the One who goes beyond it.

By Caleb Bowles