§ 93. “Destroy this Temple,” &c.

Similar to this was Christ’s reply at the Passover, which he first kept in Jerusalem, to those who, unable to comprehend an act of holy zeal, asked him to prove his calling as a reformer by a miracle—“Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” Instead of working a miracle, uncalled for by the circumstances, for their idle satisfaction, he pointed them to a sign that was to come, a great, world-historical sign, which may have been either his resurrection, that was to seal the conclusion of his ministry on earth, and bring about the triumph of his kingdom, in spite of the machinations of his foes, who hoped to destroy his work by putting him to death; or the creation, as the end and aim of his whole manifestation, of the new, spiritual, and eternal Temple of his kingdom among men, after the visible Temple should have been destroyed by their own guilt.