Where is the presence of God now?

13 And as he came out of the temple, one of his disciples said to him, “Look, Teacher, what wonderful stones and what wonderful buildings!” 2 And Jesus said to him, “Do you see these great buildings? There will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.”

3 And as he sat on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter and James and John and Andrew asked him privately, 4 “Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign when all these things are about to be accomplished?” 5 And Jesus began to say to them, “See that no one leads you astray. 6 Many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am he!’ and they will lead many astray. 7 And when you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed. This must take place, but the end is not yet. 8 For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places; there will be famines. These are but the beginning of the birth pains.

Mark 13:1-8

Jesus and the Temple

At the beginning of our Gospel reading, one of Jesus’ disciples tries to get his opinion on the temple: “It’s a marvellous thing, isn’t it Jesus? Look at all the stones, and jewels, and little rooms, and so on.”

This temple was the second one built on this same site, the first having been destroyed by the Babylonians when they invaded. About five-hundred years before the time of Jesus, the temple had been rebuilt and it had been recently enhanced by the King of Judea, Herod the Great, a client king of the Roman Empire. No doubt it was a magnificent building, but it was clearly bound up in some political and religious implications by which Jesus was less than impressed.

“Do you see these great buildings?” he said, “There will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.”

In saying this, he predicted the destruction of the Temple which was to take place in the year 70 AD at the hands of the Romans.

The thing that was so special about the temple was not its architectural greatness but the fact that it housed the presence of God. That was what it was for and that is what made it important. And this fact is how we can understand Jesus’ attitude towards it.

The key, I think, can be found in the second chapter of John’s Gospel. You probably know the story of Jesus’ driving out the money changers and pigeon sellers from the temple. After that happened, the Jews asked Jesus for a sign to show them that was he was doing was from God.

“Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up,” Jesus said. The Jews said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?” (They must have been speaking there about the recent rebuilding programme at the hands of Kind Herod.)

John says about this in his narration: ‘But he was speaking about the temple of his body’ (John 3:21).

And there is the point: the Temple was a place of greatness. It was a place of the presence of God even. But in Jesus something even greater than the Temple is here: God himself, come to Earth in human flesh, the divine life present in the Incarnation.

Consider that for a moment: what is the holiest place in the world do you think? The holiest Christian site or building? St Peter’s in Rome? The Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem? Canterbury Cathedral? (Probably not, let’s face it.) Now imagine someone stands outside one of those and says, “It’s not so impressive. In fact it will probably be pulled down soon. If you want to know the presence of God, look at me. I am the presence of God.” A pretty shocking claim, by all accounts…unless it is the truth.

Where is Jesus now?

What I take from these observations is that the presence of God was relocated and intensified in the person of Jesus Christ. If we want to know the presence of God, therefore, we must find it not in temples made by human hands, but in Jesus himself. Which leads to the question: Where is Jesus now?

The first thing to say about this is that Jesus is everywhere, in all things that were created ‘through him and for him’ as the Apostle Paul mentiones (Colossians 1:16). And cultivating a vision of Christ everywhere present, everywhere speaking, through the things that have been made is no doubt a central part of the spiritual life.

But I want to be a bit more specific. The New Testament speaks about Christ’s body in three different ways. That might sound strange but it’s true. I’ll tell you what they are:

Firstly, there is Christ’s physical body which he had whilst he was here on earth. He walked around. He touched things and people. He ate and drank. He slept. He was crucified. He rose again. He ascended. All these things happened to what we might call his physical or earthly body. So that’s the first one.

Secondly, there is this strange thing that he said just before he was taken to his death. The Apostle Paul tells us but it is also recorded in the Gospels: ‘…the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me”’. (1 Cor. 11:24). Whatever this body is, it is not the same as the first type of body. After all, Jesus was holding this second body (the bread) in the hands of his earthly body. So, they are different bodies, but nevertheless both still the body of Jesus.

What’s going on here then? Without going into the long history of Eucharistic theology, essentially the Church has understood by this that Christ was instituting what we now call Holy Communion, the Eucharist, or the Mass. That is, the ritual which we engage in each time we meet for worship through which we receive Christ’s body as spiritual and heavenly food. Just as earthly food and drink strengthen our bodies, so this food and drink strengthens our souls. And it does this because it is the very body and blood of Jesus Christ, only it comes to us in a spiritual manner, not as his literal earthly flesh and blood.

So, the first more practical answer to the question of where the body of Jesus is today is that it is found in the bread and the wine after they have been prayed for by the priest to become the body and blood of Jesus.

But there is one further way that the New Testament speaks about the body of Christ. I just quoted from a letter by the Apostle Paul called 1 Corinthians. Immediately after that bit about the bread and the wine, Paul starts talking about the Church, He says that the Church is made up of many members or parts, but that it is still one body. Just as the body has bits like arms and legs and eyes and ears and noses and so on, so also the body of the Church has different parts all of which play important roles. But for Paul this isn’t just a clever metaphor. As he goes on to say, ‘Now you are the body of Christ, and individually members of it’ (1 Cor. 12:27).

What does he mean by that? Well, we’ve seen that the presence of God dwelt in the man Jesus in a unique and powerful way. We’ve seen that Jesus intended us to understand that his presence would be given to us in the bread and wine set apart and consecrated to become his body and blood. And here we see that the presence of God is also to be found in the Church and specifically in the people who make up the Church. And this is what the Apostle Paul means when he talks about the Church as the body of Christ: we are the presence of God in this world now.

Think about that for a short moment. Christ went to heaven, so his body is no longer present to the world in that physical sense. Christ’s body and blood are present to the folks who come to Church and are baptised, so his presence is available to members of the Church. What does that leave for the world out there? What does it leave for those who do not know the presence of Christ at all? It leaves us. We are to be the body of Christ to the world, manifesting Christ’s holiness and love to those around us, especially to those who do not know the presence of God at all. And my goodness there are a lot of people like that in our world today.

So, there are three answers to the question ‘Where is Jesus now?’

Jesus is in heaven with God the Father. Jesus is present in the sacrament of the Holy Eucharist. And Jesus is present in the members of his Church – in you and in me. And what a great and awesome responsibility and challenge that presents to each one of us – to do our very best to know the presence of Christ in our lives and to manifest it to the world.

Becoming the Body of Christ

In the early twentieth century, there was a theologian called Henri De Lubac who had a saying about the Eucharist. He said that the Eucharist makes the Church. To translate that into the language that I am using, we could say that the body and blood of Jesus in the Eucharist makes the body of Christ the Church. What does that mean? It means that the presence of Christ in the bread and wine creates the presence of Christ in us. As we are nourished and strengthened through the presence of God in the Mass, we actually become the body of Jesus in this world. The food given to us for our spiritual journey enables us to have the strength to go out there into the world and to be the very presence of Jesus.

If you have ever tried fasting or dieting, you will know how weak we often feel when we have not had sufficient physical food, and how strong and rejuvenated we feel after partaking after a long stretch of hunger. So it is – or at least so it can be – when we partake of this heavenly food: we go from spiritual weakness and need to spiritual rejuvenation and strength.

But let me share one final key to unlocking all of this. Here I will quote from the 39 Articles, which are the doctrinal basis for the whole of the Anglican Church. Speaking of the Mass, Article 28, says, ‘the mean whereby the Body of Christ is received and eaten…is Faith.’ What the Articles emphasise when they talk about the Mass is how we receive it. God does his miraculous work, but we must play our part. We must seek to have, as the Articles say, ‘a lively faith’. That is, a faith that transforms our lives and actions so that we sin less and so that we are holy more. It is a faith that believes not only that God exists, but that he has manifested himself to the world in Jesus and that he continues to do so in the Holy Eucharist and through his Holy Church. Of course, it is easy (and in many ways understandable) to be cynical. But this faith is nevertheless what God calls us to.

Draw near then, friends, receive the body of our Lord Jesus Christ which he gave for you and his blood which he shed for you. Feed on him in your hearts by faith and with thanksgiving. And be transformed through his body and blood so that you might become his presence in the world today.

Amen.