God’s Binoculars: Refining Our Perspective
Jesus left the temple area and was going on His way when His disciples came up to point out the temple buildings to Him. (Matthew 24:1 NASB)
Ever wonder what life with Jesus was like for the 12 disciples? Yes, we have the four Gospels and other books of the New Testament. But what about the rest of their experiences they didn’t include in their writings? Can you imagine having your mind continually blown by the miracles Jesus was doing while constantly scratching your head as to what He was talking about?
Take for example all of Jesus’ teachings on the kingdom of God. Understandably, Israel set their hope on a conquering Messiah who would free them from Roman occupation. Instead, Jesus proclaimed a kingdom with no end, ruled through humility. Or the Temple in Jerusalem, the center of Jewish life. Jesus taught that He was the eternal Temple, who came to implement the New Covenant through His blood. Yet the way He would go about it was vastly different from earthly methods. Understandably, the disciples often struggled with being on the same page as Jesus.
In Matthew 24, Jesus was leaving the Temple after excoriating the Pharisees and grieving over Jerusalem. His attention was elsewhere, and He was heading to the Mount of Olives. His disciples appeared unfazed by His rebuke of the Pharisees’ religious control and instead focused on the natural beauty of the Temple buildings.
But He responded and said to them, “Do you not see all these things? Truly I say to you, not one stone here will be left upon another, which will not be torn down.” (Matthew 24:2)
Sadly, I can relate to my attention at times being so far removed from what God is focused on. It’s only through abiding in Him that we can produce lasting fruit that won’t need to be “torn down.”
This reminds me of the first church where my wife and I were youth pastors. I studied youth ministry in college and spent several years planning how to build a thriving youth group. Because I had been part of Christian circles my entire life, these plans revolved around teens from Christian families attending church faithfully. Yet the Lord sent us to a church where only one of the teenagers was from a Christian family. Most came from broken homes and had no grid for what walking with Jesus looked like.
I’ll never forget when our pastor called our church to an extended fast. One of the teens shared that they felt God wanted them to fast from drugs during that time. I was stunned—both by their sincerity, and the idea that their “sacrifice” was to forgo drugs for a few weeks!
Needless to say, I was lost in knowing how to relate to most of those teenagers. All efforts to build a thriving youth ministry crashed and burned. Yet God had not sent us to that church to build a program. He had invited us into the sacred honor of getting to love these teens and their families who lived with such brokenness. However, I was like the disciples looking at the earthly Temple, thinking it was what God was focusing on. His attention was elsewhere the entire time.
Can you relate? God mercifully and continuously draws all of us closer to His perspective. The fact that you are reading this shows you are hungry to be more aligned with the thoughts of His heart. May His Word remind you today that your life is a temple where His glory dwells, one that will never need to be torn down.
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Scripture is quoted from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
