It is difficult, if not impossible, for us to enter into the feelings of an ancient Israelite in regard to the temple at Jerusalem; yet, unless we do so in some degree, we lose the force of numerous figures in the new testament, which captured the imagination of the Jew. To him, that structure was the best of all earthly things. It was the citadel of his Commonwealth and the sanctuary of his church. To this spot his face was turned in devotion, wherever he might wander on the Earth's surface. It's walls contain all that he held most splendid in ceremonial and most sacred and mystery. It was the center not only of Palestine only, but of the world, for his Lord had said, " mine house shall be called a house of prayer for all people” ( Isaiah 56:7). It's pomp and praises, the volume of its harmonies both vocal and instrumental, it's bleeding and smoking propitiations, it's odorous clouds of incense, it's ablutions and sprinklings, it's throngs of exalted worshipers, it's festive processions, and it's inaccessible mysterious shine, all conspired to hold his admiration and his affections like no other material structure ever gained over human hearts.
Hence the most available charge against our Lord Jesus, and that which was best fitted to infuriate the people, was that He had spoken contemptuously of the holy place. It was not unnatural that in a period of formal religion, the minds of the people should have become knit to the external structure. No gleam of it's higher mystery and spiritual intention had yet broken upon their worldly minds. it had not yet been revealed that God is a spirit and that they who worship Him must worship in spirit and in truth, anywhere, everywhere, and not only at Jerusalem or in this mountain. And yet, from the beginning, God had been preparing His church for better things by means of this visible type and clearing the way for the setting up of a house not made with hands. Even in the most elementary stages of religious discipline all that is outward, tangible, or formal, is in it's nature temporary, and is used to symbolize something greater and lovelier, beyond the domain of sense. The day was rapidly approaching when this glorious architecture should be given to the flames and when Israel should be without an earthly sanctuary. The vanishing of the typical system was foreshadowed, when the veil of the temple was rent into from top to bottom. (Matt. 27:51; Heb. 10:19-22)