A sacred space/temple is a place where heaven and earth overlap one another. It is where the presence of God, the majestic glory of God is expressed among the people. This is a place where the space of God touches the space of human beings. It is the house of God on earth as it is in heaven. It is the place where God dwells with His people. The sacred space is the centre of any society in the ancient world. For Israel, the temple in Jerusalem is the visible embodiment of the presence of Yahweh among His people. It is the centre of definition. Unlike the understanding of other peoples about their gods and temples, Israel’s God does not need humans to satisfy His needs. He is not a kind of any other deities in the ancient world. He does not depend on humans to satisfy His material needs. Instead, the Presence of Yahweh itself is the source of all blessings among the people.
The temple of Yahweh is a place where the people receive forgiveness, they are declared clean of diseases, their worship is accepted and it is a place of celebration and joy. However, the scene in the time of Jesus has been radically reversed. The temple has become the definition of politics and economics of injustice. In the place which is said to be the dwelling place of Yahweh, in the place where the people pray to their God and receive answers, the religious and political leaders are running their show. The trade and commerce in this temple are some of the worst forms of religious politics. The weary are burdened even more. While the rich entertain in the temple, the poor are not so privileged to do whatever they want. The temple, now, has become the definition of economic injustice, religious oppression, and the den of robbers.
Now, imagine this. There is a place where one can receive forgiveness, healing and can rejoice. And that place is not a building that is established in some particular region but travelling throughout the land. People around this place are being transformed and are celebrating. This image reminds us of the tabernacle in the narrative of an exodus which is not established in one particular place but is travelling along with the people and is being erected wherever they camp in their journey. Moreover, the tabernacle was not simply travelling with the people but also leading the people towards the place where finally God and the people can dwell together. The tabernacle, therefore, is the embodiment of Yahweh’s glorious presence that journeys along with the people and dwells among them.
This is the picture that we get in the Gospel narratives. Jesus travels throughout the land administering healing, forgiveness and celebration to the people. To the ones who followed him, it was like God of Israel has embodied Himself in the person of Jesus. It was like the tabernacle revived once again. But this time not in the form of a tent but the form of a person. The glory of Yahweh is expressly manifested in the person and work of Jesus the Messiah. It was as if Israel’s God had finally returned to the people and their land but in a different form. His glory is no longer limited to the building structures of a temple.
When Jesus was healing the people and forgiving sins, it was not to prove his divine nature. In the Book of Leviticus, chapters 11-16 define the sanctity of the people around the tabernacle. These are the instructions about ritual purity. There it lists out several diseases and bodily discharges to define what is clean and what is unclean. Here, uncleanliness doesn’t mean sinfulness; rather it refers to the state of a person’s inability to interact with the tabernacle or with the rest of the society because of the uncleanliness. One cannot enter into the presence of God with ritual impurity although it is a general sickness that anyone can go through. Sometimes these diseases were chronic and therefore the sick persons are told to live outside the camp. One thing must be understood that these ritual laws are ancient and made sense to the ancient people more than they make sense to us.
While the unclean are isolated from society and the presence of God, they can be restored once they are declared as clean by the high priest. The Day of Atonement is not merely for the forgiveness of an individual’s sins but also to reboot society. On that day, the whole congregation of God’s people is purified of all the ritual impurities that had occurred throughout the year and gave a fresh start to the people. This supposed to happen every year but there is less evidence that it had ever occurred.
However, by the time of Jesus, most of these ritual laws were interpreted in legal terms. They were overemphasized than what they meant. Because of the vigorous religious fundamentalism, people began to domesticate the Mosaic Law as a means to become rigid. The humanitarian concern for the sick and being compassionate towards the weak and vulnerable was almost absent. The instructions that were given to keep the sanctity of the sacred space are now being interpreted in the terms of legalism and as a proof text to be indifferent to the sick and weak in the society. People are being treated as if they are supposed to behave like robots that are programmed with the codes of legalism. This is why Jesus vehemently criticized the traditions of the ancestors observed by the religious heads of his day.
This is the time when Jesus broke with the traditions. Jesus’ breaking with the traditions does not mean that he was against the Mosaic Law. He had to redefine God’s vision for the society within the Hebrew Scriptures that transcend the ritual norms that are being overly emphasized above the intentions of God. Jesus, therefore, did not go against his Bible but against the legalistic interpretation of the Jewish Bible.
Jesus crossed the boundaries defined by the legal heads. He touched the lepers. He showed compassion to the people who are suffering from sickness and being oppressed by foreign spirits. When Jesus began to heal the people, he was making them clean and restoring them to their society and the Presence of God. He was bringing life to the lifeless. He gave comfort to the weary and heavily burdened. When Jesus was forgiving the people, it was also a sign that he is the embodiment of the temple and has the authority to forgive the sins of the people. The same things that are supposed to be available in the temple are available at Jesus. There is forgiveness, healing and celebration around him. It was as if God had pitched His tent among the people in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, the Messiah.
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