Look at how magnificent the temple was in Jerusalem. It was awe inspiring! Yet inside it was ugly and dead. When Jesus came, the people cared more about the temple and the laws than they did about the God who resided in the temple, and the laws that He put into place.
In fact, when Jesus entered Jerusalem, He wept, knowing what was to come. When the disciples ask about the beauty in the building, Jesus shares with them what it’s fate will be.
“These magnificent building will be so completely demolished that not one stone will be left on top of another.”
Mark 13:2 (NLT)
Something that seemed hard if not impossible to believe happened in 70 AD when Rome completely demolished the temple and as the gold melted and went between the stones, orders were made to tear it apart so that the gold would be retrieved (“not one stone left on top of another”).
Outward beauty is not what God looks at. When Samuel went to look for the next king, he saw Jesse’s sons and looked at things from an outward (human) standpoint, but God let Samual know that He saw things differently.
“People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”
1 Sam. 16:7 (NIV)
In Mark 13, Jesus goes on to share things to look for as we wait for the second coming of Jesus. As we watch for His return, and see signs, we want to make sure that we are ready, and that we, and the churches we go to, are not just beautifully hollow places of worship, but that they are pleasing in the sight of the Lord. Jesus cares about the heart, and we should be concerned with this too.
Along the Multicolored Road 
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