When the Israelites heard the first word of the Law in the Ten Commandments, so the old rabbinical story goes, they swooned. Their souls left them. So the word returned to God and cried out, "O Sovereign of the Universe, you live eternally and your Law lives eternally. But you have sent me to the dead. They are all dead!" Thereupon God had mercy and made his word more palatable.1 God told a story.

Our sacred story for today said that they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken. Long before, Jesus had said to his disciples, "Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away."

At the end of the conflict stories in Mark Jesus left the Temple for the last time. Sitting on the Mount of Olives, looking down at the Temple, he told his friends of the new templ…