Sometimes it takes an explosion to remake the world. Think of the French revolution, or maybe today our thoughts turn to Ukraine and the way the Russian invasion is reshaping Europe and indeed the world.

Explosions are never tidy and always destructive but often out of an explosion comes something new or even better. For the Ukrainians despite the destruction, a new sense of national unity and identity is emerging that might well determine the outcome of the war and define the Ukrainian nation in the years to come.

Cold Dark Matter: An exploded view. 1991 Cornelia Parker

This is the idea behind the exploded shed recreated as a sculpture suspended as an installation in the Tate gallery. Filled all sorts of everyday objects gathered from car boot sales Cornelia Parker then invited the Army school of Ammunition to blow up!

After the explosion, the bits of the shed and dispersed objects, twisted and blackened from the force of the explosives were carefully gathered together and suspended as if in mid-flight from the epicenter of the explosion on transparent wires. Installing the work adds new layers of meaning to it as Cornelia Parker explains:

‘As the objects were suspended one by one, they began to lose their aura of death and appeared reanimated, in limbo. The light on inside the installation created huge shadows on the wall, so the shed look like it was re-exploring or perhaps coming back together again.’

The title of the work is a reference to the ‘big bang’ that brought the universe into being. Cold dark matter, despite its invisibility, makes up the greatest part of the matter of the universe and thus of us and all the visible universe. The exploded shed becomes a metaphor for the rearrangement of the material world in a new and creative way bring not destruction but order and beauty.

Reclaiming the Temple

We don’t often think of Palm Sunday in terms of a revolution but to the authorities, it was clear that Jesus was intent on overthrowing the old order and reclaiming the Temple courts for the people. The court of the gentiles and the court of the women had been taken over as a marketplace for the traders and money changers. The money from this trade was the main source of the Temple’s income and its loss would be a serious threat.

Jesus then had come into Jerusalem to reclaim the Temple from those who had forgotten or worst betrayed its purpose. In so doing he is fulfilling the ancient prophesies that foretold how the Lord would return to his Temple.

“Rejoice greatly, O daughter Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem!

Behold your King is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey.” Zechariah 9: 9

Reclaiming the Throne

The events of Palm Sunday remind us that Jesus is coming to Jerusalem not just to reclaim his Temple but also his throne.

The crowds shout ‘Hosanna’ which is the greeting given to Kings and has the same significance as ‘Hail’.

‘Hail Caesar’, would have been a common greeting for the Emperor Augustus recognising him as the deliverer of universal peace and prosperity.

Underlying this word, however, is the word salvation or salve, healing from Jesus for the body and soul, something that Saviours and Messiahs were meant to deliver to their disciples.

Jesus is welcomed by the crowds who now recall the prophecies of their Scriptures that their Lord and King, would return to the Temple riding on a donkey.

Jesus, they hope, is the one who will restore the glory of God to the Temple and bring Israel’s long oppression to an end.

“Shout Daughters of Jerusalem! See your King comes to you, righteous and victorious, lowly and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.” Zechariah 9.9

However, as the account in Luke makes clear, the authority of Jesus is challenged by the Priests, Scribes, and Elders.

“One day as Jesus was teaching the people in the Temple and preaching the gospel, the chief priests and the scribes with the elders came up to him and said

“Tell us by what authority you do these things, or who is it that gave you this authority” Luke 20: 1-2

Mission to the World

Israel was from its earliest calling in the days of the Patriarchs had a mission to the world, he was to be the Father of nations:

“A nation and a company of nations shall come from you, and Kings shall come from your body.” Genesis 35: 10

These prophetic words echoed the Covenants drawn up with Abraham and Isaac and called Israel as a nation to a universal destiny, not just a national one.

Jesus makes references to Israel as:

“the light of the world, A city set on a hill cannot be hidden, nor do people put a lamp and put it under a basket, but, on a stand, and it gives light to the whole house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”

Matthew 5:14

Israel’s God is the Creator God, the One God, the Source of all Life, love, Justice, peace, health, and mercy.

The Temple was the symbol of this universal mission as seen in the Court of the Gentiles.

Jesus, however, has come to lament the loss of this vision:

“My House shall be called a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of robbers” Matthew 21: 13

Jesus – The Earthquake!

Matthew reports in his account that there was a tumult in the city when Jesus entered. The word ‘Tumult’ can be translated as ‘Earthquake’ and we can interpret this to be a comment on the impact of Jesus' ministry and subsequent lament over Jerusalem as he foresees its destruction.

“For the days will come upon you and hem you in on every side, and tear you to the ground.” Luke 19: 44

The Temple is no more for it has failed to welcome the Messiah King, it has failed to Welcome the Nations, it has failed to be a beacon to the world. But destruction can be creative as Cornelia Parker reminds us In ‘Dark Matter – an exploded view’. Out of the destruction of the Temple was to emerge a living Temple, the Church where Christ is worshipped, the Community welcomed and the World served

Rev Simon Brignall