Mark 17-11:15 NIVUK
[15] On reaching Jerusalem, Jesus entered the temple courts and began driving out those who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money-changers and the benches of those selling doves, [16] and would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts. [17] And as he taught them, he said, ‘Is it not written: “My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations”? But you have made it “a den of robbers”.’ https://bible.com/bible/113/mrk.11.15.NIVUK
When my daughter was small, she got the chance to meet a Hollywood actor.
The Olympics were due to be staged in London and the Torch Relay passed through the city of my birth, Glasgow. So we jumped on a train and headed through to see this fine historical event taking place. As we stood on Buchanan Street waiting to see the torch passing, we noticed who was bearing it: James McAvoy, Glaswegian actor, alumni of the University she now attends and at that time a firmly established Hollywood actor.
Sometimes actors can be, well, a bit ‘much’. But he was anything but. As she went forward for a picture, he noticed the crowd were pressing in, so he personally intervened to move them back and made sure this small girl got her picture with him and the torch.
He was a really nice guy.
People are not always how you imagine.
While we were impressed with James McAvoy, I have felt let down when I've met some pastors or preachers or Christian leaders who have simply not been as I thought they would be.
Jesus is not who many people would expect Him to be.
Many people assume that He’s ‘meek and mild’, a completely bland person for whom nothing is ever wrong and everything is okay; a man who loves all and who tolerates everything; someone who will ultimately support their cause, whatever it is.
And then we come to these verses. And they shake us to their core.
This is a completely other side of Jesus: one many of us would no doubt wish did not exist.
But before we write this off as a terrible pique of fury, or think to ourselves that even Jesus had an ‘off day’, I want you to see this verse:
Mark 11:11 NIVUK
[11] Jesus entered Jerusalem and went into the temple courts. He looked around at everything, but since it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the Twelve. https://bible.com/bible/113/mrk.11.11.NIVUK
We have to understand this: Jesus’ clearing of the Temple was not a fit of mindless temper.
No, it was planned. It was premeditated.
It was controlled and it was deliberate.
And that makes it even more striking.
This clearance was not about Jesus imposing His will on other people. Not one bit of it. He was imposing His Father’s will, as the prophecy He quotes makes clear:
Isaiah 8-56:1 NIVUK
[1] This is what the Lord says: ‘Maintain justice and do what is right, for my salvation is close at hand and my righteousness will soon be revealed. [2] Blessed is the one who does this – the person who holds it fast, who keeps the Sabbath without desecrating it, and keeps their hands from doing any evil.’ [3] Let no foreigner who is bound to the Lord say, ‘The Lord will surely exclude me from his people.’ And let no eunuch complain, ‘I am only a dry tree.’ [4] For this is what the Lord says: ‘To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths, who choose what pleases me and hold fast to my covenant – [5] to them I will give within my temple and its walls a memorial and a name better than sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that will endure for ever. [6] And foreigners who bind themselves to the Lord to minister to him, to love the name of the Lord, and to be his servants, all who keep the Sabbath without desecrating it and who hold fast to my covenant – [7] these I will bring to my holy mountain and give them joy in my house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house will be called a house of prayer for all nations.’ [8] The Sovereign Lord declares – he who gathers the exiles of Israel: ‘I will gather still others to them besides those already gathered.’ https://bible.com/bible/113/isa.56.6.NIVUK
Jesus was not turning the Temple into something it was not, He was turning it from something it should not be to what the Father had always intended it to be.
And that took radical action.
Radical action that still resonates and challenges us nowadays.
Radical action that was clearly not appreciated at all by the Jewish leaders.
There are four phases to this situation which talk about what the Temple had become, and what Jesus was turning it into.
The first of these is A Place of Profit.
We see this from who it was that Jesus targeted:
Matthew 21:12 NIVUK
[12] Jesus entered the temple courts and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money-changers and the benches of those selling doves. https://bible.com/bible/113/mat.21.12.NIVUK
We see it also from the very striking accusation that they had turned the Temple into ‘a den of robbers’. This particular quote comes from a searing condemnation of the people of Israel from the prophet Jeremiah:
Jeremiah 11-7:1 NIVUK
[1] This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: [2] ‘Stand at the gate of the Lord’s house and there proclaim this message: ‘ “Hear the word of the Lord, all you people of Judah who come through these gates to worship the Lord. [3] This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: reform your ways and your actions, and I will let you live in this place. [4] Do not trust in deceptive words and say, ‘This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord!’ [5] If you really change your ways and your actions and deal with each other justly, [6] if you do not oppress the foreigner, the fatherless or the widow and do not shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not follow other gods to your own harm, [7] then I will let you live in this place, in the land I gave to your ancestors for ever and ever. [8] But look, you are trusting in deceptive words that are worthless. [9] ‘ “Will you steal and murder, commit adultery and perjury, burn incense to Baal and follow other gods you have not known, [10] and then come and stand before me in this house, which bears my Name, and say, ‘We are safe’ – safe to do all these detestable things? [11] Has this house, which bears my Name, become a den of robbers to you? But I have been watching! Declares the Lord.
So what on earth was Jesus talking about? Why did He use a quote from such a tough and uncompromising prophecy?
The answer is plain, but very difficult to hear.
This was the Passover. Pilgrims had come to Jerusalem from all over the known world to worship at the Temple. There was a provision in Jewish law that stated if they could not carry their animal or bird for sacrifice such a great distance from home, they could bring money and buy one in Jerusalem (Deuteronomy 14:24-26).
So this is what they did. They arrived in Jerusalem, bought the sacrifices from local producers and presented them in the Temple.
But then someone – we don’t know who – hit on the idea of selling the sacrifices in the Temple. There was no courtyard or area specifically set aside for that, so they just used one they thought was suitable. From the record here in Mark, and the reference to Isaiah’s prophecy on Matthew and Luke, it seems most likely that the courtyard they used was the Court of the Gentiles.
So the Jews had essentially turned a place for Gentiles to worship into a market for selling sacrifices.
Imagine how that would have felt as a pilgrim Gentile and seeker after God. You come into the Temple to worship and are met with a barrage of noise from animals and birds and sellers, not to mention the smell.
It would have felt praying in a petting zoo.
Even worse than this, Jesus refers to the chaotic market place as ‘a den of robbers’.
What does this mean?
It isn’t hard to figure out. These sellers were likely charging an inflated price for the convenience of making their sacrifices available within the Temple precinct.
More to the point, the Temple tax and other monetary obligations could only be paid in shekels, and in no other currency. That meant exchanges were set up – again inside the Court of Gentiles. It isn’t easy to figure out what Jesus was condemning here: profiteering exchange rates. Right in the Temple. Within easy reach of the representation of the Presence of God among them.
No wonder He condemned it!
Jesus had earlier roundly condemned those who sought material gain at all costs but concealed it with a gossamer thin veneer of religious respectability:
Matthew 6:24 NIVUK
[24] ‘No-one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money. https://bible.com/bible/113/mat.6.24.NIVUK
Now He was expressing that condemnation again, in a quite radical way.
It would be a mistake if we thought that all Jesus is condemning here is the commercialism of a Jewish festival. I don’t believe for a second that Jesus is against people making honest money. The issue here is that it was dishonest money being made in a dishonest way in a disrespectful manner.
However, we also see these verses later on in the New Testament:
1 Corinthians 20-6:19 NIVUK
[19] Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; [20] you were bought at a price. Therefore honour God with your bodies.
These verses were written to correct sexually immoral behaviour in the Corinthian church.
Instead of money, they were worshipping their sexual mores.
However, the principle still stands. There is no physical Temple now in Jerusalem. We are the Temple. Our hearts are His home.
What happened here in the Court of the Gentiles took place simply because the Jewish leaders of Jesus’ day had dethroned God as their Lord long before they allowed this marketplace to be set up. The marketplace was just an outward working of what had already gone wrong inside.
The question we have to ask ourselves is this: what is going on in ours? Does Jesus Christ have His rightful place in our lives? Or do other things hold sway?
Do we need Jesus to clear out our lives too?
Because we now move from a place of profit to A Place of Purification:
Matthew 13-21:12 NIVUK
[12] Jesus entered the temple courts and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money-changers and the benches of those selling doves. [13] ‘It is written,’ he said to them, ‘ “My house will be called a house of prayer,” but you are making it “a den of robbers.”’
Jesus did not just stand there and condemn these sellers and money changers. He did not just sit back and complain about it. No, He did something about it. In an act of controlled righteous rage, He turned over their tables, scattering their coins everywhere, and He drove them out (Luke 19:45). He also drove out the animals they wanted to sell to be used as sacrifices in the Temple (John 2:15).
This is really quite something. Not what we are used to seeing from Jesus at all. John even quotes from this Psalm to try to explain it:
Psalms 9-69:6 NIVUK
[6] Lord, the Lord Almighty, may those who hope in you not be disgraced because of me; God of Israel, may those who seek you not be put to shame because of me. [7] For I endure scorn for your sake, and shame covers my face. [8] I am a foreigner to my own family, a stranger to my own mother’s children; [9] for zeal for your house consumes me, and the insults of those who insult you fall on me.
In other words, Jesus took radical action because zeal for His Father’s house – the Temple – consumed Him.
Jesus’ primary concern was not profit, like these men, but the place of worship. It was to restore this court to what it should be: a place where those who were far away could be brought near (Ephesians 2:11-18). His concern, above all else, was for the glory of God and His House.
And if that meant ruffling a few feathers, causing utter chaos, upending years of successful business and bringing to a close a convenient way of life, then so be it.
This singular act of, well, violence, tells us everything we need to know about Jesus’ heart.
But it also challenges us to the core.
There are some terrible verses in Scripture: terrible verses that ought to shake us. Among them is this:
Luke 2-17:1 NIVUK
[1] Jesus said to his disciples: ‘Things that cause people to stumble are bound to come, but woe to anyone through whom they come. [2] It would be better for them to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied round their neck than to cause one of these little ones to stumble.
Could we be the cause of other people stumbling?
Could we be a blockage or a hindrance on people coming to God?
Could we be someone who puts them off from approaching the Gospel and worshipping the Lord?
Wow betide us if that is the case!
These men carried out a convenient and profitable business that hindered the Gentiles from coming into the Temple and worshipping God.
Could we be doing something selfish and comfortable that has the same effect on people outside?
Do we have the guts and the bravery to challenge it, upend it and drive it out of our lives?
Or will we keep things as they are so as not to upset anyone?
How much do we really care for the glory of God?
But we move on from the place of profit and purification to something equally as striking: A Place of Prevention. And this comes from a small, often overlooked detail recorded by Mark:
Mark 16-11:15 NIVUK
[15] On reaching Jerusalem, Jesus entered the temple courts and began driving out those who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money-changers and the benches of those selling doves, [16] and would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts.
You see, not only did Jesus drive the merchants out, He then didn’t allow them back in.
Now this is quite something.
You see, the Temple Guards were Levites, tasked with ensuring that the Temple Courts remained sacred, that rules were adhered to. They were instituted as far back as when the first Tabernacle was set up (see 1 Chronicles 9:17-33). And that was a very important job.
But it's plain to see that these Temple Guards had not really been doing their job so well.
Either that or they had so little regard for Gentile worshippers that they had no issue with the buying and selling of sacrifices taking place in their court.
Whatever had happened, we can see that they have failed in their duty: something obscenely idolatrous had taken root in the Temple and they had done nothing about it.
Something had come in that prevented people from worshipping God, and it had happened on their watch.
That’s why it is so very striking that Jesus intervenes here. He, a non-Levite, performs the duty of a Levite in seeking to preserve the sanctity of the Temple and allowing Gentiles to worship. It is He, who is God incarnate, who cleans up and preserves the space where the Gentiles can worship Him.
This sets a pattern:
Proverbs 4:23 NIVUK
[23] Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.
1 Corinthians 16:13 NIVUK
[13] Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be courageous; be strong. https://bible.com/bible/113/1co.16.13.NIVUK
Philippians 7-4:6 NIVUK
[6] Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. [7] And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. https://bible.com/bible/113/php.4.6.NIVUK
This is a critical truth. It is not your Pastor’s responsibility to guard your heart and your mind.
It is not your parents’ responsibility to guard your heart and mind.
It is not your president’s responsibility to guard your heart and mind.
It is yours.
And only yours.
So when your thoughts start racing and your worries are overwhelming and your feelings are too much, who is to blame for that?
Well, who didn’t stand guard?
When you are taken in my conspiracy theories and lies and deceit, who is to blame?
Well, who didn’t stand guard?
It is our responsibility – each and every one of us – to stand guard over our own hearts and to prevent lies or sinful attitudes from breaking in. And when it happens, we are responsible.
No-one else.
So from a place of profit, purification and prevention, lastly, we move on to A Place of Prayer:
Matthew 21:13 NIVUK
[13] ‘It is written,’ he said to them, ‘ “My house will be called a house of prayer,” but you are making it “a den of robbers.”’
This is where we go back to those two verses we discussed right at the beginning. In fact, we go further back to look at why the Temple, and before that, the Tent of Meeting, even existed in the first place.
Both of them became a firm picture of Jewish identity and nationalism. However, from their very beginning, they had a very simple purpose:
Exodus 11-33:7 NIVUK
[7] Now Moses used to take a tent and pitch it outside the camp some distance away, calling it the ‘tent of meeting’. Anyone enquiring of the Lord would go to the tent of meeting outside the camp. [8] And whenever Moses went out to the tent, all the people rose and stood at the entrances to their tents, watching Moses until he entered the tent. [9] As Moses went into the tent, the pillar of cloud would come down and stay at the entrance, while the Lord spoke with Moses. [10] Whenever the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance to the tent, they all stood and worshipped, each at the entrance to their tent. [11] The Lord would speak to Moses face to face, as one speaks to a friend. Then Moses would return to the camp, but his young assistant Joshua son of Nun did not leave the tent.
The whole purpose of the Tent of Meeting, which at that point was nothing more than a simple tent – was a place for Moses and Aaron to meet with God.
This became the Tabernacle, which became the Temple, which was one of the Wonders of the Ancient World.
But basically, the purpose remained: they were a place where people went to commune with God, both corporately and alone.
What made this incident so heinous is that it prevented Gentile seekers after God from doing exactly that, and instead was a place where profit was sought, not God. But by Jesus’ radical action, He returned the Court of the Gentiles back to its original purpose.
Here is something worth pondering. If you go back through the designs for the original Tabernacle and Temple, you will find something very interesting. In the original designs, there were just three separate places: the main courtyard, the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies. Any ceremonially clean person could enter the main courtyard; any priest could enter the Holy Place; only the High Priest could enter the Holy of Holies (Hebrews 9:1-10).
There was no Courtyard of the Gentiles.
There was no Courtyard of Women.
They were added later, when the Temple was rebuilt. There was nothing Divine about their construction. Their existence had not been commanded by God. It was entirely man-made religion. As was this awful marketplace. Man-made religion designed to create a difference where God had not decreed for one to exist.
The way was always, and had always, been open for Gentiles to seek God and find Him. It was humans who put up the walls and set the guards in place.
And there lies the real challenge of this text: man-made religion preventing seekers from praying to God. It’s so easy to blame someone else from this, or some other religious group.
But what about us? What about our particular denomination or church or group? Is our place of worship a house of prayer for all nations? Or are there people, if we’re truly honest, that we’d rather didn’t come?
And then we have to extend the challenge to each of us, temples of the Holy Spirit as we are. Do we, as individuals, encourage people to have an active, living relationship with God?
Or does the way we behave drive them away?
There is a modern term for what Jesus did here. Nowadays, we would call Him a ‘disruptor’. He upended conventions that were wrong and turned the Court of the Gentiles back to what it should be.
I don’t doubt for a second that this was painful, not to mention irritating. The Jewish leaders were obviously none to happy about this (Mark 11:18), but couldn’t do a thing about it because this disruptor was incredibly popular.
Jesus retains the same right to be a controversial disruptor now as He was then. He still has the right to turn our lives and churches upside down, to break what is wrong and to build what is right. When He does it, I don’t doubt for a second that many of us will find ourselves with the Jewish leaders, speaking out loudly against what He is doing.
But if we do, if we find ourselves siding with the naysayers and questioning what Jesus is doing because it is just too different, then we should remember just one thing:
Those naysayers crucified Jesus.
It’s time to find our way from the place of profit, through the place of purification and prevention to the place of prayer.
It’s time to embrace what Jesus is doing.
Whatever the cost.
Prayer
Lord Jesus, this is a difficult passage. I see another side of You here – one that hurts. Help me to embrace the disruption and the change, knowing that to do so will lead me closer to You. Amen.
Questions
1. Why was there a marketplace in the Court of the Gentiles? Who won or lost from this arrangement?
2. Why was Jesus so against it?
3. What does this event symbolise for us? Are we willing to embrace His disruption in all areas of our lives?
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