Holy God, your people turn to your Word for truth and guidance in every age. Send your Holy Spirit to inspire our understanding of your Scripture, read and interpreted today. Help us hear the truth for our lives and our times through Christ, your Living Word. Amen.
Gospel Reading: Mark 11:15-19
As we continue our study through the Gospel of Mark, today we find Jesus and his disciples entering Jerusalem for a second time in as many days. The day before he rode in on a donkey accompanied by the joyous welcome of the crowds who shouted “Hosanna” and laid palm branches and their cloaks on the road before him. He went to the Temple, but after looking around, he went to the nearby village of Bethany to rest for the night.
And now he returns again to the Temple, but this time there are no welcoming crowds nor palm branches. Instead, he comes on a mission, he has seen the sacrilege that has been taking place in his Father’s house and is determined to make things right. The Apostle Mark says, “And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who were selling and those who were buying in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold doves; and he would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple.”
When Jesus entered the Temple, he saw that its true purpose as a place of prayer and communion with God had been diminished. With a quiet but resolute concern for His Father’s honour, he stepped in to guide the people back toward what the temple was meant to be. He did this, not out of harshness, but out of a holy desire to restore what had been lost. And he could do so because he is our true High Priest — the One who not only renews the spaces where we gather, but also lovingly tends to the places within us that need cleansing, healing, and a fresh beginning.
The Temple in Jerusalem was the centre of worship for those of the Jewish faith. All people who were able were expected to go there three times a year; these were known as the Pilgrimage Festivals. And part of the requirements was to offer sacrifices while they were there. Through time a business in selling animals and doves at highly inflated prices had sprung up and not only the vendors, but also the chief priests were profiting from this scheme.
And to add insult to injury, was the fact that all Jewish males, age 20 or older, were required to pay what was called a temple tax. And only the local Jewish money was acceptable. If you came from outside of the local area and had only Roman or Greek currency you had to go to the money changers who would charge a fee to exchange it. So, they were getting you both ways.
And Jesus knew this. Not only had he been in the Temple the day before, after his joyous entry into Jerusalem, but he had also cleared it of the sellers and money-changers not long after he started his public ministry. Here’s how the Disciple John describes that event, “The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves, and the money-changers seated at their tables. Making a whip of cords, he drove all of them out of the temple, both the sheep and the cattle. He also poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables. He told those who were selling the doves, ‘Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father’s house a market-place!’” (John 2:13-16) This would have taken place only a few months after his baptism in the River Jordan.
And now he does it again, for the second time, and refuses to allow anyone to profit from these sacrificial offerings. Supposedly they were selling animals as a “service” to the people. And because the Temple leaders would accept only the official temple currency, money-changers set up shop, which was another so-called “service”, where people could exchange normal currency into temple currency. The money-changers and merchants were taking advantage of the worshippers, and Jesus cleared out what had become a corrupt practice.
Jesus then said, “‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations.” But you have made it a den of robbers.’” This quote actually comes from two authors in the Old Testament. The first is from the Book of Isaiah, where he writes, “And the foreigners who join 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, and do not profane it, and hold fast my covenant—these I will bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer; their burnt-offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.” (Isaiah 56:6-7)
For us, as people outside of the Jewish faith, this prophecy is vitally important. In the Old Testament, the Jews were referred to as God’s chosen people. The prophet Isaiah made the prediction that one day all people, through their faith in God will become part of his family. And now we have Jesus, the Son of God confirming this prophecy. No wonder that the Chief Priests and elders wanted to see the end of him.
But a house of prayer for all people was not what Jesus saw that morning when he entered the Temple. It had become a place of corrupt business practises. That caused Jesus to say, “‘But you have made it a den of robbers.’” This is a quote from another Old Testament prophet, Jeremiah, who had received from God this warning for the Jewish people, “Stand in the gate of the Lord’s house, and proclaim there this word, and say, Hear the word of the Lord, all you people of Judah, you that enter these gates to worship the Lord. Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Amend your ways and your doings and let me dwell with you in this place. Do not trust in these deceptive words: ‘This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord…. Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, make offerings to Baal, and go after other gods that you have not known, and then come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, ‘We are safe!’—only to go on doing all these abominations? Has this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your sight?” (Jeremiah 7:2-11)
And so, Jesus shows righteous anger, it’s a deep grief over what has been done to the things of God. Jesus is feeling what the Father feels: his house, his mission, his grace offered to all people is being obscured by greed and distraction. Every sacrifice offered in that Temple pointed forward to him. And every corner of the temple belonged to his Father. So, when Jesus enters the temple courts, he is coming home, to his Father’s house, and he finds it being used to take advantage of vulnerable people. No wonder he intervenes.
And in this moment, Jesus reveals something central to his mission. He did not come simply to clean up religious institutions; He came to cleanse hearts. What takes place when Jesus cleanses the temple is symbolic, not because it is unreal, but because it points beyond itself to something even greater. Jesus drives out corruption from the temple with authority because he has come to drive out the corruption within the human heart through his Saving Grace.
The tables he overturns represents the sin he overturns in us. The sacrifices he disrupts foreshadow the sacrifice he will make on the cross. The disorder he confronts in the temple mirrors the disorder that can settle into our own souls. We, too, can take what belongs to God, and change it for our own convenience. We, too, can allow prayer to fade into the background while lesser things crowd the foreground. We, too, can let the noise of daily life drown out the stillness of worship.
Yet here is the good news: the same Jesus who entered the temple enters our lives — not to condemn, but to cleanse. He does not overturn the tables of our hearts to humiliate us, but to set us free. He clears away what does not belong so that what does belong; trust, worship, prayer, and compassion, can grow again. He cleanses not only the temple courts but, ultimately, our sinful hearts. And he does so with full authority, for he is the true High Priest who offers himself as the once-for-all sacrifice for sin.
After cleansing the temple, Jesus teaches, Mark tells us that, “the whole crowd was spellbound by his teaching.” The space becomes a sanctuary again. Prayer takes the place of profit. Worship replaces noise. All the people of the world, including us as Gentiles, have room to draw near.
And this is the wish of Jesus for us. He longs to make our lives, our thoughts, our priorities, our daily habits, places where prayer can breathe again. He seeks to reorder our hearts so that God returns to the centre. He wants to cast out everything that steals our attention, our devotion, and our peace. In short, he wants to restore us to our true purpose: to be people who live in the presence of God.
The One who overturned tables in the temple is the One who conquers sin through his cross. The One who restored his Father’s house is the One who restores his Father’s children. The One who called the temple a house of prayer calls us into a life of prayer. May we welcome him with open hearts. May we allow him to overturn what must be overturned. And may our lives, cleansed by his grace, become, once more, houses of prayer for all nations.
Let us Pray:
Gracious God, we thank you for your Word that shines light into our lives. We thank you for Jesus, our true High Priest, who entered the temple with holy authority and who enters our hearts with cleansing grace. As we have heard your call this day, remove from us anything that crowds out your presence. Overturn the habits, the fears, and the distractions that keep us from prayer, and restore within us a deep desire to walk with you.
Send us forth now in the peace of Christ, cleansed by his mercy and renewed by his power, that we may be your faithful people in all we say and do. In the name of Jesus, we pray. Amen