Mark 11:15-19
“And they came to Jerusalem. And he entered the temple and began to
drive out those who sold and those who bought in the temple, and he overturned
the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. And
he would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple. And
he was teaching them and saying to them, “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be
called a house of prayer for all the nations’? But you have made it a den of
robbers.” And the chief priests and the scribes heard it and were
seeking a way to destroy him, for they feared him, because all the crowd was
astonished at his teaching. And when evening came they went
out of the city.”
The Temple in the time of Jesus
was a complex structure with areas or “courts” designated for different people.
The temple was a place where non-believers would come and contemplate the reality of God. The area that this passage
took place in is known as the “Court of the Gentiles”. This was the area open
to all peoples, Jews and Gentiles, and was meant to be a place of prayer,
meditation and worship. More important though, this was the only area of the
Temple that Gentiles were allowed to enter and thus, was the only area of the
temple that gentiles could enter to pray, worship and spend time contemplating
the existence of God.
This passage also takes place
during the Passover, a time of year when the population of Jerusalem swells
from 80,000 to over 2 million and these people all are going to the Temple to
worship and pray. Economically, setting up shop in the temple is absolutely
genius. The money-changers, and those selling goods were taking advantage of
the area most populated to sell their goods. They were taking advantage of and
ruining the sanctity of the Temple. Even worse, the Priest was allowing it and
profiting from the entire operation. Rather than encourage spiritual growth and
contemplation, the Priest and the people in the temple were taking advantage of
those in the “Court of the Gentiles”, the people coming to the Temple to
contemplate the existence of God.
Jesus recognizes that his Temple had been turned into a “den of robbers” and he wanted restore
the place of the LORD to its true purpose: “a house of prayer for all the nations”. Jesus drove out the
sellers, and overturned their tables and began to preach the word. Jesus did not
politely ask them to leave. Jesus came in, declared his authority, rebuked
their actions and started throwing people out of the temple. Jesus restored the
sanctity of the Temple.
1st Corinthians 6:19-20
“Or do you not know that
your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God?
You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify
God in your body.”
This passage is one that has always
served me as an encouragement to honor God in all areas of my life, outwardly
and inwardly. The scripture tells us that the Holy Spirit is in us, that our
body is a temple given to us by our LORD. We were bought with a price—the Son
of God—so we should glorify God in our body. There are a number of ways to
apply this passage but I want to point out the connection between these two
verses from Corinthians and the Mark11 passage. The Temple in Mark11 was a
place for people to pray, meditate, worship and spend time contemplating the
reality or existence of God. Our “temple” can serve a similar purpose. Just as
the temple in early times was a place for people to come and contemplate God’s
existence, our bodies can serve the same role. When we serve others, share
Christ’s love and live as a Christ-like example we become a light in the areas
in which we live. We become a beacon of
the gospel not just by word, or action but also by the Holy Spirit that is
alive and active in us. The way we live, our actions not only portray the
gospel but they can serve as a place for others to recognize the existence of
God.
In Mark11, Jesus entered the temple
and performed a miracle. He established God’s authority over the temple and
restored it as a “House of prayer for all the nations”. What if we invited
Jesus into our hearts to drive out the sin, invited him in to overturn our
pride and idolatry, and invited him to teach us his ways that we may live like
him? I imagine our lives would look drastically different. I imagine our list
of New Year’s Resolutions would look embarrassingly insignificant. My prayer
for anyone who has read this far is that you would first have the desire to
treat your body as a temple that adorns the gospel and secondly that God would
place on you an intense burden and urgency to share the gospel.
“When we don’t look for
God as our true life, our desire for him spills over into our other desires,
giving them an ultimacy and urgency they were never intended to bear”—Journey
of Desire
