Jesus Cleans House

Mark 11:15-19
Gerrit Buddingh’ | Sunday, February 21, 2021
Copyright © 2021, Gerrit Buddingh’

Last week, Rev. Perry preached on verses 12 through 14 and 20 and 21. In those verses, Jesus places a curse on a fig tree. That event is an object lesson about what is happening spiritually in Jerusalem and in God’s house, and in the temple in particular.

Sometimes Jesus’ words and actions make us feel uncomfortable because they hit too closely to home. The reason Jesus curses the tree is because it promised something it did not deliver. It is covered with leaves but has no fruit.

This event speaks of divine condemnation of the empty religion of people, the people of Israel, at that time, and serves as a warning of the empty Christianity of the American churches of our day. Jesus curses the fig tree because of its hypocrisy.

His surprising action is not impetuosity but condemnation of a profession of faith without regeneration and without sincerity of heart and practice. The whole tenor of the New Testament is that a man can only be known by the fruits of his life. “By their fruits you will recognize them,” said Jesus in Matthew 7:16. Elsewhere he said, “Produce fruit in keeping with repentance” (Luke 3:8). It is not the man who piously says, “Lord, Lord,” who will enter the kingdom but he who does God’s will (Matt. 7:21). So unless a man’s faith makes him better, more obedient and more useful as a bondslave to Christ Jesus as Lord, it is most likely that he does not have true saving faith. His faith is dead and will be condemned on the last day.

Now, Jesus curses the tree on Palm Sunday. His disciples witnessed its deadness on Monday morning while they are on their way back into Jerusalem to the temple. On Palm Sunday, Jesus rode into Jerusalem as the promised Messiah in fulfillment of Zechariah 9:9. The people had jubilantly hailed him as such. But religious leaders refused to honor him as king.

Now Jesus presents himself to them as their Judge. So we come in our study of the gospel of Mark to a remarkable story. The event it describes must have been stunning to those who first witnessed it. It is the event of our Lord’s cleansing of the temple prior to Passover and just a few days before he is die on the cross as the true Passover Lamb.

When Jesus had entered Jerusalem the day before, on Palm Sunday, he went straightway into the temple. He looked around at everything. The phrase “looked around” means that Jesus examined it closely. This was his divine prerogative as Lord of the temple and the church, and he did not like what he saw. Jesus observed during his inspection tour things that grieved him greatly. He saw religious ceremonies being carried out but not in the Holy Spirit and in truth. He saw commercialism, injustice, exploitation, hypocrisy, and a disregard for the holiness of God the Father. But since it was already late in the day, Jesus decided to wait until the next day before doing anything about the evil he witnessed.

Now he returns on Monday morning to deal with some of those issues. This morning we will examine the sinful worship practices that Jesus observed, especially in light of its applicability to our lives and our church. And as we do, we should ask ourselves, “What does Jesus see when he comes and walks up and down the aisles of the churches of this country, and even as he moves among as we are sitting here outdoors on our quad? Particularly, what does Jesus see when he examines our hearts, which are also his temple?”

We normally ask God in the invocation to each church service that he come and be in our midst during our gathering. This is an excellent thing to pray for, because if the Lord doesn’t show up, then everything we do in our church service is in vain. But does the fact that God is in our midst make a difference in how we act as individual worshipers or together at the church?

Keep in mind that when Jesus comes to the temple, he comes not to bless but to pass judgment on the temple, on the temple leadership, and on the practices taking place there. Keep in mind that he comes to judge.

In Revelation 1:12–13, Jesus is pictured as walking among the candlesticks. The candlesticks represent his churches. So as we examine these verses today, we must consider the fact that Jesus walks among us as a church. Jesus is always here when we come together. In Matthew 18:20, Jesus promises to be where any two or three believers are gathered in his name. His presence is not in doubt. What perhaps is in doubt is what he thinks of our gathering. What does Jesus see when he comes to Grace Valley? Does he like what he sees? Or is he angry with you and with me? We will look at, first, the temple desecrated; second, the temple cleansed; third, God’s house of prayer; and, fourth, lessons for us.

1. The Temple Desecrated

We are told that Jesus finds people selling and buying livestock in the temple. He finds other exchanging currency, and still others taking a shortcut through the temple grounds on their wya to the opposite side of the city. So let us zoom in on what is going on in the house of God.

First, it might help us to have a better understanding of this event if we know the layout of the temple precincts. The whole temple complex at that time sat on top of Mount Zion. It was a huge area covering about thirty-five acres. The temple grounds were surrounded by walls between one thousand and thirteen hundred feet in length, a portion of which still exists today. When a person entered the temple grounds, he first came into the court of the Gentiles. This large area is open to all the people, Jews and Gentiles alike, who want to come and worship the true and living God.

At the inner edge of the courtyard of the Gentiles, there was a wall with tablets set into it which warned the Gentiles that they should not pass beyond this point. To do so would bring the penalty of death. Inside of this wall was the court of women. Only Jewish men and women were allowed there. And inside that was the court of the Israelites. Only Jewish men were allowed there, and Jewish women on their way to bring sacrifices to give to the priests.

The inmost courtyard was the court of the priests, where the priests worked and ministered. Inside this courtyard was the main temple building itself, containing the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies.

All the events mentioned in our text take place in the courtyard of the Gentiles. It is Passover, and Jerusalem and the temple are swarming with pilgrims. At this point in history, the population in Jerusalem was about eighty thousand people. At Passover, however, the population swelled to over two million. These pilgrims, mostly Jews with some Gentile converts to Judaism, come to Jerusalem from all over Judea and the Galilee, as well as from all around the world, to worship at the temple and to participate in the Passover festivities.

Animal sacrifices played a big role in the Jewish worship of the day. You can bring your own animal to sacrifice. But you should know that it has to meet certain standards of perfection. Thus, the animal has to be approved by one of the priests before it can be used for the sacrifice.

The problem is, however, that the animal may not be approved. The dirty little secret is that most animals are disqualified as being unclean. The scam is that the worshiper can buy a pre-approved animal at an artificially inflated price from the priests and the vendors licensed by Caiaphas, the then-sitting high priest.

But for the price gouging, this arrangement in some ways is a win-win for everyone. It expedites worship because these animals are being sold in the temple. It means the pilgrims from out of town did not have to bring their own animals or take the chance that their animals will be judged unclean.

This proves to be an especially good arrangement for the temple hierarchy as they get a piece of the action. It is sort of like being a shop owner in the airport. The priests can charge artificially inflated prices that are otherwise unwarranted. Caiaphas personally gets his own cut. No one but Jesus has the chutzpah, the temerity, to challenge the system.

Then there are the dove-traffickers. Doves are the sacrificial offerings of the poor. According to Leviticus 5 and 14, these are those people who cannot afford sheep and goats and bulls can buy and offer the sacrifice of these comparatively inexpensive birds. We read in Luke 2 that doves were what Joseph and Mary purchased as their sacrifice when they presented Jesus forty days after his birth to complete Mary’s ritual purification and to perform the redemption of a firstborn son in obedience to the Torah.

The problem, however, is that the doves are being sold at exorbitantly high prices. It is as if a pair of doves, which might sell at one dollar outside the markets are being sold for seventy-five dollars a pair in the temple precinct. None of the religious hierarchy seems to give much thought to how much this must grieve the heart of God and the Lord Jesus, seeing that the poor are being taken advantage of in his temple. Proverbs 22:18 says, “Do not rob the poor because he is poor nor oppress the afflicted at the gate, for the Lord will take up their case and plunder those who plunder them.”

Then there are the moneychangers. In one sense, they too provide a valuable service to the temple worshipers. Every Jewish male is required to pay a yearly temple tax that amounts equalling about two days’ pay. This tax, called the shekel of the sanctuary, is to be paid in the temple’s own coinage. Thus, moneychangers are necessary because the pilgrims from all around the world are in possession of various other currencies that are not accepted in the temple. And for this service, the worshipers are charged an exchange fee, albeit at a usurious rate. Fabulous wealth is being created for the upper crust people, the ruling class, which includes the high priests, all at the expense of the average and poor people.

Plus, in verse 16, we are told about the people who are carrying vessels through the temple. They are using the courtyard of the Gentiles as a convenient shortcut to transport goods from one side of the city to the other. For these merchants, the temple is just a convenient thoroughfare, not a place of worship. So the temple seems to have become something like a county fair, with its animal barns and ticket booths. It offends not only a person’s sense of smell, but it is a stench in the nostrils of God too.

However, the temple rulers and the merchants seem to have no problem with the goings-on that were taking place in God’s house. But we are about to see that Jesus has a real problem with what is going on.

2. Jesus Cleans Out the Temple

So it is this state of things in the temple when Jesus arrives that particular Monday morning. And you get the distinct impression that he is wasting no time in getting there. This is the Messiah on a mission as he enters the temple. He should find prayer and worship being offered up to God, not a noisy marketplace in the outer courts of the temple, the only place where Gentiles can worship and pray.

Worship is an act of devotion directed toward God. It is to be the recognition of God in his holiness, his greatness, and his beauty. It should involve devoting your will to the purposes of God. But that is difficult to do in a marketplace.

God intended the temple to be the house of prayer for people of all ethnicities, from all the nations of the world. Instead, it has been made into a den of thieves. This makes Jesus really angry, righteously angry.

Now the trouble with righteous anger is that it is so much easier to be angry than to be righteous. But that is not true with Jesus, who is God, the second Person of the Trinity. He is by definition altogether righteous. And so Jesus, filled with the Holy Spirit, is rightly incensed at this desecration of his Father’s house. He comes, not as the meek and lowly Nazarene. Rather, he comes as the Lion of the tribe of Judah. The ruler comes to his own house and finds it in total spiritual disarray and undertakes the steps necessary to set things aright.

Let us now look at what Jesus does when he enters the temple. He calls the people to true worship. He begins to drive out the merchants and their animals. The language of the text implies violence and force: “to cast out,” “to eject,” “to overthrow,” “to expel forcefully.” While many of the Jews want him to attack the Romans and set up an earthly kingdom, Jesus instead launches a surprise attack against fake religion. Like an Old Testament prophet, he is acting out a parable, only he is not acting. He is indignant and irate.

Just try to imagine the scene, if you can. John tells us that Jesus used a whip the first time he did this earlier in his ministry (John 2), and he may have used a whip this time. But mostly it is the force and authority of his person that he uses to drive out the animals and their vendors. People and animals are running around, trying to get away from Jesus, who is overturning the merchants’ tables, yelling and screaming and shouting and commanding that they get out of the temple. Doves escape their cages, coins go flying across the floor.

Now this is not the first time this occurred in Jewish history. Something similar is found in Nehemiah 13. Eliashib the priest had allowed his pagan relative Tobiah to have an apartment in the temple. The text says that when Nehemiah “discovered the evil that Eliashib had done on behalf of Tobiah by providing him a room in the courts of the house of God, [Nehemiah] was greatly displeased and threw all of Tobiah’s household goods out of the [temple].” He then ordered that the rooms be purified (Neh. 13:7–9). In this way, Nehemiah was a forerunner of Jesus on this occasion.

God is not pleased with the temple worship he sees there. God is not pleased with the leaders of the temple. God is not pleased with the merchants who take their business into the temple. And if the temple is corrupt, then the nation is corrupt.

This is not the first time that Jesus has cleaned out the temple. The first time occurred during a previous Passover, perhaps three years earlier. It seems, however, that his efforts to reform the temple did not last. The very same things that he had previously purged the temple of are now going on again in the temple, and Jesus once again comes to the Father’s house and seeks to restore it as a place of worship, holiness, and spirituality.

Some might call these two events as acts of insurrection, except that this is the King of kings doing this. Jesus is exercising his royal prerogative. So there is no civil disobedience to it. Rather, it is the priests, the moneychangers, and the merchants who are the criminally disobedient ones.

While it is true that Jesus is disturbing the peace, the truth is that there was not much peace in the temple to start with. The temple had become a rowdy, stinky marketplace. And this will not be the last time God acts against the temple. This assault on the temple is a preview of its destruction in AD 70.

Now, then, what are Jesus’ stated objections? The temple is not a proper place for business activity. It is to be used to worship God, not for buying and selling. These people had turned God’s house into a noisy, smelly stockyard without the blessing of God’s presence.

The church is wrongly being used for profiteering and getting rich. While there is a certain amount of money needed to run the temple’s daily operation, that is what the tithe is meant to be used for.

Jesus also wants to drive home the point that God accepts worship from godly Gentiles as well as from the Jews, and is angry when someone tries to hinder their worship. Jesus asks, “Isn’t it not written: ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations’?”

3. God’s House of Prayer

Notice Jesus’ expression, “. . . my house”! He is saying that the temple does not belong to the Jewish high priests. It is God’s house. And the church does not belong to us. It belongs to God, and so we come to church at his invitation to worship him in his designated way.

In verse 17 Jesus quotes two Old Testament passages. The first he quotes is Isaiah 56:7, which says, in part, “for my house will be called a house of prayer for all nations,” for all peoples. Second, Jesus quotes Jeremiah 7:11, which says, “‘Has this house, which bears my name, become a den of robbers to you? Behold, I have been watching,’ declares the Lord.” So let us examine each of these declarations to see what they have to teach us about the Lord’s anger and actions.

Jesus says, “My house.” Jesus doesn’t say, “God’s house,” though it is. His statement speaks of his authority to do what he is doing. He is identifying himself as God. The chief priests and the teachers of the law rightly understand this and begin to formulate their plans to kill him for blasphemy and sedition. They would do so immediately, but they are afraid of him and the people.

Now, since the temple is God’s, Jesus knows it is not to be a place of commerce, but rather to be a place exclusively devoted to the worship of God Almighty. When the first temple was built by Solomon, the glory of God filled it. God promised his people that he would meet with them there in the temple. He promised to hear their prayers when they prayed to him. It was to be his house where he was worshiped in spirit and in truth.

Jesus designated the temple as “a house of prayer for all nations,” a place where sinners of every ethnicity and social status can come and pray in order to get right with God. Now the only part of the Jerusalem temple in which a Gentile can approach God has now become a marketplace. Imagine the noise that must have filled it with all the mooing of cattle and the bleating of sheep, the sellers shouting out at the buyers, and the buyers haggling with the sellers. There is no way a person could concentrate in order to pray or meditate on the things of God. And this deeply angers Jesus.

“You have made it a den of thieves,” he said. The phrase “den of thieves” can be interpreted two ways. Both meanings are probably properly in view here.

First, a “den of thieves” can refer to a cave where robbers hide themselves away from those searching for them. Second, a “den of thieves” can refer to a place where robbers hide in waiting for their unsuspecting victims to pass by.

Like robbers, the high priest and his followers have sequestered themselves away in the temple, seeking to hide their wickedness under a cloak of pretended holiness. (GJB) Like thieves, these men are waiting for the worshipers to enter the temple so they can take their money.

You see, while the sale of the animals, birds, and other items used for worship seems harmless and even helpful, we need to keep in mind that it was anything but innocent. The priests, the cattle sellers, and the moneychangers are extorting the worshipers. This is a big money racket that especially preys on the poor. The temple truly had become nothing but a “den of robbers.”

We are also told that Jesus would not allow people to use the temple grounds as a shortcut. It seems the local people had lost respect for the holiness and sanctity of the temple and were treating its grounds like a freeway. The house of God was irreverently being looked upon as a convenient road. So Jesus takes action.

4. Lessons for Us

What are we to take away from this? For years, preachers have used this passage to preach against buying and selling on church grounds. Now, if you go into the cathedrals of England, there is usually a gift shop inside the nave of the sanctuary where you can buy trinkets and gifts, the profits of which go to support the upkeep of the building. Perhaps they do so because they no longer preach the gospel, and so their congregations have dwindled and certainly do not tithe and give enough to support the work there.

Now, while I personally do not believe the church should balance its budget with bake sales, yard sales, car washes, or gift shops, that is not primarily what is being talked about here. The reason the Jews are defiling their temple was due to the fact that they have ceased to reverence God in their hearts, and so they insult God by their self-centered actions. They simply do not love him, adore him, and respect him, nor do they carry his word in their hearts. As a result, they are traveling down a path that leads them away from God and into self-indulgence, all the while being in church.

We are seeing the same thing in the world around us today, so let us take a moment to consider a few things that come to mind. Surely the division of many churches by ethnicity and race in our country cannot be pleasing to God. Each gospel-preaching church should be a house of prayer for the nations, for in Christ there is neither Jew nor Gentile, male or female, but all are one (Col. 3:11).

Churches should be places of worship of God, not pleasure palaces where rock concerts and storytelling times are held on Sunday morning to seduce the unwary. The pagans they attract remain unconverted.

God has placed his name in our midst. His gospel is to be plainly preached, and he alone is to be worshiped. Why, then, have so many churches instituted rock concert-style worship led by gyrating lead singers, backed up by professional singers if possible, with music played as loudly as possible? Why do they use unsinkable songs conveying shallow and unbiblical thoughts? The standard should not be what primarily pleases and draws people, but what is biblical and pleases God.

Why are church embracing the cancel culture and abandoning biblical preaching in order to have discussions about positive thinking and wokeness? Why are churches abandoning doctrine in favor of self-help, therapeutic talks? Why are so many so-called Christians embracing preachers like Rick Warren, who is one of the granddaddies of the seeker-friendly church movement, and who seems to espouse a kind of superficial Christian progressivism and naive ecumenism by downplaying the importance of theology and doctrinal distinctions? Or why embrace a Joel Osteen and his prosperity gospel, or a Raphael Warnock, who espouses black liberation theology, or the Trinity Broadcasting Network crowd who robs them blind by proclaiming spiritual garbage and selling worthless drivel disguised as religious help?

Why do professing Christians neglect to regularly pray and read their Bibles? Why will a church dinner be well attended while the prayer meeting is nearly deserted? Why do people claim to be saved and then seem to have such a hard time living obedient lives for the Lord? Why do people have the mindset that the church exists simply for their convenience? Why do church members feel that they can treat their pastor with disrespect? Why do people refuse to tithe and why do they think that they can come only when they feel like it? Why do many church members sit back and let others do all the work? Why?

Why is Sunday evening not as important as Sunday morning, especially on a Super Bowl weekend? Why is the midweek service ignored? Why do church members ignore Sunday school simply because it starts too early on Sunday morning? Why do church members believe they can come into the services at whatever time suits them? Why do some church leaders and musicians think they are in the church to put on a show? Why do some church members believe that their business life is more important than God’s business, such that they often miss church services if there is a conflict?

The story of Jesus cleansing the temple has another very important spiritual implication for you and me.

After Jesus died for our sins and rose from the dead and ascended up to the Father, he sent his Holy Spirit to indwell those who place their trust in him. His church of believers is now being built up as his temple, and we, as individual believers, are the holy dwelling place of God.

We see that in 1 Peter 2:4–5, where Peter states, “As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by men but chosen and precious in God’s sight—you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”

Those living stones happen to be you and me. Do you suppose that the Lord is ever frustrated over what he find in us, his temple, today? Do you suppose it grieves him when he looks at the lives of those who are his followers and finds so much of the things of the world in them?

If the Lord came into our church, what do you think he would find that he would want to immediately throw out? Let’s get even more personal about it. If we were honest about the condition of our own personal hearts and lives, do you suppose there is stuff Jesus will want immediately to purge?

I am sure there is. It seems to me that the Lord wants us to know that he is not playing games. His worship, his service, and his church are serious business. It is high time that we his people treat it that way.

Unfortunately, the reason many church people do the things they do is the same reason the Jews of the first century did the things they did; out of indifference to God and convenience to themselves. To that extent, it can be said of them that the fear of the Lord is not in them or us.

The Jews treated the things of God like they did because they held a small view of God. As a result, he occupied a small place in their lives. I am afraid that many people in our day also have a small view of God. That is why he comes in second, third, or fourth place in their lives, that is, if he even places at all.

That is not the way things should work. God demands first place in our lives (Matt. 22:35-40). Nothing in your life or mine should come before the Lord and his work. We should treat him, his business, his word, his worship, and his house like they are the most vital and important possessions we have, because they are. Everything we do and are should be determined by what brings God the most glory. That is why we are here, and nothing less will satisfy him.

Certainly that is the lesson that the Holy Spirit would have us take away from this morning’s passage. Certainly it speaks of our Lord’s care for his Father house in the times when he walked on this earth. But moreover, I believe it teaches us of his care for our church and our own spiritual conditions right now. I believe it teaches us that our Lord’s work of true spiritual cleansing begins with the household of God—with his own church—and in the hearts of us who are his own professing followers.

And let me tell you, if we will invite the Lord to do this work fully in us to the degree he offers, don’t you think it would look a lot like “revival”? When God is first in your life, it will show. And it will show when he isn’t. So I ask: “What does your life show about the place God holds in your heart?”

Beware. Verse 18 says that the chief priests and teachers of the law, rather than repenting, “began looking for a way to kill [Jesus].” No doubt many of the people there that day were sincerely trying to worship God, but they were being fleeced by the very people who should have been there to lead them to the Lord. They were interested in the reforms Jesus was trying to make in the temple because they were tired of being taken advantage of by the high priest and his followers. But in the end, it didn’t matter. The temple had been defiled, God was offended, and his judgement is coming. The fig tree that Jesus judged becomes a living illustration of what is about to happen to the temple. May it not be a symbol of what is about to happen to us.

The lesson for us should be very clear. We can be a people whom God will bless, or we can be a people whom God will judge. Which we are will be determined by how much we love him because how much we love him will dictate how faithfully, fully, and fruitfully we serve him.

This is not our house; this is the Father’s house. And there is coming that Day when we will each have to stand before the judgment seat of Christ and will have to give an account. As we do God’s work, we must not rob him of the glory that is due him only. So let us repent, turn to God, and love him wholeheartedly.