Mark 11:12-33

I started this blog yesterday in a car going down the I-75 in Kentucky.  That's how much I am enjoying this and how important this stuff is!  Unfortunately, my head started hurting from reading in the car.  So, you get a double installment today (hopefully)!

South's SOAP for the Day
S-Mark 11:12-33.
O-Jesus acted and put a stop to the sin in the temple courts.
A-Do not let sin go unaddressed.
P-Pray for boldness to do as Jesus desires.

Our passage begins on a new day in Jerusalem.  The day before, Jesus made his triumphal entry into Jerusalem. The scene closed out with no one in the temple.  This is a new morning. Jesus is ready to head back into Jerusalem (they spent the night in Bethany).

Before the temple, Mark gives us the view of a quick interaction that Jesus has with a fig tree.  Jesus is hungry and goes looking for food.  Mark tells us that though the fig tree is i leaf, it has no fruit.  He also tells us it is not fig season.  Finding no fruit, Jesus curses the tree.  At this point I scratch my head.  How is this so. It's not time for the tree to produce fruit.  The tree is innocent.  Why is it getting cursed? Mark comes back to the tree after Jesus clears the temple.  We must wait to see if there is more insight there.

Jesus and his disciples head into Jerusalem after the tree incident.  Jesus enters the temple and begins to cause a ruckus.  Just let yesterday, Jesus isn't focused on keeping his identity under wraps anymore.  Now he is in the temple throwing people out of the temple.  Mark tells us Jesus begins to drive people out of the temple.  He takes aim at both those who were buy AND selling, the money changers, and the people selling doves.  We need to unpack a lot of things here.

First off, lets talk about the people at the scene that are getting ran out by Jesus.  First, there are sellers.  They are there selling things for use in the temple.  In the temple, people had to offer sacrifices.  If you are coming from far away, it makes sense that you would be able to buy the thing you need to sacrifice at the temple.  One example we get are the doves.  Doves were a part of the sacrificial system for the Jews.  If you had to make and offering for a certain thing, say a skin disease or the birth of a child, a dove was one of the approved animals to offer.  In our scene in Mark, sellers of these types of sacrifices are there somewhere in the temple, which at that time is rather elaborate.

Mark also tells us that there are buyers there.  The people there to carry out their sacrifices.  They are doing as they should in the system that is in place, paying what they need to for their sacrifices.  Scholars note that their actions here, along with the actions of the sellers, are normal.  Yet, Jesus takes issue with them.

Then there are the moneychangers.  The moneychangers here were the tables set up to collect the set temple tax that every male would have had to pay to the temple every year.  It helped pay for all the other sacrifices and things that were to happen at the temple.  Things like daily sacrifices, etc.  Jewish historians and interpreters talk about them in the Mishnah, the interpretation of the Torah--the first five books of the Bible.  Again, perfectly expected in this situation to be in the temple and a viable part of the system.

Then he says:

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.’

Jesus quotes Scripture here.  The statement that the temple should be "a house of prayer for all nations" comes from Isaiah 56:7.  The chapter that contains this quote is focused on eunuchs (males who have been castrated) and foreigners (those who are not Jews).   The passage talks about God bringing these people groups, those incomplete and those outside the community, to his Holy mountain.  God says he will bring them to "my house of prayer".  My house symbolizing the place where He is--where His presence is.  His presence is for all nations.

Then there is the comment of "den of robbers", which comes from Jeremiah 7.   If we simply unpack the statement, a den is a place where someone/something gathers.  So, in the passage, Jesus is saying that the temple has become a place where robbers congregate.  If you have a house of robbers, you have a place where people who lie and steal congregate.  You have a place that is not a place of purity, rather it is a place of the world.  Not what his temple was supposed to be.  When we read the passage in Jeremiah 7, we get an even more clear picture.  The passage is offering Judah (a part of Israel) the chance to continue to live in the promised land.  However, they have not been living up to how God wants them to live.  He gives them the chance to change their ways and live according to the Law--the way of life that is godly.  Or, they can live against him.  He then says in verse 9-11:

‘Will you steal and murder, commit adultery and perjury,[a] burn incense to Baal and follow other gods you have not known, 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?  Has this house, which bears my Name, become a den of robbers to you? But I have been watching! declares the Lord.

Cool stuff, huh?  Following that statement in Jeremiah, God tells Judah to go look a Shiloh, which was another place where God was worshipped, where his presence was.  It has been destroyed and wiped away because of the unfaithfulness of the people.

So, if we step back here, Jesus isn't addressing the changing of money and the selling of things.  He's taking issue with the entire Temple system.  He's taking issue with the role it plays, more of a national thing now, rather than a place where God's presence is--a presence that calls people to live Godly lives. By the statement "den of robbers", the temple has become a place where people who are doing only what they need to come to hide and feel good about themselves.  Garland says it best:

Calling the temple a robbers' den is therefore not a cry of outrage against any dishonest business practices in the temple.  Jesus indirectly attacks them for allowing the temple to degenerate into a safe hiding place where people think that they find forgiveness and fellowship with Go no matter how they act on the outside (Garland, 439).

It makes sense then that the crowd is amazed and that the priests begin to plot the death of Jesus.  He's calling into question the whole of Judaism--the system itself.  Jesus statement here is that the system is broken.  They've missed the mark.

Which brings us back to the tree.  In the beginning Jesus comes to the tree to get food.  But its not been kept right and isn't producing fruit.  He curses it because it has failed to do what it is supposed to do.  Scholars, allude to the fact that this is a foreshadowing of Jesus' judgement of the temple that we just talked about.  The Jewish system is not producing fruit for the Kingdom.  It is a disgrace of the Kingdom.  It will not produce good anymore.

Mark says that the disciples are headed back out of the city that evening, and Peter notices the tree.  Mark tells us it has shriveled from the roots.  Its foundation, which should be rooted in God, is not.  It has died from the roots up.  It cannot be pruned and cared for anymore.  Its done.

Interestingly, Jesus then has a conversation with his disciples about prayer at this point.  As God's house becomes a house of prayer, Jesus tells his disciples, "Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours."

We must remember, this isn't about what I need for me, like a pizza.  This is what you need to be the Kingdom, live out the Kingdom, etc.  Its cloaked in the role of us being slaves to all for the Gospel.  It challenges us to ask what we are praying for, why we are praying for it, and how God will respond.  It makes our prayers for things that aren't focused on the Kingdom silly.  And, more importantly, it challenges us to be focused on the kingdom....focused on being a house of prayer for the Kingdom, which also calls us to make sure we are rooted in God so that we are producing fruit.  Otherwise, we are worthless trees.

Lord, don't let us be worthless trees.  Allow us to be vibrant, fruit bearing trees for you and your kingdom.  May we be your good news to the world around us.