“My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations” Mk: 11:17
After his glorious entrance into Jerusalem, which was in many respects an Apocalyptic moment, our Lord Jesus Christ entered the Temple of God and into the court of the gentiles. This outer court was the part of the Temple where the gentiles were confined to stay. This area had become a “marketplace”, and some people used it as a short cut to cross the Temple courts to get where they wanted to go.
It was here , in the gentile court that shops
and animal pens, which stank of dung, had been set up for the selling of
animals which were to be used in the sacrifices which were offered at the
Temple, also, money changers had set up tables to exchange real currency for “Temple coinage” which had no value outside of the
Temple complex. This Temple coinage was to be used in the purchase of the
animals, the exchange rate was very disproportion in favor of the money
changers and the Religious leaders of the day.
The Zeal of the Lord’s House
The abuses of the religious system and
exploitation of the common people all for the profit and gain of the religious
leaders and their business allies, and the unsavory lot of persons which
always abound where such enterprises are being conducted, and the stench
and filth of the penned animals causes a holy anger to arise within Jesus.
Jesus is moved by a holy zeal. Jesus, then
acts and boldly confronting the money changers, he overturned their tables and
scattering them and drove out the “merchandisers” scattering
them from the Temple and put an end to persons using the Temple as a short cut
to get where they wanted to go.
“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, and would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple
courts. Mk:
11:15-16
The Court Stank
This part of the Temple, the court of the
gentiles, was the place where non-Jews were to congregate and they had been given
very limited access to participation of the Worship of God. It was in this
court that the religious leaders in conjunction with money changers set their
tables and booths to exchange money set up shop and to sell animals.
The presence of the animals with this area
would have created an abundance of filth and a bad stench. This would have kept
some persons out of the Temple all together and cosigned the non-Jewish
worshipers to a rather unpleasant experiences and discouraged many to stay away
all together.
This why Jesus declared in his
sermon that he preached in that place that the worship of the true God, which the
Temple at Jerusalem was to symbolize, was intended to include people from all
nation. None were to be kept out.
“And as he taught them, he said, “Is it
not written: ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations’? (17a)
The type of legalistic application of the
Covenant quite literally stank and keeps people out and away from the worship
of God. Legalism stinks and keeps people away.
The Religious leaders had exploited the
Covenant which God had formed with Israel and used it to make themselves rich
at the expense of the people and the virtual exclusion of non-Jews who wanted
to worship God.
“But you have made it ‘a den of
robbers” (17b)
Jesus, in overturning the tables, was acting
out why he, as the Messiah, had come. Jesus had come to overturn the
tables of the Covenant. Jesus had come to do away with religion, which limited
the access to God and bring relationship.
The Religious leaders had developed an “exclusive” merchandising mind set. This “exclusivism” kept some of the people confined in
the court of the gentiles and they did
not have access to the court of the Priest or the Sanctuary and ultimately the
Holy of Holies, these areas belong only to the people of Israel and the
religious leaders which was reserved only to them.
Jesus proclaimed powerfully by word and action
an end to that system and it’s purging. Now, through the work of Jesus all
peoples from all nations could offer the sacrifice of prayer and participate in
the worship of the Great God as priest of God under the New Covenant of Grace.
Jesus also shut down the uses of the Temple as
a short cut for those who wanted to get where they wanted to go and sealing
their merchandise as they went it was no longer a means for their self-advancement.
“and would not allow anyone to carry
merchandise through the temple courts” (16)
In Our Temple Courts
St. Paul tells us that we, the Church,
Christians, are the Temple of God.
“we are all the Temple of God”1Cor:
3:16
Do we Christians find the same “merchandising” attitude in the Temple courts of
our own lives, individually and collectively? Do we have a “money changer” attitude? Are we using the Temple
Court of the Church as means to get to where we want to go, socially,
financially for our own gain and advancement? Do we each and all have a
legalistic “religion” that stinks and keeps some out of and
excludes them from the worship of God? Do we have an unequal exchange rate,
that is, what we give in return is useless coinage?
Jesus has come to drive out the “merchandising” attitude in our own lives.
As we are all the Temple of God, Jesus Christ
has entered all our lives and has turns over the tables of our lives all to rid
us of system which cannot even bring us real transformation and salvation.
Jesus rather drives out the “merchandiser” attitude, the “getting attitude” in each one of us. We need to
let go of the old ways and become priest of God to offer the sacrifice of
prayer, to be a house of prayer, so that no one need be excluded out in the
court of the gentiles. All are welcome in the Lord’s house.
Jesus has entered in and turned over our
tables so that we can be house of prayer for all nations.
Benediction: May each and all fully be that Temple where
God is worshiped without “money changers” a
house of prayer for all nations today, tomorrow and forevermore. Amen.
Rev. Todd Crouch, Norman Oklahoma.
If It Is Not About Jesus, It Is Not About Anything
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