Mark 11:15-19 15And they came to Jerusalem. And after entering the temple, he began to drive out those who were selling and those who were buying in the temple, and he overturned the tables of those changing money and the seats of those who selling pigeons. 16And he would not allow that anyone could carry goods through the temple. 17And 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.” 18And the chief priests and the scribes heard it and were seeking how they might destroy him, for they feared him, because all the crowd was amazed at his teaching. 19And when evening came they went out of the city.
Jesus focused much of his time during the early part of the week in the area of the temple where he could teach the many Passover pilgrims who were present. There are two related surprises to the next scene. One is how Jesus found the temple turned into a marketplace. The second is how he responded to the chaos there. The word for temple (hieron) refers to the general sacred precincts of the temple courts and not the temple itself (naos) where the priests offered sacrifices. The Court of the Gentiles was meant to be a place of prayer and preparation but had become a place for commerce, which made prayer and meditation impossible.
Three things made Jesus angry. One was the exploitation of the thousands of pilgrims who had come to celebrate Passover. These pilgrims had to pay a temple tax of one-half shekel, which was almost two days’ wages. They had to use special temple coins of pure metal with no images, so they would have to exchange their foreign or common money for temple money. Merchants also sold doves for sacrifices at severely inflated prices compared to what they could be bought for outside the temple.
A second was the desecration of God’s holy place. Jesus used the figure of robbers who frequented the road from Jericho to Jerusalem. They hid in caves found along the road. The exchange and selling had replaced prayer and worship. Verse 16 hints at how many Jews used the outer courts of the temple complex as shortcuts for their business errands. The temple was no longer a place of prayer and worship but had become a busy marketplace.
Third, the Jews had erected walls to keep out the Gentiles. Jesus quotes from Isaiah 56:6-7, which refers to the nations coming to worship God in the temple. God’s intention for the temple was to be a symbolic meeting place people from all nations, although such a place was not necessary to pray or worship. Having a place dedicated to God for worship can be helpful and meaningful to people because it lessens distractions and helps focus attention on God. The Jews had so distorted God’s purpose for the temple and even used it to rob people of their money (Jeremiah 7:11). The idea of making it convenient for people to fulfill the religious expectations may have seemed good at first, but human nature deteriorates and distorts such ideas until they become exploitation. The Jews of the first century were doing what their ancestors did during the days of Jeremiah.
Verse 18 introduces the major conflict of all of the Gospels as the Jewish leaders seek a way to get rid of Jesus. Their response indicates their guilt in the whole temple situation. Their motives are not clear at this point. They could have had their hand in the pot or felt their influence being threatened. The word destroy catches one’s attention. Opposition to Jesus had been growing since the reference in 3:6. The Sanhedrin, the ruling council of the Jews, wanted to kill Jesus, but they fear him. Jesus had more influence over the people than they did. People recognized his genuine authority as compared to the contrived and coerced authority of the Jewish leaders. At the end of the day, Jesus again shows his authority and independence by leaving the city. The Jewish leaders could do nothing to him at this point.
Their attitude to Jesus and distortion of the temple worship reveal the deep human problem of sin and rebellion. They may have thought they were acting piously and doing God’s will, but they had become deceived by their own religious efforts and legalism. God never meant for worship to become a heavy duty and financial burden. The temple was meant to be a place of devotion for all people, an inviting place to meet with the holy and true God, but the leaders had missed the presence of the Son of God right in their midst.
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