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Mark 11:15-19
A Different View of Jesus

This passage gives us just a little glimpse of a Jesus very few people know anything about. Most people, even most believers in our day, think of Jesus as "the gentle Shepherd, meek and mild."  Well He is meek and mild – but He can also be harsh and severe!  That's the Jesus we see in the verses before us.  Why? Why should He reveal this aspect of His character?  He does it because His Father's honor is at stake. 

See what  He says here: "Do not make My Father's house a house of merchandise!"  Jesus loved His Father, He fully appreciated His Father, and He realized how gracious His Father had been to provide the temple, the symbol of His Presence with His people.  It's misuse was very, very offensive to our Lord.

It's good for us to see the Jesus Who is revealed here.  It's good because it isn't Judgement Day yet.  It's good because it tends to prepare us for that Day.  In that Day men, women, and children are going to be screaming out for the rocks to fall upon them to shield them from the One Who brings judgement.  And those who professed faith falsely are going to hear Him say another even harsher thing.  They're going to hear Him say, "Depart from Me, for I never knew you!" 

We need to remember that the psalmist said, "the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom."  And that "fear" that we're supposed to have is just the awe and reverence that we need to have toward God.  For that reason it'll be good for us to look a little more closely at this incident of the cleansing of the temple so that we might have at least a little more appreciation for the One before Whom we must one day appear, the One in Whose very presence we live every day of our lives.

According to John's Gospel the occasion of our Lord's cleansing of the temple was the Passover, a season during which Jerusalem was very crowded.  People were coming from everywhere to take part in that most important holiday. 

But of course they had to do much more than just travel to Jerusalem.  To be really involved required certain things.  According to the Law a lamb was to be offered for each household to remind the people of that household of the Lord's deliverance from Egypt under Moses.  If a family couldn't afford a lamb, then two young pigeons or turtledoves should be offered.

Such animals couldn't reasonably be brought along by people who traveled as much as hundreds of miles across the desert.  So, by Jesus' time, many simply found it easier to buy them after they arrived at Jerusalem.  Very accommodatingly, of course, there were always merchants who were more than willing to provide them at as high a price as the traffic might bear!  And these merchants, of course, wanted to be right where the animals were wanted, so the temple itself became, as Jesus put it here, "a house of merchandise" and a "den of thieves!"

But God's purpose for the temple was quite different. It was well expressed by our Lord when He quoted His Father as saying, "My house shall be a house of prayer for all nations."  That's an immense contrast with the way it was actually being used. 

On the one hand you had those who "do religion" by means of ritual and who seem to concentrate more on getting the rituals done than upon the Lord Himself.  And along with them were those who stood to profit from it all. But God definitely established the temple as a place of communion with His people.

So the crowds of people who bought and sold, and the moneychangers who made it possible – all were dishonoring God's Holy Presence and the people's communion with Him, so the Son of God expressed His feelings about it!

In our day, someone would probably say, "What's the big problem?  Why did Jesus look at things that way?  What's with all this severity?  It's just a little hypocrisy, just a little careless playing of religion.  Does God really get upset by that?"

But those who say such things are forgetting three important things: they're forgetting Who God is, they're forgetting who they are, and they're forgetting the occasion for this gathering at Jerusalem.

First, then, they've forgotten Who God is.  God is holy.  His holiness means that He is separate and unique.  God is a holy God Who has made all things and upholds all things, but Who is is not part of what He has made – He is above and beyond it all and is unaffected by it.  As one has put it, when we approach God we are approaching One Who is wholly other, wholly separate from all He has made. ("high and lifted up")

Secondly, He is not only holy, but He is also almighty.  As Daniel put it, "He does according to His will in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay His hand or say unto Him, 'What are you doing.'"  Thirdly, He is all wise and all knowing.  The psalmist knew that when he said, "For there is not a word on my tongue, but behold, O Lord, You know it altogether.  Finally, God is also just and righteous. 

Reverence is the only proper attitude with which to come to such a God.

But these people were also forgetting who they were.  They were forgetting that humanity is in rebellion against its Maker.  They were forgetting that God would have been perfectly just to consign them all to Hell forever and ever.  And they are forgetting that the Passover they were about to celebrate was a remembrance of their deliverance by that just God from His wrath as it was inflicted, for instance, upon the Egyptians.

Oh how reverently, oh how joyfully, oh how thankfully they should have come!  Oh how ready they should have been for a remembrance of that deliverance and for communion with their merciful God!

But we mustn't focus only on these people of 2000 years ago.  What Paul said is just as true for us.  He said, "Christ our Passover has been sacrificed for us."  Each week on "the Lord's Day" we celebrate our own Passover, our own deliverance through Jesus Christ from God's judgement.  What is our attitude as we come before Him?  Our simple places of meeting are not the temple, yet they too were set apart for communion with God, the God Who has mercifully delivered us from sin and set us free to be His children forever! 

Even these simple places are not here for the mere purpose of celebrating religious rituals.  They too are consecrated for communion with God.  I pray that we may not come each week merely to accomplish our religious activities.  I pray that we may come with a prayer that our Father would move in our hearts to worship Him Who gave Himself for us to bring us to God.

Pastor Al.

Righteous indignation is a thing I had to pray about...there are times when the Lord puts a hold on my tongue and there are times when He urges me to speak.  I pray for wisdom that I might always speak out for the Truth and lift up the Name of Jesus in this land...no matter what may befall here in the future., and things are getting difficult in this Country. 

Chickens are slaughtered in our streets for the Moslem people to eat and I feel indignation about this.  However, the Lord puts a hold on my tongue.  I do not now buy Chicken Pizza from our local Pizza delivery service as these chickens are slaughtered by ritual slaughter and offered to "their" God.  Instead I buy the Tuna variety. Do you understand my thinking on this Pastor?..."One man eats" etc.,for me it is wrong for my neighbour it is alright...according to their position in Christ......but oh how I have to hold my tongue!

We are so lucky that Christ our Lamb has been sacrificed for us and we know it..We are of the Truth.

I saw something in a church some years ago and had to speak out.  I thought of Jesus at that time and knew He would have been angry at what was happening.  I prayed about it and I had no peace until I had spoken out..Like Jeremiah...Oh dear!

Thanks Pastor...

Jenny.

Dear Jenny - there are definitely times when we ought to speak out in no uncertain terms.  There are other times when to do so merely unveils our own prejudices or displays not-so-well-kept emotions on our parts.  We need the Spirit of our Lord at all times.  Oh may HE speak through us!  Oh may HE help us to hold our tongues at other times.  Depend upon Him.  He can and will help.

Those who don't really know from what they are saved,  tend to be arrogant and proud, but one day they shall fear God too late!