“Now the next day, as they went out from Bethany, he was hungry. After noticing in the distance a fig tree with leaves, he went to see if he could find any fruit on it. When he came to it he found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. He said to it, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” And his disciples heard it. Then they came to Jerusalem. Jesus entered the temple area and began to drive out those who were selling and buying in the temple courts. He turned over the tables of the money changers and the chairs of those selling doves, and he would not permit anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts. Then he began to teach them and said, “Is it not written: ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations’? But you have turned it into a den of robbers!” The chief priests and the experts in the law heard it and they considered how they could assassinate him, for they feared him, because the whole crowd was amazed by his teaching. When evening came, Jesus and his disciples went out of the city. In the morning as they passed by, they saw the fig tree withered from the roots. Peter remembered and said to him, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree you cursed has withered.” Jesus said to them, “Have faith in God. I tell you the truth, if someone says to this mountain, ‘Be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. For this reason I tell you, whatever you pray and ask for, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. Whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven will also forgive you your sins.””
Mark 11:12-25 NET
Cleansing of the Temple: Mark 11:12-25
Matt 21:10-19; Mark 11:11-17; Luke 19:45-46 (John 2:13-17)
Do you ever get angry? What for? And is it valid? And who gets to determine if it’s valid? You? That seems pretty biased.
Why do we get angry? Well, people say some pretty hurtful things toward us. We can expect some aspect of our day to go one way, and it doesn’t. I can get angry with myself for not doing something I should or not doing my best.
I want to reflect on the humanity of Jesus, and the most prominent time that He was angry, why He was angry, and what that means for us today. Now when I say, His humanity, I simply mean (for the sake of this passage) He had emotions, and He showed them. His actions were completely in line with the purpose and plan of God as we will see.
This event certainly happened. It is widely attested in all four gospels. It has elements of embarrassment. You’re probably not going to make up a story about your Messiah showing this much anger. In fact, nerd moment: there’s another passage where Jesus did a healing of a leper, and in the text manuscripts are divided as to whether Jesus responds with compassion or anger. Most of your Bibles are going to say compassion, but a case can be made that Jesus was actually angry, but scribes softened the response because who wants Jesus to be angry? But anyway, this story also has dissimilarity and similarity. Jesus is clearly claiming that the old way of doing things isn’t cutting it, and He is distancing Himself from Judaism, but He’s not shutting down everything cold turkey. Yes, there won’t be sacrifices eventually, but at this point Jesus isn’t destroying the temple. He’s pointing the people to a new and proper way of worship. But the point is that this story is certainly historical, and everyone agrees.
Now what’s interesting in Matthew and Mark, especially in Mark is that the incident in the temple is closely associated with another event.
vv. 12-14 and then vv. 20-21.
Now the reader notices the phrase, “it was not the season for figs,” in v. 13 and thinks, “Poor fig tree. It never stood a chance. Jesus must have just been in a bad mood.”
Two things: (1) When you notice the story that comes between the cursing of the fig tree and its actual dying, the story makes sense, which is the cleansing of the temple. Jesus is in the habit of removing or cursing or cleansing dysfunctional things. (2) The fig tree is the only tree that forms leaves after its fruit. So that the tree had leaves at least presents the possibility that there is fruit. Fruit is being promised but not delivered, and so Jesus curses the tree. Again, it looks like a healthy tree; it looks fruitful; but it is full of lies, and Jesus won’t tolerate that.
What’s scary is that the cleansing of the temple falls between the story of cursing the fig tree, meaning they complement and explain each other. This is one of Mark’s famous “sandwiches.”
vv. 15-19. Driving money changers out of the temple and throwing over tables. That sounds pretty intense. Now there’s some debate as to how many times Jesus did this, because John 2 has a cleansing of the temple. That could be a separate event at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, since John says in that instance that Jesus made a whip of cords and drove the people out. Mark’s event doesn’t have such details, so maybe they got the picture until it got to that point. (I think John moved the story forward in his narrative, since Jesus’ cleansing of the temple was one of the main reasons religious leaders pushed towards his death.)
But the temple is divided into several areas, you have certain levels that you are able to pass through depending on your status: Gentiles, Jews, men, women, slaves, free, priests, high priest. So these tables are set up in the outermost court—the court simply for Gentiles—because that’s where everybody would pass through, and they’re exchanging people’s money. Why? Well, because you had to offer a certain animal or pay a temple tax in a certain denomination of coin, so you brought what you had, and they would give you what was “legal/acceptable.”
Now, it is quite likely that the human heart caused these people to add a little to the regular prices, if you know what I mean. That’s usually what you’re going to hear taught from this passage, and it’s most likely correct, but maybe not all the money changers were as corrupt as we suppose. This was a service of convenience for the people, and money changers in the temple are described in other Jewish sources in later centuries, so they probably were corrupt, but that may not be Jesus’ main purpose.
What’s His point? Well, look at that quote again. Why is He so angry? He combines quotations from Isaiah 56:7 and Jeremiah 7:11. Isaiah looks forward to a new day when Israel is restored in her glorious exalted state after exile. Isaiah talks about the foreigners. V. 7 has all peoples. Look at Mark’s quote. He has it as “all nations.” Same thing. See the purpose of Israel was always to be the light to the world and attract foreigners from their paganism to the one true God, so that all would come worship, and that would happen at the temple.
In Jesus’ day that was sort of kind of happening, I mean Israel wasn’t in her exalted state, but foreigners, Gentiles, were coming to the temple to worship, right? But Jesus combines the quote with Jeremiah 7, saying you’ve made this whole process robbery. Not so much because you’re skimming money, but in that it’s a market place to begin with.
Go to 1 Kings 8. Vv 41-43 speak of the foreigner, and his prayer toward the temple, called by God’s name, and all nations knowing God. This is very similar to Isaiah 56, and it provides more insight to the original purpose of the temple. A purpose that it was not fulfilling.
In other words, Hooray, Israel, you are providing access for both Jews and God-fearers and proselytes to come worship at the temple, but you’ve taken the focus off God, and almost onto yourselves. Israel provided access for worship but did not have the required prepared heart. They became distracted by making sure other people were ready to sacrifice or “worship” correctly. And just like the fig tree that promised fruit but offered none, the temple had the title “house of prayer” but when you went there you left with less than you had, financially but probably spiritually and emotionally, too.
Now it’s too easy to make the immediate jump to the 21st century and start bashing churches that we suppose do a similar thing. Oh, they ruin how people want to worship. They are too religious. They control the structure, and they’re too rigid, or how people look and act and dress. And those are good discussions to have, I suppose. (Now, all those things I just mentioned don’t belong in the same category.) That is a very broad spectrum of perspectives, and the reason those conversations are usually full of conflict and unhelpful is too many types of churches or people are thrown into the same category. Or emotions take over. Or both. Probably the best approach is one of balance and obviously remaining biblical and attempting to remain in healthy conversation.
Back to the passage. With both the fig tree and the temple, what made Jesus so angry? You had a plant and an institution prepared and designed and organized for one purpose and mission, but it wasn’t being fulfilled. Specifically, in the case of the temple, that purpose was to provide unbridled access for eventually all nations to the one true God in true worship. And when Jesus came on the scene, He knew He was going to replace the temple and Judaism and the sacrificial system. Why? Because He’s the Messiah. He’s the only way an individual can have true access to the one God.
And after He died and resurrected, and the veil was torn, and sacrifices were no longer needed, and He was established as the way to God, His new community, the church took on a mission to reach all nations with the gospel about their Savior and Lord.
And so each day we as disciples are following and pursing Him. He is our focus. Not ourselves. Not our friends. Not the world. Jesus. He is the Messiah. He is the Savior. He alone is worthy of our worship. And when we gather from our busy little lives throughout the week on our one day or our mid-week day, we don’t focus on bringing our lamb and exchanging it for the proper coins. We don’t focus on whether the money changer remembered the name of our second cousin this time. We don’t focus on whether we got a receipt, or if we got the proper change, or if this is tax deductible. We don’t focus on what we gain, because God’s house is a house of prayer and worship, and our focus is on … Jesus.
We say that’s what we’re doing. That’s what the church promises. That’s what we claim. And if we peel back the layers, what do we find underneath? Are we meeting and fulfilling our purposes or not? Are we dysfunctional like the temple was? The first question that must be answered is are we more focused on who we are worshipping or … anything else?
Now our passage isn’t over. Because after Jesus curses the fig tree, He offers two clear practices of a true worshiping disciple. Mark 11, v. 21 had Peter saying, “Rabbi, you killed it.” VV. 22-24. Jesus said the temple was to be a house of prayer. Jesus’ disciples are to have the same mindset. Just because the temple will no longer exist in the first century doesn’t mean you abandon faith in God and prayer and all that. Jesus says, My followers must pray and pray earnestly. Why? Because that means you’re humble. Your dependent. You have faith in God. And God acts on behalf of those who have strong believing faith in Him as expressed in prayer. Faithful prayer is a crucial function of a true disciple.
Look at v. 25. God always hears our prayers, but in this passage, there are two characteristics of an absolutely strong prayer life: faith and forgiveness. And the community that contrasts with the dysfunctional temple is built on this foundation of following Jesus and being characterized by faithful prayer and forgiveness—did you catch those words. Anything…against anyone. One of those verses that you like to take a Sharpie to, but you can’t.
[Side note: some believe that the “mountain to be moved” in this passage is actually Jerusalem/Mt Zion with its imminent destruction. It would make sense in the context of Jesus somewhat promising the overthrow of the temple. I don’t think I’m fully convinced, since He says similar prayer and fasting things in other contexts.]
The main point is that His new community still holds to these practices of prayer and forgiveness. These would survive the future destruction. These are the evidence of a heart of worship.
So there’s really three questions.
What’s your focus when you come into a “worship service”? If the answer’s not Jesus, then walk back out and try again.
As you follow Jesus, how much do express dependence on God for help, and do you even have faith that God can help you?
And what’s hindering proper worship in your life more than forgiving somebody? Probably nothing. So take care of that.
So imagine yourself as some kind of fruit tree, doesn’t have to be figs. You don’t even have to be in season. But Jesus could come inspect you at any time, and if you have the label of Christian or church member on you, there’s expectations of following Him, praying, having faith, forgiving. Signs of a true worshipper, ready to welcome others inside the community and point them to the Savior properly because your heart is clean. What will He find?
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