Mark 11:15-19
Turning Over the Tables
15When they arrived in Jerusalem, Jesus entered the temple courts and began to drive out those who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those selling doves.
16And He would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts.
17Then Jesus began to teach them, and He declared, “Is it not written: ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? But you have made it ‘a den of robbers.’”
18When the chief priests and scribes heard this, they looked for a way to kill Him. For they were afraid of Him, because the whole crowd was astonished at His teaching.
19And when evening came, Jesus and His disciples went out of the city.
Berean Standard Bible
Jesus had walked through these same courts the evening before. He looked around at everything, and then, because the day was nearly gone, he went back out to Bethany with the Twelve. Whatever he does now has had a night to settle in him, and this is not a man who has just walked in and lost his temper.
He comes back and begins driving out the people buying and selling. He turns over the tables where money was changed and the seats where doves were sold. Both of those trades had a reason to be there. Pilgrims came a long way carrying coins that could not be used for the temple tax, so somebody had to change money for them. A family too poor to bring a lamb was allowed to bring two doves instead, so somebody had to sell birds. Neither job was wicked. It was a service industry grown up around a real need, the way one always does when a good thing gets busy.
Then Mark adds a detail that is easy to read straight past: Jesus would not let anyone carry merchandise through the temple courts. He closed a shortcut. People had taken to walking their shopping across God's house. Then he says out loud why he is doing any of this, and he does it with two lines out of the prophets:
Is it not written: "My house will be called a house of prayer for all the nations"? But you have made it "a den of robbers."
The first line is Isaiah, and the words carrying the weight are for all the nations. One part of the temple was open to a person who was not Jewish, and that was the outer court. The tables stood in the outer court. The market had settled into the only room on earth where a foreigner could come near God, and it had filled that room with noise.
The second line is Jeremiah, and it is the harder of the two. Jeremiah said those words standing at the gate of the temple, to people who cheated and lied and then came into God's house to announce that they were safe. The sermon they come from was a warning that the building would come down, and anyone trained in the scriptures knew where Jesus had taken that phrase from.
The chief priests and the scribes heard him, and they began looking for a way to kill him. Mark tells us what stopped them doing it that day as well, and it was fear: they were afraid of him, because the whole crowd was astonished at his teaching. When evening came, he walked out of the city again.
How We Know
The trade had a reason to be there. Payments to the sanctuary had to be made in coin of dependable silver, so what a pilgrim carried from home had to be changed, and the Mishnah has money changers at tables collecting the shekel. A sacrificial animal had to be free of blemish, and rabbinic law spends a chapter listing the defects that disqualified one, reason enough for animals to be sold at the destination. All of it stood in the outer court, the one part of the temple a non-Jewish worshipper could enter, past which Josephus describes a barrier carrying notices in Greek and Latin warning foreigners off.
That setting supports the words Mark records in verse 17, which are two quotations joined. Isaiah 56:7 says God's house will be called a house of prayer for all the nations. Jeremiah 7:11 asks whether the house has become a den of robbers.
- Mishnah Shekalim 1:3; Mishnah Bekhorot 6; Josephus, Jewish War 5.193-194.
Questions
1 Changing money and selling doves were both useful jobs. What were they useful for?
AnswerPilgrims came from a long way off with coins that could not be used for the temple tax, so money had to be changed. A family too poor to bring a lamb was allowed to bring two doves instead, so birds had to be sold. Neither trade was set up to cheat anybody.
2 Where in the temple had all of this been set up, and who was that part of the building for?
AnswerThe outer court, which was the one place a person who was not Jewish could come and pray. The market had spread into the only room on earth where a foreigner could come near God.
3 Is there anything in our week that started out useful and has quietly taken more room than we ever decided to give it?
AnswerAnswers will be different around the table, and the honest ones usually name something reasonable rather than something bad. A calendar. A screen. A worry we keep going back to. The market in that courtyard was made of reasonable things too.
4 The chief priests and the scribes want him dead. What does Mark say held them back?
AnswerFear of him, and Mark gives the reason: the whole crowd was astonished at his teaching.
What This Means for Us
Nothing being sold in that courtyard was wrong. It had only taken the room, until the place where a stranger could pray was somewhere you cut across with your shopping. That is usually how it goes with us too. Not a decision to put God out of the house, but a long gathering of things that were each fine on their own.
So look for the equivalent here. Not a sin: a good thing that has spread. Name it out loud tonight, and then carry one table out of the room.
Prayer
Father, we fill the space we meant to keep for you with things that are not even wrong. Forgive us. Turn over what needs turning over in this house, and keep a room open for the people who have nowhere else to come near you. Amen.