What an amazing week this has been. My body says that I’m tired, but my soul is so energized by what happened here all week. It was incredible to see so many volunteers serving the kids and families at VBS and I had the privilege of sitting in this room while Miss Julie Jackson shared the truth of the Gospel with each group of kids every day. I even thought about asking her to preach today in the same way that she taught the kids because we would all benefit from hearing the simple Gospel without all the grown-up exposition.
But then again, I’ve been looking forward to this passage from Mark and having the opportunity to study it more this week opened my eyes to some things I hadn’t thought about before. That’s one of my favorite things about the Gospel: whether we are hearing it in a way that has been prepared for children or approaching it through inductive study, the Gospel always speaks to us because it is God’s Living Word.
A few weeks ago, I shared about making Jesus the center of our lives and how there is always room for more Scripture and prayer in our lives. That’s why I asked our Elder, Marty, to read passages from Isaiah andJeremiah this morning. Sunday morning services are not meant to be an escape and refuge from the rest of our week. These worship services are a model of how our lives ought to be lived every day, filled with worship, prayer, Scripture, and devotion to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
There were times in history when the Church met every day to seek God together through His Word. The end of Acts chapter 2 talks about believers gathering day by day and God adding to their numbers those who were being saved. It’s not that long ago that many churches in America would meet every night of the week for prayer, worship, and the ministry of the Word. There are some churches that still do that today, but they are becoming increasingly hard to find.
What do you think would happen in your life if we started doing that here and you were a part of it? What if gathering every night for prayer, worship, and the Word was prioritized over everything else in your life? What would change?
We may not have gatherings here at The Bride every night of the week, but we do have opportunities beyond Sunday morning. Every Tuesday, men gather in this room to worship and study the Word. If you’ve come to the Craftsmen for Christ Bible Study on Tuesday nights, would you stand for a moment? Can you imagine how our families and our church might shift if all the men here today were gathering every week for the purpose of growing in the likeness of Christ? You gentlemen can be seated.
Women, how many of you have been blessed by the Thrive ministry here at The Bride. Beginning this Thursday, Thrive will be meeting every week to study God’s Word together. I know that this study will benefit your faith, your family, and your relationships with other women because you will be drawing closer to our Savior alongside your sisters.
There’s also Pastor Craig’s classes on Wednesday nights, Called Out Youth gatherings on Monday nights, Mom’s Club on Friday mornings, and Men’s prayer on Saturday mornings. So, there might not be something for everyone every night of the weeks here, but there are people gathering in the Name of Jesus every day at The Bride as well as in home groups meeting throughout the week.
So, let me ask you a question. Is Sunday morning enough? Is gathering with other believers for less than 1/10th of a day per week enough to help you keep Jesus at the center of every aspect of your life? If Sunday mornings are the only time you give to God, that’s roughly 1% of your week, not including sleep. Is that 1% enough to affect every aspect of your life or does it feel like a constant battle during the other 99% of your week? How much spiritual fruit do you bear the rest of the week?
We’ve been studying the Mark’s Gospel account for some time now, and a few weeks ago we left off at Mark 11:11.
“…he entered Jerusalem and went into the temple. And when he had looked around at everything, as it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the twelve.” (ESV)
Let’s pick up now with verse 12:
On the following day, when they came from Bethany, he was hungry. And seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to see if he could find anything on it. When he came to it, he found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. And he said to it, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” And his disciples heard it.
Mark 11:12-14 (ESV)
What in the world is going on here? I can’t tell you how many times I’ve read or heard this story and thought that Jesus must have been really hangry to curse a fig tree that didn’t have any figs on it. It just doesn’t seem like something he would do when we look at the span of his ministry. Like the Snickers commercials say, “you’re not yourself when you’re hungry.” But why didn’t Jesus just command the fig tree to produce some fruit for him to eat?
Well, just like Pastor Bob preached a while back about the story of the legion of demons being cast into the pigs not being about the pigs, this story is not about the figs. It might seem like it’s about the figs, but it’s not. If we skip down a little bit, we see another encounter with the same fig tree, starting in verse 20:
As they passed by in the morning, they saw the fig tree withered away to its roots. And Peter remembered and said to him, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree that you cursed has withered.”
Mark 11:20-21 (ESV)
The fact that Scripture mentions that they passed by the withered fig tree the next day means that there has to be some importance to this fig tree, but again, it’s not about the figs. Mark brackets another story in between the fig tree encounters.
So, let’s set the fig tree aside for a moment and look at what we find in the middle of this fig-less sandwich. Mark 11:15-19:
And they came to Jerusalem. And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold and those who bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. And he would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple. And 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.” And the chief priests and the scribes heard it and were seeking a way to destroy him, for they feared him, because all the crowd was astonished at his teaching. And when evening came they went out of the city. (ESV)
A lot of Bible translations call this section something like “Cleansing the Temple,” or “Jesus Cleanses the Temple,” but let me remind you of something I mentioned a few weeks ago. Those titles are not a part of the Scripture. They were added later, like the chapters and verses, in order to help us find things more easily. When we read those titles, it’s easy to see this passage as describing the righteous anger of Jesus, righting the wrongs of the people in the temple. But if we ignore the added titles and slow things down enough to look at the cultural context at the time, we might see this story a little differently.
When Jesus entered the temple, he began to drive out those who sold and those who bought. Of all the times I’ve read and heard this passage, this week was the first time I noticed that he drove out those who were buying animals for their sacrifices as well as those who were selling them. I always thought Jesus was upset at the sellers for ripping people off and turning the temple into a marketplace, but those ideas are not actually there when we slow down.
Nothing in this passage suggests that Jesus was upset with dishonest business practices or profiteering. In fact, these tables were set up so that every Jewish man could pay a half-shekel tax to fund the daily sacrifices in the temple for the atonement of sin. This census tax goes all the way back to the Torah and can be read about in Exodus 30:11-16:
The Lord said to Moses, “When you take the census of the people of Israel, then each shall give a ransom for his life to the Lord when you number them, that there be no plague among them when you number them. Each one who is numbered in the census shall give this: half a shekel according to the shekel of the sanctuary (the shekel is twenty gerahs), half a shekel as an offering to the Lord. Everyone who is numbered in the census, from twenty years old and upward, shall give the Lord’s offering. The rich shall not give more, and the poor shall not give less, than the half shekel, when you give the Lord’s offering to make atonement for your lives. You shall take the atonement money from the people of Israel and shall give it for the service of the tent of meeting, that it may bring the people of Israel to remembrance before the Lord, so as to make atonement for your lives.” (ESV)
So these money-changers were simply there as a tangible application of the Jewish law. If overturning tables wasn’t surprising enough, from the perspective of a Jew in this time, Jesus was also rejecting the Torah’s explicit teaching about the daily offering. It’s no wonder the chief priests and scribes were looking for a way to destroy him.
Put yourself in the shoes of the one of the priests or scribes. Or even one of the common Jews standing there when Jesus starts making a scene. You’ve been taught all your life about obeying the Torah and doing certain things for the atonement of your sins. Do you think this one act of Jesus would change a lifetime of teaching for you? Think about what might have happened after Jesus left. The money-changers probably collected all the coins that were scattered about and set their tables back up, and anyone who wasn’t there when Jesus was probably came and gave their offerings like they have every other day.
Later in Mark, we’ll read that Jesus predicts the destruction of the temple. Ask yourself this: why would Jesus be so concerned with reforming or purifying the temple if it’s going to be destroyed soon anyway? Is it possible that his actions that day were not really about cleansing the temple?
One of the commentaries that I read points out that Jesus was seen as a prophet during his time walking on earth, and prophets used both words and actions to communicate. There was a cultic tradition built on the Torah that Jews participated in, and Jesus comes into the temple as a charismatic prophet and acts out God’s rejection of the temple cult and its coming destruction. The thing is, while actions often speak louder than words, they are not always as clear.
Rather than looking at the actions of Jesus as a way to cleanse the temple, what happens when we look at it through the lens of prophetic action?
A financial offering was an important aspect of the atonement for sin according to Jewish law, but Jesus overturned the tables of the money-changers. How can sin be atoned for without making the payment prescribed in the Torah.
Jesus drove out the buyers and sellers of sacrificial animals. If those animals cannot be purchased, then the sacrifice of animals must end, but what can take their place?
If nothing can be carried through the temple, then the cultic activities must come to an end. How can anyone be purified if the vessels for purification cannot be brought out?
Jesus’s actions prophetically show that ritual cleansing, sacrifice, and atonement are all going to change and the temple itself is coming to an end. The readers of Mark’s Gospel have an advantage of seeing this prophetic interpretation of Jesus’s actions because they also see the cursing of the fig tree.
When we see something in Scripture sandwiched between something else, it almost always points to a parallel story. The fig tree parallels the clearing of the temple.
Think about it for a moment. Jesus sees this fig tree off in the distance covered in big green leaves. It looks like it should have some fruit. From a distance, the temple looks like it is doing all the right things according to the Torah. But when Jesus gets to the fig tree, there is no fruit. When Jesus gets to the temple, there is also no fruit to be seen.
Mark points out that the figs are not in season, but he uses a word that gets lost in our English translation. He uses the word καιρος there, which is the same word he uses at the beginning of the Gospel, Mark 1:15:
“The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” (ESV)
It’s not an agricultural term for time, but a word that Mark used to describe the coming of the Kingdom of God. Jesus curses the fig tree, not because he is hangry, but because the presence of God produces fruit and the fig tree failed to do so. Likewise, the temple is condemned because it is producing rituals rather than spiritual fruit at the coming of the Kingdom of God.
I said a moment ago that actions speak louder than words, but they’re not always as clear. Jesus’s prophetic presence in the temple didn’t end when he was done overturning tables. He also spoke prophetically, quoting two Old Testament prophets. The first quote comes from Isaiah 56 when Jesus said, “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’?”
I’m not going to read the entire passage from Isaiah, but I want to point out that, in Jesus’s time, the temple had become a nationalist symbol to set Israel apart from the nations. Isaiah 56:1-8 declares that foreigners, eunuchs, and outcasts will all be gathered to the Lord and their offerings accepted, and that the house of the Lord will be a house of prayer for all peoples, but the Jews did not allow the outcasts or Gentiles to enter the temple.
Up to this point, Jesus had spent his time ministering to the outcasts, the impure, and even the Gentiles, but the purity barriers in the temple prevented those same people from entering in. That sounds a lot like the way our country handled freedom and rights during its first two centuries of independence. For nearly 200 years, the independence and basic rights that we celebrate tomorrow, were conditional based on skin color and gender.
On July 5th, 1852, Fredrick Douglas, a former slave and abolishionist, gave a speech at an Independence Day celebration in Rochester, New York. I want to read a few words from that speech. This is actually something that I just heard for the first time yesterday:
I am not included within the pale of this glorious anniversary! Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us. The blessings in which you, this day, rejoice, are not enjoyed in common. The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity and independence, bequeathed by your fathers, is shared by you, not by me. The sunlight that brought light and healing to you, has brought stripes and death to me. This Fourth [of] July is yours, not mine.
The temple was meant to be a house of prayer for all peoples, but only the Jews got to fully participate, much like our Declaration of Independence states equality for all, but that only applied fully to white men for nearly 200 years.
Most Jews believed that prayer was more effective when rendered in the temple. A late rabbinic commentary on Psalm 91:7 even reads, “When a man prays in Jerusalem, it is as though he prays before the throne of glory, for the gate of heaven is in Jerusalem, and a door is always open for the hearing of prayer, as it is said, ‘This is the gate of heaven’ (Gen. 28:17).” Other rabbis point to the destruction of the temple as the closing of that gate of prayer.
When Jesus said, “My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations,” he was prophesying the tearing down of all the barriers that Jews erected to keep people out and paving the way for the words Paul wrote to the Galatians (3:28-29):
There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise. (ESV)
Jesus continued his teaching in the temple, accusing the Jewish people there of turning it into a den of robbers. That prophetic word is a quote from Jeremiah 7. Let’s take a moment to focus on a few verses. Jeremiah 7:8-11:
“Behold, you trust in deceptive words to no avail. Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, make offerings to Baal, and go after other gods that you have not known, and then come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, ‘We are delivered!’—only to go on doing all these abominations? Has this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, I myself have seen it, declares the Lord.” (ESV)
The Israelites were not defiling the temple by stealing and cheating inside its walls. They were breaking their covenant with God outside of the temple and expecting peace and security within the temple walls. Think about it this way. Do robbers do their dirty work in their den, or is their thievery done elsewhere before they retreat to their hideout for security and refuge?
I think this den of robbers is where we get the idea that Jesus was upset with dishonest business practices in the temple, but his outrage was towards those who thought they could find forgiveness and the presence of God inside the temple no matter how they act on the outside.
Is that what coming to church is to you? I’ll show up this week and punch my ticket, so God knows I still want to go to heaven.
Have you ever spent some time away from church and noticed your thoughts and behaviors start slipping? Then one of two things comes to mind:
- I’ve got to get back to church, or
- I can’t possibly show my face there… God would probably strike me dead if I set foot on the church property.
That first thought is like the den of robbers. If I show up to church, all my wrongs will be forgotten, and I’ll be good to go.
The other thought is similar, but has the notion that the sacrifices and payments have to happen before you come back to church.
Did you know that 67% of Americans who identify themselves as Christians attend church less than once a month? That includes online services. Actually, 56% seldom or never attend church. Apparently, simply claiming to be a Christian is the new den of robbers. The Jews had prescribed sacrifices to be done according to prescribed patterns at prescribed times with prescribed purity rituals in a prescribed sacred place, but Jesus upset the script. None of that is good enough anymore. And simply putting his name on your shirt and calling yourself a Christian isn’t good enough either.
In Jeremiah’s prophesy, God says that he’s seen the way the people were acting. The NIV translation interprets that as “I have been watching!” That matches what Jesus did the previous day when he entered the temple and “looked around at everything.”
He’s not looking for sacrifices or a Jesus sticker on your car. He’s looking for the fruit of a relationship with God; the fruit of truly knowing him. Like Hosea says (6:6):
For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice,
the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings. (ESV)
There was no fruit on the fig tree, so Jesus cursed it. He didn’t prune and nurture it so that it would bear fruit but cursed it so that it would wither and die. Likewise, Jesus saw a fruitless temple. He did not cleanse it so that it could serve God more fittingly but prophesied through his actions that it was coming to an end. Salvation no longer comes through the temple but through Christ alone. What is it in your life that looks good from a distance but only serves to hide a lack of real fruit?
Adam and Eve sewed fig leaves together to hide their nakedness from God. The fig tree was leafy and green to hide its lack of fruit. The Jewish people hid their wicked ways behind cultic rituals in the temple. We’ve all got some fig leaves that we hide behind that Jesus wants to destroy and exchange for His life.
He didn’t spend any time explaining the withered fig tree when Peter pointed it out but began teaching them about faith and prayer.
And Jesus answered them, “Have faith in God. Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.”
Mark 11:22-25 (ESV)
The previous day, Jesus tore down the old order of the temple, and this teaching reveals a new order. Faith in God is the foundation, and this faith overcomes insurmountable odds, is sustained by grace, and is characterized by forgiveness.
It’s easy to turn verse 23 into a proverb about faith that can move mountains, but in Mark’s Gospel, that’s not what it says. It’s not about mountains, but about this mountain. In this passage, Jesus is most likely referring to the temple mount. This is another picture of the temple coming to an end. Jesus give assurance that power in prayer does not come from the temple or sacrifices. The destruction of the temple does not close off access to God, but the death and resurrection of Christ opens a new house of prayer without any barriers. Paul’s letter to the Ephesians lays this out for us (2:18-22, ESV):
For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.
There are no more barriers to keep people out of the temple, but all people are invited to become a part of the new temple through Jesus Christ.
As we wrap up our study of this passage today, I’d like to invite the ushers to begin serving communion.
Jesus finishes this brief teaching to the disciples with forgiveness. The sacrifices in the temple were codified into Jewish Law to atone for sin against God and sin against others, but Jesus teaches that a relationship with God is based on faith and forgiveness. If we can put our faith in God and find forgiveness through prayer and a forgiving spirit, then there is no need for the temple sacrifices anymore. Jesus had been replacing the temple throughout his ministry. He forgave sin, healed the sick, and restored people to society. But there is one aspect of the temple practices that He replaced once and for all, and that is atonement.
We close each of our services at The Bride with communion, and this is another example of what Jesus replaced in the temple. He exchanged the tables of the money-changers, where worshippers paid for their atonement, with the Lord’s Table. He freely gave up his life to forgive our sins once and for all. He poured out His perfect blood to replace the system of animal sacrifice for atonement. His death on the cross is our reconciliation with God.