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March 23/24, 2013
Jason Meyer | 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.—Mark 11:15–19
Introduction
Next week is the last week of the transition. Would you join me in prayer for this last week? Pastor John’s sermon next weekend will be the capstone of so much. It is more than just the capstone of an 8-month transition; it is the capstone of over 32 years of ministry here as a Pastor at Bethlehem. I want to say a word to honor John Piper.
I cannot imagine someone shaping me more than him. This transition has been a success thus far in large measure because John Piper has not fallen into the founder’s syndrome. This is a syndrome that happens many times when the founder of a work cannot release the reins of control and so it shrinks down to a shell of what it was at its height. Pastor John has passed off the baton with remarkable humility and faith—not faith in me, but faith in the God whom He has proclaimed for so long. He put this transition in God’s hands because Pastor John knows that he is not the founder—he has fixed his eyes on Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith (Hebrews 12:2). I do not regard myself as much of a poet, but I thought it would be fitting to express my deep gratitude in the form of a poem.
I entitled the poem “The Ministry of Certainty.” It comes from something I remember reading about the life of Francis Schaeffer. In the preface of his book, True Spirituality, Schaeffer wrote about a season in his life when he had to pass through some deep waters of doubt. He was forced to rethink the foundations of the faith from the ground up. In the end, he became more convinced of Christianity than ever before. He said at that point that poetry began to well up in him again. He said that it was not very good poetry, but it was strong poetry—”the poetry of certainty.”
Pastor John’s preaching has caused this strong poetry, this poetry of certainty to well up often in our hearts. Though it may be poor poetry, I offer it in deep gratitude for Pastor John’s ministry of certainty among us.
The Ministry of Certainty
I love the word “certain” with its grand ring of strength,
but it is difficult to measure its depth or its length.
Some things that are certain are a joke just to say,
Like taxes or death at the end of one’s days.
Other things are certain in a far better way,
Like Pastor John’s influence on all here today.
I marvel at how we’ve been shaped by his vision,
That the glory of God be our delight and our mission.
He would not want to be the focus too long,
For then we would miss the theme of his song.
“The supremacy of God for the joy of all peoples,”
He raised it high to be like Bethlehem’s steeple.
We believe that this mission will come to completion,
for we all know the One who will cause its fruition.
For some things are certain in the very best way,
Like the coming of Christ on the very last day.
Prayer
Today, I want to look at how Palm Sunday fits with this vision and mission. Quick: what comes to your mind when you think about Palm Sunday? You know what comes to my mind: palm branches, kids, singing (Blessed be the name of the Lord)? We don’t often think about things like the temple and fig trees and mountains—most never think about the nations. We are thinking more about the structures or the props (i.e., the palm branches). We can miss so much! What is really going on?
I want to take a few minutes to look at the structure of the passage within its context. Once again, I hope to prove that the best commentary on the New Testament is the Old Testament. Once we get our bearings from the OT, we will see what is energizing Jesus’ actions.
My thesis is that we often miss what Jesus is doing in this passage because we think that he is cleansing the temple. The ESV subtitle for this section is “the cleansing of the temple.” I would argue that Jesus is not cleansing or reforming the temple; he is cursing the temple on this last week and will be offering its replacement in the days to come.
Save us, we pray, O LORD! O LORD, we pray, give us success! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD! We bless you from the house of the LORD.—Psalm 118:25–26
And those who went before and those who followed were shouting, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David! Hosanna in the highest!” —Mark 11:9–10
So how do you get from the triumphal entry to the judgment on the temple? To find out, let us go to point one.
a. drive out those who sold and bought
b. forbid people to carry anything through the temple
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.—Mark 11:15–16
Jesus is performing an acted out parable of judgment on the temple. But why is he there? It helps to go back to Mark 10:11:
And 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.
Why did he go to the temple? Because that is what prophecy said he would do.
Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me [Elijah, i.e., John the Baptist]. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple [i.e., Jesus] and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the LORD of hosts. But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? —Malachi 3:1–2
Why did he go? Answer: to fulfill prophecy. But what was he looking for? The previous story gives us the answer.
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 from you again.” And his disciples heard it.—Mark 11:12–14
He was looking for fruit or figs. The point of this story is not that Jesus was looking for literal fruit or figs. Some miss this point and thus miss everything. One commentator says, “It is a tale of miraculous power wasted in the service of ill-temper (for the supernatural energy employed to blast the unfortunate tree might have been more usefully expended in forcing a crop of figs out of season); and as it stands is simply incredible.” One commentator even called it a gross injustice on a tree which was guilty of no wrong and had but performed its natural function. This was not irrational, ill-temper on the part of Jesus. Jesus knew it was not the season for figs. This knowledge causes the reader to read more deeply into what it signifies.
Commentator David Garland really helped make this point about the cursing of the temple stick with me. He says that some people assume that Jesus is trying to reform the temple and so they offer different suggestions as to what he is trying to reform.
First, some say he wants to reform the temple by restoring the “court of the Gentiles.” Who can worship with all that commercial racket?
Second, some say that he is irate with commercial activity in the temple and wants to eliminate “profane” activity while in the temple’s sacred space.
Third, some claim Jesus is trying to reform corrupt, unjust business practices. The phrase, “den of robbers” has been used as proof, along with the fact that the priestly family did gain wealth from the temple’s financial dealings and they were often guilty of corruption.
Garland points out problems with all of these views. Archaeologists now all acknowledge that commercial activity took place in the Royal Stoa, not the outer court of the temple. Likewise, the outer court was not viewed positively as the place where Gentiles could worship, but was regarded instead as the place beyond which Gentiles could not go (Inscriptions said “no foreigner is to enter within the forecourt and the balustrade around the sanctuary. Whoever is caught will have himself to blame for his subsequent death”). In Jesus’ day it was not even called the Court of the Gentiles, that is a more recent modern term. It was also not clear what was regarded as sacred space.
Jesus does not seem to attack unjust business practices because he does not throw out only the sellers (i.e., those who profit unjustly). He throws out both the sellers AND the buyers (v. 15, "those who sold and those who bought").
Therefore, the biggest problem with all these views, however, was that Jesus was not trying to reform or “cleanse” the temple—he was cursing the temple. Look at the next story.
When I would gather them, declares the LORD, there are no grapes on the vine, nor figs on the fig tree; even the leaves are withered, and what I gave them has passed away from them.—Jeremiah 8:13
And Peter remembered and said to him, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree that you cursed has withered.” 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."—Mark 11:21–23
The fig tree is not reformed; it is cursed. Why the next saying about prayer? Some actually thought that the temple was the place where prayer was especially effective. Later rabbis even said that “from the day on which the Temple was destroyed, the gates of prayer have closed…a wall of iron divides between Israel and their Father in heaven” (b. Ber 32b).
Notice that Jesus does not say, “Whoever says to ‘a mountain.’” He says, “this mountain.” He is talking about replacing the earthly Mount Zion. Where have we seen something cast into the sea before in Mark? The things that get cast into the sea are a legion of demons was cast into the pigs and they drown in the sea (Mark 5:13) and those who caused little ones to stumble (Mark 9:42). Jesus will command the mountain of Zion, which has become unclean like pigs, and causes people to stumble, to be cast into the sea.
The tables were set up to receive the annual half-shekel tax that was required of every Jewish male and that funded the daily sacrifices in the temple for the atonement of sin. One Jewish scholar, Jacob Neusner, catches what was going on here. This was not a mere reform of the temple:
Only someone who rejected the Torah’s explicit teaching concerning the daily offering could have overturned the tables—or …someone who had in mind setting up a different table, and for a different purpose: for the action carries the entire message, both negative and positive. Indeed, the money-changers presence made possible the cultic participation of every Israelite, and it was not a blemish on the cult but its perfection.
And Garland notices (Garland, Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary, p. 271):
If money cannot be exchanged into the holy currency, then monetary support for the temple sacrifices and the priesthood must end. If sacrificial animals cannot be purchased, then sacrifice must end. If no vessel can be carried through the temple, then all cultic activity must cease.
Why would Jesus put all temple activity under a curse?
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.”—Mark 11:17
a. “my” house
b. place for the nations to seek God
c. place where people hide from God
Now comes the temple demonstration in which Jesus quotes from two texts: Isaiah 56 and Jeremiah 7.
Let us look at them one at a time. Isaiah 56 is one of the greatest texts in the OT to demonstrate that God’s plan of salvation includes the nations. I love the title for this section in the ESV: “Salvation for Foreigners.”
Thus says the LORD:
“Keep justice, and do righteousness,
for soon my salvation will come,
and my righteousness be revealed.
Blessed is the man who does this,
and the son of man who holds it fast,
who keeps the Sabbath, not profaning it,
and keeps his hand from doing any evil.”
Let not the foreigner who has joined himself to the LORD say,
“The LORD will surely separate me from his people”;
and let not the eunuch say,
“Behold, I am a dry tree.”
For thus says the LORD:
“To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths,
who choose the things that please me
and hold fast my covenant,
I will give in my house and within my walls
a monument and a name
better than sons and daughters;
I will give them an everlasting name
that shall not be cut off.
“And the foreigners who join themselves to the LORD,
to minister to him, to love the name of the LORD,
and to be his servants,
everyone who keeps the Sabbath and does not profane it,
and holds fast my covenant—
these I will bring to my holy mountain,
and make them joyful in my house of prayer;
their burnt offerings and their sacrifices
will be accepted on my altar;
for my house shall be called a house of prayer
for all peoples.—Isaiah 56:1–7
Notice that Isaiah 56 says salvation has come to those typically thought to be excluded: (1) foreigners, (2) eunuchs, and (3) the outcasts of Israel (Isaiah 56:8). Eunuchs are important as a reference here because they were not allowed to enter the temple, according to Deuteronomy 23:1. It even looks like foreigners will be ministers “to minister to him, to love the name of the LORD, and to be his servants” (Isaiah 56:6). The priests were able to go even further into the temple than Jewish males. The barriers will fall someday indeed!
Why does Jesus add that the temple has been made into a “den of robbers?” We have to look at the context of Jeremiah 7. The people in Jeremiah’s day are treating the temple like a talisman—a place to go when they have been wicked to protect themselves from God’s judgment.
The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD: ”Stand in the gate of the LORD’s house, and proclaim there this word, and say, Hear the word of the LORD, all you men of Judah who enter these gates to worship the LORD. Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Amend your ways and your deeds, and I will let you dwell in this place. Do not trust in these deceptive words: ‘This is the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD.’
“For if you truly amend your ways and your deeds, if you truly execute justice one with another, if you do not oppress the sojourner, the fatherless, or the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not go after other gods to your own harm, then I will let you dwell in this place, in the land that I gave of old to your fathers forever.
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. Go now to my place that was in Shiloh, where I made my name dwell at first, and see what I did to it because of the evil of my people Israel. And now, because you have done all these things, declares the LORD, and when I spoke to you persistently you did not listen, and when I called you, you did not answer, therefore I will do to the house that is called by my name, and in which you trust, and to the place that I gave to you and to your fathers, as I did to Shiloh. And I will cast you out of my sight, as I cast out all your kinsmen, all the offspring of Ephraim.—Jeremiah 7:1–15
In other words, the people were not seeking God; they were hiding from God. They were like the robbers that came into Jerusalem to steal and then hid from the authorities in a den or a cave. Here they were hiding from God in the temple as a place where they did not believe God would judge them.
They are like the kids playing tag that claim they have found a safe place—a kind of home base that allows you not to be tagged. You can even stick your tongue out at your “tagger” because you are safe there.
How did the people respond to this rationale? We turn to point 3: The People’s Verdict
a. Leaders: seek and destroy mission
b. Crowd: astonished
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.—Mark 11:18–19
The chief priests and the scribes do not show any signs of repentance, but of incalcitrance. We see this same response throughout the rest of the section. Look at how this section closes in Mark 11–12:
And they came again to Jerusalem. And as he was walking in the temple, the chief priests and the scribes and the elders came to him, and they said to him, “By what authority are you doing these things, or who gave you this authority to do them?” Jesus said to them, “I will ask you one question; answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I do these things. Was the baptism of John from heaven or from man? Answer me.” And they discussed it with one another, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say, ‘Why then did you not believe him?’ But shall we say, ‘From man’?”—they were afraid of the people, for they all held that John really was a prophet. So they answered Jesus, “We do not know.” And Jesus said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.”—Mark 11:27–33
This takes us back to Malachi 3. They rejected Malachi’s messenger (Elijah/John the Baptist) who was to prepare the way. Therefore, they certainly will also reject the One for whom he paved the way.
The Parable of the Tenants
He had still one other, a beloved son. Finally he sent him to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ But those tenants said to one another, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’ And they took him and killed him and threw him out of the vineyard. What will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the tenants and give the vineyard to others. Have you not read this Scripture:
“ ‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes’?”
And they were seeking to arrest him but feared the people, for they perceived that he had told the parable against them. So they left him and went away. —Mark 12:6–12
The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. This is the LORD’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes.—Psalm 118:22–23
The leaders are further confirmed in their course to kill Jesus and the people seem stuck in their astonishment. They do not know where to go next. Do we?
Application
My greatest fear is for Bethlehem to a religious “den of robbers.” I do not want to become an inward, ingrown, religious establishment. I know that we will not start that way. But we could deceive ourselves because we are a church with a reputation. We are known for being about missions. Known for being John Piper’s church. I pray against becoming like the church at Sardis in Revelation 3:1.
I know your works. You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead. Wake up and strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your works complete in the sight of God.
We may have a reputation for missions, but if we rely on our reputation we will keep it going for a while, but it will be like a gas tank on empty, which though it runs—it is really running on fumes.
If we become blind to the nations, we will become a religious club. But the solution is not to become nations-centered—that would be like becoming man-centered. No one can rely upon working up and keeping up a compassion for the nations. We must be compelled toward the nations by being cross-centered. The cross pushes us toward the nations. Here is an example.
I wish I could find the story that I heard in a sermon from a faculty member while I was in Louisiana. He told the story of a man who was doing business in the Middle East. In the middle of a business trip, he got lost and was picked up for trespassing. The sheik took him and imprisoned him in his palace. The man begged to be released because he was only weeks away from his wedding day to his true love.
The sheik said that he did not believe in love. The man asked for a chance to prove their love. The sheik said, I will write to her and ask her if she is willing to give up her ring finger so that you can be reunited. The sheik chuckled to himself concerning this high cost. The mail was slow and so no one knew if the delay meant that no response was coming or whether the response was coming in the mail. The sheik took advantage of the delay to mock the idea of love.
Finally, one day the sheik received a package with a card attached to the top of it. The sheik read the letter. The woman said that she genuinely loved the man, but she did not like the idea of giving up a finger for him. She had sent something else instead. Inside the box, the sheik found that she had sent her whole hand.
That was a beautiful display of love to make someone believe in love. But it pales in comparison to the love of God in Christ. For a good person someone might dare to die or give a hand instead of a finger. The love of Jesus displayed on the cross surpasses every other love in that he gave his whole body, not just his hand. He also died not for a friend, but for his enemies.
What do we do when we see this display of love? As is the case so many times in the Gospels, no one knows what to do until after the cross and the resurrection. The disciples do not know what to do. The people do not know how to respond—they stare with astonishment. But when Jesus died on the cross the temple curtain was torn in two from top to bottom. All the things that used to separate people from the Most Holy Place separate them no longer. The only thing that counts is faith. Isn’t that what Jesus told Peter back in Mark 11 that it isn’t being in the temple that gets your prayer answered—it is faith. “Have faith in God.” “Whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours” (Mark 11:22, 24).
That is why Abraham is the father of many nations—those who have the faith of Abraham—not those who are Jews like Abraham. The nations do not know what to seek until the cross came. Then Jesus rises from the dead. Jesus ascends. The Spirit is poured out at Pentecost. Peter begins to preach—there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name given under heaven by which men must be saved (Acts 4:12). We know the name! We need to proclaim the name so others will hear, because there is no other name that can save!
We must beware a slow fade in which the cross and the nations fade into the background—not because we speak against them—but we because we do not speak about them at all. We must beware of mission creep—becoming about many things instead of the main thing: The Lamb slain so that the nations can sing of his glory.
So as we close, pray with me for eyes to see three things: Easter, the peoples, and the heavenly city.
Conclusion: Eyes to See
It is easy to get our eyes of Jesus during Easter. Don’t let the Easter eggs and the Easter candy blind you to the reality of Jesus. We sometimes get a chocolate cross, but even that is not a very great reminder.
Think of what must it have been like for that man to look at his wife’s hand? He would have been reminded of her sacrificial love for him. In the same way, this Easter, don’t take your eyes off of the nails and the spear and the crown of thorns and temple curtain torn and Jesus being cursed and forsaken by his Father so that you will never have to be cursed or forsaken.
In the same way, do not become blind to the nations and the outsiders around you because you start staring at the props here—like the church buildings or the church programs.
Jesus died so that the nations could finally seek him and not be held back by a wall of separation. They need to see the wounds that can heal them!
Some people have eyes to see only their biological family members or the physical structures (like the streets of gold). O how we must beware lest the pavement be more on our mind than the peoples! We need to see the nations there—every tongue, every tribe, every people! What are the peoples doing? Answer: they are praising. “Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and you have made them a kingdom of priests to our God (Isaiah 56!) and they shall reign on the earth” (Revelation 5:9–10).
Notice that the wounds are still visible above, as the song says, in beauty glorified. That is what the living creatures and the elders and myriads of angels along with all the redeemed are seeing and singing about for all eternity:
“Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing (Revelation 5:12).” Hasten the day!
We don’t want to become nations-centered because that would be like becoming man-centered. We will focus not on the nations but on the story we have for the nations and the future we have together by faith.
Closing Song: "We’ve a Story to Tell to the Nations"