The Passion Week of Christ: A Study from the Book of Mark
Week 2:The Servant Arrives - He Is Judge
Mark 11:15-19
I. Introduction
A. Have you ever been part of a worship service where you heard someone say something along the lines of "God, we just invite you to come this AM, we invite you here God, show up and show out"? Here's what I wonder...I wonder how many people would REALLY want God to physically show up and inspect their church, His house?
B. Since the time of Malachi, the Jews had been anticipating such a visit to The Temple, God's House. But as I read earlier, it would not be a grand ole time. It would be a time of judgment and a time of purifying. Fast forward 500 years and its Spring 33 AD...the time of the Passover. Jesus, Immanuel, God with Us, God's Suffering Servant has arrived in Jerusalem. In just 5 short days, He will give His life as a ransom for many.
C. But today, Monday of The Passion Week, He Is Judge. As such He intends to pay a visit to inspect His Father's House, The Temple. And just as Malachi prophesied, He intends to purify it for it has become a despicable debauchery. As we examine this event in the life of Christ, we will see Jesus' Anger, The Crowd's Astonishment and The Leader's Animosity. In the process, we would do well to take a serious self-examination of our own church for 2000 years later, as James reminds us, "the Judge is standing at the door."
II. Scripture Reading & Prayer
A. Stand with me to honor the reading of God's Word. Read Mark 11:15-19.
B. Pray - Father, we know the time is short for the return of your Son to Judge the world. Help us clean up YOUR House and OUR lives in preparation for that day of unexpected and sudden visitation.
III. Context, Context, Context (Read and explain 15:a)
A. And they came to Jerusalem - Recall from last week that Jesus on Sunday had made His Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem as King and then paid a visit to the temple at the end of the day. Having looked around and inspected everything, He and the Twelve had retired to Bethany. It is now Monday sometime and Jesus and the Twelve have made the 2 mile journey from Bethany to Jerusalem on foot.
B. Standing on the Mount of Olives, 2600 feet up overlooking the city, all eyes would have been on the Temple. It covered the top of Mount Zion, 35 acres in extent. In building it, Herod truly outdid himself. The Talmud says that the end-result was spectacular. "He who has not seen Herod's building, has never in his life seen a truly grand building." The Holy of Holies was covered in gold; the walls and columns of the other buildings were of white marble; the floors were of carrara marble, its blue tinge giving the impression of a moving sea of water; the curtains were tapestries of blue, white, scarlet and purple thread, depicting, according to Josephus, "the whole vista of the heavens." Josephus further describes how incredible it looked: "Viewed from without, the Sanctuary had everything that could amaze either mind or eyes." Outwardly beautiful, inwardly corrupt! And for this reason...
C. He entered the temple - John 2 records Jesus' 1st Cleansing of the Temple at the start of His ministry. It served as a warning, a warning to clean God's House of the 3 ring circus it had become. The changes obviously didn't last. So, He now enters the temple to cleanse it a second time. This time it would be as Judge to pronounce judgment on the leadership of Israel. The area Jesus has entered refers specifically to the Court of The Gentiles. It was a 6 acre area into which anyone, Jew or Gentile, might come. At the inner edge was a low wall with tablets set into it which proclaimed the death penalty for any Gentile who passed that point. The next court was the Court of the Women where they had to stop unless they had actually come to offer sacrifice. Next, was the Court of Israelites - in it the congregation gathered on special occasions to worship and from here the offerings were handed off by worshippers to the priests. The inmost court was The Court of the Priests and the inmost of it housed the Holy of Holies (High Priest & Day of Atonement).
D. The Court of The Gentiles was to be a place of prayer into which people of all nations might enter and worship the One True God. Yet as John MacArthur notes, it was "carnal chaos." I liken it to a three-ring circus. Picture 1/2 flea market, 1/2 auction, 1/2 barnyard with some IRS taxation and Congressional oversight sprinkled in. No matter what you call it, it was not as God intended and what Jesus saw that Monday made Him quite angry.
IV. He Is Judge: Jesus' Anger (4 deplorable conditions)
#1 It Was A House of Exploitation (Read and explain 11:15)
- Animals were needed by the Jews for their sacrificial temple offerings. They could bring their own, buy them at one of four shops on the Mount of Olives or purchase them inside the temple.
- those who sold: These merchants either belonged to the high-priestly hierarchy or paid a large fee to temple authorities for the privilege of selling.
- those who bought: Remember people came from all over the Empire; #1 it would have been impossible for some to bring animals for sacrifice such great distances. Further, Biblical law said that the animals had to be without blemish - "Your lamb shall be without blemish" (Exodus 12:5) & "You shall not offer anything that has a blemish, for it will not be acceptable for you." (Lev. 22:20) #2 How horribly inconvenient it would be to come all that distance with one or multiple animals in tow only to have your animal turned away & not pass the high-priest's inspection! What a great service then to have pre-approved animals ready for sell!
- the tables of the money-changers: Every Jewish male 20yo and older had to pay an annual 1/2 shekel payment to The Temple for temple religious services (cf. Exodus 30:13-14). This was roughly equivalent to two day's pay. Seems easy enough. The problem was that only one kind of 1/2 shekel coin was acceptable. For ordinary purposes, Greek, Roman, Syrian, Egyptian, Phoenician, and Tyrian coins were all equally valid. Not so for the temple tax - it had to be a specific coin. Recall Jews have come from all over the world to the Passover and with all kinds of currencies. Foreigners needed to exchange coins, and the money-changers were there to offer a much needed service.
- the seats of those who sold pigeons: These birds were so often used for sacrifice that Mark makes separate mention of their sellers. Further, they were the normal offering of the poor, lepers and women. What Joseph & Mary offered at Jesus' presentation in the temple when he was 40 days old (thus we know they were poor). Again, this seems like a reasonable service - why risk bringing a cage of pigeons hundreds of miles to have a blemish found in them?
- Why then was Jesus so angry? Take a poor man who had pilgrammed from many miles away to Jerusalem for Passover. He brings no animals due to the distance. He decides to purchase two pigeons from one of the four shops on the Mount of Olives at say (1d). He proceeds to the temple. He exchanges his money at one of the tables for the 1/2 shekel temple tax (2d) - BTW, he's charged a fixed charge of a Maah (2d). He proceeds to the priests to have his pigeons inspected and they're rejected (purposefully). He goes back to the money-changers and exchanges more money getting charged more interest, as much as 10-12% - which BTW Jews were not allowed to do to each other (3d). He proceeds to the tables of the pigeon sellers and purchases 2 pigeons - the price could be as much as 15x that paid outside! (15d) He's up to 23d...that's 3 weeks wages FOR A POOR MAN! You angry yet? Wait there's more! The money-changers and sellers bought their "booths" from the Priests who in turn bought the right from Rome! See why Jesus was so angry?! John MacArthur says the whole system was "positively evil" and that the leaders were "exploiting the very people they ought to have been ministering to."
#2 It Was A House of Desecration (Read and explain 11:16)
- The Court of the Gentiles had become a shortcut between the city and the Mount of Olives which was strictly forbidden. The Mishnah = "A man may not enter into the Temple mount with his staff or his sandal or his wallet, or with the dust upon his feet, nor may he make of it a short by-path." Jews thought so little of the sanctity of the outer court of the Temple that they used it as a thoroughfare and shortcut on their business errands. Further, animals didn't have to be kept in & purchased in the temple - there were shops on the Mount of Olives. Imagine the mess (literally) - God's house = barnyard!!!
#3 It Was A House of Isolation (Read and explain 11:17a)
- Here we read the true purpose of God's temple - a house of prayer for all the nations (cf. Isaiah 56:7). The Court of The Gentiles was the only part of the temple the Gentiles were permitted to use for prayer and worship of God, and the Jews had frustrated that worship by turning it into part three-ring circus. How could one pray in such a place with all the noise, human & animal traffic & smell!?!? As such, the Jews had isolated Jehovah God's love to Israelites only. Jesus wished to remind them, as He had with Nicodemus, that God loved not only the Jews but the world.
#4 It Was A House of Abomination (Read and explain 11:17b)
- In 167 BC Antiochus Epiphanes committed the unthinkable - the abomination of desolation by sacrificing a pig on the temple altar. The act lead to the Maccabbean Revolt in which Antiochus was deposed and the temple was restored and rededicated to the Lord several years later - Hannakah.
- 200 years later the Jewish religious elite were not literally sacrificing pigs on the temple altar but they might as well have! Read MacArthur quote pg. 36. They had made God's House an abomination - a den of robbers. This is a quote from Jeremiah's famous temple sermon (cf. 7:11). Jesus' metaphor no doubt was not lost on his hearers - the road from Jerusalem to Jericho was notorious for robbers. It was a narrow, winding road, passing between rocky gorges. Among the rocks were caves where the thieves lay in wait. Essentially Jesus said, "There are worse in the Temple courts than ever there are in the caves of the Jericho road."
E. If this is what God's House had become, a place of exploitation, desecration, isolation and abomination, what did Jesus say it should be?
V. He Is Judge: The Crowd's Astonishment (Read and explain 11:18)
A. Jesus' authoritative teaching, as the spoken word of God, was in sharp contrast to that of the scribes, who based their authority largely on that of other rabbis. Jesus' direct, personal, and forceful teaching was so foreign to their experience that those who heard him were "astonished." In fact...
B. all the crowd was astonished at his teaching. This word astonished is Greek "ekplesso," ek (out) + plesso (to strike, flatten, pound). Properly, it means "to strike out of one's senses," to be utterly amazed (dumbfounded), left at a loss from witnessing the incredible. Why did Jesus' teaching have such a profound effect on the people? Read Matthew 7:28-29; Mark 1:27; John 5:27. Jesus' anger came as He acted as judge over the conditions of His Father's House. Further, Jesus' authority in His teaching confirmed that He also had the authority to judge His Father's House. And the people responded in astonishment. They never knew that THIS was what the Temple, God's House, was supposed to be...the religious leaders had so twisted the purposes of God's house that those purposes were not only no longer visible to others, but were also no longer functional.
C. So, in His words and in His actions, what did Jesus' judging with authority the spiritual conditions of His Father's House that Monday of Passion Week have to teach us this AM about our own church, OUR Father's House? It should be:
#1 A House of Sacrifice: The sacrificial system God had instituted as atonement for sin had become a joke, a three ring circus. Oh, there was a lot of sacrificing going on but it wasn't from the heart. Read Psalm 51:16-17. In the MSG, this reads "Going through the motions doesn’t please you, a flawless performance is nothing to you." Both Isaiah and Jeremiah had warned the people of their day that the simple presence of the physical temple was no guarantee of blessing from God. It was what the people did in the temple FROM THEIR HEARTS that was really important! Nothing has changed in 2000 years! God's House should be a house of sacrifice...from the heart. What did Paul write - read Romans 12:1. Do come to church to worship or be entertained? Do we come to offer God $20s or a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart? Are you living out Romans 12:1 - discuss the problem with a living sacrifice!
#2 A House of Service: When Jesus was asked to break the Jew's 600+ commandments down to the greatest, what did He say? Read Mark 12:28-31. Here the religious elite may not be showing hate and contempt to their neighbors in word but they certainly were in actions. They were robbing the very people they should be ministering to. They had turned a legitimate service into an illegitimate means of gain. Even worse, it was largely affecting those who could afford it least - the poor, the outcast, the widowed. Brothers and sisters, again, nothing has changed in 2000 years...God's House should be a house of service...to one another. Discuss Pattie's quote - Let us love on you. That's Crossway's marching orders and they come from our Lord. Read 1 Peter 4:8-10. Do people in our community see Crossway as THE most loving, most friendly place in Tipton County? Are we ministering to one another, to others in a way that pleases the Lord?
#3 A House of Sanctity: Discuss Steve's church...no shoes...while in 21st century that is a bit legalistic, it does show a great respect for God's House and His holiness! Not so in Jesus' day. The people's actions showed a great irreverence for the temple - and ultimately for God Himself. Psalm 93:5 says, "O Lord, holiness is what makes your house beautiful for days without end." It wasn't the marble, the gold, the colored tapestries that made the Temple so beautiful, it was God's holiness in His abiding presence in that House that made it beautiful! Again, nothing has changed in 2000 years...God's House should be a house of sanctity (holiness). It's not the stained glass windows that make Crossway beautiful, it's God's holy presence. How careless have we become with the holiness of God and His house? Do we come each Sunday into His presence fessed up and clean or stinking to high heaven?
#4 A House of Sustenance: Now we do a LOT of eating around here...I mean the casserole is the flagship of the Baptist church. But what are we really here to feast on? What did Jesus' tell Satan? “‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God." Once Jesus cleaned house, what was the first thing He did next? Fed the people the Word of God! All the scribes fed them was tradition and the words of other Rabbis. Again, nothing has changed in 2000 years...God's House should be a house of sustenance...on the Word of God! Yet, we see preaching that is anemic, that is nothing more than self-help pop psychology, that is man's word and not God's Word (discuss reading passage and then preaching sermon that has nothing to do with it & Lion King analogy). Is your pastor feeding you the Word of God? Is that what you come for or to be entertained or as a result of a "drug problem"? Why do we have to all but beat people to S.S. when its the time we study the Word of God? What about our youth - you here to eat pizza or the Word of God?
#5 A House of Supplication: I love what Dr. Wiersbe said, "The Court of The Gentiles should have been a place for praying, but it was instead a place for preying and paying." I mean of ALL the things Jesus could have said about the purpose of God's House does it shock you that He said it was first and foremost to be a house of prayer? You want to know how important prayer was to the early church? Read Acts! Read Acts 2:42; 4:31; 12:5; 16:25. Are you tired of hearing me say nothing has changed in 2000 years, God's House should be a house of supplication. Is Crossway that sort of house? Is prayer a priority for it and its members? If so, why do professing Christians refuse to pray? Why will a church meal be well attended while a prayer meeting is deserted?
#6 A House of Salvation: You've heard the expression it's not about religion it's about relationship? There was a WHOLE LOT of religion going on in the Temple. And it was robbing people blind! The religious leaders of Jesus' day weren't just robbing people of their money, they also were robbing them of potential salvation and a relationship with the One, True God. Once again, nothing has changed in 2000 years, God's House should be a house of salvation. Jesus said we "are the salt of the earth." What do you know about salt? Preservative...healing properties. THAT'S what Crossway is to be! A house in which people's lives are preserved, for all eternity, thanks to the coming to the knowledge of Jesus as their Lord and Savior. A house of healing in which people's lives can be restored to the health of a relationship with God and a group of fellow believers who love them, encourage them and build them up.
VI. He Is Judge: The Leader's Animosity (Read and explain 11:17-19)
A. Jesus' actions and words as Judge of Israel, while met with astonishment from the crowd, was met with animosity and hatred by the religious leaders, the chief priests and the scribes. These men were among those who comprised the principal leadership in the Sanhedrin. They were the ones benefiting the most by the 3 ring circus that God's House had become. They feared Jesus' popularity, they feared losing power (social, economic, political), they feared a public uprising (in which Rome would intervene).
B. Threatened, they were seeking a way to destroy him. All the verbs in Mark 11:18 are imperfects, they were continuously looking for a way to kill Jesus this last week of His life. His actions and words as Judge that fateful Monday sealed His doom, as He knew it would! Gundry: "He will be crucified, then, not because of any weakness in him. Quite oppositely, because of His power! Furthermore, the power for which he will be crucified is a power that he exerts for the benefit of all the nations, Gentiles as well as Jews...So for his crucifixion, Jesus deserves honor and worship, not scorn and ridicule."
C. It would scarcely have been safe for Jesus to have spent the night in the city now, with so many foes actively plotting his death; but Bethany was still safe, and so there he returned as was his custom during these first days of the Passion Week.
VII. Conclusion
A. That Monday of Passion Week, just 5 short days separated Jesus from going to the cross as the Savior of the world. Yet, that Monday He arrived in Jerusalem as Judge, restoring the temple to its God designed purposes. If the Lord Jesus were to show up in our house of worship this AM, what changes would He make?
VIII. Invitation and Benediction
A. Scripture is clear that the next time Jesus "shows up," He's coming not to Judge His Father's House, but the world!
B. Warren Wiersbe, tells about a town where a horse bolted and ran away with a wagon carrying a little boy. Seeing the child in danger, a young man risked his life to catch the horse and stop the wagon. The child who was saved grew up to become a lawless man, and one day he stood before a judge to be sentenced for a serious crime. The prisoner recognized the judge as the man who, years before had saved his life; so he pled for mercy on the basis of that experience. But the words from the bench silenced his plea: "Young man, then I was your savior; today I am your judge, and I must sentence you to be hanged." One day Jesus Christ will say to rebellious sinners, "During that long day of grace, I was the Savior, and I would have forgiven you. But today I am your Judge."
