This morning I will preach from Mark 11:15-19 – the portion of Scripture where Jesus cleanses the temple in Jerusalem for the second time. As Christmas time finds our calendar once again much will be said in ensuing weeks concerning the holy child given unto Mary. Few doctrines are as essential as the incarnation of God the Son and I am grateful for our annual opportunity to spend weeks in December in committed focus to Christ’s first advent. In our modern culture there is, however, a danger in making Christmas more sentimental than spiritual. The preciousness of Mary’s son, the innocent adoration of shepherds and the magi, Simeon and Anna as they worship the Messiah…all of these Christmastime images possess a fondness in our hearts. Jesus Christ was born as a lamb to die. Holy, harmless, undefiled, gentle, meek, lowly and silent – our Savior is God’s lone Lamb. Yet…
Days before His death, the Lamb gave a Lion’s roar.
It is noteworthy that Jesus first cleansed the Temple at the onset of His public ministry (John 2:13-17) and cleansed it again three years later at the close of His public ministry. Zeal for His Father’s house had eaten Him up and He was unwilling to turn a blind eye to the corruption surrounding the Temple activity. Commercialism, exploitation, irreverence and indifference had all run amok in the very place where God had ordained sacredness among His people. This same mount is where Solomon prayed his prayer of dedication, and the glory of God so powerfully descended that the temple priests were unable to stand. It was on this mount where Isaiah’s vision of the holiness of God changed his focus from pronouncing woe upon others to pronouncing woe upon himself! This unique place in Jerusalem was fitted specifically for worship, prayer, light and life. The leaders of Jerusalem had long forgotten that and sacredness had become sullied.
Jesus entered the Temple and engaged in activity that will make most of us uncomfortable. Eyes full of holy fury, the Lord violently overturns multiple tables which held extorted coinage. Have you ever witnessed a table being thrown over? It is no small demonstration of protest. Jesus literally chased away the both the sellers of overpriced sacrificial animals along with the Passover pilgrims who were there to buy them. This purging of the Temple would not have gone unnoticed by any that day; Jesus Christ was making an emphatic statement as He indicted the people for defaming the Temple of God. He leveled the accusation, cleaned the house, and comprehensively ruined the routine of the day – better no activity at all than the fraudulent, sinful goings-on in the name of the God of the Jews! Nobody had ever heard the Lamb roar as He did when He cleansed His Father’s house. For the honor of His Father, Jesus did herein act with fiery zeal but, days later, the Lamb was silent when it came to His own defense and died as the sacrifice for sinners. This is our King.
Because all Christians are now the temple of God (1 Cor. 3:16-17; 1 Cor. 6:19-20; 2 Cor. 6:16), we do very well to evaluate our hearts and lives in light of this passage. Do we allow room in our grace-based theology for Jesus to radically address defilement that we permit to pollute our lives? Are there practices in your heart that require Christ to pull out the whip, overturn long-standing tables and evict unwelcome tenants? I’m assured that more precious than Herod’s Temple is the temple of my body over which Christ is Lord. He dwells in me and I am His abode. More enduring than the falling of the Shekinah in Solomon’s day of temple dedication is the promised presence of God the Spirit in the temple of my body. If Jesus so hotly cleansed the outer court of a building bearing His Father’s name then how much more my… please excuse me from writing further as I sense the weight of conviction driving me to prayer.
I trust you will sense the same for yourself.