Mark 11:15-17 And they come to Jerusalem: and Jesus went into the temple, and began to cast out them that sold and bought in the temple… The acts of our Lord were not merely intended to accomplish an immediate result. Had they been, they were sadly ineffectual. If, for example, he had simply set before himself the design of clearing the temple of intruders, he could have secured that end more permanently than he did. But he recognized that the noblest thing is not to cut off a public abuse, but to dry up the spring whence it flows, which often lies deep in the human heart. Remedial measures are better than repressive legislation. When our Lord for a second time cleansed the temple, his main object was not to put down the abuse immediately by force, but to rebuke the sin, and so to lead the people to think about it, confess, and forsake it. He wished to establish the principle that the temple of God should be free from worldliness, a principle which is capable of world-wide application. As the material temple rises before our vision through the mists of past years, we hail it as an image of the invisible temple in which the Eternal God is praised and served by his people. Two truths appear prominently in this incident. I. THE TEMPLE OF GOD IS OFTEN DESECRATED. In considering the sins of other people and of other times, we are: 1. Apt to forget how naturally and imperceptibly they obtained place and power. The Jews easily lapsed into this desecration. The Mosaic code ordained sacrifices of oxen, goats, and sheep in great numbers. In process of time the habits of the nation changed, so that it was no longer possible, as it had been in the pastoral period, to take a victim from a flock or herd close at hand. Jerusalem was now a large and crowded city. Space was costly, and a large area seemed to be necessary where worshippers could obtain victims. In the vast temple area a large space was available. It was close by the sacrificial altar, and not set apart for the actual worship of the chosen people. If it were used for stalls and pens, a good rental would be secured which would pay for the repair and decoration of the building, and so the glory of the sanctuary would be maintained and devout worshippers accommodated. So the abuse grew up, amid the protests of the few and the silence of the many, and all were tolerating an evil which they could not openly defend. Evils have generally sprung up in the Church insidiously. If they had come in their hideous maturity they would have been repelled with horror, but they were welcomed when they came like the tiny child a legendary saint took on his shoulders, to find him grow so heavy as to crush him with his weight. Examples of this may be found in ecclesiastical history: e.g. papal pretensions, simony, erastianism; all of which in their germ seemed to have about them something reasonable and right. 2. The root of the special evil here denounced was covetousness. Probably that was the besetting sin of the nation in our Lord's day. Publicans sold themselves to the tyrants of their country, because wealth was more to them than patriotism. Priests and Sadducees let out sites to the temple traders, because they would make gain of godliness, and cared more for the temple income than for spiritual worship. This spirit pervaded the entire nation. There was no sign of the splendid generosity of David, and no need, as in Moses' days, to restrain the people from giving. The sin appeared among the apostles. We see it in all its hideousness in Judas Iscariot, who betrayed his Lord for thirty pieces of silver, and then flung the money at the feet of the priests as they sat in the temple of God. The love of money is declared to be "the root of all evil," and the statement is in harmony with the words of our Lord about the difficulty a rich man would find in entering his kingdom. Show how generally such teaching is forgotten among different classes of our population. See the effects of this in the floating of unsound speculations in which the fortunes of the unwary are wrecked; in the unfairness of men to each other in the common relations of life; in the unjust wars of aggression which the nation has sometimes waged. The Christian Church is called upon to set an example of the opposite of all this, in her princely generosity and in her Christ-like self-sacrifice. 3. There are other ways besides covetousness by which desecration may enter God's temple. There is unbelief, which silences the voice of prayer in professed believers; worldliness, which puts material organization in the place of spiritual power; pride, which prevents hearty fellowship amongst God's people; expediency, which usurps the throne of truth; and self-indulgence, which expels self-devotion. So the temple is defiled; for "know ye not that ye are the temple of God?" Jesus Christ felt burning indigo-nation when he saw the sanctuary of his Father transformed into a place of worldly traffic, and he feels it still as he beholds a Christian community desecrated by the power of sin. II. THE DESECRATED TEMPLE NEEDS CHRIST AS ITS PURIFIER. We too soon get accustomed to evils, and tolerate them, until One mightier than ourselves alone can expel them. What priests and Levites failed to do, Jesus did, and none resisted him. 1. His coming was an act of sublime condescension. It would have been far pleasanter to him to go into the fields, where the sower cast his seed; or to sail over the lake, in which fishermen plied their nets; or to walk over the hillsides, on which the flowers whispered of his Father's love. He knew what the temple was, yet he did not forsake it; but came again and again, in spite of the unreality and sin that prevailed in it. As willingly he will enter the heart or the Church, which is unworthy of his presence. 2. His coming was not such as might have been expected. The Jews had often read the words, "The Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple," etc., but as they were looking heavenward the prophecy was fulfilled by the coming of this young Galilean Peasant. As they waited in vain for a startling advent, so some now wait for a special manifestation of his presence, and ignore the fact that he is already with them in the holy thoughts which they refuse to welcome. "Behold, them standeth one among you, whom ye know not." It is the realized presence of the living Christ which will purge the heart or the Church of evil thought and habit, and transform it into the temple of the Most High. May he, who is the source of spiritual power and heavenly purity, come amongst us and abide with us for ever! - A.R. Parallel Verses KJV: And they come to Jerusalem: and Jesus went into the temple, and began to cast out them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves; |
    |