Mark 11:15, commentary and pictures

Mark 11:15 records the second cleansing of the temple near the close of Christ's mission, repeating the cleansing at the beginning of His public ministry. At Passover the outer court had been turned into a noisy market of cattle, sheep, doves, money-changers and angry bargaining, whose traffic and extortion drowned prayer and profaned the sacred courts. Priests and rulers themselves shared in the buying, selling and exchanging, letting greed turn worship into gain until they stood as thieves and robbers in God's sight. With the majesty of Heaven's King divinity flashed through humanity as He overthrew the tables and seats and commanded the trade removed, so that traffic stopped and the convicted throng fled as from armed men. The act declared the house of prayer made a den of thieves as a final warning and evidence of His divine mission, prefiguring righteous judgment on the fruitless nation as with the blighted fig tree, and enacting the cleansing of the human heart from selfish lust and moral pollution to be a dwelling for God's Spirit.

Temple Desecrated and Cleansed

This was the second cleansing of the temple, near the close of the mission, repeating the cleansing performed at the beginning of the public ministry. At Passover the outer court had been turned into a noisy cattle market and place of general trade, crowded with oxen and sheep and doves and birds sold for sacrifice, with money-changers sitting at their tables in busy buying and selling. The active exchange of produce went on like an ordinary market day without sacredness, with angry bargaining and disputes filling the sacred space.

The noise, traffic, and confusion disturbed worship and drowned out prayer, making the sacred courts profane and resembling a marketplace rather than a holy place. Extortion and robbery were practiced through excessive prices exacted for beasts for sacrifice, especially from worshipers who had come from far away. Priests, rulers, and temple dignitaries themselves took part in the buying and selling and exchanging of money, sharing the profits with influential men. Their greed overcame religious scruples, and their dealings were as corrupt as theft, making them thieves and robbers in God's sight.

The sacrifices and worship were meant to point to sin, repentance, and the blood of Christ, but the leaders had turned them into a means of gain and had largely lost sight of the meaning of the symbols. As His eye swept the scene divinity flashed through humanity, and with the majesty and authority of Heaven's King He began to cast out sellers and buyers. He overthrew the tables of the money-changers and the seats of dove-sellers and commanded the trade removed, and His command carried divine authority with the solemn force of judgment. His presence silenced the people and the noise of the animals, the traffic suddenly stopped, and the throng of buyers and sellers fled as though pursued by a company of armed men.

With bated breath priests and rulers saw Him clothed with majesty and power, and as if by a flash of light from heaven were convicted as hypocrites and robbers that He was no common man. Fear made those nearby draw back, so that apart from a few disciples He stood alone. The disciples remembered that the sellers had fled before Him as though pursued by armed soldiers, and hoped He would again display such power to scatter His enemies and prove Himself King of Israel. The soul-searching power of His look confronting buyers and sellers was such that the murderous crowd at His trial would have fled had He looked at them the same way.

The act was a rebuke of unholy traffic and of heartless sacrifice displacing obedience and humble repentance, declaring the house of prayer made a den of thieves. It was a final warning and evidence of His divine mission, given though He knew the corrupt priesthood would not be reformed. It warns against turning sacred things and the Passover service into means of worldly gain.

Judgment on Fruitless Nation

This was the second cleansing of the temple, coming just before and belonging with the lesson of the blighted barren fig tree. Together with the triumphal entrance and the blighting of the barren fig tree, the driving out of buyers and sellers pointed to the doom of Jerusalem.

The barren fig tree stood for Jerusalem and the Jewish nation, whose pride and apostasy had left them unable to recognize their Redeemer. Its blighting was God's righteous judgment, the sentence and downfall of the Jewish nation and the final destruction of Jerusalem. That scattering in dispersion came for wickedness and impenitence.

Connected with the blighting of the fig tree, the dispersal of those buying and selling stopped the desecration of the place set apart for holy purpose. In the same act it symbolized the future punishment of the Jewish nation and prefigured the righteous anger of God. The priests stood as representative men of the nation, corrupting the people by false principles, and as the fig tree withered so they would wither, with a doom as sudden and certain as that of the tree.

The cleansing laid bare that the people had perverted truth, rejected counsel, and refused repeated entreaties. Its rebuke convinced the priests for a time that He was a prophet, and some believed He was the Messiah, yet they refused to repent. Because of that refusal Christ turned from them.

The judgment on the fruitless tree reaches also to professed Christians who appear devout but bear no fruit. Outward religious form cannot hide selfishness and hypocrisy nor take the place of good works. Genuine Christians bear fruit through good works and unselfish deeds.

Cleansing Heart and Institutions

The cleansing of the Jerusalem temple is a sign of the mission to cleanse the human heart from sin, for the courts defiled by unholy trade represent hearts defiled by earthly desires, selfish lusts, evil habits and moral pollution. The heart becomes a den of thieves when it rejects Christ's mercy and disobeys God. The temple was meant to witness to the high destiny open to every soul of becoming a dwelling for God's Spirit, and its cleansing enacted the purification in Malachi in which the Lord comes to His temple as a refiner to purify His people.

Christ searches the temple of the heart, and those who practice truth in unselfish love have no buyers and sellers for Him to condemn, because truth occupies the citadel of the soul and God is enthroned in the heart. The soul-temple must be kept free from worldly merchandise mingled with God's sacred entrusted goods of means and physical and mental powers given for wise investment in the Master's service. Commercial matters and the leaven of worldliness that permeate the mind and destroy spiritual discernment must be cast out, so that doing the Master's bidding and promoting His work becomes the one aim and purpose of life.

The same cleansing applies to schools, for if Christ entered them He would drive out defiling influences and remove what defiles them. This includes many books studied by youth and teachings that defile young minds, to be replaced with substantial knowledge, heart-treasured sentiments, and precepts and sound principles that safely guide conduct and shape character. Religious activity does not excuse unholy commerce, so churches that raise money by feasting or appeals to appetite, gain, or pleasure would face Christ's rebuke as did the money-changers. Churches where extravagant dress and attention to fashion turn worship into display that distracts from Christ dishonor God's house and desecrate the Father's house, and those who so desecrate it would be driven out.

The rebuke and its words apply to practicing physicians called Christians who charge exorbitant prices, just as exorbitant prices were exacted for beasts for sacrifice. The medical profession is no less under the Lord's jurisdiction and under the rule of the standard of righteousness than the farmer, the merchant, or the minister of the gospel. Institutions must be purged of commercial corruption, unjust control, injustice, fraudulent dealings, moral pollution, and practices turning people from their rights, to be free from thieves and money-changers and devoted to holy service. Publishing houses established for present truth are defiled when devoted principally to commercial work, entering contracts for questionable matter merely for gain and taking a mass of outside work requiring increased facilities and workers, thereby losing the sense of sacred purpose, cheapening their work, and needing Christ to cleanse them as He cleansed the temple.

Printing and handling infidel, degrading, doubt-sowing literature and matter containing principles leading to false doctrines defiles the office just as buying and selling defiled the temple. Such work introduces Satan, dishonors the Redeemer, shows blindness and lack of spiritual discernment, poisons workers' minds, and leads to discontent over wages. It demands new presses and facilities that demand still more commercial work, showing the need for the reformation the Lord calls for. If Christ were on earth He would cleanse the office of all such defiling matter as He cleansed the temple, commanding it to be taken away, because His house must be a house of prayer and not a den of thieves. The Lord's coming judgment on dishonest and selfish practices in the publishing house is compared to that cleansing.

The repeated cleansing near the end of ministry, repeating the cleansing performed at the beginning of public ministry, is linked to the final warning to the world. That warning includes the second angel's message and God's call for His people to leave Babylon so they will not share her sins or worship the beast and its image. The temple cleansing thus stands alongside the call to leave religious corruption and false worship.