Mark 11:15 Commentary and Bible Study

He had preached there before, but now he sees the outer court of the temple, the vast outer court, the court of the Gentiles, and it is like a market; it is full of animals; it is full of tables and moneychangers. The people bought their money, the currency, but it had to be the special Jewish temple money that they used for their offerings, and the exchange rates were set crookedly to enrich the priests, so the money had to be changed, and the priests had to make their money, and the sacrificial animals had to be sold. Why didn't the people bring their own animals as they were intended to, from their smallholdings? Because they had so often met with problems. They would take their animal to the temple and the examining priest says, ‘It isn't perfect. You will have to buy one from us’, and so people stopped bringing their animals, and they knew they would have to buy everything. But they were sold at exorbitant rates. Imagine the outer court of the temple, full of the sound and stench of animals, and people selling, auctioning possibly, and the moneychangers. There also were the crates full of doves for the offerings of the poor. They would have to pay rates that they couldn't afford. What a disgraceful abuse of the temple. The day before, Jesus had ‘looked about upon all things.’ He knew then what he would do the following day. This is the second time he has cleansed the temple. Now we are seeing his power. At the beginning of his ministry, he cleared them out of the temple, but within three years – probably within weeks – they were back, selling the animals, and changing the money at exorbitant rates. How did he do it? The first time we read he made a kind of token symbolic whip of cords We should not imagine for a moment that he whipped anybody: this was a symbol. But by his powerful word divinity shined through the human Christ. They couldn't resist him. They were cleared out. And now he does it again. Where is the temple guard? All these people are going to protect their businesses, their income, their pitch, and their animals. One man, Christ, can cast them all out, and nothing could be done to resist him.