Mark 11:15. “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”.
The cleansing of the Temple took place on Monday, the day after the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem. The scene was a crowd of thousands who lined the roadway for Jesus’ triumphal entry. As He rode along to the shout of welcome from the multitudes, He was lead right up to the steps of the Temple. He entered the Temple, and looked around observing all that was going on. He stood off to the side observing all the corruption.
Four things should be noted about the Temple during this last week of our Lord’s life. First, Jesus was ending His ministry in the Temple, His father’s house of prayer, the place where God’s presence dwells in a very special way. He was about to complete His life upon the earth a glorious ministry fulfilling the will of God perfectly. The night before, as He had stood off by Himself in the Temple, observing all that was taking place; His thoughts must have been very contemplative; mediating upon His Father, His life which was now about completed, the great sacrifice He was to pay for man’s sins, the corruption of the Temple taking place all around Him, the worshipping that should be taking place, and so much more. His heart was probably drawn ever so close to God, yet broken and weeping within. Right before Him was a picture of the terrible sin for which He was to die. The Temple itself, the place where men should be able to draw close to God, was corrupted by men. It had become anything but a house of prayer. It was a place of commercialism for man’s greed.
Second, Jesus was revealing who He was by cleansing the Temple. He was proclaiming to all generations that He had the right to determine how the Temple was to be used, and to purge it of corruption. As God’s Son, the Temple was His dwelling place, the place where the Worship of God was to be especially known thirdly, in cleansing the Temple, Jesus was revealing how men were to treat and use the Temple of God.
Fourthly, Jesus began and ended His ministry by cleansing the Temple. The two cleansings were separate events which marked the opening and closing of His ministry. The importance of the Temple as God’s house of prayer and worship was thereby demonstrated.
When our Lord entered Jerusalem, He did not go up to the palace of a King, nor the courts of the rulers, but He went up to the Temple, to the House of God. His kingdom was not of this world; it was not a physical kingdom. It was of heaven; it was a spiritual kingdom. His authority and rule were in the Temple of God and in the hearts of men. Therefore, He went up to the Temple of God to cleanse it and teach us how the temple is to be used.
Remember, your body is the Temple of the Holy Spirit. Make it a place where Jesus is always welcome. Have a Blessed Resurrection Sunday, you and your family.
Much Love,
Because He Is – I am
Presider
