Mark 11: The Cleansing of the Temple

Mark 11:11-26 The Cleansing of the Temple

Faith is a complicated reality. With it, all things are possible. Without it the most important things we desire fail. These verses from Mark come within the context of a short story about Jesus and the fig tree, that surrounds the recounting of his cleansing of the Temple of the moneychangers. It seems a strange little story at first, but let’s break it open a bit.

On the road out of Bethany, Jesus sees a fig tree in the distance. When he gets to it he finds that there is no fruit in it, but as the scripture tells us, “…it was not the season for figs.” (verse 13) Jesus, of course, would have known this fact. But as we see, he curses the tree: “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” (verse 14) This seems a strange response, and it troubles us at first. Why would Jesus do this? There must be an important reason, but we have to wait until the end of the story to see why.

The middle of this short story takes us to the Temple in Jerusalem and the noise and bustle of the marketplace-like atmosphere that has taken over this holiest of edifices in all of Israel. The Temple is supposed to be a sacred place of worship. It is the house of God, after all. But, as we see, it has been turned into a den of thieves, moneychangers with their exorbitant prices, their lending practices, and their usury. The thinking and ways of the world have entered into the Temple (the Church). Like any market place we can imagine it filled with the din of trading and bargaining. Each stall owner, shouting to get the attention of passersby for their business.

This is not a holy scene. This is not a scene that promotes the dignity and the piety of this place that is God’s house. Jesus, in righteous anger, goes through the stalls knocking tables over, driving the moneychangers out of the Temple grounds shouting, “It is written: My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations.” Jesus is giving them (and us) an object lesson here. When we lose our faith in God, everything else is cheapened, nothing but fleeting, immediate gratification matters. We become proud, self-centered, materialistic and lesser things become our gods. There can be no lasting joy, or hope in such finite and ephemeral things. There is no transcendent love in them. Indeed, nothing in these things go beyond the self.

Then we get to the end of the story that takes us back to the fig tree. Peter remembers Jesus’ words to the fig tree and is astonished to see it is withered to its very roots. Jesus reveals the lesson to be learned about faith here: “Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.” Faith this true, when it is deeply rooted in our souls, it can “move mountains,” or bring about miracles of every kind. If our prayers are righteous, if our faith is true, we can trust that God will answer them.

But the lesson is not over yet. He finishes this short story with an example of the greatest miracle that true faith can bring about. It is something more real and far more important than cursing fig trees or moving mountains. With real faith we can hope to cleanse the living temples of our own souls, and we can forgive those who have sinned against us. That is the greatest “miracle” of all. To imitate the crucified Jesus in this way would be our greatest act of faith. The supreme act of faith is to love God so dearly as to forgive those who have sinned against us. In believing this way, our own sins are forgiven by our Father in heaven.

Lord, we pray that you give us the great grace of humility so that we may see the wisdom of cleansing our own temples (souls) from all of the unholy and worldly temptations that demand our attention when we take our eyes off of You. Increase our faith, we pray, enable us to recognize and to challenge the subtle incursions of worldly temptations that constantly seek to enter Your holy Temple, the Church. We pray this believing in the power of your holy name, Jesus. Amen!