Turning Tables During Holy Week

Mark 11:15-17

Then they came to Jerusalem. And He entered the temple and began to drive out those who were buying and selling in the temple and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who were selling doves; and He was not permitting anyone to carry merchandise through the temple. And He began to teach and say to them, “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations?’ But you have made it a robber’s den.”

This is Holy Week, too.

In writing his gospel, Mark very intentionally describes day by day events of Holy week. According to Mark, this happened on Monday. 

It is one of those events we have all heard about because a variation of this episode (or episodes if Jesus did it more than once) occurs in all four Gospels. In the first three gospels Jesus’ casting out of traders from the Temple occurs close in time to His arrival in Jerusalem in the last week of His life.

 
The money changers were in the Temple to serve foreigners who wanted to worship Yahweh but whose foreign money was not accepted in the Temple. They had a reputation for cheating those who came to worship, charging variably exorbitant fees to exchange the currency. In some cases, dishonest money changers would shave metal off the coins and render them less valuable.

All three Synoptic gospels also mention that Jesus specifically targeted those selling doves. The dove-sellers were in the Temple courtyards because the Torah allowed provisions for those who could not afford to purchase a lamb: “Anyone who cannot afford a lamb is to bring two doves or two young pigeons to the Lord as a penalty for their sin—one for a sin offering and the other for a burnt offering” (Leviticus 5:7). And presumably among the dove-sellers were those providing substandard products at increased prices, as demand would expect to drive quality and price during the busy Passover season.  

Jesus quoted the Scripture “My house shall be called a house of prayer for all people” but the context is critical and would have been clear to those who witnessed what He did in the Temple:

“Also, the foreigners who join themselves to Yahweh,
To minister to Him, and to love the name of Yahweh,
To be His slaves, everyone who keeps from profaning the Sabbath
And takes hold of My covenant,
Even those I will bring to My holy mountain
And make them glad in My house of prayer.
Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be acceptable on My altar,
For My house will be called a house of prayer for all the peoples” (Isaiah 56:6,7).

“Foreigners welcome.”

How quickly we “Christians” become focused on who is in “the club” and who isn’t; creating bounded sets where the Good News seems to encourage us that the kingdom of heaven is a “centered” set of lovers of God and followers who are (hopefully!) over the course of a lifetime coming closer and closer to Jesus, the center of all.

Jesus turned over the money changers' tables.

Let us turn and repent…

   lest He overturn ours.