Well then. We are seeing a whole new side to Jesus today in the clearing of the temple. It was not a temper tantrum. He had observed carefully the day before and done nothing. When He returned, He returned with a plan and carried it out regardless of what people would think of Him. Let’s just stop for a moment and marvel that no one stopped Jesus in the middle of His disruption of the marketplace the temple had become. He stopped all the selling at the temple that day and no one dared stop Him. That is the kind of confidence and authority our Lord Jesus had!
And what was His point in this? The temple was designed to be a holy place of worship. A place where God’s people could draw near to Him, offering sacrifices and humbly asking for forgiveness. It should have been a place of prayer and quiet. Instead, it might as well have been the Mall of America. Just commerce, noisy and loud, with no real attention given to the God for Whom the temple had been built. Jesus rightly stopped this evil. Wow. That would have been something to see!
On the way home, the fig tree is totally withered and sadly, because the people of Jerusalem also bore no fruit, the city would be totally destroyed as well in 70 AD. It has yet to be rebuilt all these centuries later. I found Jesus’ discussion on prayer and believing God for the impossible interesting in that He linked prayer with forgiveness once again. We need to have pure hearts before God before we go to Him and ask for stuff!
Last of all, the religious leaders challenge Jesus’ authority and yet reveal their spiritual bankruptcy. They did not believe John the Baptist when he came. They are certainly not going to believe Jesus, the One John pointed to, either. So very sad. The scene is set, though. The leaders know that between triumphal entries and the successful disruption at the temple that it’s time to “get rid of” Jesus. Except … they won’t. Aren’t you glad, reading this, that you know how it all ends? Much more comfortable for us reading about it than it was for the disciples to live it!
My recorded verse: Mark 11:17 “He said to them, ‘The Scriptures declare, ‘My Temple will be called a house of prayer for all nations, but you have turned it into a den of thieves.'”
My response: Oh the grief, Lord! That the temple, set up to honor You and provide a place to meet You was so corrupted no peace was left there. Just a marketplace … the beginning of the end. How it must have grieved and angered You!
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Vs 24- “Therefore, I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.”
Lord, thank You for the power of prayer. Thank You, Jesus, that You have made a way for us to come boldly to the throne.
The fact that God tells us to ASK Him … in itself is amazing.