Tuesday in Holy Week
Mark 11: 15-19
Harriette Simmons+
March 18, 2008

Jesus’ action in turning over the tables of the money changers in the Temple seems strangely out of character. It will help us to understand his actions if we have in our minds a picture of the lay-out of the Temple precinct.

There are two closely connected words used in the New Testament to describe this area. The first is hieron, which means the sacred place. This included the whole Temple area, about thirty acres in extent. It was surrounded on each side by great walls, 1,300 to 1,000 feet in length. There was a wide outer space called the Court of the Gentiles, into which anyone, Jew or Gentile, might enter. At the inner edge of the Court of the Gentiles was a low wall with tablets set into it with the warning that if a Gentile passed that point the penalty was death.

The next court was called The Court of the Women. It was so called because unless women had actually come to offer sacrifice, they might not proceed further. Next was the Court of the Israelites. In it the Jewish male congregation gathered on important occasions, and from it the offerings were handed by the worshippers to the priests. The inmost Court was the Court of the Priests.

The second word used to describe the Temple area is naos, which means the Temple proper, and it was in the Court of the Priests that the Temple stood. The entire area, including all the various Courts, was the sacred precincts, the hieron. The building within the Court of the Priests was the Temple, naos.

The overturning of the money changer’s tables took place in the Court of the Gentiles. Bit by bit the Court of the Gentiles had become almost entirely secularized. It had been meant to be a place of prayer and preparation, but there was in the time of Jesus an atmosphere of buying and selling which made prayer and meditation impossible. What made it worse was that the business which went on there involved exploitation and cheating of those who had come to worship and sacrifice.

Every Jew had to pay an annual Temple tax which represented at least two days wages for a working man. It was usually paid during the time of the Passover. The tax had to be paid in the coinage of the sanctuary. The money changers added exorbitant fees to exchange the money. In addition, all sacrificial animals had to be “without blemish.” Huge prices were charged for these animals. To make matters worse the business of buying and selling belonged to the family of Annas who had been High Priest. The Jews were well aware of this abuse. It was the fact that poor, humble pilgrims were being cheated that moved Jesus to wrath.

Jesus used a vivid metaphor to describe what was happening in the Temple Court. The road from Jerusalem to Jericho was notorious for its robbers. It was a narrow, winding road, passing between rocky hills. Amidst the rocks were caves where the bandits lay in wait. Jesus said, “There are worse bandits in the temple courts than there are in the caves of the Jericho road.”

He was angry at the exploitation of the pilgrims. He was angry at the desecration of God’s holy place. He was heart sick at the state of the Jewish religion. “Oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!

So Jesus stood in the Court of the Gentiles and methodically plaited a whip. He then proceeded to overturn the tables of the money changers and the tables of those who sold sacrifices. Imagine the scene. People gasping at the audacity of the young Rabbi. Money changers scurrying around for loose coins, trying to upright the overturned tables. The noise of animals frightened by the uproar - yelling, screaming, cursing.

Jesus was announcing God’s new day. No longer were the Jews to be the carriers of God’s grace and love to the world. They had failed in their sacred mission. A new Temple was to arise, one not made by human hands. Jesus was to be the new Temple. God’s Kingdom had come among us.

Imagine the hatred of the Jewish officials toward Jesus of Nazareth as they surveyed this scene of mayhem in the Temple. They knew without the shadow of a doubt that they would kill this man.

Amen.