"A Teaching Act That Was the Last Straw”
- Dr. Todd R. Wright
- Mar 1
- 5 min read
... I wonder if Jesus’ movements – overturning tables and driving out people – were not just enacted parables, but prayer, … and both efforts at teaching!
Mark 11:15-18
March 1, 2026
Dr. Todd R. Wright
Holy Week is now well underway.
The donkey is back in the barn.
The fig tree is cursed and withered.
Tears have been shed over the Holy City and its inhabitants.
And Mark says that Jesus entered the Temple.
Well, of course he did!
He and thousands of other pilgrims had come to Jerusalem to purify themselves for Passover.
The Temple was where you did that, participating in rituals practiced by generations of the faithful at Passover– rituals that celebrated how God freed Israel from bondage in Egypt.
Here are the details: “Every family large enough to completely consume a young lamb was required to offer one for sacrifice at the Temple [that] afternoon and eat it that night. If the family was too small to finish eating the entire offering in one sitting, an offering was made for a group of families. It was roasted and eaten, together with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. In the Temple, the Levites sang Hallel (Psalms 113-118) while the priests performed the sacrifice.”[i]
So Jesus and his disciples had made their way to Jerusalem and went to the Temple.
What do you suppose he saw?
The Temple itself was huge! Douglas Hare writes, “As rebuilt by Herod the Great, the Temple was one of the wonders of the ancient world. Although the central shrine itself was comparably small, in conformity with [God-given] specifications, the temple precinct was immense – over thirty-five acres. In front of the temple proper was the Court of the Priests, with the high altar where sacrifices were offered. Facing the temple, was the Court of Israel, behind which was the Court of the Women. The remainder, perhaps two-thirds of the whole, was referred to as the Court of the Gentiles. In this area there was a market where worshippers could purchase unblemished animals and birds for sacrifice and exchange everyday money for the special coins required for the payment of the temple tax.”[ii]
Alicia Myers gives more flavor: “Merchants bustle among their animals, moneychangers busily exchange coins, and pilgrims peruse the stalls, bartering with the tradespeople and seeking priests to complete sacrificial rituals.”[iii]
Can you see it? Can you hear it? Can you smell it?
Jan Richardson writes about the similar sensory overload of visiting Rome, especially the Parthenon – that second century temple dedicated to “all the gods” that “became a church in the seventh century when Pope Boniface IV consecrated it as the Church of Santa Maria ad Martyres.”
But, she reflects, “the Roman churches that most linger in my memory are [the ones] that possessed a clear congruence between the physical environment and its purpose — those places of worship that were not primarily tourist destinations but true sanctuaries. For instance, the Church of Santa Maria in Trastevere. The space intrigued me from my first moments in it … [because it] serves the surrounding neighborhood as a place of prayer for the Community of Sant’Egidio[iv], a lay movement of people who work for reconciliation, peace, solidarity with the poor, and hospitality to pilgrims.”[v]
She wonders, and prompts us to ask, whether Jesus was looking for such congruence when he visited the Temple. Perhaps.
Instead, Mark reports, he found that the Temple had been made into “den for robbers.”
It is a curious phrase! But not so curious if you know the Old Testament.
He is quoting Jeremiah 7:8-11. Eugene Peterson’s the Message puts it this way:
“Get smart! Your leaders are handing you a pack of lies, and you’re swallowing them! Use your heads! Do you think you can rob and murder, have sex with the neighborhood wives, tell lies nonstop, worship the local gods, and buy every novel religious commodity on the market—and then march into this Temple, set apart for my worship, and say, ‘We’re safe!’ thinking that the place itself gives you a license to go on with all this outrageous sacrilege? A cave full of criminals! Do you think you can turn this Temple, set apart for my worship, into something like that? Well, think again. I’ve got eyes in my head. I can see what’s going on.’”
Douglas Hare elaborates: “This phrase [- den of robbers -] has led many interpreters to assume Jesus is attacking unfair business practices and price gouging. There is no support for this in the text. Jesus expels buyers as well as sellers! Although there may have been instances of overcharging, it is probable that competition from the four markets on the Mount of Olives kept such abuses in check. [The term] refers not to a place where a robbery occurs, but to the safe haven to which brigands return with their booty.”[vi]
So when Jesus uses this phrase from Jeremiah he is pointing out a perversion of the idea of sanctuary – as if you could do whatever you want and then slip into the safety of the Temple, go through the motions of carrying out sacrifice, and earn a get out of jail free card without the process ever making a mark on your heart or changing future behavior.
That’s not what the Temple is supposed to be.
Instead, according to Jesus, and Isaiah before him, it should be a house of prayer for all nations.
Joy Harjo, US poet laureate, writes of prayer:
“To pray you open your whole self
To sky, to earth, to sun, to moon
To one whole voice that is you.
And know there is more
That you can’t see, can’t hear; can’t know
except in moments steadily growing,
and in languages that aren’t always sound
but other circles of motion.
Like eagle that Sunday morning
Over Salt River.
Circled in blue sky in wind,
swept our hearts clean
With sacred wings.”[vii]
So I wonder if Jesus’ movements – overturning tables and driving out people – were not just enacted parables, but prayer, … and both efforts at teaching!
I wonder if he was praying that the Temple would once again be filled with people drawn to the awe-inspiring power of God, people who needed to be shaken out of their spiritual slumber, people who needed to let the Spirit dove (or eagle) scour them clean with sacred wings.
I wonder if that’s what the crowds picked up on.
Mark writes “the whole crowd was spellbound by his teaching.”
What does it take to catch the attention of a jaded crowd who come to the Temple for Passover hoping this year will be different?
A crowd that hopes this will be the year that the God who liberated their ancestors
from the heavy heel of Empire, will hear their cries;
that hopes to be welcomed to a place … where all people can feel welcomed;
that hopes to breathe free, body and soul;
that hopes for an experience that is life-changing!
What does it take?
Maybe it takes a Savior who is not afraid to make a scene.
[ii] From Mark, 142
[iii] From her reflections on the text for workingpreacher.org, 3/7/21
[iv] For more details, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_of_Sant%27Egidio
[v] From “The Temple in His Bones”, her reflection for Lent 3, 3/11/09
[vi] From Mark, page 142
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