The Judging of the Temple
Hey my good people. I'm at Summer Scholar's camp at SEU, and I'm writing an essay for Religion on the cleansing of the Temple. Anywho, I wanted to type out a rough draft, and I needed somewhere to store it, cause I'm on the library computers. So. Here it is, you don't have to read it, though I do hope it's good, because it's half of the grade on my final.

In Mark 11, we are presented with one of the most trivial and important acts of Jesus: the cleansing of the Temple. What makes this act so important? Why should we pay so much attention to it? Why did it make so many people very angry, and what did it mean, historically and symbolically? The Temple is one of the most beloved and revered symbols in Judiasm, ever since Solomon built it, and its history is remembered by every good Jew. The Temple was established by God to be His house, the place where He resides. The Temple is God's presence on earth and is a sign of the covenant between Him and His people. It is also closely linked with the role of the Messiah. The Annointed One is supposed to reform or rebuild the Temple when He comes, and renew the covenant with Israel and her God. Any character in Jewish history that has rebuilt the Temple has been immensely important. Not least of these, Judas Maccabeus, who rededicated the Temple after the Maccabean revolt. And yet he, who was glorified in Jewish history, was not the Messiah. That left a fairly heavy role for the true Messiah to take on. Jesus Christ became that Messiah, and he affected the Temple in a way that no one expected, and in a way that made some people very angry.

We find this story in Mark 11, Jesus has entered Jerusalem during the feast of Passover. He enters the Temple and turns over the tables of the money changers, and drove out those who were buying and selling things in preparation to sacrifice. He admonishes the people saying that they have made his Father's house a den of theives. It is a very angry picture of Jesus, and as you can imagine by how important the Temple was, it made the Pharisees very angry as well. Most people today interpret Jesus' actions in a way that shows him very angry with the way the Temple was running. He seems to be saying that he does not want people selling things in God's house, because it is disrespectful, and that is how many people take it. It is why we call this story 'The Cleansing of the Temple', because Jesus was making it clean of all the theives and merchants. But Jesus' message was not one of cleansing, it was one of judgment. He was proclaiming that God was finished with the Temple and sacrifices. But if this was so, why did he call it a 'den of theives'? The greek word that was used for theives, 'lestai' is also translated into 'rebels'. Israel has rebelled against her God, and now she was being judged.

If the Temple was being judged, and God had a new plan, what was it? They certainly needed a new agenda if there was to be no Temple. God's new plan for his people was inclusive. It included gentiles as well as Jews, and He was executing his plan through Jesus. Israel had rebelled, and had not lived out her vocation to be the light to the world. Even now, as God has sent His son to proclaim the new kingdom, Israel rebelled and failed to believe. Jesus brought God's judgement, not only to the Temple, but to Israel. The Temple was destroyed, but its vocation was not lost. The Temple was the place where sins were forgiven, through sacrifices, it was the center of God's relationship with his people, and it housed his presence on earth. Jesus became all that the Temple was. Through him, our sins were forgiven because of his sacrifice, he is the center of our relationship with God, and he is the ultimate embodiment on God's presence on earth. God's judgement had come, and his new temple and new kingdom had arrived in Jesus.