Court of the Gentiles

This morning I was doing my daily devotional reading which I supplement with a devotional magazine called "Tabletalk".  Today's reading was from Mark 11, the part where Jesus "cleanses the temple".  The article provided some historical context that wholly blew my mind.

"In the first century the Jerusalem temple did have a court of the Gentiles that measured some thirty-five acres where non-Jews could come and pray to Yaweh, the God of Israel.  However, the Gentiles were not really welcome there.  The popular Jewish mind-set hoped that the Messiah would cleanse the temple of all Gentiles.  Moreover, when the Gentiles came to the court of the Gentiles in first-century Jerusalem, there was no welcome awaiting them.  Instead, the court was filled with merchants who sold animals for worshipers to bring as sacrifices and money changers who exchanged Roman coins for Shekels that had no image of the emperor on them and thus were fit for payment of the temple tax.  That is the scene described in today's passage.  Josephus...reports that 255,600 lambs were sacrificed during the Passover, which gives us a good idea of the scale of the merchant's operation in the temple."

All of my life I've wondered about this passage of scripture.  I mean, there had to be somewhere for people to purchase sacrifices or change money.  So what was Jesus so pissed about?  Ok, sure they could take it outside the temple.  But, how practical is that?  With this historical context all of the sudden Jesus' actions make sense.  They are excluding people, preventing a whole group of people from worship and prayer.  You can see the mindset.

"Well...we have 35 acres of unused space, oh sure it's for the gentiles but we really don't want them there.  I mean we won't prevent them, but that doesn't mean we have to make it hospitable for them.  And we might get a little bit of a kick back from the business."

With prejudice clouding the eternal perspective people do all sorts of horribly misguided and terrible things.

Jesus was apparently full of righteous zeal not because business was being done, or profits being made.  A people God welcomed were reviled and prevented from worshiping Him so that business could be done and profits made.

I've been guilty of thinking of this verse every time I see a church with a coffeshop and bookstore in it where people can buy the pastor's latest book and a pumpkin spiced latte.  (oooh....it's almost PSL season, isn't it?)  It is a horrible misapplication of the scripture.  It isn't keeping people out...A coffeeshop actually is quite welcoming to those who don't do mornings and need that bagel and double shot in a cup of coffee (Aka a RedEye or Zombie).  Granted they'll throw me for a loop every time, but I won't be speaking out against them anymore.

Interesting that we call this passage "The Cleansing of the Temple" when the Jews would have thought a good cleansing would be whipping and throwing the Gentiles out; quite the opposite of what Jesus did.

Pax

W