Reader’s Guide: “The Word for Today” Wednesday, January 15, 2014 Read Mark 11:15-19 In Mark’s gospel Jesus cleanses the Temple mostly because the religious leaders who have violated the people are using it as a hideout. It is a den of thieves. It is not so much that they are using the Temple wrongly to provide sacrificial animals and to exchange pagan coins for Jewish coins than that the Temple has become the lair of the religious authorities who have laid heavy burdens on the people. The sacrificial system that had built up over time had overshadowed the mercy of God. What upset Jesus is that the purpose of God’s Temple – an instrument of prayer for all the nations had become an exclusive haunt inaccessible to most. So, it must be destroyed. The two verses of the OT that Mark lifts into the story are from Isaiah and Jeremiah – God meant the Temple to be house of prayer for all nations (Isaiah) but they have made it into a den or robbers (Jeremiah). As we compare Mark’s rendition with John’s we discover that in John’s story Jesus boldly proclaims, “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.” That is missing from Mark. In fact, one of the false accusations brought against Jesus in his trial, according to Mark, is that he claimed exactly what John has recorded. Mark rejects the accusation as false. This is an interesting difference. Of course John goes on to explain that Jesus was not speaking literally about the physical Temple but about his own body. Remember, Jesus replaces the Temple in John’s understanding. But it is interesting that the very accusation Mark calls false is the claim John says Jesus made. Again it is impossible to determine where the “historical” truth lies and it doesn’t really matter as long as we are attempting to hear each gospel writer on their own.