Essential Skills for Our Journey with Jesus
Essential Skills for Our Journey with Jesus
Reading the Bible Well (Pt. 9) A deep dive into Mark 11:15-17.
On reaching Jerusalem, Jesus entered the temple courts and began driving out those who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money-changers and the benches of those selling doves, and would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts. And as he taught them, he said, ‘Is it not written: “My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations”? But you have made it “a den of robbers”.’ -Mark 11:15-17
We have resisted the temptation to import our questions into Mark’s retelling of Jesus in the Temple. Doing so allows his story to draw us into its narrative world. Practicing this first skill enables us to see Mark’s invitation to continue reading in search of answers to the questions raised by the story thus far. These include:
Why was Jesus angry at the fig tree?
Why did Jesus’ anger intensify in the Temple?
How do the two stories complement one another?
Essential Skills to Read the Bible Well
Skill #1: Abandon ourselves to the storyline of the passage.
Skill #2: The more we know the Bible the more we will understand it.
Skill #3: Embracing the “dissonance” between the Bible and the world we live in today.
Skill #4: Ask our questions of the text.
Verse 17 of Mark chapter 11 begins to provide some answers. It begins: “And as he taught them he said…” The cursing of the fig tree, turning over the tables, and driving out those buying and selling in the Temple are meant to teach us something. Jesus continues in verse 17: ‘Is it not written: “My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations”? But you have made it “a den of robbers”.’ To understand this teaching of Jesus we have to practice our second skill; understanding the story within the wider context of the Bible. When Jesus says, "“Is it not written…” he is telling us that he is quoting from the Old Testament. He is quoting two passages:
Isaiah 56:7: ‘Is it not written: “My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations”?
Jeremiah 7:11: But you have made it “a den of robbers”.’
It isn’t enough to know which passages Jesus is quoting if we want to understand what he is saying. We must look at those quotes in their wider context in both Isaiah and Jeremiah to learn what Jesus wants us to understand. In this post, we will focus on the wider passage of Isaiah.
“Let no foreigners who have bound themselves to the Lord say, ‘The Lord will surely exclude me from his people.’ And let no eunuch complain, ‘I am only a dry tree’. For this is what the Lord says: ‘To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths, who choose what pleases me and hold fast to my covenant- to them I will give within my temple and its walls a memorial and a name better than sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that will endure forever. And to foreigners who bind themselves to the Lord to minister to him, to love the name of the Lord and to be his servants, all who keep the Sabbath without desecrating it and who hold fast to my covenant- these I will bring to my holy mountain and give them joy in my house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house will be called a house of prayer for all nations.’ The Sovereign Lord declares - he who gathers the exiles of Israel; ‘I will gather still others to them besides those already gathered.’”
-Isaiah 56:3-8
Isaiah’s vision describes the Temple as a place of radical inclusion. The social norm of his day was that eunuchs and foreigners were “second-class citizens” in the Temple. There was Biblical justification for this view. Deuteronomy 23:1, for example, says that no one "...who has been emasculated by crushing or cutting may enter the assembly of the Lord.” Isaiah describes God’s desire to transcend such barriers and draw humanity together. But we must practice our third skill resisting the temptation to overlay our culture’s understanding of inclusion and embracing the dissonance between our context and the context of this ancient text.
We seek an inclusive society that validates an individual’s sense of identity. Biblical inclusion is about the fulfillment of the promise that God made to Abraham in Genesis 12:1-3:
“The Lord had said to Abram, ‘Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.
‘I will make you into a great nation,
and I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
and you will be a blessing.
I will bless those who bless you,
and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth
will be blessed through you.’”
The theme of the entire Bible, from Genesis 1 to Revelation 20, is the fulfillment of this promise. Ruth’s story of the inclusion of a Moabite in the genealogy of King David and Jonah’s resistance to God’s blessing of the Ninevites explore the promise of Genesis 12 with an emphasis on the meaning of the final phrase; “…and all people on earth will be blessed through you.” Isaiah’s text, quoted by Jesus, continues this emphasis with a focus on institutional Judaism. He describes what should happen in the Temple given God’s promise to Abraham. In language reminiscent of the promise Isaiah says, “…I will give them an everlasting name that will endure forever…and give them joy in my house of prayer.” By citing this passage, Jesus tells the reader of Mark’s gospel that he too hungers for a Temple that fulfills the promise by transcending social barriers in and out of season. This is the kind of fruit that institutional religion should bear. But, as Jesus will teach us through Jeremiah, the Temple falls far short, hindering the fulfillment of God’s promise to bless the world through Abraham.
This second part of Jesus’ teaching will be the focus of our next post.