Jesus Cleanses the Temple & The Authority of Jesus Challenged

GOSPEL MEDITATION # 214

Mark 11:15-19 & 27-33

Jesus Cleanses the Temple &

The Authority of Jesus Challenged

  1. Find a quiet place, alone and apart from distractions.
  2. Be comfortably alert, still and at peace.
  3. Say the Lord’s Prayer. Sing or cant the Jesus Prayer
  4. Pray for family, friends, neighbors, and yourself.
  5. Slowly and carefully read the passage of Scripture.
  6. Reread it. From memory, determine the central points.
  7. It is likely that Jesus “cleansed” the Temple twice, the first time is recorded in John 2:13-22. So then at the outset and the close of Jesus ministry He protested what worship in the Temple had become.
  8. It was at the court of the Gentiles where the money changers set up shop (only the proper shekel could be used to pay the yearly tax and not the Roman denarius.).
  9. The animals, from sheep to doves (not pigeons), had to be “pure” and available, so the sellers of animals were there.
  10. Noisy, stinky, crowded—not the conditions for worship and prayer. The Gentile court had become a market.
  11. Such was not the intention of God and Jesus’ action called attention to that fact.
  12. Those who held religious authority were highly upset and thus they challenged Jesus about what He had done on the day after the event.
  13. They wanted to know by what authority He was acting under. Jesus did not answer but brought up the matter of John the Baptist whose message is best represented by the words found in John 1:19, “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”
  14. John’s ministry was rejected by the religious authorities, but he was well received by most people.
  15. Jesus then asked His questioners as to weather John’s ministry was of God or not. This question is still valid.


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