Mark 11: A Temple Full of Everything Except Prayer

Jesus enters Jerusalem to shouts, looks around the temple, and leaves. He returns the next day and overturns the tables.

Notice what he objects to. The traders were providing a service pilgrims genuinely needed. The problem was where they had set up: the outer court, the only part of the temple where foreigners were allowed to pray, had been filled with commerce.

The place set aside for the outsider had been quietly repurposed by the insiders for something reasonable.

It is worth asking what has filled the space in our own life, or our own church, that was supposed to be kept clear.