Mark 11:11-19 - Judgment of the Temple

If you’re keeping track, this is the 45th sermon I preached from the gospel of Mark and I preached it back in November. This is the second sermon in Act 3 of Mark’s gospel. Act 3 covers chapters 11-16–the final week of Jesus’ life on earth. In the last sermon he entered Jerusalem on what is now known as Palm Sunday. That pericope ended ominously with Jesus entering the temple and looking around before leaving the city for the night. In this sermon Jesus enters the temple again, the next day, and this time renders a verdict on it. I called the sermon the “Judgment of the Temple.” Below is my introduction.




“This is another of those incidents recorded in all four gospels. Mark, along with Matthew and Luke, place it within the passion week. John has it early on (in chapter 2) of his gospel. While it is not impossible that Jesus did this twice, we already know that the gospel writers did not shape their gospels chronologically. That’s the stuff of biography—and modern biography is not what the gospels are. 

Although many well-intentioned and sometimes excellent synopses have been attempted to harmonize the gospels, in the end that’s not the way the evangelists intended to tell their history, nor is it the way God chose to inspire the texts. That sort of expectation is something we moderns bring with us to the text. What we are given are gospels, not biographies, and they are very powerful just the way they are written, just the way God intended. So whether Jesus did this once or twice, in the end is irrelevant. And what we believe on the matter is certainly not a test of orthodoxy.

Last week we entered Jerusalem with Jesus. He entered as Messiah—made his entrance, orchestrating it exactly so—so as to fit the Messianic prophecies. His entrance was a proclamation. Messiah had come. The Kingdom had come. Everything that happens from now until the beginning of chapter 13 centers around the Temple and all of it is significant in our understanding of the kingdom Christ came to bring, its nature, and its relationship to Old Testament Israel.

Now let’s start with the last verse we covered last week when we looked at the triumphal entry into Jerusalem. . . .”

I’ve linked the audio of that sermon below. I hope you will take a few minutes and listen and that God’s word will be a blessing to you.


Click here: Mark 11:11-19 - Judgment of the Temple


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