GREAT THINGS ENTERPRISE
CLAUDE BLACK
Mark 11:16
No Clutter
In our house, I have to go through the kitchen to get from the dining room to the den. When Alice cleans and waxes the kitchen floor, she does not allow anyone—especially me—to go through her kitchen and “mess up” the floor. So it is necessary to go outside and enter through one of the other doors—the long way around.
The location of the temple in Jerusalem was such that anyone passing from the Sheep Market near Bethesda into the upper part of the city found that the shortest way was through the outer court of the temple. The distance would be greatly increased if they went around it. So the priests permitted servants and laborers, laden with various kinds of merchandise, to take the shorter way through the outer court of the temple. The oral tradition, later printed as the Mishnah, held that no man may enter the Temple Mount with his staff or his sandal or his wallet, or with the dust upon his feet, nor may he make of it a short by-path. Mark wrote, “And he did not permit anyone to carry merchandise through the temple.” (Mark 11:16) Jesus was simply reminding them of their own tradition.
br> The word Mark used for “merchandise” (σκεῦος, skeuos) has various meanings. Lexicologists say its meaning is broad; it can refer to a jar, merchandise, property, or vessel. Many translators render the word “vessel,” but “merchandise” seems to carry a broader meaning. The point is that, however one understands the word, Jesus wanted the temple free of that which would distract attention from the Father.
At least one lesson from this incident is that when the Father cleanses the temple—the believer—He does not want it cluttered with things that pollute its purpose.
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