March 24, 2024

A Reflection on Mark 11:15-17

Passion Sunday – March 24, 2024

The Rev. R. Allan McCaslin

Note:  The Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ according to Mark was proclaimed at the close of today's worship service. This reflection on an earlier text in Mark was offered earlier in the service i.e., prior to the Prayers of the People with the hope that such would create and even deeper sense of the grace of the Passion Story.

Readings: Isaiah 50:4-9a; Psalm 31:9-16; Philippians 2:5-11; Mark 11:15-17

From The Gospel according to Mark, “(Jesus said) ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations.’” I speak to you in the Name of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

     It was just three weeks ago – on the third Sunday in Lent - that we heard this same story about Jesus wreaking absolute havoc within the grounds of the Temple at Jerusalem – a story told on that occasion from the perspective of St. John. You know, I have thought deeply about that story ever since.

See, this morning Holy Week begins anew and millions of Christians throughout the world will gather today and throughout the coming days to commemorate our Lord’s triumphant entry into Jerusalem, his washing of the disciples’ feet, his establishing of the Holy Eucharist, his agonizing prayers in the Garden of Gethsemane, his arrest, trial, crucifixion, and burial in a borrowed tomb. And yet, as powerful as these coming days are not just for Christians, but for all people of faith, it is this incident in the Temple retold in today’s Gospel reading that haunts me.

See, throughout this 40-day Season of Lent, we have been invited to take, to make intentional time for reflection, time for prayer and study, and try to set aside all the distractions that plague our daily lives, and listen – listen intentionally for the voice of God and then heeding whatever it is that God is saying to us, commit to amend our lives accordingly. And I believe this retelling of this story of Jesus and the Temple offers us a way to experience an even deeper sense of the meaning and impact of these truly holy days ahead us: a meaning and impact that can change our lives right now.

     We know this story well. Jesus entered the Temple grounds, saw what was going on and flew into a rage – a rage that included overturning tables and casting out those who were making the Temple grounds a marketplace, rather than a house of prayer for all the nations. And as I reflected on Mark’s version of this story I wondered if the turning of tables might be a timely metaphor for us and how we have chosen to live.

     See, there is no doubt that the intention of these merchants was to provide a service for pilgrims seeking to enter the presence of God. But over time, those tables of commerce had become a barrier to that experience of God’s presence: those tables had become a means for usury and cheating one’s neighbor. And Jesus’ solution to this blatant desecration of the sacred was to turn those tables over and restate why the Temple existed. As I reflected on his actions, I wondered ...

I wondered what tables, what barriers, this Season of Lent may have identified within me and within us. What tables, what barriers within our hearts and minds does Jesus need to turn over? We might consider those subtle tables and barriers we hide ourselves behind so that, in our hiding, they surround our hearts, our minds, our bodies, so completely we no longer see or outright choose to ignore those in need around us, those whose feet we are called to wash, those whose hunger we are urged to relieve – not just their physical hunger, but spiritual hunger as well. What tables, what barriers, get in the way not of our church, but of who each us desires to be – get in the way of our very souls – and prevent us from experiencing and then demonstrating the welcoming, redeeming, and nurturing grace of God’s house of prayer; God’s presence within us? What might Jesus desire to turn over in our hearts and minds not just today, but every day and, in so doing, lead us into a deeper relationship with God and with our neighbor, a relationship marked by God’s presence clearly and truly visible within us. I wonder.

     As we begin this most Holy Week, and we participate once again in the story of our Lord’s Passion this very morning, I invite you to join with me in asking and allowing Jesus to not only turn over our tables, but our very lives so that we become that welcoming house of prayer; we become the embodiment of God’s presence – God’s abounding and transforming presence where forgiveness, love and mercy face no barriers, because we now to live lives that embrace all who seek God – regardless of who they are or from where they have come. And friends, that goes to heart of what Holy Week is about. It is the message, hope and transforming power of this coming week. And by God’s grace may it turn over the tables, those barriers within us today, and from now on. Amen.