Do you remember from English class (or elsewhere) what it is called when something in a story hints at what is to come later? I would probably call that foreshadowing, although there may be other terms that mean similar things. Let’s consider some actions of Jesus that may not have seemed significant at the time, but led up to bigger things later on.
Jesus entered Jerusalem and went into the temple courts. He looked around at everything, but since it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the Twelve.
The next day as they were leaving Bethany, Jesus was hungry. Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to find out if it had any fruit. When he reached it, he found nothing but leaves, because it was not the season for figs. Then he said to the tree, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” And his disciples heard him say it.
Mark 11:11-14 NIV
https://bible.com/bible/111/mrk.11.11-14.NIV
Jesus inspected what is going on in the temple one evening, and then – the next day – He cursed a fig tree. Now, this doesn’t mean we should just curse anything or anyone who won’t feed us, but there’s a bigger picture here. This fig tree seems to me to be like the Jewish people of Jesus’ day: while some were doing their best to obey God, and there were those who sincerely followed Jesus, the general trend seems to have been of a tree that wasn’t bearing usable fruit.
Note that both of these actions of Jesus in these verses were done in sight of others. The disciples were aware that Jesus visited the temple, and they heard him curse the fig tree (that is, this wasn’t just something muttered inaudibly under His breath). While they might not have put the whole picture together right away, they remembered later. While this article and the next will get into what these events foreshadowed, I encourage you to hang on to things that God does in your life, even when they don’t make sense right away. He may be preparing something greater, tying events together into a much bigger plan than we can see from our limited viewpoints, especially at first.
In the next few verses, we get some idea of what Jesus thought when He saw what was going on in the temple the previous day.
On reaching Jerusalem, Jesus entered the temple courts and began driving out those who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves, and would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts. And as he taught them, he said, “Is it not written: ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations’? But you have made it ‘a den of robbers.’”
Mark 11:15-17 NIV
https://bible.com/bible/111/mrk.11.15-17.NIV
This particular account can become a whole lesson or sermon if we let it. We could talk about how the money-changers could have been cheating people by offering bad exchange rates, or that maybe the Levites would only accept animals sold in the temple (i.e., finding something wrong with any other animal that was brought in). We might also point out [ref. Black, p.201-202] how setting up shop in the court of the Gentiles would have interfered with their ability to focus on worshiping God.
These often-taught ideas may very well be accurate (i.e., I’m not saying that they are wrong), but let’s focus today on what Jesus said: Jesus referenced a passage from Isaiah and a passage from Jeremiah. These were not new topics to the first-century Jewish nation, though, so whatever offenses these merchants were guilty of, they didn’t have much of an excuse. Even if individual merchants hadn’t memorized Isaiah and Jeremiah, other religious leaders should have known better.
Let’s look at these passages in context.
- First, please read Isaiah 56:6-8 (whether from the preceding link, or from your own Bible). While we might focus on the “house of prayer” aspect of Jesus’ words, I’m sure glad that God offers fellowship to “all nations”. Anything that got in the way of that would be a problem to God (including the person of Jesus).
- Next, please read Jeremiah 7:1-11. That’s a little longer than the excerpt I selected from Isaiah, but the goal is to give you a fuller picture of the kinds of deeds that lead to the phrase, “den of robbers”. While Jesus may have been referring to unethical business practices in the temple, He might have also been trying to bring to mind the context of this passage from Jeremiah. Consider how many of these behaviors may have been present in Jesus’ day, as they were in Jeremiah’s. God is watching!
So, while I think that it’s fine to sell coffee and T-shirts in the church cafe between services (especially when the proceeds go towards missions), let’s make sure that we remember the respect and honor due to God. This should be the case whether we – and others – worship Him in a building, a home, somewhere else, or – now that God dwells in us – our own bodies and the choices that we make about what to do in them. May we never exploit our selfish interests in a way that keeps others who want to worship God from doing so, including the act of keeping anyone out of the church because of where they come from.
From Sunday School lesson prepared for November 16, 2025
References:
- Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
- The College Press NIV Commentary – Mark, by Allen Black. © 1995 College Press Publishing Co.
Those Who Sin Differently 