Mark 11:11: Inspection time

“11 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. ” NIV

On the day Jesus entered Jerusalem, riding on a colt, the people recognised that He was their Messiah. Prophecy was being fulfilled before their very eyes (Zechariah 9:9). No doubt many were rubbing their hands together with barely containable glee. This was the big day – the day they had been waiting for all their lives; the day their ancestors had been anticipating for long, weary centuries. They were going to see it.

So what happened at (11) must have come as a huge shock, a massive disappointment. Instead of heading towards the imperial palace, and tearing down everything belonging to the Roman system, and the present world order; Jesus instead turned His attention on their most sacred site and ‘’looked around at everything…’’ He didn’t destroy everything belonging to the old order. Instead, He inspected everything belonging to the worship of God. (We would always much rather have the Lord deal with ‘them’ rather than ‘us’. Let Him sort out the bad guys. For ourselves, why we’re the good guys!)

This reminds me of the picture painted in Revelation of Jesus ‘patrolling’ the churches; inspecting them. He knows what is going on. He has ‘x-ray vision’ as someone put it (Revelation 1:14b). He knows what needs to be driven out of His ‘temple’, and He is quite prepared to set about aggressive house-cleaning if necessary, for the glory of His Name and the good of His church.We need to understand that a local church is never more than one generation away from extinction. Its light can be extinguished. So, sometimes, the Lord Jesus has to reveal to us His ‘tough love.’ Remember, He is God, and God is to be feared.