Piercing the Darkness (Mark 11:15-17)

  • if you’ve been following the 50-Day Adventure Journal, today is day 36
  • and you might have noticed that this week’s assignment is a little more difficult than usual
  • we’ve been trying to represent Christ’s interests in our community, by trying to see things from Christ’s perspective, getting involved in the community, seeing things that are good and bad
  • last week our assignment was this:
    • Ask the Lord to help you express concern about something in your community that you believe disturbs Jesus.
  • in other words, look at the community from Jesus’ point of view, and if you see something that displeases him, then ask him for the strength and courage to express your concern
  • but this week’s assignment is even tougher
  • it’s this:
    • Ask the Lord to help you plan how you can challenge the evil you’ve identified. How would he have you express his righteous anger in this situation?
  • this morning we won’t talk about Thanksgiving in the message
  • instead, I want us to think about confronting evil in the community
  • would you turn and read your Bibles along with me in Mark 11:15-17
  • (Mark 11:15) On reaching Jerusalem, Jesus entered the temple area 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,
  • (Mark 11:16) and would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts.
  • (Mark 11:17) 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.'”
  • we don’t usually think of Jesus doing this sort of thing
  • we sing about “gentle Jesus, meek and mild”
  • we don’t think about Christ physically confronting that which is so offensive to him
  • in those days, a temple tax had to be paid by everyone, and it was usually paid at the time of the Passover season
  • people brought all sorts of coinage, because unlike today, all sorts of coinage were used for everyday purposes
  • however, when you came to the Temple, you had to pay your Temple tax with coinage that did not have the king’s head on it, because to a Jew, a coin with the king’s head on it was a graven image
  • money changers therefore changed the coins, but they charged each pilgrim the equivalent of a day’s wages for exchanging the money
  • in addition, you would bring an offering
  • you could buy a dove outside the Temple, but the Temple had inspectors and would always find a flaw in any animal bought outside
  • so instead, they said, “Just buy one from our Temple stalls. They have already been inspected”
  • outside the Temple, you could buy a dove for a day’s wages, but inside the Temple they charged the equivalent of 45 day’s wages
  • this so infuriated Jesus
  • and he swept the money changers and the cattle dealers out of the Temple because they were turning the only part of it to which the Gentiles could go into a shop, and a dishonest shop at that
  • by the way, Christ knew that his action would precipitate a showdown with the Jewish leaders, even though it made him popular with the masses
  • this was the way to the cross
  • if Jesus were in Etobicoke today, what would he do?
  • what abuses wouldn’t he tolerate?
  • if we are to follow in Jesus’ footsteps, we had better confront evil in society where it exists
  • mind you, it will be costly
  • but the real question is: did Jesus save your soul just for your own benefit, or does he expect you to have an impact on those around you, and the world?
  • in his excellent book The Road to Reality, K.P. Yohannan of India, the president of Gospel for Asia, writes:
    • I’m convinced the main reason why we are not impacting our generation for Christ is our refusal to be honest with Christianity. We have offered the world a gospel without sacrifice and suffering. We’ve done everything we can to apologize for Christ’s demands and explain them away. We’ve told people that Jesus didn’t really mean what He said – that they can have Christ without His cross.
    • The result is around us. We have apologetic, defensive, shallow Christians whose faith can’t turn the next corner, let alone turn the world upside down.
  • what does it look like when a Christian confronts evil?
  • Dennis Shere was publisher of the Dayton, Ohio Daily News
  • one day, the Dayton Gay and Lesbian Center approached the newspaper with an advertisement to promote a speakers series at the center dealing with health issues, and the availability of support services for lesbians and gay men
  • Shere rejected the ad and was fired
  • he explains: “I have been dismissed for refusing to run advertising from the homosexual community. I was told I could remain as publisher if I would adjust my position on this issue. In the past, I have tried to balance my Christian perspective with the demands of running the newspaper. I have compromised where appropriate without violating my principles. My conscience and concern for the community would not allow me to compromise on the issue”
  • what would Jesus do if he were publisher of the Dayton, Ohio Daily News?
  • would he accept an advertisement advertising gay and lesbian services?
  • do they have a right to expression too?
  • what is our responsibility to our employers?
  • what would Jesus do? What would you do?
  • William Wilberforce was the only son of prosperous merchant parents
  • after his graduation from Cambridge, he was elected to the Parliament of England in 1780
  • in those days, corruption was so widespread that few members of Parliament thought twice about accepting bribes for their votes from those involved in the slave trade
  • in 1785, Wilberforce became a Christian and met up with a clergyman by the name of John Newton, a former slave trader and the author of the famous hymn Amazing Grace
  • not many witnessed the horror of the slave trade firsthand, but here is what happened:
  • people were captured from tribal wars, or from jail, and some were just kidnapped
  • they were enslaved and held in a stockade on the African coast until sold to the highest bidder
  • once purchased, they were branded and rowed to the schooner waiting offshore, their screams and cries ignored by the seamen who hoisted them aboard and chained them in the stinking hold, 500 African men and women packed like sardines in brine
  • the crew of the ship would often help themselves to whatever slave women they chose
  • several weeks into the voyage, many of the slaves would be dead, and each morning several dead or near-dead bodies were thrown overboard to the sharks
  • for those who survived the three-month journey, they were auctioned naked in the marketplace to planters who would work them to death on their Caribbean plantations
  • never again would these African men and women see their homeland
  • on a foggy Sunday morning in 1787, Wilberforce sat at his desk and asked himself:
  • did God save him only to rescue his own soul?
  • he concluded that if Christianity was true and meaningful, it must go deeper than that
  • it must bring God’s compassion to the oppressed as well as oppose the oppressors
  • at that moment, all he could envision were loaded slave ships leaving the coasts of Africa, and he wrote this in his journal:
  • “Almighty God has set before me two great objectives: the abolition of the slave trade, and the reformation of manners.”
  • in 1788, in the midst of a sickness, he convinced the Prime Minister of the day to introduce the abolition of slavery in the House for him
  • and thus began the fight
  • one man angrily cried out, “Things have come to a pretty pass when religion is allowed to invade public life”
  • working day and night for abolition, his attempts failed in the House in 1789 and 1791
  • in 1792, he realized that they were not going to win the battle in the House, but in public opinion
  • he soon was able to come to the House of Commons with 519 petitions for the total abolition of the slave trade, signed by thousands of British subjects
  • backed into a corner, the House passed Wilberforce’s motion to ban slavery, but not before they added the word gradually
  • and not too long after, they defeated Wilberforce’s motion again
  • year after year, Wilberforce doggedly re-introduced his motion, and each year Parliament threw it out
  • in 1796, it looked like it would finally be passed – but the night of the vote, a dozen supporters skipped Parliament for the opera, and Wilberforce lost by just four votes
  • and so it went – 1797, 1798, 1799, 1800, 1801, and on
  • in 1804, the House of Commons finally voted for his motion by a majority of 124 to 49, but the House of Lords adjourned the bill until the next session
  • in 1805, the House of Commons reversed itself, rejecting the bill by seven votes
  • in 1807, the bill passed the House of Lords and was sent to the House of Commons
  • one by one, members jumped to their feet to decry the evils of the slave trade and to praise the men who had worked so hard to end it
  • as the debate came to its climax, Sir Samuel Romilly gave a passionate tribute to Wilberforce and his decades of labor
  • and the entire House rose, cheering and applauding
  • realizing that his long battle had come to an end, Wilberforce sat bent into his chair, his head in his hands, tears streaming down his face
  • the motion carried, 283 to 16
  • years of illness, defeat, and ridicule had taken their toll on Wilberforce
  • but as he left the House, he turned to a friend and said, “Well, Henry, what do we abolish next?”
  • sure enough, he fought another 18 years for the total emancipation of existing slaves, and also continued his work for reforms in the prisons, among the poor, and in the workplace
  • on July 29, 1833, three days after the Bill for the Abolition of Slavery passed its second reading in the House of Commons, sounding the final death blow for slavery, Wilberforce died
  • “Thank God,” he whispered before he slipped into a final coma, “that I should have lived to witness a day in which England was willing to give twenty million sterling for the abolition of slavery”
  • one excellent Wilberforce biography is aptly titled God’s Politician
  • and truly he was, holding his country to God’s standard of moral accountability
  • his dogged campaign to rid the British empire of the slave trade shows what can happen when a citizen of the Kingdom of God challenges corrupt structures within the kingdoms of man
  • what about you?
  • Must I be carried to the skies on flowery beds of ease
  • While others fought to win the prize, and sailed through bloody seas?
  • Are there no foes for me to face? Must I not stem the flood?
  • Is this vile world a friend to grace, to help me on to God?
  • God could be calling some of you to action this morning
  • the question Wilberforce faced was this:
  • did God save him only to rescue his own soul?
  • or did he save us so that we could make a difference to others?
  • God might be calling a Wilberforce here this morning to turn the tide of public opinion on the issue of abortion
  • he might be calling someone here this morning to try to rid the corner store of pornography
  • but God is calling all of us to ask this morning, “What would Jesus do?”
  • what are you going to do?
  • let’s pray
  • Dear Father, this morning is Thanksgiving
  • and we have much to thank you for
  • you are a kind and benevolent Father, who never fails to provide for us
  • this morning we realize that with our great privilege we also have great responsibility
  • and one of these responsibilities is to confront the evil that is so real in this world
  • it might be in the school system
  • it might be a political matter
  • it might be the House of Lancaster on the Queensway
  • it could be the pornography sold at the corner store
  • but you call us to confront that which displeases you
  • Lord, help us not just to hear this message and walk away without taking action
  • give us courage to confront the evil that is so present in the world
  • for we pray in Christ’s name, Amen.
Darryl Dash

Darryl Dash

I'm a grateful husband, father, oupa, and pastor of Grace Fellowship Church East Toronto. I love learning, writing, and encouraging. I'm on a lifelong quest to become a humble, gracious old man.
Toronto, Canada