The Life of Jesus Advent Calendar - Day 18: Jesus Cleanses the Temple

Introduction

Mark 11:15–19 might come as a bit of a surprise to us. This man, angrily flipping tables in the temple, does not immediately fit our picture of the gentle and humble Jesus, does it?

What was it, then, that made Jesus so angry?

The problem lay in what the temple worship had become. The temple used its own currency, and the money-changers charged heavily inflated exchange rates. Those selling pigeons for sacrifice demanded extortionate prices, and worshippers had little choice but to comply, since these were the only animals deemed acceptable by the priests.

Even more seriously, this trading was taking place in the outer courts of the temple - the only area where Gentiles were permitted to pray. Their place of worship had been turned into a corrupt marketplace, disrupting prayer and effectively barring those from the nations who sought to come before God.

It is no wonder, then, that Jesus’ righteous anger is ignited as he sees his Father’s house turned into a "den of robbers" rather than a "house of prayer for all the nations." Those involved may have convinced themselves they were serving God, but in reality they were hindering people from drawing near to him. Is there anything we - or our churches - might be doing that prevents access to God, rather than helping people come before him in prayer?

Assembling your stocking

The templates for the pigeons are quite small, so you might find it easier to simply cut directly around them on the felt, instead of trying to draw the outline. There's a suggestion in my template of how to stitch the pigeons.

I used gold sequins for the money falling off the money-lender's table, but you could use whatever you like, or even just embroider coin shapes.

You can start by stitching your pigeons down to the top of the stocking, just under the trim - they're meant to look like they're flying away in fright.

Next, stitch down the two money-lenders/pigeon-sellers. I've put them on bit of an angle to make it look like they're being pushed back as Jesus flips the table.

Next I add the table - you'll be familiar from using the table from the previous stocking. I use a pin to mark out where the corner will be to help guide my stitches.

The final character to add is Jesus - positioned so it looks like he's pushing up the end of the table.

Finish by adding your coins. Because I'm a control freak I pinned down all my sequins first so that

they would be laid out in a way I was happy with, but please do not feel like you need to do that! There's no order here, it's just a bunch of coins falling onto the floor.

Finish by blanket stitching the back of the stocking to the front, as usual.

You can watch a brief video of this stocking being assembled on my Facebook or Instagram.

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