This was Jesus' second messianic act that constituted part of His formal presentation to Israel. The first was the Triumphal Entry (vv. 1-11).
11:15-16 The market atmosphere existed in the court of the Gentiles, the outermost courtyard within the temple enclosure (Gr. hieron, cf. v. 17). Jesus' literal house cleaning represented His authority as Messiah to clean up the corrupt nation of Israel. Verse 16, unique in Mark, shows the extent to which Jesus went in purifying the temple. By doing this, Jesus was acting as a faithful servant of the Lord.
11:17 The Isaiah prophecy was a prediction yet unfulfilled as well as a statement of God's perennial intent for the temple. In Jesus' mouth it was also a prophecy of conditions in the messianic kingdom.
Mark added "for all the nations,"which Matthew omitted from Isaiah 56:7. The phrase has special significance for Gentile readers. God permitted Gentiles to come and worship Him in the temple court of the Gentiles indicating His desire to bring them into relationship with Himself.
The Jewish leaders, however, had made this practically impossible by converting the only place Gentiles could pray in the temple complex into a market where fraud abounded. They had expelled the Gentile worshippers to make room for Jewish robbers.
Jesus was claiming that the temple belonged to Him rather than to the Jewish leaders by cleaning it up. The quotation He cited from Isaiah presented the temple as God's house. Thus Jesus was claiming to be God.
"The third stage in the progressive disclosure of Jesus' itentity [to the reader] focuses on the secret that he is the Son of God [11:12-15:39]."278
11:18-19 Jesus' action and words had threatened the reputation and resources of the Sanhedrin members. They plotted to kill Him (cf. 3:6). The intensity of their hatred becomes clear later (11:27-12:37). Mark alone recorded that they feared Jesus. The reason was the impact His teaching was having on the multitudes that gathered from all over the ancient world for Passover (cf. 1:22; 6:2; 7:37; 10:26).
At evening Jesus and the disciples again left Jerusalem and spent the night on Mt. Olivet (Luke 21:37), probably in Bethany (v. 11).
