Mark 11 records Jesus cleansing of the temple. People were turning worship into an enterprise of commercial profit, and Jesus is angry: “Is it not written: ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations’[c]? But you have made it ‘a den of robbers” (a bringing together of Isaiah 56:7 and Jeremiah 7:11).
The church is a microcosm of what God desires to see in the world. The day of Pentecost (Acts 2) saw people from many different tribes and tongues gather as one, understanding in their own tongue the amazing deeds of God.
This reversed the dispersion that occurred at the tower of Babel, when people sought to usurp God through their tower to the heavens (Genesis 11). There was confusion of languages and separation. It was God’s way of countering human pride. Pride always leads to a fall.
The splintering of nations and peoples continues today. Ethnic conflict is rife. Confusion is endemic. Nations struggle to live beside other nations. Everyone believes their own way is the best.
But God has another plan, another purpose. The desire of God is to bring peoples together, under Him, for only under Him can we come together, and leave differences behind. That’s why the church is a microcosm of what God wants to see. “There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all” (Ephesians 4:4-6).
God desires a house of prayer for all nations, not a den of robbers! People of different backgrounds, races, cultures, can only come together in a prayerful spirit, recognising that which binds them together is greater than that which separates. The blood of the cross is greater than the gun or the sword. This is not always easy, but then that is the task of Christian community.
Our 40 day pilgrimage is a journey with others, of every tribe and tongue. May we celebrate the degree to which we are a church of all nations, and may we be a microcosm of God’s plan of reconciliation between all people, for the sake of the world.