Jesus' teachings from Mark are part of a longer section beginning in chapter 11 that confronts and challenges the "organized religions" of his time. One by one Jesus engages in debate, discourse, and sometimes diatribe against the Sadducees, the Pharisees, the Scribes, the Herodians, and Temple religion in general. His overarching indictment of the religious-political-economic establishment is summed up when he accuses the leaders of having transformed the Temple into a "den of robbers." (11:7)

This whole section has been powerfully shaped by the 70s issues of Jewish and Christian identity. "Judaism created Christianity by pushing it out," Bernard Brandon Scott has argued. And the attempt at establishing boundaries, distinctions and rationales heavily influence the Evangelists' presentati…