“He would not permit anyone to carry merchandise through the temple” Mark 11:16 (NASB).  Some use the church to get somewhere else.  They use it for personal or economic advantage.  Some merchants even used the temple courts as a shortcut to get to some other place in the city.  Jesus saw this as a threat to what the temple was to be.  He challenged it.  The worship place is not to be used for lesser goals and ambitions.  It is not a stepping stone to somewhere else, to some better place.  It is not a ladder to climb.  It is a place to bow and worship.  It is a place of prayer for all ethnic groups (Mk 11:17).  It is a place of wanting nothing more than we want God.