Monday
Mark 11: 12-21
Jesus entered Jerusalem and went to the temple. He looked around at everything, but since it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the Twelve.
The next day as they were leaving Bethany, Jesus was hungry. Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to find out if it had any fruit. When he reached it, he found nothing but leaves, because it was not the season for figs. Then he said to the tree, "May no one ever eat fruit from you again." And his disciples heard him say it.
On reaching Jerusalem, Jesus entered the temple area and began driving out those who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves, and would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts. And as he taught them, he said, "Is it not written:
" 'My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations'? But you have made it 'a den of robbers.'"
The chief priests and the teachers of the law heard this and began looking for a way to kill him, for they feared him, because the whole crowd was amazed at his teaching.
When evening came, they went out of the city. In the morning, as they went along, they saw the fig tree withered from the roots. Peter remembered and said to Jesus, "Rabbi, look! The fig tree you cursed has withered!" "Have faith in God," Jesus answered. "I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins."
Let's start with the clearing of the temple. Remember the anticipation that has built up about what Jesus will do when he reaches the temple in Jerusalem - the very center of the Jewish faith. Well they may have expected lots of things but not this.
Jesus entered the temple area and began driving out those who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves, and would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts.
Imagine that someone comes into your church during a service and kicks the microphones off of the stage, unplugs the microphones, tips over the drum set and kicks the lectern over - and no one tries to stop him! Now imagine that this isn't just your local church but the most important church in Christianity.
Q: So why didn't anyone stop him?
We have to understand this in the context of the triumphal entry the day before. Everyone in Jerusalem is waiting to see what he will do, waiting to see if he is the messiah, waiting to see if he will drive out the Romans. The crowd are behind him, the Jewish leaders are on high alert, everyone is waiting and uncertain - apart from Jesus. He knows exactly what he is doing and everyone else is just left puzzled in his wake - they just don't know how to react.
OK, so that's pretty interesting but let's scratch a little deeper and see what else this reveals - take a look at the end of the sentence about him clearing the temple.
[He]would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts.
Q: What is the significance of this statement?
Well the merchandise was to sacrifice, either animals or grain, and sacrifice was the way in which the people made atonement (quick diversion - good way to remember what atonement means is simply by splitting up the word at-one-ment - in other words making you at one with someone - in this case God) for their sins.
So Jesus was stopping people atoning for their sins at the temple - what is the significance of this? Well in the days before the temple the Israelites would sacrifice in many places - you often hear that so and so built an altar to the Lord and sacrificed on it. Well, when the temple was built the Jews only sacrificed at the temple.
Putting this together we can see that Jesus has singlehandedly stopped the Jews sacrificing to God.
That's not all though, and this sometimes gets lost in the drama of the temple clearing, but Jesus teaches the people in a very powerful way
And as he taught them, he said, "Is it not written:
" 'My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations'? But you have made it 'a den of robbers.'"
The chief priests and the teachers of the law heard this and began looking for a way to kill him, for they feared him, because the whole crowd was amazed at his teaching.
What does he teach that is so amazing? Well the Jews of Jesus' day would have known the passages Jesus quotes off by heart, sadly that level of Biblical knowledge is way beyond most if us; we have to use a Bible and a concordance and so we don't immediately understand the references. Of course we can argue that the Jews of Jesus' day also wouldn't have been anything like as good at
Let's look at the quotes in the context that Jesus conveys to his audience
Isa 56:3-7
Let no foreigner who has bound himself to the Lord say, "The Lord will surely exclude me from his people." And let not any eunuch complain, "I am only a dry tree." For this is what the Lord says: "To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths, who choose what pleases me and hold fast to my covenant- to them I will give within my temple and its walls a memorial and a name better than sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that will not be cut off. And foreigners who bind themselves to the Lord to serve him, to love the name of the Lord, and to worship him, all who keep the Sabbath without desecrating it and who hold fast to my covenant- I will bring to my holy mountain and give them joy in my house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house will be called a house of prayer for all nations."
So here Jesus is saying that the way to God is open to everyone, regardless of their heritage (foreigner) or state (eunuch). And the last sentence is particularly telling - Jesus has just stopped the Jews sacrificing but he says that [the foreigners] burnt offerings and sacrifices will be accepted on my altar.
Let's get some more context from the second quote.he Lord
Jer 7:1-11
This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord : "Stand at the gate of the Lord's house and there proclaim this message: " 'Hear the word of the Lord, all you people of Judah who come through these gates to worship the Lord. This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Reform your ways and your actions, and I will let you live in this place. Do not trust in deceptive words and say, "This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord!" If you really change your ways and your actions and deal with each other justly, if you do not oppress the alien, the fatherless or the widow and do not shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not follow other gods to your own harm, then I will let you live in this place, in the land I gave your forefathers for ever and ever. But look, you are trusting in deceptive words that are worthless.
"'Will you steal and murder, commit adultery and perjury, burn incense to Baal and follow other gods you have not known, and then come and stand before me in this house, which bears my Name, and say, "We are safe"-safe to do all these detestable things? Has this house, which bears my Name, become a den of robbers to you? But I have been watching! declares the Lord.
Check out the first part in particular for relevance
Stand at the gate of the Lord's house and there proclaim this message: " 'Hear the word of the Lord, all you people of Judah who come through these gates to worship the Lord"
The rest of the passage
Q: What do you think of Jesus' actions in cursing the fig-tree?
In his 1927 essay 'Why I Am Not a Christian', Bertrand Russell argued that a divine figure would either know that the tree would not have figs or could have simply produced the figs by a miracle and thus finds the story illogical from a literal sense, he says of it "This is a very curious story, because it was not the right time of year for figs, and you really could not blame the tree. I cannot myself feel that either in the matter of wisdom or in the matter of virtue Christ stands quite as high as some other people known to history."
I have also personally known people who used this story as a reason to doubt Jesus claim to be God - they also thought it was petty and even spiteful. So what is this about?
Let's go back to some first principles about Bible study
The Bible is consistent
The character of God is consistent
The character of God is good
So applying these to the fig tree we still have an issue because it doesn't seem like a very good action on Jesus' part. So let's see how we should interpret this story as the Bible uses many different techniques such as:
- Poetry
- Hyperbole
- Metaphor
- Narration
- Simile
- Symbolism
From the style of the writing it certainly seems like this is a literal narration of what went on, no poetry in play here. We do however get a big clue in how this account frames the clearing of the temple; Jesus curses the tree, clears the temple and then we see the tree is cursed. So it looks like it has something to do with the clearing of the temple then. And this is where is all comes together, with what Jesus says to the fig tree, his actions at the temple and the message he preaches there.
Jesus says to the fig tree 'may no one ever eat fruit from you again' - and we see that he is really talking about the temple, and that the withering of the tree is a symbol of the end of the era of the temple, both spiritually, as he was coming to replace the need for temple sacrifice and literally as the temple would be destroyed less than 40 years later. He was also announcing the coming of the time foretold by Isaiah and Jeremiah, where the kingdom would be open to all and the need for sacrifice would be removed.
So although the writer is using narration, Jesus is using symbolism - the withered fig tree is a symbol, the season for figs is over and in this case will never return, it is time for something new, a new covenant. However we shall see that any covenant needs to be paid for with blood and Jesus has just symbolically shut off the old route to sacrificial blood...
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