HOLY TUESDAY

 Holy Tuesday

Mark 11:12-25

On Monday, on the way to Jerusalem from Bethany, Jesus came to a fig tree. He was hungry, so he looked for figs on it. There were none. In fact, it was not yet time for figs to have been produced. There were only leaves there. Yet, Jesus cursed the tree, saying “may no one ever eat fruit from you again. 

Since it was not yet time for figs, and since Jesus would have known that, being born and raised in Israel, we realize Jesus is setting up a lesson greater than the existence of figs.

Returning to the temple, Jesus took action. He overturned the tables of the money changers. They were changing money for those who lived outside of Judea so they would have the required coins to pay the temple tax.  

He drove out the vendors. They sold animals for the sacrifices, since it was hard to carry animals for a long distance to use for the required sacrifices. Both groups did these things for a profit. They also overcharged, having a captive audience. That is why Jesus called them thieves. They were also paying the priests for the privilege of doing so in the temple. It was a corrupt system.

Jesus also would not let anyone carry animals or other goods through the temple. You can imagine how disruptive all of this would have been to anyone who actually came there to pray. The animals would be loud. There would be haggling over prices. 

Jesus gave his reason for doing all this. This commercial practice was not the purpose of the temple. He said “is it not written ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? But you have made it a den of robbers”. (18)

By saying “is it not written”, Jesus was referring them to Scripture. Jesus combined two scriptures for this saying, as he often did. First, he cited Isaiah 56:7. Isaiah 56 spoke of foreigners coming and joining themselves to the Lord, who would come to the temple as a house of prayer and offer sacrifices to God. That was the ideal. 

The second verse is Jeremiah 7:11. God pointed out Israel’s idolatry and breaking of the commandments while they pointed to the temple as the source of their deliverance from Babylon. God said “has this house, called by my name, become a den or robbers in your eyes?”. That was the reality. 

Looking one verse forward to Jeremiah 7:12, we see God referring to the destruction of Shiloh, the first residence of the tabernacle in Israel, due to the corruption of worship there. 

Instead of using the Court of the Gentiles to encourage Gentiles to come and pray, the priests and the vendors were hindering the coming of the Gentiles, who they did not want anyway.

Jesus was not cleansing the temple in a restorative way; he was showing that he judged it and condemned it for the way it was used.

The chief priests and scribes heard and understood Jesus’ words as a condemnation of their running of the temple. So, they sought a way to destroy him. They actually feared Jesus because his teaching astonished the people. (18) 

The Withered Tree

11:20-26

This is the second part of the sandwich concerning the fig tree.

The next morning, Jesus and the disciples again left Bethany for Jerusalem. They saw the fig tree Jesus cursed. It had withered away. (21) 

The fig tree is a symbol for Israel, with its religious establishment. It did not bear fruit for God, it will be destroyed. It was an enacted parable that came true about 40 years later. The use of the temple as the way to approach God would be destroyed and replaced by Jesus himself.

Jesus concluded this section with a teaching that is a call to faith. Instead of looking to the temple, the disciples should look to God in prayer, believing in the faithfulness of God to answer prayers. When we pray according to God’s will in faith, he will give us what we need. 

Prayer brings us into God’s presence. We are able to be in his presence because we are forgiven. Since we are forgiven, we must forgive those who have wronged us. Jesus said the same thing in the model prayer. (Matthew 6:12)

The next morning, as Jesus and the disciples passed by, they saw the fig tree withered away to its roots. Peter noticed it and called on Jesus to look at it. 

Jesus was showing the disciples. Israel was finished as the people of God. No one would ever benefit from it again after Jesus condemned it. 

Instead of looking to the temple as the focal point of a relationship with God, Jesus gave them an instruction, saying “Have faith in God. The people of God are those who believe in Jesus Christ and follow him. Wherever they gathered was a temple, even if there was no building. Faith, rather than ritual, was the defining factor in service to God. 

Jesus gave a dramatic example: "Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.”