Tuesday Night Group (TNG ) Notes
Stay up to date on our weekly study of the Gospel of Mark
Mark 11:1-11 (The Triumphant Entry)
If you’ve spent any amount of time around the church, chances are very good that you’ve heard the story of Palm Sunday. The Triumphant Entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, on the Sunday prior to Easter. So, in a little different style, we’re going to study the background for this story that’s so well known throughout Christendom.
“A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…” The Second Temple Period occurred in 516 BC to 70 AD. It began when the Jewish people returned from the Babylonian exile and rebuilt the Temple in Jerusalem. The first Temple had been built around 967 BC by King Solomon and destroyed by the Babylonians in 587 BC. Solomon was King David’s son and the author of Song of Songs, Ecclesiastes and Proverbs.
A popular Second Temple Period hope was the expectation that God would send an anointed king, in the last days. A king that would defeat God’s enemies and restore God’s people, and even creation itself, to a state of everlasting peace. Us followers of Jesus call a very similar hope and expectation, the Second Coming of Jesus.
For Mark, the title “Christ” denotes royalty. It means “anointed one”. A person who has been chosen, set apart and empowered by God for a specific holy purpose. Kings in Israel were anointed. Priests were anointed. And even, on some occasions, prophets were anointed. This is Jesus’ “Triumphant Entry”, because Mark’s depicting Jesus as the Messiah, the anointed one, the king of kings.
From this perspective, is it any wonder that the people reacted as they did? By this time, in the culture of Israel, public opinion had turned decidedly messianic. Not only did the crowd praise God for the man who comes in the name of the Lord. They also praised God with a decidedly Davidic/Messianic celebration. “Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David!” The crowd had already decided who Jesus was. Now it was merely the question of how would God make him king? Would it be by the sword? Would it be by an angelic army?
Sadly, this story is tragic irony. Jesus’ unbridled approach to human wholeness proved too disruptive and offensive for those wielding power. Jesus chooses death because toning down God’s healing love wasn’t an option. Jesus can only love at full speed. This is precisely why the love of Jesus literally overcomes death itself. For God is love and love conquers everything!
Marks’ symbolic use of the donkey marks Zechariah’s prophetic fulfillment of Jesus being a king, the anointed one. For it’s clearly an allusion to Zechariah 9:9. Mark enacts this prophesy because of it’s counter-cultural image of a victorious king. Mark’s literally helping God transform our understanding of leadership, greatness and kingship.
For Jesus is both a worldly, haughty king, who can instruct two of his disciples to go and steal a donkey; and nobody stops them. While also being a humble, heavenly king, riding down the Mount of Olives, on a donkey. Jesus is deliberately doing what he’s doing, in order to teach all of us a very important lesson about who he is and what that means for all of us.
Mark 11:11 – “But since it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the Twelve.” In Matthew, Jesus goes to the Temple and starts turning over the tables of the money changers. In Luke, Jesus weeps over the city and delays his entry until the following day. In John, Jesus enters the city and immediately starts into teaching about his impending death.
In Mark, Jesus sees that it’s late, so he leaves. Basically, normal Temple operations and trading were likely winding down or already finished. The store was closing. But also, Jesus didn’t just casually glance, he “looked around at everything”. He surveyed the corruption, the commercialization of the outer Temple courts and the spiritual state of the institution. And rather than acting out of an uncontrolled, spontaneous burst of anger, he paused. For he knew it was late. Not only late because of the time. But also, late because of the hearts of the people.
Mark 11:12 – “The next day” – In the previous verses we read of Jesus’ Triumphant Entry into Jerusalem. Followed by a less than spectacular ending to the big day by Jesus simply looking around the Temple and heading back to Bethany. So, now it’s the next day. A new day. The first day of the rest of Jesus’ life and ministry.
“Hungry” – Jesus, Emmanuel, God with us, was also fully human. He got hungry. He had genuine physical needs, limitations and discomforts. Jesus is God with us, as one of us.
Hunger means to have a physical need for food. But to be hungry can also mean having a desire or craving. One can be “hungry” for many things, besides food. An athlete is hungry to win. A salesperson is hungry to close a deal. And Jesus is hungry for more than food. The announcement of his hunger signals to you and me that a lesson is coming.
Mark 11:13 – “Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf”- Jesus was hungry and when he saw leaves on a fig tree, he anticipated figs. He expected figs. He prepared his taste buds for figs. The leaves on the fig tree promised that which Jesus was craving – food.
“It was not the season for figs” – This is one of those details that early on could’ve been removed from the story. Removed to make the story more palatable, free of questions. But where would the fun be in that? This problematic line was kept, because it teaches something very significant. For Jesus is approaching a fig tree, out of fig season, expecting figs.
Mark 11:14 – “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” – Jesus found a fig tree, expecting figs but finding none. For it wasn’t yet fig season. So, he curses the fig tree. He’s either delusional, because of his hunger, or he’s teaching his disciples, and all of us, something very important. I lean toward Jesus is teaching us something very important. And it’s not that he’s hangry.
Notice that Jesus’ curse isn’t that the fig tree will never again bear fruit. But his curse is that no one will ever again eat the fruit of this tree. The focus is on the fruit. The fruit that was promised, because of the leaves, but never delivered.
In natural biology, a fig tree puts forth small, edible early buds or green figs before or alongside it’s leaves. So, when Jesus saw the leaves of the fig tree, in the distance, he expected to see the early buds or green figs that the leaves promised. Seeing a fig tree fully covered in leaves, out of season, signaled to any traveler in Jesus’ day that it had these early sustenance figs.
The tree was, in essence, promising to anyone and everyone passing by, food. Yet, when Jesus arrived at the tree he realized that it was false advertising. For the tree didn’t have any fruit. It was, again in essence, a grocery store with empty shelves. Can you smell what Jesus is cooking?
You can’t smell it yet? Well, let’s continue. The following story, in Mark’s gospel. will be Jesus cleansing the Temple. Then, upon returning to Bethany, we’ll revisit this very same fig tree. Thus, Mark’s structure, placing the fig tree story immediately before and after the Temple cleansing, seems to reference that there’s a connection between the fig tree and the Temple.
So, what’s the connection? Just as the leafy fig tree looked alive and promising, from a distance, but offered no fruit. The Temple system looked outwardly religious and grand, from a distance. But the Temple system lacked the true spiritual fruit of justice, mercy and genuine worship.
The Temple, like the fig tree, promised something that it didn’t deliver. People came from great distances, because the Temple promised fruit. But, just like Jesus left the fig tree still hungry, everyone left the Temple still hungry. Not hungry like belly growling, but hungry like soul growling. Because there was no fruit.
Mark 11:15 & 16 – “The temple courts” – The temple was organized into four main courtyards arranged hierarchically from the outermost ring to the innermost sanctuary. The Court of the Gentiles was the largest, outermost courtyard. Here non-Jewish people were allowed to gather and pray. Then there was the Court of Women. This area was accessible to both Jewish men and women. It contained the temple treasury with collection boxes. Then there was the Court of Israel which was reserved for only Jewish men to gather, observe and participate in worship ceremonies. Then there was the Court of the Priests which was the innermost court surrounding the temple, the Holy of Holies, God’s thrown room. Only working priests could enter this court. It held the great altar of burnt offering and the bronze basin for ritual washing.
“Began driving out…overturned the tables…and would not allow…” – The temple had become a symbol of Jewish nationalism, as well as a major profit center for residents of Jerusalem. For they established a system of supplying visiting Jews, as well as Gentiles, from throughout the Roman Empire with whatever they needed to make sacrifices. In other words, the temple had become a mall, a farmer’s market, a craft bizarre, a bank as well as a religious establishment, all rolled into one. It had evolved into a temple based capitalistic model for getting rich, in the name of God. Both for the temple as well as for the people who did business in the temple.
Mark 11:17 – “Is it not written” – Isaiah 56:7 is part of a larger prophesy about Gentiles who will worship God and how God is faithful to them. They will come to the temple, a “house of prayer for all nations”, to worship and offer sacrifices and burnt offerings. Yet, how can they when the Court of the Gentiles is like the county fair? The admission price is high and you can’t afford the food and drinks that you have to buy.
“A den of robbers” – Jeremiah 7:11 – The Court of the Gentiles is now filled with money changers, bird merchants and locals who think of it as a common shortcut. They’re robbing Gentiles of the space dedicated for their worship and prayer to God. They’re also robbing the customers, Jew and Gentile alike, through inflated prices. Jesus is addressing the problem of people abusing the devotion of God-worshipers, both Jew and Gentile, for their own economic gain.
Mark 11:18 – “For they feared him” – This is what Mark teaches us about the chief priests and the teachers of the law. They were afraid of Jesus. Not because of who Jesus was, but because of who they were. This wasn’t a holy fear of reverent wonder in the presence of God. This was a holy #$@&, this guy is going to ruin our great gig. Their fear of losing power, authority and money served as the foundation for their fear of Jesus.
“The whole crowd was amazed at his teaching.” – Here’s the source of the fear that was felt by the chief priests and the teachers of the law. The people were listening to Jesus. The people were “amazed” by Jesus. Which meant that the people might not listen to them any longer. The people just might start following Jesus’ teaching and leadership, as opposed to their teaching and leadership. And that could never be allowed to happen. So, the religious leaders of Jesus’ day convinced themselves that Jesus was a threat, not a Savior or the Messiah or even God incarnate. He was a man who was literally trying to overturn their apple cart. And he had to die, in the name of God and all things good, proper, traditional and established.
Mark 11:19 – “When evening came” – Jesus spent the day teaching, preaching and cleansing the Temple. Now it’s time to take his leave and rest. It’s about balance. My son-in-law, who is an auto mechanic, put it this way: “A cold beer tastes so much better, with dirty hands.” There’s a time for every season under Heaven. A time to work, a time to play and a time to rest.
Mark 11:20 – “They saw the fig tree withered from the roots.” – Fig trees are often a symbol for Israel in the Old Testament, especially when God is warning about coming judgment. The disciples might have thought of the withered grass in Psalm 90:6 or the languishing fig tree in Joel 1:12 or in Hosea 9:16 which references Ephraim’s root drying up. The fig tree will never again bear fruit. In the same way, the temple will never again offer communion with God. Not as a punishment, but as a consequence. For the fig tree and the temple both presented themselves as something that they weren’t.
Mark 11:21 – “Peter remembered” – To remember is to have something come into the mind again. Literally to remember is to put something back together, re-member. At the communion table we re-member the body of Christ. We get put back together, because of the story of Jesus and his love. Here Peter re-members the events of the previous morning, only after he sees the fig tree.
“The fig tree that you cursed has withered” – Here’s a perspective question: Did Jesus curse the fig tree or simply share a prophetic word about the fig tree’s future? In other words, did Jesus cause the fig tree to wither or did the fig tree wither because it didn’t produce any fruit? And Jesus merely called it out?
These are questions of consequence or divine intervention? Does the fig tree wither because the power of God, found in Jesus’s words that nobody will ever eat its fruit again? Or did the fig tree wither because it produced no fruit, when the leaves were present? Thus, there was a basic problem with the fig tree, that caused it to wither?
Mark 11:22 – “Have faith in God” – An interesting response to Peter remembering the fig tree. It’s almost as if Jesus is redirecting Peter’s (and ours) attention away from the withering fig tree. But what Jesus is actually doing, resulting in our confusion, demonstrates the perceived complexity that we attach to being a follower of Jesus. Our perceived complexity in the face of the actual simplicity of the lesson of the fig tree.
For the fig tree is withering because of hypocrisy. It was withering because it presented itself to be something that it wasn’t. Whether it’s withering because Jesus cursed it to wither or not isn’t vital to understanding the root cause of the withering. The root cause of the fig tree’s withering was hypocrisy. It simply wasn’t what it presented itself to be, and withering was the consequence.
So, here are some questions to ponder: Is a fig tree, that doesn’t produce figs, really a fig tree? And if a fig tree, that doesn’t produce figs, isn’t a fig tree, how can it continue to exist?
Never forget that this is all happening in the shadow of Jesus cleansing the Temple. Both the fig tree and the Temple represent hypocrisy, a pretense of an identity that one doesn’t really possess. The fig tree looked like it produced fruit, but there was none. The Temple looked like it produced fruit, but there was none.
Hypocrisy is the curse, the cause for both the withering fig tree as well as the destruction of the Temple and the system of religion that it nurtured. The remedy to hypocrisy, looking like someone or something that you aren’t, is a continuous focus on faith in God. Peter’s asking about symptoms. Jesus is talking about the cause.
Fig trees are created to produce figs. The Temple was created in order to be a house of prayer, for all nations. A fig tree, that doesn’t produce figs, is already dead. A Temple, that isn’t a house of prayer for all nations, is already dead.
The withering of the fig tree wasn’t the result of Jesus cursing it to die. It was the result of it not being who God created it to be. Just as the Temple will finally be destroyed in 70 AD. Not because God cursed it, but because it stopped being who God created it to be.
Mark 11:23 – “Truly I tell you” – Pay attention. This is Jesus getting us ready for a prophetic word. In the Old Testament, prophets would start off a prophecy by saying things such as “The word of the Lord is…” But, since Jesus is the Lord, he merely starts off by saying “Truly I tell you”.
“If anyone says to this mountain…” – There are several perspectives on this verse. All of which can cohabitate. (1) It comes on the heals of Peter calling out the withered fig tree. The same fig tree that Jesus cursed the day before. The fig tree that was withered from the root in less than twenty-four hours.
Thus, Jesus literally said the words and believed in his heart that nobody would ever eat fruit from that tree again. And it happened.
(2) It also comes on the heals of Jesus cleansing the Temple. A place that was intended by God to be a house of prayer for all nations. But, humanity turned it into a den of thieves. In the Old Testament, mountains and sea represent opposite cosmic forces. Mountains symbolize sacred order, divine presence and stability. While the sea symbolizes primordial chaos, danger and rebellion against God.
Thus, Jesus was literally giving a prophetic word about the destruction of the Temple. What was once intended to be a beacon of sacredness, stability and the divine presence, was now a farmer’s market with vastly inflated prices that robbed both faith and money from the people. In other words, a hypocritical place of chaos, danger and rebellion against God.
(3) The mountain symbolizes severe obstacles or trials, not unlike those that the disciples will face in the days, months, weeks and years to come. Both the fig tree, as well as the Temple, demonstrate what it looks like to fall victim to these obstacles. As opposed to overcoming these obstacles.
Thus, Jesus is literally stressing the importance of living a faith free of doubt. A faith where your heart, who you are, and your words, what you do, align. Living a life without hypocrisy.
What Jesus isn’t saying is that being a follower of Jesus is a blank check for you to get whatever you want. All you have to do is believe it in your heart and then say it with your lips. If that were the case, we wouldn’t have enough seats in all of the churches around the world to hold all of the people who would be lining up for that power.
Mark 11:24 – “Therefore, I tell you…” – A continuation of prophetic words from Jesus. “Therefore” connects Jesus’ immediate lesson about mountain moving faith directly to the practice of confident prayer. For “Therefore” means “on account of this” or “because of this reality”. It tells the disciples and us that because God’s power is active, reliable and capable of performing the impossible (like the withering fig tree or moving a mountain), you can approach God, through prayer, with total assurance.
Jesus is shifting the focus from simply him being able to do something miraculous, because he’s God with us. To the disciples, as well as us, being able to do something miraculous, because of our active participation with God, through prayer. It grounds our faith and prayer life not in positive thinking or human will power, but in the character and faithfulness of God.
This is a statement of participation with God. Not simply having a God who carries out our bidding. It’s the foundation of understanding that, as followers of Jesus, we’re called to pray for God to allow us to do what God is blessing. Not to simply ask God to bless what we’re doing or what we want to do.
Mark 11:25 – “And…” – We aren’t done yet. God can do miraculous things. And we can participate in God’s miraculous things, through prayer. But none of that matters if we have an unforgiving heart. You are forgiven. That’s who you are, your identity.
Thus, having an unforgiving heart, when you’re already forgiven, is like a fig tree that doesn’t produce fruit and a Temple that’s no longer a house of prayer. For if you accept forgiveness in your own life, but you don’t turn around and extend forgiveness to others, you’re a hypocrite. For you appear to be someone that you aren’t.
If you’ve spent any amount of time around the church, chances are very good that you’ve heard the story of Palm Sunday. The Triumphant Entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, on the Sunday prior to Easter. So, in a little different style, we’re going to study the background for this story that’s so well known throughout Christendom.
“A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…” The Second Temple Period occurred in 516 BC to 70 AD. It began when the Jewish people returned from the Babylonian exile and rebuilt the Temple in Jerusalem. The first Temple had been built around 967 BC by King Solomon and destroyed by the Babylonians in 587 BC. Solomon was King David’s son and the author of Song of Songs, Ecclesiastes and Proverbs.
A popular Second Temple Period hope was the expectation that God would send an anointed king, in the last days. A king that would defeat God’s enemies and restore God’s people, and even creation itself, to a state of everlasting peace. Us followers of Jesus call a very similar hope and expectation, the Second Coming of Jesus.
For Mark, the title “Christ” denotes royalty. It means “anointed one”. A person who has been chosen, set apart and empowered by God for a specific holy purpose. Kings in Israel were anointed. Priests were anointed. And even, on some occasions, prophets were anointed. This is Jesus’ “Triumphant Entry”, because Mark’s depicting Jesus as the Messiah, the anointed one, the king of kings.
From this perspective, is it any wonder that the people reacted as they did? By this time, in the culture of Israel, public opinion had turned decidedly messianic. Not only did the crowd praise God for the man who comes in the name of the Lord. They also praised God with a decidedly Davidic/Messianic celebration. “Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David!” The crowd had already decided who Jesus was. Now it was merely the question of how would God make him king? Would it be by the sword? Would it be by an angelic army?
Sadly, this story is tragic irony. Jesus’ unbridled approach to human wholeness proved too disruptive and offensive for those wielding power. Jesus chooses death because toning down God’s healing love wasn’t an option. Jesus can only love at full speed. This is precisely why the love of Jesus literally overcomes death itself. For God is love and love conquers everything!
Marks’ symbolic use of the donkey marks Zechariah’s prophetic fulfillment of Jesus being a king, the anointed one. For it’s clearly an allusion to Zechariah 9:9. Mark enacts this prophesy because of it’s counter-cultural image of a victorious king. Mark’s literally helping God transform our understanding of leadership, greatness and kingship.
For Jesus is both a worldly, haughty king, who can instruct two of his disciples to go and steal a donkey; and nobody stops them. While also being a humble, heavenly king, riding down the Mount of Olives, on a donkey. Jesus is deliberately doing what he’s doing, in order to teach all of us a very important lesson about who he is and what that means for all of us.
Mark 11:11 – “But since it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the Twelve.” In Matthew, Jesus goes to the Temple and starts turning over the tables of the money changers. In Luke, Jesus weeps over the city and delays his entry until the following day. In John, Jesus enters the city and immediately starts into teaching about his impending death.
In Mark, Jesus sees that it’s late, so he leaves. Basically, normal Temple operations and trading were likely winding down or already finished. The store was closing. But also, Jesus didn’t just casually glance, he “looked around at everything”. He surveyed the corruption, the commercialization of the outer Temple courts and the spiritual state of the institution. And rather than acting out of an uncontrolled, spontaneous burst of anger, he paused. For he knew it was late. Not only late because of the time. But also, late because of the hearts of the people.
Mark 11:12 – “The next day” – In the previous verses we read of Jesus’ Triumphant Entry into Jerusalem. Followed by a less than spectacular ending to the big day by Jesus simply looking around the Temple and heading back to Bethany. So, now it’s the next day. A new day. The first day of the rest of Jesus’ life and ministry.
“Hungry” – Jesus, Emmanuel, God with us, was also fully human. He got hungry. He had genuine physical needs, limitations and discomforts. Jesus is God with us, as one of us.
Hunger means to have a physical need for food. But to be hungry can also mean having a desire or craving. One can be “hungry” for many things, besides food. An athlete is hungry to win. A salesperson is hungry to close a deal. And Jesus is hungry for more than food. The announcement of his hunger signals to you and me that a lesson is coming.
Mark 11:13 – “Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf”- Jesus was hungry and when he saw leaves on a fig tree, he anticipated figs. He expected figs. He prepared his taste buds for figs. The leaves on the fig tree promised that which Jesus was craving – food.
“It was not the season for figs” – This is one of those details that early on could’ve been removed from the story. Removed to make the story more palatable, free of questions. But where would the fun be in that? This problematic line was kept, because it teaches something very significant. For Jesus is approaching a fig tree, out of fig season, expecting figs.
Mark 11:14 – “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” – Jesus found a fig tree, expecting figs but finding none. For it wasn’t yet fig season. So, he curses the fig tree. He’s either delusional, because of his hunger, or he’s teaching his disciples, and all of us, something very important. I lean toward Jesus is teaching us something very important. And it’s not that he’s hangry.
Notice that Jesus’ curse isn’t that the fig tree will never again bear fruit. But his curse is that no one will ever again eat the fruit of this tree. The focus is on the fruit. The fruit that was promised, because of the leaves, but never delivered.
In natural biology, a fig tree puts forth small, edible early buds or green figs before or alongside it’s leaves. So, when Jesus saw the leaves of the fig tree, in the distance, he expected to see the early buds or green figs that the leaves promised. Seeing a fig tree fully covered in leaves, out of season, signaled to any traveler in Jesus’ day that it had these early sustenance figs.
The tree was, in essence, promising to anyone and everyone passing by, food. Yet, when Jesus arrived at the tree he realized that it was false advertising. For the tree didn’t have any fruit. It was, again in essence, a grocery store with empty shelves. Can you smell what Jesus is cooking?
You can’t smell it yet? Well, let’s continue. The following story, in Mark’s gospel. will be Jesus cleansing the Temple. Then, upon returning to Bethany, we’ll revisit this very same fig tree. Thus, Mark’s structure, placing the fig tree story immediately before and after the Temple cleansing, seems to reference that there’s a connection between the fig tree and the Temple.
So, what’s the connection? Just as the leafy fig tree looked alive and promising, from a distance, but offered no fruit. The Temple system looked outwardly religious and grand, from a distance. But the Temple system lacked the true spiritual fruit of justice, mercy and genuine worship.
The Temple, like the fig tree, promised something that it didn’t deliver. People came from great distances, because the Temple promised fruit. But, just like Jesus left the fig tree still hungry, everyone left the Temple still hungry. Not hungry like belly growling, but hungry like soul growling. Because there was no fruit.
Mark 11:15 & 16 – “The temple courts” – The temple was organized into four main courtyards arranged hierarchically from the outermost ring to the innermost sanctuary. The Court of the Gentiles was the largest, outermost courtyard. Here non-Jewish people were allowed to gather and pray. Then there was the Court of Women. This area was accessible to both Jewish men and women. It contained the temple treasury with collection boxes. Then there was the Court of Israel which was reserved for only Jewish men to gather, observe and participate in worship ceremonies. Then there was the Court of the Priests which was the innermost court surrounding the temple, the Holy of Holies, God’s thrown room. Only working priests could enter this court. It held the great altar of burnt offering and the bronze basin for ritual washing.
“Began driving out…overturned the tables…and would not allow…” – The temple had become a symbol of Jewish nationalism, as well as a major profit center for residents of Jerusalem. For they established a system of supplying visiting Jews, as well as Gentiles, from throughout the Roman Empire with whatever they needed to make sacrifices. In other words, the temple had become a mall, a farmer’s market, a craft bizarre, a bank as well as a religious establishment, all rolled into one. It had evolved into a temple based capitalistic model for getting rich, in the name of God. Both for the temple as well as for the people who did business in the temple.
Mark 11:17 – “Is it not written” – Isaiah 56:7 is part of a larger prophesy about Gentiles who will worship God and how God is faithful to them. They will come to the temple, a “house of prayer for all nations”, to worship and offer sacrifices and burnt offerings. Yet, how can they when the Court of the Gentiles is like the county fair? The admission price is high and you can’t afford the food and drinks that you have to buy.
“A den of robbers” – Jeremiah 7:11 – The Court of the Gentiles is now filled with money changers, bird merchants and locals who think of it as a common shortcut. They’re robbing Gentiles of the space dedicated for their worship and prayer to God. They’re also robbing the customers, Jew and Gentile alike, through inflated prices. Jesus is addressing the problem of people abusing the devotion of God-worshipers, both Jew and Gentile, for their own economic gain.
Mark 11:18 – “For they feared him” – This is what Mark teaches us about the chief priests and the teachers of the law. They were afraid of Jesus. Not because of who Jesus was, but because of who they were. This wasn’t a holy fear of reverent wonder in the presence of God. This was a holy #$@&, this guy is going to ruin our great gig. Their fear of losing power, authority and money served as the foundation for their fear of Jesus.
“The whole crowd was amazed at his teaching.” – Here’s the source of the fear that was felt by the chief priests and the teachers of the law. The people were listening to Jesus. The people were “amazed” by Jesus. Which meant that the people might not listen to them any longer. The people just might start following Jesus’ teaching and leadership, as opposed to their teaching and leadership. And that could never be allowed to happen. So, the religious leaders of Jesus’ day convinced themselves that Jesus was a threat, not a Savior or the Messiah or even God incarnate. He was a man who was literally trying to overturn their apple cart. And he had to die, in the name of God and all things good, proper, traditional and established.
Mark 11:19 – “When evening came” – Jesus spent the day teaching, preaching and cleansing the Temple. Now it’s time to take his leave and rest. It’s about balance. My son-in-law, who is an auto mechanic, put it this way: “A cold beer tastes so much better, with dirty hands.” There’s a time for every season under Heaven. A time to work, a time to play and a time to rest.
Mark 11:20 – “They saw the fig tree withered from the roots.” – Fig trees are often a symbol for Israel in the Old Testament, especially when God is warning about coming judgment. The disciples might have thought of the withered grass in Psalm 90:6 or the languishing fig tree in Joel 1:12 or in Hosea 9:16 which references Ephraim’s root drying up. The fig tree will never again bear fruit. In the same way, the temple will never again offer communion with God. Not as a punishment, but as a consequence. For the fig tree and the temple both presented themselves as something that they weren’t.
Mark 11:21 – “Peter remembered” – To remember is to have something come into the mind again. Literally to remember is to put something back together, re-member. At the communion table we re-member the body of Christ. We get put back together, because of the story of Jesus and his love. Here Peter re-members the events of the previous morning, only after he sees the fig tree.
“The fig tree that you cursed has withered” – Here’s a perspective question: Did Jesus curse the fig tree or simply share a prophetic word about the fig tree’s future? In other words, did Jesus cause the fig tree to wither or did the fig tree wither because it didn’t produce any fruit? And Jesus merely called it out?
These are questions of consequence or divine intervention? Does the fig tree wither because the power of God, found in Jesus’s words that nobody will ever eat its fruit again? Or did the fig tree wither because it produced no fruit, when the leaves were present? Thus, there was a basic problem with the fig tree, that caused it to wither?
Mark 11:22 – “Have faith in God” – An interesting response to Peter remembering the fig tree. It’s almost as if Jesus is redirecting Peter’s (and ours) attention away from the withering fig tree. But what Jesus is actually doing, resulting in our confusion, demonstrates the perceived complexity that we attach to being a follower of Jesus. Our perceived complexity in the face of the actual simplicity of the lesson of the fig tree.
For the fig tree is withering because of hypocrisy. It was withering because it presented itself to be something that it wasn’t. Whether it’s withering because Jesus cursed it to wither or not isn’t vital to understanding the root cause of the withering. The root cause of the fig tree’s withering was hypocrisy. It simply wasn’t what it presented itself to be, and withering was the consequence.
So, here are some questions to ponder: Is a fig tree, that doesn’t produce figs, really a fig tree? And if a fig tree, that doesn’t produce figs, isn’t a fig tree, how can it continue to exist?
Never forget that this is all happening in the shadow of Jesus cleansing the Temple. Both the fig tree and the Temple represent hypocrisy, a pretense of an identity that one doesn’t really possess. The fig tree looked like it produced fruit, but there was none. The Temple looked like it produced fruit, but there was none.
Hypocrisy is the curse, the cause for both the withering fig tree as well as the destruction of the Temple and the system of religion that it nurtured. The remedy to hypocrisy, looking like someone or something that you aren’t, is a continuous focus on faith in God. Peter’s asking about symptoms. Jesus is talking about the cause.
Fig trees are created to produce figs. The Temple was created in order to be a house of prayer, for all nations. A fig tree, that doesn’t produce figs, is already dead. A Temple, that isn’t a house of prayer for all nations, is already dead.
The withering of the fig tree wasn’t the result of Jesus cursing it to die. It was the result of it not being who God created it to be. Just as the Temple will finally be destroyed in 70 AD. Not because God cursed it, but because it stopped being who God created it to be.
Mark 11:23 – “Truly I tell you” – Pay attention. This is Jesus getting us ready for a prophetic word. In the Old Testament, prophets would start off a prophecy by saying things such as “The word of the Lord is…” But, since Jesus is the Lord, he merely starts off by saying “Truly I tell you”.
“If anyone says to this mountain…” – There are several perspectives on this verse. All of which can cohabitate. (1) It comes on the heals of Peter calling out the withered fig tree. The same fig tree that Jesus cursed the day before. The fig tree that was withered from the root in less than twenty-four hours.
Thus, Jesus literally said the words and believed in his heart that nobody would ever eat fruit from that tree again. And it happened.
(2) It also comes on the heals of Jesus cleansing the Temple. A place that was intended by God to be a house of prayer for all nations. But, humanity turned it into a den of thieves. In the Old Testament, mountains and sea represent opposite cosmic forces. Mountains symbolize sacred order, divine presence and stability. While the sea symbolizes primordial chaos, danger and rebellion against God.
Thus, Jesus was literally giving a prophetic word about the destruction of the Temple. What was once intended to be a beacon of sacredness, stability and the divine presence, was now a farmer’s market with vastly inflated prices that robbed both faith and money from the people. In other words, a hypocritical place of chaos, danger and rebellion against God.
(3) The mountain symbolizes severe obstacles or trials, not unlike those that the disciples will face in the days, months, weeks and years to come. Both the fig tree, as well as the Temple, demonstrate what it looks like to fall victim to these obstacles. As opposed to overcoming these obstacles.
Thus, Jesus is literally stressing the importance of living a faith free of doubt. A faith where your heart, who you are, and your words, what you do, align. Living a life without hypocrisy.
What Jesus isn’t saying is that being a follower of Jesus is a blank check for you to get whatever you want. All you have to do is believe it in your heart and then say it with your lips. If that were the case, we wouldn’t have enough seats in all of the churches around the world to hold all of the people who would be lining up for that power.
Mark 11:24 – “Therefore, I tell you…” – A continuation of prophetic words from Jesus. “Therefore” connects Jesus’ immediate lesson about mountain moving faith directly to the practice of confident prayer. For “Therefore” means “on account of this” or “because of this reality”. It tells the disciples and us that because God’s power is active, reliable and capable of performing the impossible (like the withering fig tree or moving a mountain), you can approach God, through prayer, with total assurance.
Jesus is shifting the focus from simply him being able to do something miraculous, because he’s God with us. To the disciples, as well as us, being able to do something miraculous, because of our active participation with God, through prayer. It grounds our faith and prayer life not in positive thinking or human will power, but in the character and faithfulness of God.
This is a statement of participation with God. Not simply having a God who carries out our bidding. It’s the foundation of understanding that, as followers of Jesus, we’re called to pray for God to allow us to do what God is blessing. Not to simply ask God to bless what we’re doing or what we want to do.
Mark 11:25 – “And…” – We aren’t done yet. God can do miraculous things. And we can participate in God’s miraculous things, through prayer. But none of that matters if we have an unforgiving heart. You are forgiven. That’s who you are, your identity.
Thus, having an unforgiving heart, when you’re already forgiven, is like a fig tree that doesn’t produce fruit and a Temple that’s no longer a house of prayer. For if you accept forgiveness in your own life, but you don’t turn around and extend forgiveness to others, you’re a hypocrite. For you appear to be someone that you aren’t.
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