The first eleven verses of Mark record what is called “The Triumphal Entry.” While admitting that a dogmatic chronology of the events from Christ’s riding the donkey
into Jerusalem to the crucifixion on Friday is not iron-clad, this week we will journey, day by day, with the Savior to the crucifixion. This morning we look at “Monday”, the day after the Triumphal Entry.
12
The next day as they were leaving Bethany, Jesus was hungry. 13
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. 14
Then he said to the tree, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” And his disciples heard him say it. 15
On reaching Jerusalem, Jesus entered the temple courts 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, 16
and would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts. 17
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.’” 18
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. 19
When evening came, Jesus and his disciples went out of the city.
The Lord’s withering of the fig tree is the only miracle in the life of Jesus that is ‘destructive’. Mark records that the next day, (Tuesday) it was withered from
the roots. (11:20) This reminds us of the parable of the Sower in chapter 4 where the exact same words are used to speak of seed that “grew up quickly, but withered because it had no roots.”
Mark will follow up this “destructive” miracle talking about faith and the power of prayer. All of this is set against the worship of the Jewish people that had become
corrupt and empty illustrated by Jesus cleansing the temple. Christ is setting forth an image of what was to become of the unbelieving church.
No man ever lived a life of compassion, love and mercy as did Jesus. When he curses the fig tree and drives out the money changers, He is only days away from the most
cruel death ever suffered. It was Christ’s love; love for the Father and love for us that moved Him toward Jerusalem. It is also true that no one ever was possessed of a purer anger toward sin than was our Savior.
What the Lord saw going on in the Temple, in the house of worship, offended Him. Is it not true that when you see selfish, cruel and thoughtless behavior that hurts
people deeply you are offended? It should offend us when people undermine the faith of another, or make light of the things of the Lord, or blaspheme His name. Jesus’ curse of the fig tree, his driving out of the money-changers, shows us the hot fire of holy
love for the Father, the church and his people.
Jesus calls them a ‘den of robbers’ which is taken from Jeremiah’s temple sermon in Jeremiah 7. Jeremiah accuse the people of bringing all their sins; their
false gods, their adultery, the abuse of the poor right into church with them! They were impure, cruel, selfish and arrogant and they thought to worship Yahweh as though He didn’t know and couldn’t see the truth of what they had become. They worshipped Him,
while despising Him, defaming His name while expecting that because they had shown up, God would have to bless their lives!
Oh, how many people today are not unlike those in Jeremiah’s and Jesus’ day! But we must not entertain ourselves looking to find such malevolence anywhere but in our
own hearts. How often do we cast the things of the Lord aside to pursue our own wants and desires? How often do we make light of our sin and live as though God doesn’t see and doesn’t know? And what of our treatment of others, our unkind words, our ignoring
needs when we have the means to alleviate their suffering? What of our treating others according to what their sin deserves while begging the Lord not to treat us as our sins deserve?
Let me share with you a story that happened in Tacoma where I was an associate pastor. There was a young woman in the congregation who did some baby-sitting for folks
in the church. After leaving a baby-sitting job for the pastor she was carjacked and kidnapped. The soldier who kidnapped and raped her kept her through the night, some of the time in the trunk of her car; an ordeal most of us can scarcely imagine. The evil
of it, the cruelty of it, the utter inhumanity of what he did, shocks us. He hoped to get away with it, took pains to hide his tracks, but he was caught and tried in a military court on Ft. Lewis.
The trial lasted but one day. The defense attorney protected his rights, but the evidence was conclusive and he was convicted and sentenced the same day. It was quite
a picture, him in his uniform sitting at a table next to his lawyer; how different he appeared as the accused than he had as the cruel, confident kidnapper and rapist of a sister in Christ. He now seemed small, afraid, lost. He’d been caught and now he had
to face his punishment. Things looked so different in the courtroom than they had that terrible night in the car.
What might have happened if someone had said to him before he jumped into her car that night, “You can do what you are about to do, but you must and will pay for
it; you will spend much of your adult life behind bars in a federal prison and what is left of your life when you get out will have to be lived under the specter of what you did for these few hours,” Had someone told him that, perhaps he wouldn’t have
done it. But he didn’t really think he would get caught. He expected at the moment to get away with it. He was not figuring on being punished for his crimes. He was not thinking he would trade these few hours for the remainder of his life.
And that is why so many people live the way they do. It is why so many of us fall into periods where we live the way we do. We don’t expect to ever have to answer
for our unkindness, our lack of love, our self-centered and proud way of life or our preoccupation with ourselves and our pleasures, and above all, our acting as though God doesn’t know and doesn’t see.
Jesus rode into Jerusalem being hailed as a king. And while much of what man does goes unnoticed and unpunished, God sees and knows that sin must be atoned for, or
man has no hope. We cannot take the sin out of our life, the sin that offends God and brings down his wrath. We cannot. But we can have our sins forgiven and have a new life in which the power of sin in our hearts is broken. Jesus has done that for us and
will continue to do so; this same Jesus who cursed that which was life-less and who thrashed the money-changers in the temple.
I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if some of those same merchants became followers of Jesus Christ themselves a few weeks or months later. Admitting that we deserve His
whip is the first step to knowing His love. Admitting that His holy anger toward sin would have been rightly meted out on us, is the prerequisite to knowing why He was headed toward Jerusalem in the first place.
Prayer: Gracious Father, as I make the journey with Jesus toward His humiliation and suffering, may I be brought deeper into the realization of the Love of Father,
Son and Holy Spirit, for me, a sinner. May I see the mercy that I might extend mercy. May I feel the love that I might be a vessel of His love. May I know the peace that His sacrifice has brought, that I might be a peace-maker. Lord, this is the week of weeks,
the days of days. Everything I am and hope to be is found in this holy, holy, holy week. Grant me eyes to see what I have so far missed, to the praise and glory of the crucified Jesus, now risen and coming again, Amen.
Hymn: Ah, Holy Jesus, How Hast Thou Offended
