Mark 11.12-33
12On the following day, when they came from Bethany, he was hungry. 13Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to see whether perhaps he would find anything on it. When he came to it, he found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. 14He said to it, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” And his disciples heard it.
15Then they came to Jerusalem. And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who were selling and those who were buying in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves; 16and he would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple. 17He was teaching and saying, “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.”
18And when the chief priests and the scribes heard it, they kept looking for a way to kill him; for they were afraid of him, because the whole crowd was spellbound by his teaching. 19And when evening came, Jesus and his disciples went out of the city.
Mark has a tendency to “sandwich” a story within another (it’s called framing). When Mark does this, it is a sign that these stories work together to help us understand their meanings–they are stronger together than apart.
Jesus wasn’t just grumpy and hungry when he came across the fig tree. Furthermore, he couldn’t have expected figs to be on the tree–it was not the season in which the trees bore fruit. The fig tree represents the Temple. What was it that would not be present at the Temple? What did Jesus hope to see, but should have known better than to expect it to be there at the Temple?
Yesterday, Jesus entered Jerusalem on the back of a donkey, then he and the disciples took a look around the Temple and Jerusalem before going back to the outskirts of town where they were staying. Jesus had essentially “scoped” out the Temple. He knew what to expect the next day. Jesus was not simply having a temper tantrum, but he was fulfilling an Old Testament prophecy in which the Temple has become corrupt with power and greed, being a place not for prayer but a place in which thieves, robbers, and crooks took refuge.
Jesus knew he would gain the attention of not only the high priests but also the pilgrims and the Romans. This was not a temper tantrum out of sheer anger, this was a prophetic action to demonstrate that this is not what the Temple was to be used for–the Temple was to be a house of God, not a house of corruption and greed where the high priests and the Romans conspired to do what was best for them rather than the people.
What has gained power in our church, in the Church Universal, that has turned our attention away from God? What needs to be cleansed from the Church, from our church, from our very own lives?
Holy and humble God, we ask that you help us to cleanse our hearts so that nothing will stand between us. Convict us of our corruptions and greed, from our idols, from our addictions. Free us from those things that bind us, so that we may be truly free to honor you with our very lives, seeking your will and doing our part to work in your world for justice. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, Amen.
