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Reading Mark 11:12-19 in our Passion Week series, examining the connection between Jesus cursing the fig tree and cleansing the temple. Visit wwutt.com for all our videos!
When Jesus was on his way back into Jerusalem, he passed a fig tree that wasn't bearing fruit, so he cursed it. Then he went into the temple, and he cleared it. And both of these events mean the same thing when we understand the text.
Many of the Bible stories and verses we think we know, we don't. When we understand the text is an online ministry dedicated to teaching the Word of God in context, promoting sound doctrine while exposing the faulty.
Here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe.
Thank you, Becky. Well, if we were keeping up with our regular schedule, today we would be in Romans 3. But we're going to put our study in the book of Romans on hold and begin chapter 3 on Monday. This week, we're looking at the events in the life of Jesus between his triumphal entry into Jerusalem and his resurrection from the dead.
Yesterday was Palm Sunday, and that's the day that we typically think of the story of Jesus riding into Jerusalem on a donkey to the shouts of the people saying, Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
But perhaps you didn't get the chance to attend a Palm Sunday service yesterday. You won't get the chance to go to an Easter service this coming Sunday because of the pandemic and shelter-in-place orders.
So this week, we're going to look at the things that happened in Jesus' ministry, and every day is going to correspond with what happened on that particular day. So on Monday, this is the day after Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem.
What happened on that day? Well, this is where Jesus cleanses the temple. And for our text, we're going to come to Mark 11, and I will begin reading in verse 12. On the following day, when they came from Bethany, Jesus was hungry.
And seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to see if he could find anything on it. When he came to it, he found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. And he said to it, May no one ever eat fruit from you again.
And his disciples heard it. And they came to Jerusalem. And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold and those who bought in the temple. And he overturned the tables of the moneychangers and the seats of those who sold pigeons.
And he would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple. And he was teaching them and saying to them, 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.
And the chief priests and the scribes heard it and were seeking a way to destroy him. For they feared him, because all the crowd was astonished at his teaching. And when evening came, they went out of the city.
Now we're looking again at the events that happened on Monday. If we were in the Gospel of Matthew, it would look like the cleansing of the temple happens on the same day as Jesus came into Jerusalem.
He rides in on a donkey, the people shout his praises, he dismounts his animal, goes into the temple and cleanses it of the merchants and the moneychangers. It looks like all of that happens on that Sunday.
But Matthew has a reason why he's telling the story that he's telling and doing it in the sequence that he gives those events. He is telling about the coming of the King, who is Jesus. And the triumphal entry is incredibly significant to that.
And Jesus, when he comes in, doesn't go to the palace. He goes to his father's house, which is the temple. So it's necessary for Matthew and his audience, being the Jews, to put these things in like an immediate sequential order.
So that they're keeping in mind Jesus is the King who has come, but he doesn't go into the palace as the people expect him to. Rather, he goes to his father's house, which is the temple, and he cleanses it from those people who were glorifying themselves in the temple rather than glorifying God.
Mark has a different audience that he's writing to. He's writing to mostly a Gentile audience. And so it serves his writing a little bit better for him to break up the events and specify that this happened on two different days.
It's not that the facts of Matthew and Mark contradict one another. And you'll hear many skeptics that will say such a thing. But those skeptics are thinking from a 21st century English mindset. It wasn't necessary for a Jew to have to say, oh, by the way, these things happened on two different days.
It didn't serve the way that Matthew was telling this story of the coming of the king to specify that those things were not happening on the same day. So we if we go back a little bit, this was verse 11.
This is right after Mark's account of the triumphal entry. It says that Jesus entered Jerusalem and he went into the temple. And when he had looked around at everything, as it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the twelve.
Now, Bethany was two miles away from Jerusalem and the Mount of Olives was in between. So every day during this week, between Jesus coming into Jerusalem and the last supper that he has with his disciples on Thursday evening, every day he goes over to Bethany, goes over the Mount of Olives to Bethany at night and he's staying with friends there.
And then at daybreak, at first light, he's up and he's traveling over to Jerusalem on foot and he will go into the temple and teach. And that's what's going on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and Thursday and then dinner with his disciples on Thursday evening.
And then, of course, he's arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane. But before it gets too dark, he heads back over to Bethany. So they're not journeying in the darkness. But during the day, he's teaching in the temple here with the triumphal entry happening on Sunday.
It's already late in the day. They want to get back over to Bethany before it gets too dark. So he looks around at everything and he's already in his heart burning with passion for the house of God. As it says in the Gospel of John in chapter two, zeal for your house has consumed me, a fulfillment of the prophecy that had been made in the Old Testament.
And the the disciples remembered this later after Jesus had died, was resurrected, ascended into heaven. They remembered what the prophets had said about this and the events that had happened in the lifetime of Jesus.
So in the zeal for his father's house, he comes back the next day, Jesus on mission, and he is cleansing the temple of the merchants, the money changers, everybody who is there to benefit themselves. They're not there to glorify God.
They're there to use and manipulate the law to even make themselves rich. And it may not even be incredibly wealthy, just making an extra buck. But they're doing this for themselves and at the exclusion of the Gentiles.
On top of that, when we understand from verse 17, is it not written? My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations. But you have made it into a den of robbers. So even the Gentiles are supposed to be able to come in and offer praises unto God offerings to the Lord.
But they're unable to because of where the money changers are set up. It's keeping the Gentiles out. So this is one of the reasons why Jesus cleanses the temple the way that he does. There's some significance to that.
We'll get to that here in just a moment. So, again, he's on mission. He is there to purge the temple. And everything that happens in that mission is relevant to that. So we come to verse 12 on the following day.
So now we're at Monday morning. Now, what we know happens in the series of events is that on Tuesday morning, when they come back by the fig tree the next morning, it is withered and it has died. We'll talk about that tomorrow.
But in the meantime, here on Monday morning, Jesus curses the fig tree. The disciples hear it. Nothing really happens right there in the presence of the fig tree. But they see later that the tree is totally dead.
Why is this significant to what's about to happen with Jesus going into the temple and cleansing it of the merchants and the money changers? Because both of these events demonstrate the heart of the Israelites, the heart of the Jews, that they look like on the outside they're bearing fruit, but they're really not.
It looks like they're keeping the feast days. It looks like they're still offering sacrifices in the temple. It looks like they're keeping the law of God, but they're doing it for themselves. They're doing it for their own self-righteousness.
They think that I can do all of these laws and God owes me something. So they do it for themselves. They're not really worshiping the Lord. So it looks like they're doing the right thing on the outside, but there's no fruit that exists on the inside.
And the tree is kind of like a standing picture of that before Jesus goes into the temple and then drives out all the merchants. So coming back to verse 12 again, on the following day, when they came from Bethany, Jesus was hungry.
Guess he didn't have breakfast before they left Bethany. Verse 13, and seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to see if he could find anything on it. When he came to it, he found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs.
Now, that line in particular, that's unique to Mark, and it's caused some confusion among believers and even kind of some bait for skeptics because they love saying, well, what in the world is he cursing the fig tree for anyway?
How ridiculous is Jesus when it wasn't even the season for figs? It wasn't supposed to be producing figs anyway. Verse 14, when he said to it, may no one ever eat from you again, his disciples heard it.
And then, of course, they're going to remember that when they come back by the fig tree again on Tuesday morning. But what's the deal with this line? It was not the season for figs. So why was Jesus mad at the tree and cursed it if it was not the season for figs?
Why did he even go over to the tree to see if there were figs on it if it was not the season for figs? Well, usually the simplest explanation is the right one. Whenever a fig tree is in leaf, it's also bearing fruit.
It's true that it was not the season for figs. But when Jesus sees that there are leaves on it, he knows, well, then there's going to be figs on it because that's the way a fig tree works. If the leaves are budding, then there's going to be fruit there.
It doesn't matter that it was not the season for figs, but this shows the uniqueness of this tree. As they're walking by the tree, there's not supposed to be any figs on it anyway, but there should be since there's leaves on it.
It looks like it should be bearing fruit. That's why he goes over to the tree and why the disciples likewise would have expected it to have fruit on it as long as there's leaves, though it's not the season for figs.
So the uniqueness here is that the tree is even in leaf at all. And this symbolizes Israel because Israel is the only nation on Earth to whom the oracles of God have been given. So they are unique. They're unique to every other nation, just like this tree was unique in the sense that it's showing leaves, though it's not the season for figs.
So likewise, Israel, they have the law of God, the oracles of God, which they should be keeping, though no nation on Earth is. So there's the uniqueness of Israel in that sense. And from a distance, it would look that way.
It would look like Israel is bearing fruit. But when you get close, you find out that the fruit that they're bearing is self-righteousness. It's not really to the glory and praise of God. So hence why when Jesus gets to the tree and he sees that there are no figs on it, he curses the tree.
May no one ever eat fruit from you again. And this is related to Old Testament scriptures, for we find several illustrations of Israel being like a fig tree or even not producing fruit as they should.
When we read about this in Jeremiah 8, verse 13, it says,. When I would gather them, declares the Lord, there are no grapes on the vine, nor figs on the fig tree, even the leaves are withered. So there's the statement that there's not any figs, nor are there even any leaves on it.
The tree is withered, and what I gave them has passed away with them. Hosea 9, verse 10,. Like grapes in the wilderness I found Israel. There's a demonstration of their uniqueness. You wouldn't expect to find grapes in the wilderness at all.
But like grapes in the wilderness, the Lord found Israel, just as Jesus found a tree that is not in season with leaves on it. Like the first fruit on the fig tree in its first season, I saw your fathers.
But they came to Baal Peor and consecrated themselves to the thing of shame and became detestable like the thing they loved. And that's going on with Israel here as well. So they should be producing fruit.
It should be a good and healthy tree. But instead, they are just like the rest of the other nations. Might look like that they are keeping the oracles of God, but as is said through the prophet Isaiah, their hearts are far from me.
They acknowledge me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. So Jesus curses the fig tree, and this is before he's going to go into the temple and do the very same thing. They came to Jerusalem, he entered the temple, and began to drive out those who sold and those who bought in the temple.
He overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons, and he would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple. And he was teaching them, because that's what Jesus was doing in this week before his crucifixion.
He was in the temple, and he was teaching. So after turning over the tables and driving out the money changers, it wasn't just this thing that he was doing as some sort of act or demonstration of rebellion against the officials of Israel.
There was a point to this, and he even taught the people through this. And he teaches them, saying, Is it not written, My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations? But you have made it into a den of robbers.
And the chief priests and the scribes heard it and were seeking a way to destroy him, for they feared him, because all the crowd was astonished at his teaching. They're listening to him instead of listening to the scribes and the Pharisees.
And then verse 19, When evening came, they went out of the city. So then that would be the end. But as Jesus is there in the temple, and after he drives out the money changers, it probably wasn't a fast thing.
It probably wasn't something he did, you know, like in five minutes, and the whole thing was over. It might have been a little while. Driving out all the commotion in the market that has been set up there in the temple, which is not what the temple is for.
Now, the exchange of money is not unusual, since this kind of thing had been going on in the temple, even back when the temple had been built in Solomon's day. So throughout Israel, even after that, this was a typical kind of a business that would be set up in the temple.
And, in fact, the temple would even be somewhat of a bank. It was a place where money could be changed. It could be exchanged. But Jesus, what he's criticizing here, isn't necessarily the economics that were going on in the temple, since there always was some kind of an economic system that was happening there in the temple from the time that it was built.
And temples all over the world were like this, not just the one in Israel, but even in other nations. What Jesus was criticizing is that the scribes and the Pharisees, the money changers, everybody else, they were manipulating the economic system in the temple to benefit themselves.
So, again, it wasn't the fact that there was some kind of an economy that was happening there. It's that they were benefiting themselves with it, even to the point of selling sacrifices that were being used in the temple.
Now, part of that was okay, because we have instructions even given in the Law of Moses that if a person doesn't have these animals themselves, they can purchase them, so that they can take them into the temple and sacrifice them.
But the people who are selling these sacrifices are overselling them. They're profiting off of them. Instead of doing this to maintain the order that God had established for Israel, instead of doing this to his glory and his honor, they're doing it to benefit themselves.
And they are also taking advantage of the poor and the weak. You have that in the story of the woman with the two minas, or the two coins. She comes in and she drops two coins in the money box, and Jesus says to his disciples, I tell you, she's put in more than all of these.
That story is often used to celebrate how this woman gave all that she had unto the Lord. That's not really what's going on there in the story. This is not celebrating this woman for giving all she had.
Rather, it was rebuking the Pharisees for taking from this woman when they should have been helping this woman. That's what should have been happening in that story. So that story is not about praising a person for giving even the tiny bit they have, and then the Lord will reward them.
That story is about how this woman had been taken advantage of. She was a widow. She did not have anybody to take care of her. And the Pharisees had taken everything from her for themselves rather than taking care of their own, caring for even the orphans and the widows.
All throughout the Old Testament, orphans and widows are that picture of those who cannot take care of themselves. A widow doesn't have a husband who can provide for her anymore, and she probably doesn't even have children who are caring for her, whereas orphans don't have parents at all who can care for them and raise them up.
So here you have this widow who comes in and puts in two coins, and when Jesus singles her out to his disciples, it is to the rebuke of the Pharisees that he is doing so. She's to be cared for, and instead, she is being taken advantage of.
And that's happening throughout the temple as we're seeing that here. The general activity of the temple is for the benefit of the self rather than to the glory of God. Jesus is going to call out some other things over the course of this week, but it begins with just kind of like a general overview of the things that are happening in the temple with the money changers, the selling of sacrifices, the benefiting of the self, rather than helping one another.
And this is even to the exclusion of the Gentiles. For Jesus says, Is it not written, My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations? And this is a reference to Isaiah 56, verse 7. I'm going to start in verse 6.
The foreigners who join themselves to the Lord, to minister to him, to love the name of the Lord and to be his servants, everyone who keeps the Sabbath and does not profane it and holds fast my covenant.
These I will bring to my holy mountain and make them joyful in my house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar. Even from Gentiles is what's being talked about here.
For my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples. Verse 8, the Lord God who gathers the outcasts of Israel declares, I will gather yet others to him besides those already gathered. And that's a reference to Gentiles.
So Jesus is saying here, this place is supposed to be open to more than just the Jews. It's supposed to be open even to Gentiles. But where these shops were being set up there in the temple, the Gentiles couldn't get in.
There was parts of the temple they couldn't get to anyway because they were Gentiles. But because this commerce was going on in the outer court, they weren't able to get to their area to worship either.
And so Jesus' effort here is to restore the temple back to its function, namely that it would be a house of prayer to all the nations. Now, of course, this restoration was temporary since Jesus himself is the temple.
He is our access to the father. He is the way that we get to God. For the time being, as an act of righteousness in zeal for his father's house, he does this, but all of this even pointing to Christ, who is going to be our access to God.
And just as Jesus has an expectation of Israel to be bearing fruit, so we must as well, in season and out of season. The apostle Paul says to Timothy 2 Timothy 4 .2,. Preach the word, be ready in season and out of season.
Reprove, rebuke, and exhort with complete patience and teaching. And we have in Romans 7 .4,. Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ so that you may belong to another to him who has been raised from the dead in order that we may bear fruit for God.
In Colossians 1 .10,. We are to be fully pleasing to him, walking in a manner worthy of the Lord, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. And may this be that we're not just doing this on the outside.
It doesn't just look like we're walking in a Christian way, but from the very heart, we have been transformed, passionate for God and for his ways, not walking for ourselves, not in self-righteousness, but in living our whole lives unto the praise of our God.
Romans 12 .1,. In view of God's mercies, present even your bodies as living sacrifices unto the Lord. This is your spiritual act of worship. And remember that our Lord Christ himself has even said that we are to love the Lord our God with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength.
This is the first and greatest commandment. A second one is like it to love our neighbor as ourselves. We live in a holy and a righteous way, transformed from the inside out to God, bearing fruit for righteousness.
Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your goodness and your grace. Forgive us our sins and help us to walk this day in righteousness. May we be showing from the inside out that we are bearing good fruit for Christ our Savior, in whom we are planted as a tree planted by streams of water, which we read about in Psalm 1, bearing fruit in its season.
We do this unto the Lord our God with our whole heart. And we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.
Thank you for listening to When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. If you'd like to support this ministry, visit our website www .wutt .com and click on the Give tab in the top right corner of the page.
Join us again tomorrow as we continue our Bible study, When We Understand the Text.