Mark Chapter 11
Jesus nears Jerusalem and sends two disciples ahead for the colt. All three accounts say two went for the colt, none tell us which two. In Mark, there is no stop in Bethany at the home of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus. The shouts of the crowd as related by Mark are phrased a bit differently:
9 And those who went before and those who followed were shouting, "Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! 10 Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David! Hosanna in the highest!" [Mar 11:9-10 ESV] This is the first line of Psa 118:26.
This account says Jesus arrived at the temple, and looked around, then left for Bethany with the 12. Nothing about cleansing the temple that first night, or about teaching the people. It says it was already late when he got there. So it was getting very near evening. I think in Jerusalem, days were reckoned from sunset to sunset. (They are, because Israel left Egypt at night. It is in Deuteronomy.) 2020 - I had in my head that the versions of Jesus entry, and cleansing of the temple, were different. I thought at least one account put him cleansing it that first night, and then at least one didn't have it until the next day. Reading it in the Harmony, though, none of them say he cleansed it that first evening. Mark and Matthew both indicate that after his triumphal entry, Jesus went to the Temple. Both say that. Matthew says he healed the lame and the blind while there, that he was recognized by the multitudes. The children in the temple were saying "Hosanna"...Now I know I saw that just recently. Where was that? It was Luke 19:45 ff. The way the Harmony deals with this is to put a big break between Luke 19:44 and Luke 19: 45. What that does is leave that first evening's visit to the Temple out of Luke. He does not talk about that at all, but skips from the Triumphal entry directly to the second day, early, when Jesus cleanses the temple. Luke leaves out the barren fig tree also. Since it is a reference back to Jeremiah 8, Gentile readers -Luke's audience - wouldn't know at all what it was about. So he leaves it out. That's how it is all resolved, and it is really no stretch at all to do so. If there was a chapter break between Luke 19:44 and 45, instead of waiting until after Luke 19:48, no one would ever suggest there even was a discrepancy.
2025 - It is almost like Jesus went and inspected the temple that first night, considered all the robbery and thievery that was going on there, and the next day, after praying about it and sleeping on it, he did something about it.
As he headed back to town the next day, he was hungry. There were 13 of them at least. A lot of mouths to feed for Mary, Martha, and Lazarus. Also, they could have been leaving early for the reasons above. Jesus curses the fig tree for not providing food. I heard some preaching on this. A fig tree sometimes leafed out at the wrong time of year to bear fruit. Maybe it was unseasonably warm, and the tree leafed out as if it were spring. But when this happened, the days were still too short, and no fruit grew. Lack of pollinators at such a time might also have kept it from bearing. In any case, from a distance, the tree looked like it might have some figs, but up close, it was bare. Jesus very much disliked this "misleading" tree, and cursed it. 2020 - Matthew and Mark talk about this tree, Luke does not. Luke wrote to Gentiles. The OT reference would mean nothing to them. Matthew wrote to prove Jesus was Messiah in fulfillment of OT prophecy. He most certainly would include it. Mark was writing Peter's "memoirs". Peter was Jewish and was Apostle to the Jews. He also would find the fig tree a pivotal fulfillment of prophecy. So Mark would include it. 13 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, and what I gave them has passed away from them." [Jer 8:13 ESV] Here are some other verses from that same chapter in Isaiah...7 Even the stork in the heavens knows her times, and the turtledove, swallow, and crane keep the time of their coming, but my people know not the rules of the LORD. ... 10 Therefore I will give their wives to others and their fields to conquerors, because from the least to the greatest everyone is greedy for unjust gain; from prophet to priest, everyone deals falsely." [Jer 8:7, 10 ESV] It seems to me now, with the context of Mark 11, that Jeremiah 10 is about 70 AD, not about the Millennial. Jesus' coming was the time they should have recognized, as storks recognize the time to migrate. The season was changing with Christ's arrival, and they missed it. They didn't fly. He was the person they should have recognized. The result? Military conquest, by Rome, in 70 AD with all the horrors of the final fall of a besieged city by those who have grown to hate the city and all who are inside it. No rules, no mercy, no human decency.
He continued into town, going directly to the temple, and driving out the money changers. It also says in Mark that Jesus wouldn't allow anyone to carry anything through the temple. Never noticed that before. Per MSB note, people were using the temple court as a shortcut to other areas of Jerusalem. This was very irreverent, and Jesus wouldn't let them do it. Jesus tells the crowd the temple has been turned into a den of thieves, which angers the chief priests and scribes. They were almost certainly getting a kick back from the buying and selling, if not partners with the merchants, and they may have required that sacrifices be purchased in the temple because only those in the temple were "without blemish". And they could have jacked up the prices then to extort high prices for sacrificial animals. Jesus' words threatened this revenue source. Of course they were angry.
Jesus leaves the temple when evening comes. He apparently stayed and taught the people all that day. 2020 - But we really aren't told a lot about this second day, other than that he cleansed the temple. Very little additional detail in Mark.
The next morning (day three) they pass the fig tree on the way back to Jerusalem. Peter is astonished that it is now dead all the way to the roots. Jesus says this is about praying with the belief that what we ask is already done. Then Jesus says when we pray we need to forgive, so that we too will be forgiven. I don't see the connection with the leafed out tree not being what it appeared to be and praying with belief and forgiving. They seem unrelated. 2020 - Matthew and Mark, again, record this about the withered fig tree. Jesus answers them that faith can do this, if you pray already believing that your prayer is answered. AND, he says that when you pray, you must forgive - as in maybe use that time as a "check-up" on your own life, to make sure you are forgiving, so that you can also be forgiven. So the question is, were these words meant only for those with Jesus at the time - possibly only for the 12 and a reference to the special church-establishing miracles that would be put into their hands - or were his words also for us today? I can see the first part being only for the apostles, but the forgiveness part is a little more of a stretch...
The chief priests, scribes, and elders ask Jesus by what authority he does what he does. I think they were getting at somethings specific. Their point may have been to impugn any authority other than themselves, but they needed a target. Jesus' answer was about John the Baptist, and presented them with the horns of a dilemma. (They may have been asking by what authority he overturned the temple merchant's tables, literally, but everything else also. This explains the pointedness of the question. Jesus had "damaged" them by stopping the temple trade. Who had given him the authority to say the chief priests and scribes were in error?
Jesus question to answer a question put them in a much weaker position with the people. Enough were convinced that John was a prophet to make denying John imply that they also denied God. And this of course would devastate their authority to tell the people what they should believe.
2020 - They also challenged his authority the first time he'd cleansed the temple, per Harmony. They were angry that he thought he had the authority to tell them - the chief priests, scribes, and Pharisees - how to run a temple. He was behaving as if he had authority over them, to correct and challenge them about they way they were doing things. Who would have such authority? In their minds, only God had that authority, and so they wanted him to commit blasphemy by claiming to be God. He doesn't do that. He asked them about John, and who John was from? Because John had already told them who Jesus was. And if they believed what John said, then Jesus was the Messiah, and he most certainly did have authority over the Temple.