Mark 11:1-14;20-21 (Wednesday Evening Bible Study)

Mark 11:1-14;20-21

• Mark 11:1-6
• When they approached Jerusalem, at Bethphage and Bethany near the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples 2 and told them, “Go into the village ahead of you. As soon as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, on which no one has ever sat. Untie it and bring it. 3 If anyone says to you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ say, ‘The Lord needs it and will send it back here right away.’” 4 So they went and found a colt outside in the street, tied by a door. They untied it, 5 and some of those standing there said to them, “What are you doing, untying the colt?” 6 They answered them just as Jesus had said; so they let them go.
  • We have come to the last stage of the journey
    • There had been the withdrawal to the north, to the territory around Caesarea Philippi
    • There had been the journey south, with a brief stop in Galilee
    • There had been the way to Judaea and the time in the hill country and beyond the Jordan
    • There had been the road through Jericho
    • Now comes Jerusalem
  • We have to note something without which the story is almost unintelligible
    • When we read the first three gospels, we get the idea that this was actually Jesus’ first visit to Jerusalem
      • The gospels, however, are short, and crammed into them is the work of three years
    • John’s gospel we find Jesus frequently in Jerusalem. In fact we find that He regularly went up to Jerusalem for the great feasts
    • The first three gospels are specially interested in the Galilean ministry
    • John is interested in the ministry in Judea
    • The first three all of indications that Jesus was frequently in Jerusalem as well
      • There is His close friendship with Lazarus, Martha, and Mary at Bethany, which speaks of many visits
      • There is the fact that Joseph of Arimathea was Hi secret friend
      • Jesus’ own words in Matthew 23:37
        • 37 “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her. How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!
        • Jesus could not have said that unless there had previously been more than one appeal which had been met with a cold response
      • This is one explanation of the incident with the colt
        • Jesus did not leave things until the last moment
        • He knew what He was going to do and possibly long ago, He had made arrangements with a friend
        • The disciples being sent ahead may have been pre-arranged
        • In any case, this was not a sudden, reckless decision of Jesus. It was something to which all His life had been building up
  • Bethphage and Bethany were villages near Jerusalem
    • Bethphage means house of figs
    • Bethany means house of dates
    • Jewish lawed that Bethphage was one of the circle of villages which makes the limit of a Sabbath day’s journey, less than a mile
    • Bethany was one of the recognized lodging places for pilgrims to the Passover when Jerusalem was full
  • When words failed to move people the prophets of old idd something dramatic as if to say “If you will not hear, you must be compelled to see”
    • These dramatic actions were what we might call acted warnings or dramatic sermons
    • Jesus’ action was a deliberate dramatic claim to be the Messiah
      • But we must be careful to note just what He was doing
      • Zechariah 9:9
        • Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion! Shout in triumph, Daughter Jerusalem! Look, your King is coming to you; he is righteous and victorious, humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
      • The whole impact s that the King was coming in peace
      • In Palestine the donkey was not a despised animal, but a noble one
      • When a king went to war he rode on a horse, when he came in peace he rode on a donkey
      • In the time of Jesus, a donkey was the animal used to bear kings
      • But we must note what kind of a King Jesus was claiming to be
        • He came meek and lowly
        • He came in peace and for peace
        • They greeted Him as the Son of David, but they did not understand
        • They were looking for a king who would shatter and smash and break
        • Jesus knew it—and He came meek and lowly, riding on a donkey
  • When Jesus rode into Jerusalem that day, he claimed to be King, but He claimed to be King of peace
  • His actions were a contradiction of everything that was hoped for and expected
• Mark 11:7-10
• 7 They brought the colt to Jesus and threw their clothes on it, and he sat on it. 8 Many people spread their clothes on the road, and others spread leafy branches cut from the fields. 9 Those who went ahead and those who followed shouted: 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 heaven!
  • The colt they brought Jesus had never been ridden
  • That was fitting, for an animal to be used for a sacred purpose must never have been used for any other purpose
    • It was so with the red heifer whose ashes cleansed from pollution (Numbers 19; Deuteronomy 21)
  • The whole picture is of a people who misunderstood
    • It shows a crowd thinking of kingship in the terms of conquest in which they had thought of it for so long
      • It is reminiscent of how Simon Maccabaeus entered Jerusalem 150 years before, after he had blasted Israel’s enemies in battle
      • It was a conqueror’s welcome they sought to give Jesus, but they never dreamed of the kind of conqueror He wished to be
    • The very shouts the crowd raised to Jesus showed how their thoughts were running
      • When they spread their garments on the ground before Him, they did exactly what the crowd did when the man of blood, Jehu, was anointed king (II Kings 9)
      • They shouted “Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!” Which is a quotation from Psalm 118:26, and should read a little differently, “Blessed in the name of the Lord is the one who is coming”
      • There are three things to note about that shout
        • It was the regular greeting with which pilgrims were addressed when they reached the Temple on the occasion of the great feasts
        • The one who comes was another name for the Messiah. When the Jews spoke about the Messiah, they talked of Him as the One who is coming
        • But it is the whole origin of the Psalm from which the words come that makes them supremely suggestive
          • 167 B.C. Syrian king Antiochus conceived it his duty to be a missionary of Hellenism and to introduce the Greek way of life, Greek thought, and Greek religion wherever he could, even by force
            • He tried to do this in Palestine
            • To possess the law or circumcised a child were crimes punishable by death
            • He desecrated the Temple courts
            • Instituted the worship of Zeus in the Temple
            • Opened brothels in the chambers around the Temple
            • Offered pig’s flesh on the great altar of the burnt offering
            • He did everything he could to wipe out the Jewish faith
          • It was then that Judas Maccabaeus arose; and after an amazing career of conquest, in 163 B.C. he drove Antiochus out and repurified and reconsecrated the Temple, an even which the Feast of the Dedication, or the Feast of Hanukkah, still commemorates
          • And in all probability Psalm 118 was written to commemorate that great day of purification and the battle which Judas Maccabaeus won
          • It is a conqueror’s psalm
  • Again and again we see the same thing happening in this incident
    • Jesus had claimed to be the Messiah, but in such a way as to try to show that the popular ideas of the Messiah were misguided
    • But the people could not see it Their welcome was one which befitted not the King of love but the conqueror who would shatter the enemies of Israel
      • In verses 9 and 10 there is the word Hosanna
      • The word is consistently misunderstood
      • It is quoted and used as if it meant praise; but it is a simple transliteration of the Hebrew for “Save now!” It occurs in exactly the same form in II Samuel 14:4 and II Kings 6:26, where it is used by people seeking for help and protection at the hands of the king
      • When the people shouted Hosanna it was not a cry of praise to Jesus, which it often sound like when we quote it
      • It was a cry to God to break in and save His people not that the Messiah had come
  • No incident shows the sheer courage of Jesus as this does
    • In the circumstances one might have expected Him to enter Jerusalem secretly and to keep hidden from the authorities who were out to destroy Him
    • Instead He entered in such a way that the attention of every eye was focused upon Him
    • One of the most dangerous things that anyone can do is to go to people and tell them that all their accepted ideas are wrong
    • Here see Jesus making the last appeal of love and making it with a courage that is heroic
• Mark 11:11
• 11 He went into Jerusalem and into the temple. After looking around at everything, since it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the Twelve.
  • This simple verse shows us two things about Jesus which were typical of Him
    • It shows us Jesus deliberately summing up His task
      • The whole atmosphere of the last days was one of deliberation
      • Jesus was not recklessly punting into unknown dangers. He was doing everything with His eyes wide open
      • When He looked at everything, He was like a commander summing up the strength of the opposition and His own resources preparatory to the decisive battle
    • It shows us where Jesus got His strength
      • He went back to the peace of Bethany
      • Before He joined battle with the world, He sought the presence of God
      • It was only because each day He faced God that He could face the world’s challenge with such courage
  • This brief passage also shows us something about the disciples
    • They were still with Him
      • By this time it must have been quite plain to them that Jesus was committing suicide, as it seemed to them
      • Sometimes we criticize them for their lack of loyalty in the last days, but it says something for them, that, little as they understood what was happening, they still stood by Him
• Mark 11:12-14;20-21
• 12 The next day when they went out from Bethany, he was hungry. 13 Seeing in the distance a fig tree with leaves, he went to find out if there was anything on it. When he came to it, he found nothing but leaves; for it was not the season for figs. 14 He said to it, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again!” And his disciples heard it…20 Early in the morning, as they were passing by, they saw the fig tree withered from the roots up. 21 Then Peter remembered and said to him, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree that you cursed has withered.”
  • Although in Mark’s gospel the story of the fig tree is divided into two, we take it as one
  • The first part of the story happened on the morning of one day, and the second part on the morning of the next day, with the cleansing of the Temple in between. But, when we are trying to see the meaning of the story, we are better to take it as one
  • There can be no doubt that this, without exception, is the most difficult story in the gospel narrative. To take it as literal history presents difficulties which are almost impossible to overcome
    • The story of does not ring true. To be honest, the whole incident does not seem very worthy of Jesus
      • Jesus had always refused to use His miraculous powers for His own sake. He would not turn the stones into bread to satisfy His own hunger. He would not use His miraculous powers to escape from His enemies. And yet here He uses His power to blast a Tre which had disappointed Him when He was hungry
    • Worse, the whole action was unreasonable
      • This was Passover Season, that is, the middle of April
      • The fig tree in a sheltered spot may bear leaves as early as March, but never did a fig tree bear figs until late May or June
    • The whole story does not seem to fit Jesus at all. What are we to say about it?
      • It we are to take this story as something that actually happened, we must take it as an enacted parable
      • We must in fact take it as one of those prophetic, symbolic, dramatic actions
      • If we take it that way, it may be interpreted as the condemnation of two things
        • It is the condemnation of promise without fulfillment
          • The leaves on the tree might be taken as the promise of fruity, but there was no fruit there
          • It is the condemnation especially of the people of Israel
          • All their history was a preparation for the coming of God’s chose one. The whole promise of their national record was that when the chosen one came they would be eager to receive Him. But when He did come, that promise was tragically unfulfilled
          • If this incident is an enacted parable it is the condemnation of unfulfilled promise
        • It is the condemnation of profession without practice
          • It might be taken that the tree with its leaves professed to offer something and did not
          • The whole cry of the NT is that we can be known only by the fruits of our lives
          • We cannot claim to be followers of Jesus Christ and remain entirely unique the Master whom we profess to love
        • If this incident is to be taken literally and is an enacted parable, that must be the meaning. But, relevant as these lessons may be, it seems difficult to extract them from the incident, because it was quite unreasonable to expect the fig tree to bear figs when the time for figs was still six weeks away
      • Luke does not relate this incident at all, but he has the parable of the fruitless fig tree (Luke 13:6-9)
        • Now that parable ends indecisively. The master of the vineyard wished to root up the tree. The gardener pleaded for another chance. The last chance was given; and it was agreed that if the tree bore fruit it should be spared, and if not it should be destroyed
        • May it not be that this incident is a kind of continuation of that parable?
        • The people of Israel had had their chance. They had failed to bear fruit. And now was the time for their destruction
        • It has been plausibly suggested that on the road from Bethany to Jerusalem there was a lonely withered fig tree. It may well be that Jesus said to His disciples, “You remember the parable I told you about the fruitless fig tree? Israel is still fruitless and will be blasted as that tree.”
        • It may well be that that lonely tree became associated in people’s minds with a saying of Jesus about the fate of fruitlessness, and so the story arose
    • It seems to us to be in some way connected with the parable of the fruitless tree. But in any event the whole lesson of the incident is that uselessness invites disaster