Listen to the audio of today’s Reflection:
https://soundcloud.com/hapearce/reflection-for-february-14-2023
Mark 11:12-21
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, they went out of the city.
20 In the morning, as they went along, they saw the fig tree withered from the roots. 21 Peter remembered and said to Jesus, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree you cursed has withered!”
For years, I would base our Reflections either on the beginning and end of this passage – the two parts of the story about the fig tree – or on the middle part about chasing the merchants and money changers out of the temple. But now I think that when we see two intertwined stories like this in the gospels, we’re meant to think about them together. So what about these stories – how are they supposed to be connected?
In yesterday’s reading, Jesus entered the city of Jerusalem in the Triumphal Entry we remember on Palm Sunday. Then Jesus went to spend the night in the town of Bethany outside the city – maybe at the home of his good friends Lazarus and Martha and Mary, who lied there.
In today’s passage, Jesus goes back into the city. On the way, he comes upon a fig tree that has no figs on it, and he curses the fig tree for its lack of fruitfulness. At the end of the passage, we’re told that Jesus and the disciples walk past the tree once again, and now find that it has withered “from the roots.”
This seems like odd behavior on Jesus’ part. But some Bible scholars point to this story as an example of an “enacted parable.” Jesus used many spoken parables to teach spiritual lessons. But sometimes Jesus would perform a symbolic action to communicate a spiritual lesson.
To understand this particular enacted parable, we have to remember that the fig tree was a common symbol for the Hebrew people, and especially for their religious leadership. God had established the covenant people in the promised land the way someone might plant a tree, and he had nurtured the people’s religious life around the temple as you might tend a tree you had planted.
But a fig tree is only of value if it bears figs, and this enacted parable seems to say that God had judged the religious leadership of his people to be ‘unfruitful.’ So, the parable seems to say, God had decided that the whole system of religious life based around the temple would wither away. And history shows that by the year 70 AD, the temple would be destroyed by the Romans. The whole Hebrew religious establishment, including the daily sacrifices, was ended forever after almost a thousand years.
So that explains what the beginning and the end of the passage are about. But what about the part in the middle – where Jesus drives out the merchants and money changers from the temple?
It seems that the sale of sacrificial animals had begun as a service to people who came to the temple to worship. Providing animals for sale relieved people of the hassle of transporting sacrificial animals from long distances.
But over time, the system got corrupted. The Law of Moses said that only ‘perfect’ animals could be sacrificed to God. And as time passed, the priests at the temple fell into the habit of only accepting as ‘perfect’ animals that they sold. They basically used their religious authority to establish a monopoly, and then started to jack up the prices. By the time Jesus walked into the temple, the historians say, the price of sacrificial animals in the temple was around eighty times the cost of the same animals outside the temple walls. What started out as a service to worshipers had turned into an abusive racket.
And the money changers had a similar racket. Jews could only pay their temple tax using special temple coins. And since the moneychangers also had a monopoly, they could also gouge the worshipers.
It seems that corruption and abuse, that exploitation of their religious authority to enrich themselves at the expense of worshipers, is what set Jesus off and caused him to label the place “a den of robbers.”
It seems like the connection between the two parts of our reading is that the religious establishment was no longer focused on bearing fruit for the kingdom of God – on bringing people to a deeper understanding of God’s will for them, and on bringing about a society that cared for the poor and the needy, and on making God known to all the world. Instead, the religious leadership was busy enriching itself, and increasing its own power and influence. And because of that corruption – that lack of fruitfulness in God’s eyes – the religious establishment of the nation of Israel was about to wither away.
Those of us who think of ourselves as ‘God’s people’ need to be mindful about our priorities. Self-interest can infect even our religious practices, so that things that start out as ministries can turn into rackets. It seems to be a reminder that everything we do together as the community of faith should be directed toward the glory of God – and toward bearing fruit in terms of transformed lives and the promotion of human flourishing, especially among the poor, the needy, and the marginalized.
Let’s pray. Lord, we pray that you would constantly guard us against allowing our self-interest and desire for the things of this world to infect the practice of our faith. Let everything we do be directed toward your glory, toward bringing your kingdom to fulfillment, and ministering to the needy and suffering in your name. Amen.
Grace and Peace,
Henry
(The other readings for today are Psalms 123 and 146; Isaiah 63:7-14; and I Timothy 1:18 – 2:15. Our readings come from the NIV Bible, as posted on Biblica.com, the website of the International Bible Society.)
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