E. Mark 11:1 – 16:8 Jesus in Jerusalem

Mark 11:1 – 12:44 Clash of Kingdoms

Mark 11:1 – 11 A challenge to those who occupy Jerusalem

Jesus arrives in Jerusalem at about the same time that the Roman Procurator, Pilate, arrives from Caesarea on the Mediterranean coast. He must be in Jerusalem at the time of the Passover. It is not too good to remind a subject people of their delivery from slavery.

Jesus’ entry into the city is a mocking of Pilate’s entry. Not on a war horse, accompanied by trained troops carrying their standards but on a colt, accompanied by a rag tag lot, carrying palm branches and evoking ancient warrior hopes associated with David. Jesus has some popular appeal; Pilate is hated for his killing of Jews and his sacrilegious behavior around the temple. When his patron in Rome eventually dies, Pilate will be removed from Judea as an embarrassment to Rome.

Jesus entry is a challenge to Pilate and Pilate is not big on challenges to his authority. Yes, Pilate is also coming to town and he is not coming alone. Is Jesus’ fate sealed? You bet!

Mark 11:12 – 25 A challenge to those who run Jerusalem

Jesus, “the tourist”, arrives in Jerusalem, looks around and then sets up his base in Bethany. He needs to distance himself from the city and its temple industry because he is going to signal its demise. He leaves so that he can come back and leave again.

We note the Markan sandwich: fig tree – temple – fig tree. Each part interprets the other: the “cursing” of the fig tree interprets the “cleansing” of the temple. The petulant behavior of Jesus – cursing the tree because he could not find any fruit – alerts us to the mistake we make if we interpret this story literally. Rather we must find its truth wrapped in a metaphor
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“It was not the season for figs”. This is not to do with clock time – Jesus had arrived too early. Rather, it is to do with significant time – it was no longer the time for figs, the tree’s time for producing figs had passed, Jesus had arrive too late. Israel is the fig tree (Jeremiah. 8:13) and it is no longer the time for figs.

The time for what, had been and gone? What is inside the Markan “sandwich” – the whole business of the emptying out of the temple? Notice that Jesus drives everyone out, those who buy and sell animals and birds for sacrifice and those who exchange the regular, profane coins with images on them, for the image-less temple coinage. There is nothing wrong, or illegal or underhand or corrupt in this activity: without it the activity of the temple would simply close down.

Bringing the whole sandwich together, Mark’s Jesus sees the sacrificial activity of the Temple has had its day. It’s a fig tree that has withered away to its roots, Its kairos, its appropriate time, has been and gone. It was (no longer) the season for figs. Now, says Mark’s Jesus, it’s the time for a house of prayer for all nations. The Son of Man, formerly the one who teaches and heals with power, tells his followers who are living in the time after the destruction of the Temple, that there prayers will have the power to remove mountains and throw them into the sea.

Mark’s Jesus scares the daylights out of Mark’s chief priests and scribes. The challenge to them has been thrown down to all the powers that be. Is Jesus’ fate sealed? You bet! He has not quietly slipped into Jerusalem and then slipped out again. His challenges could not have been more conspicuous It is not a case of ‘if’ but ‘when’,