Holy Monday 2020

Gospel of Mark 11:12-14 NRSV

12 On the following day, when they came from Bethany, he was hungry. 13 Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to see whether perhaps he would find 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.

IS JESUS OUT OF HIS MIND

On the first day of Jesus’ last week he visited the Temple.  On his way he saw a fig tree which was not in season for figs and when He came to it, he cursed it.   This is not the kind of behavior that we expect from Jesus.  The Fig tree was often used as a symbol of the Jewish Temple.  It was depicted as large round tree with figs and all kinds of birds making their nests in it.  The symbolism was not to be missed, the Temple is a place of sweet life.  But when Jesus came to pass by, he cursed it by telling it that no one would again eat from it.  This I believe to be a literary device used by Mark to show that the Temple’s reign of influence was no longer producing fruit.  

Gospel of Mark 11:15-19 NRSV

15 Then they came to Jerusalem. And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who were selling and those who were buying in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves; 16 and he would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple. 17 He was teaching and saying, “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.”

18 And when the chief priests and the scribes heard it, they kept looking for a way to kill him; for they were afraid of him, because the whole crowd was spellbound by his teaching. 19 And when evening came, Jesus and his disciples[a] went out of the city.

2 QUOTES

So, Jesus enters the Temple and drives out those buying and selling things.  He then strings two separate quotes together into one to give us a hint at why.  He quotes Jeremiah 7:11 saying that “My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations.”  He joins that with a quote from Isaiah 56:7 about how it has been turned into a den of robbers. 

NO MORE BAKE SALES

I served a church in Minnesota who had decided that based on this story, that they would not allow fundraisers, bake sales, or any other kind of exchanging of money in the narthex or church basement.  All youth fundraising had to be just a free will offering or better yet part of the church’s overall budget.  As their youth minister I was totally on board as it meant I didn’t need to organize any bake sales.  The thinking was that we did not want a repeat of what must have been going in in the Temple, that made Jesus so angry.  It was explained to me that money is evil and has no place at church except the holy tithes and offerings.

MONEY CHANGERS

Upon further review I realize that we have misread this text for a long time.  Jesus was standing in the spot merchants were providing services to the pilgrims who had come from a long way away.  In order to give alms and pay the temple tax, the pilgrims needed to exchange what ever currency they came with  into temple currency.  There were also those buying and selling animals for sacrifices as it was not practical to travel long distances with such animals.  

THROW NO SHADE ON THE SACRIFICIAL SYSTEM

We need to be careful not to take this as a critique of the temple or the sacrificial system.  That seems to be the low hanging fruit  here for most of the commentaries.  Jesus used the temple to teach from each time he came into Jerusalem.  It has to be something else.  

WHAT???

The first quote makes no sense in my humble opinion.  It is just like cursing a fig tree that has no figs even though figs are out of season.  It makes no sense because Jesus was standing in a place called the court of the Gentiles when he did this.  The court of the Gentiles was an outer court and always open and anyone and everyone were always welcome.   No one could have rightly stood there at that time and used that scripture with any integrity. He follows it up with another curious quote from Isaiah.  He says they have turned it into a den of robbers.  The word in Greek for robbers really means bandits or outlaws.  This does not exactly describe the small time thievery or over charging of fees in moneychanging that may have been going on.  Has Jesus lost it?  It doesn’t make any sense unless….

THE ZEALOTS

The Gospel of Mark was written 40 years later at a time when the Temple was not open to anyone except a radical militia group called the Zealots.  They had used force to temporarily oust the Roman Occupation from Jerusalem and had commandeered the temple as their headquarters.  No more was the Temple being used for sacrifices at this time.  In the time Mark was writing it had ceased becoming a place of prayer and was a home for violent insurgents.  

WHAT DOES IT MEAN FOR US?

So what does this mean for us.  Well, thankfully, you are allowed to do a bake sale at church.  Beyond that I think we need to figure out what Mark was trying to say.  I think Mark was trying to show Jesus’s passion for nonviolent revolution by comparing it to the Zealots.  While Jesus had problem with the Temple, Mark did have a conflict with the Zealots.  This was not a conflict at the time of Jesus but it was the conflict in the struggle for how Christianity would define itself after Jesus death and resurrection as the Church was beginning to grow.   Would Christianity be defined by the love and service of Jesus or the power and control of the Zealots.  In the 2000 years of our history as the church we have had both but far too often the church has tried to control.  The message for us today is that to really follow Jesus we need to serve and to love and to build up others.  I fear that if the church doesn’t figure it out soon we too will go the way of the fig tree.