This lesson began with prayer, as always, and then some concluding thoughts on Mark 10:46-52, the healing of the blind beggar, Bartimaeus. He was one of those we heard about last week who was “last” in the eyes of the world, and yet “first” in the eyes of Jesus, as Jesus healed him physically and gave him the eyes of faith and made him a follower of Him. The man twice called Jesus the “Son of David," one of those terms for the promised Savior, coming from the line of King David. See Matthew 12:22-23, where another blind and mute demon-oppressed man was healed, and people wondered if Jesus could be the “Son of David," but are not sure.
Bartimaeus was sure who Jesus was. This was a fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy about Jesus. See Isaiah 35:4-5, where God “comes and saves” in the Person of Jesus, and “the eyes of the blind shall be opened.” See also John 9, where another man, blind from birth, was healed by Jesus and came to faith in Him. Jesus then taught that this man had the eyes of true faith, while many others, including some of Pharisees, were spiritually blind, even though they said, “We see” (John 9, but especially v. 35-41).
Mark Chapter 11 starts with the story of what we now call Palm Sunday, the beginning of the last week of Jesus’ life. Mark spends a third of his Gospel telling of this week, because of what Jesus taught and then did, with the centrality of His death and resurrection for the salvation of the world, including us. Jesus drew near to Jerusalem and then sent two of His disciples to find a colt, a young mule never before ridden, and bring it to Him. If people questioned them, they were to say, “The Lord has need of it" and they would be allowed to take it. All happened just as Jesus had said. “What Jesus has said” was enough (Mark 11:1-6).
This was in fulfillment of an Old Testament prophecy from Zechariah 9:9. Jesus would ride into Jerusalem in a humble and lowly way, on a donkey, though He was the “King of kings.” (See Matthew 11:29 and Revelation 1:5 and 17:14 and 19:16.) There was Old Testament precedence for this, too, as both the great King David and his son, King Solomon, rode on mules, rather than mighty horses (1 Kings 1:33).
Jesus rode into Jerusalem, then, on a donkey, and the people made a royal carpet for him with their own cloaks and leafy branches, including palm branches. We see examples of this in the Old Testament. See 2 Kings 9:13 and the royal carpet made for King Jehu. Notice that branches of palm trees and other leafy trees were to be carried by people during festival events (Leviticus 23:40); and some carried palm branches as they entered Jerusalem for the Passover festival, too. Many churches still use palm branches on Palm Sunday because of all this. See Revelation 7:9, as well, where John sees a vision of an innumerable group of believers in heaven, holding palm branches and singing praises to the Lord and the Lamb, Jesus.
People also sang psalms, the hymnbook of Jews, as they went up to Jerusalem for Passover. Especially they sang Hallel (praise) psalms 113-118. They were quoting from Psalm 118:25-26 as they shouted, “Hosannah! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” “Hosannah” means in Hebrew, “Lord, save us!” The unique thing about this Palm Sunday was that the praises were directed toward Jesus, as He came into Jerusalem. The people were correct. Jesus was the Savior King; but they did not really understand what kind of King He would be - the Servant, suffering and dying for them (Mark 11:7-10).
When Jesus had entered Jerusalem, He went to the temple and “looked around at everything” and certainly saw the chaotic situation in part of the temple, as we will hear (Mark 11:11). This visit and what happened the next day were in fulfillment of the prophecy in Malachi 3: 1-4, that the Lord Himself would suddenly come to the temple and do “purifying."
Jesus then went back out of Jerusalem to Bethany for the evening (Mark 11:11). This was likely a trip to the home of Lazarus and Mary and Martha. See John 12:1-3. Most likely, Jesus returned to Bethany each evening of this last week until Thursday, when he was arrested.
On Monday of what we now call Holy Week, Jesus returned to Jerusalem and saw on the way a fig tree with many leaves. It was not the season for ripe figs, but but there could have been unpicked figs from earlier or at least the evidence of new figs forming; but there was nothing on the tree but leaves. Jesus then said that this tree would never again bear fruit, because it was already unfruitful (Mark 11:12-14).
Skip ahead to Mark 11:20-22 for a moment. As the disciples passed the tree the next morning, they found it to be totally withered away down to its roots. “Peter remembered” that, as he said, Jesus had “cursed” that tree and it died in a day. Jesus simply responded, “Have faith in God." Jesus rarely used His power for destructive things; but this was a dramatic warning that without faith in God and His plan for rescuing the world through Jesus, people and Jerusalem and even the temple would be “unfruitful” and would end up just like the unfruitful fig tree, in judgment and destruction.
In between the two episodes of the fig tree is the story of Jesus visiting the temple in Jerusalem again, and this, time reacting to the chaos in the “Court of the Gentiles” where people were buying and selling animals and birds, and being “money changers” and even just passing through this part of the temple as a shortcut to get into Jerusalem. He chased people out and upset their tables and chairs and sought to stop people from cutting through the temple, when they had no intention of actually worshipping there (Mark 11:15-16).
There was a need for animals for sacrifices that people made in the temple. Many people came a long distance for Passover and could not bring animals with them and would need to purchase animals. There were also temple taxes to pay and offerings to be made. The Jewish authorities also required a special kind of temple money to be used for these purposes - money with no images on it, following rules about no “graven images." Roman money and other money had to be exchanged into temple money then, and the money changers, too, served a purpose.
The problem was in the Jewish authorities allowing all this activity to be happening right inside the temple itself, in the only area where non-Jews (Gentiles) were allowed to come and pray and worship. Imagine if you had to try to worship in such a noisy chaotic situation. Such activities should have been allowed only in areas entirely outside the temple.
Jesus cleaned out the temple merchandisers and then began to teach, using Old Testament Scriptures about this situation. He quoted from Isaiah 56:7, that the temple was to be “a house of prayer for all the nations.” Non-Jews should also be welcome and able to concentrate on worship.
The second quotation of Jesus indicated that dishonest practices were going on, too, in the sales and money changing. People were being cheated and taken advantage of by “a den of robbers”; and too many of the Jews were just going through motions in their worship, without sincere faith in the Lord. Read what God accused His own people of in Jeremiah 7:8-11, including much evil and worship of false gods and then showing up at the temple in Jerusalem and claiming they were “delivered” by the God of Israel (Mark 11:17).
When the Jewish authorities heard of what Jesus did, there was no repentance on their part. They just wanted all the more to destroy Jesus. They feared Him and the way He contradicted them and what they said and did. Jesus again left the temple and Jerusalem that evening (Mark 11:18-19).
Jesus also taught His disciples on Tuesday, after they had seen the withered fig tree, about the importance of having “faith in God” and His Word, over any human authorities (Mark 11:22). He also taught the disciples to trust that prayer is important and to pray confidently, knowing that God does hear and answer prayers (Mark 11:23-24). He said this very strongly, as James does in James 5:15-18, when he speaks of “the prayer of faith” and the “great power at work” in prayer. This has to be understood, of course, in the context of other Scriptures which also remind us, “If we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.” And as Jesus prayed, we pray, “Let not what I will, but what You will, be done”(Mark 14:36). God always knows what is best for us and others, as He answers prayer.
Jesus also taught His disciples to pray with a forgiving heart. As we wish God to forgive us our sins, by His grace, how can we withhold that forgiveness from others? Sometimes it is very hard to forgive, but we pray for God’s help to do so with others, too. Jesus taught the same in the Lord’s Prayer and in other places. Though His suffering and death were drawing close and closer, Jesus still cared about others and their needs and kept teaching them and us what we need to hear. May the Lord help us to be good listeners!
Our study for this week stopped here; but you can read ahead if you have time, and note that the priests and scribes and elders were ready to challenge Jesus and His authority again the next day, as Chapter 11 of Mark ends, because of what He had been doing, especially in the temple the day before. Who does he think he is, acting that way, they thought.
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