So in honor of this week set apart
to observe all the things that surrounded Jesus’ suffering, death and
resurrection (Holy Week) I believe one of the most unsettling verses might just
be the best way to enter into it!
In
Mark 11 Jesus and his disciples stroll into Jerusalem. Jesus, who is riding on
a peace donkey instead of a war horse, gets a kingly welcome with palm branches
and coats thrown over the road and the people confess him as the continuation
of the Davidic kingdom (11:7-10). Things
might just turn out okay! Except, the
very next day Jesus does something completely un-peaceable and unpredictable.
He curses a perfectly good fig tree when he found it had all leaves and no
fruit! What’s more is that he does it on his way to indict the Pharisees and the
temple for desecrating what was supposed to be set apart for God.
I
have to admit, for a long time I never understood why Jesus would curse a tree
for not having any fruit on it (while he was hungry mind you) especially since
it wasn’t even the season for figs (Mk 11:12-14). My initial thought was, gee I
guess Messiahs are prone to smite when their blood-sugar is low, but as much as
I like to insist on this as a valid interpretation that is not what’s
happening. This is actually something more
akin to performance-art of the prophetic genre. And like performance art, which
seeks to rejuvenate art after artists have become dissatisfied with the
traditional forms of art, Jesus too was dissatisfied with some traditions
mucking up God’s expressions.
Therefore,
interpreting symbolism is vital to our making sense of this scene. Consider the
idea that a “Fig Tree”, especially in Jerusalem, is no more just a tree than
the Bald Eagle is just an eagle in Washington D.C. (or anywhere in the US). It carries enormous symbolism with it. Fig
trees were an icon of blessing, leadership, provision, but most importantly, it
symbolized the temple and its structure which itself was a sign of justice and
maintaining order. We should then conclude that the fig tree is thematically
tied to the following temple scene and thus stands as a symbol for God’s
judgment on Israel’s “out of season” religious leaders.
In
Tim Geddert’s commentary on Mark, he makes the point that Jesus was no more punishing
the tree than he was the temple as neither did anything wrong, but the
religious leaders were being unfaithful to God and neighbor (12:40) so it
became a prophetic symbol.[1] Upon entering the temple, Jesus’ suspicions are
confirmed (just like with the tree) the religious leaders are “all leaves and
no fruit”[2] We should infer some things
from the elements pointed out in Jesus’ condemnation to see what their out of
season fruitlessness means.
Here
is the temple scene for easy reference (so scroll on if you don’t need it):
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 (NRSV).
In
v. 15 we have money changers whose job it is to exchange currency so that
foreigners could both pay the temple tax and buy sacrificial animals. These were
promised to be ceremonially kosher and goods of convenience from temple
dealers. The doves were the less expensive, but acceptable choice for those who
could not afford a sacrificial lamb.[3] Jesus is asking in what way is this a
place of worship? It clearly cannot be because it is commercialism and commercialism
is enslaved to and worships Mammon.
So
also, since Jesus points out that this is a house of worship for “All Nations” (compare
vs.17 and Isa. 56:7) they have probably managed to exclude the Gentiles from
worshiping. Whether the temple leaders organized it spitefully out of nationalistic
smugness or just for selfish gain, Gentiles were only allowed to worship in the
outer court where all the transactions were taking place. Thus worshiping God in such a noisy market for
the Gentiles would have proved impossible.
To add to this, Geddert says that other sources affirm that
profit-taking was commonplace and dealers could charge inflated prices (even on
the doves) from those who have made the pilgrimage to Jerusalem and had no
convenient way to travel with sacrificial animals.[5] The temple had been made into a burden for everyone, but those who profited.
In
fact Jesus’ condemnation and cleansing of the temple means that it was so
corrupted and failed that it could never be the completion of God’s
eschatological promise (probably also the reason in Jn. 2:19, Jesus tells them
to tear it down and he’ll rebuild it). The temple as it was had become a “dry
withered tree” (Mk 11:20-21) with no future.
This scenario should make the reader exclaim, then where is the temple
that is the fulfillment of Isaiah’s vision?
It
is this question that we should reflect on from Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday. The fig tree is withered and can no longer
draw and feed all nations, but there is the new Temple and he draws nations and
exiles and captives and feeds them in the desert. The fig tree becomes the
“lynching tree” of control, but this is the very tree that Jesus destabilizes
and transforms into the communion table, the forgiveness tree, where bread and
wine has been broken and poured out for all who will come.
[1] Timothy
J. Geddert. Mark: The Believers Bible Commentary. (Scottsdale,
PA: Herald Press, 2001), 263-264.
[2] Ibid,
264.
[3] Ibid.
266.
[4] Ibid.
[5]
Ibid.
