Mark 11:1-26
Read Mark 11:1-26
Helpful Background Information:
In the previous chapter, Mark told us that Jesus and His disciples were on the road traveling to Jerusalem. While they were on their way there, Jesus made it clear that Jerusalem is where His story would reach its climax. After everything that Jesus has said and done up until this point in Mark’s Gospel, anticipation continues to build as Jesus and His disciples approach and enter the city.
The first scene in Mark 11 is what we often call Jesus’ triumphal entry (vv.1-11). The title is fitting, as Jesus is received by the crowds with shouts of praise and acts of reverence. To no one’s surprise, immediately after entering Jerusalem, Jesus headed straight for the temple. What was surprising, however, was that He simply walked in, looked around, and then walked back out. While one would have expected Jesus to leverage this event as an opportunity to take charge, He doesn’t. This anticlimactic chain of events is followed by a scene that helps us make some sense of it.
When Jesus leaves the city, he looks for fruit on a fig tree off in the distance. Once he gets a closer look, however, He sees that it doesn’t have any fruit. Jesus then curses the deceptive tree and moves on. After this, Jesus heads back into Jerusalem to do something similar in the context of the Temple. According to Jesus, the original intent for the Temple was being corrupted and needed to be confronted. Jesus does so by disrupting its activity.
The next day, Jesus and His disciples saw the fig tree from earlier, but it had withered from the roots up (v.20). Given the parallel between the corrupted Temple and the fruitless fig tree, one is left to wonder: will the fate of the fig tree be the fate of the Temple as well? To suggest that the Temple activity could wither would have raised a whole host of other questions from Jesus’ audience. For the time being, Jesus simply encouraged them to go back to the basics. The fruit that God is looking for can be characterized by faith, prayer, and forgiveness. Where those things are present, one can be sure that God is actively at work.
Reflection Questions:
In and around Jesus’ day, many Jewish people would have assumed that if God was doing something in the world, it would be in and through the Temple in Jerusalem.
Where would you say that God is at work in the world today?
How can you tell?
The last section of the passage seems to show that Jesus measures fruitfulness in accordance with faithfulness.
What are misguided ways that people measure “fruitfulness” in religious contexts today?
Pray for God to cultivate fruit in you—namely, faith and forgiveness.