It offers reflection and commentary drawing upon the wealth of wisdom found in the Judeo-Christian tradition. The barren fig tree symbolised the barrenness of temple Judaism.Jesus tried unsuccessfully to get some fruit worthy of repentance out of Jerusalem – especially its leaders. Not bad things in themselves, however they knew or should’ve known from Scripture what the reasons for foreign occupation were. They also knew from the Old Testament what God required of them in order for foreign rule to end. One of the more familiar actions of Jesus was the so-called cleansing of the temple. When God’s people go off the rails, hiding behind religious symbols is no protection against God’s well-deserved judgment. According to Matthew, Mark, and Luke, Jesus cleansed the temple during the final week leading up to His death on the cross (Matthew 21:12-13; Mark 11:15-17; Luke 19:45-46). This episode is recorded in all four gospels (Matt 21:12-17; Mark 11:15-19; Luke 19:45-48; John 2:13-22), and has been commented on by believers and non-believers alike. Bertrand Russell said Jesus was guilty of “vindictive fury” and others complain about this being out of character for Jesus. It is the second cleansing 126 of the temple (Matthew 21:10-17; Mark 11:15-19; Luke 19:45-46) that actually sets into motion the events which lead to our Lord’s crucifixion. Josephus said that when the temple was completed in 66 A.D., a quarter of a million lambs were sacrificed for Passover.So it was a big time operation. Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email. In that spoken parable he told of a fig tree that for three years did not yield any fruit, and would therefore be cut down. The locus of God’s presence is now no longer confined to just one place, but to wherever Jesus – and his people – are. As always, being in right relationship with God should constantly be our highest priority.A sobering thought that comes to me in relation to this episode is that the ways God had given to his people to worship and glorify him, and to symbolise the dealing with sin had been corrupted and were being used for selfish ends. If the Jews wanted the Romans to be judged, well they would have to be judged first.CultureWatch is a faith ministry and I get no salary. There is a real possibility that there were in fact two temple cleansings, and there are weighty arguments both pro and con about this.And in typical Markan fashion, his account of the temple cleansing is ‘sandwiched’ between a split account of the fig tree, with its cursing reported before it, and its withering reported after it. "37 And as He was now approaching, near the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the miracles which they had seen, 38 saying, "Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord; Peace in heaven and glory in the highest! Was it just a fit of rage? It was destroyed by the Romans in 70AD.Second, there had already been two previous cleansings of the temple. We read about his extensive reforms in 2 Kings 23. In our last study we discussed Jesus cursing the fig tree as He made His way to Jerusalem. But as soon as one dares to imitate Christ as far as His religious indignation and righteous fury goes, one is not honored for ‘following Jesus’ but for being ‘un-Christ-like!’There is much that be can concluded from this passage.Another important thing to consider is that in some of the gospels the cleansing of the temple comes after Jesus’s triumphal entry to Jerusalem on Palm Sunday.On Palm Sunday you will recall that shouts crying for salvation, “Hosanna” were made. The second occurred around when Judas Maccabaeus cleansed it after the desecration of Antiochus Epiphanes in 167 B.C. They didn’t want pagan people ruling over their land.It’s fairly easy to conclude that they wanted Jesus to slaughter the Romans.
9 And the multitudes going before Him, and those who followed after were crying out, saying, "Hosanna to the Son of David; blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest!
He cares for the Gentiles, the people the Jews were driving away.It is easy when one is focussed on the outward appearance of the present situation to get a completely wrong view of things. The Sanhedrin who were in charge of this were likely benefitting financially from all this commercial activity. 4:56-59). 127.
Indeed the need to repent can also be seen throughout the gospels.The Jews had seen Jesus riding in on a donkey and failed to realise that this indicated he was coming in peace. during the return from exile (Ezra 6:14-16).This second temple was massively enlarged and redone by the Hasmoneans and Herod the Great. Zerubbabel built the second temple in 516 B.C. Post was not sent - check your email addresses! and as a judgment on Israel (eg., Is.