Today's reading has a lot of great, familiar stories for us to read. We have Jesus entering Jerusalem on a donkey, which we always read around Easter and seldom read the rest of the year. We have Jesus clearing the Temple of moneychangers and sellers of goods, which we seem to always use when talking about anger. And we have more confrontations with Pharisees.
- Did you catch that this seems to be the first time that Jesus foretells the immediate future in Mark?
- Did you look at any footnotes to discover what the word Hosanna means? And how it seems clumsy when translated into English and placed in front of the words "in the highest?"
- Why do you suppose Jesus got angry with the people in the Temple and threw them out?
I really enjoy reading the account of the fig tree. There is so much symbolism at play that it is just mind-boggling. Think of the fig tree as the Jewish faith. Jesus comes searching for fruit and finds none (yes it is out of season, but within human life, we are always "in season" to be bearing fruit). So He curses it, and it dies off. Then the disciples see it the next day, withering away, and are amazed. Do you get the message that we should always bear fruit in our lives to show Christ, even when it does not seem to be easy, or comfortable? I think that is a message that we really need to be reminded of all the time.
Then Jesus tells them about prayer. And unfortunately this is a teaching that we tend to twist to fit our own needs. When people are told this passage and do not receive what they asked for, we tend to tell them they did not receive what they asked for because they did not have enough faith. The reality is that God has a plan, and honestly, a lot of the things that we might ask for are either outside of that plan (He uses suffering to show us may things we would not learn otherwise) or are things we do not need to live our live as glorifying examples for Him. I wonder if the disciples ever really got the full symbolism of the fig tree.
I love how Jesus once again trips the Pharisees up, and they realize that they cannot answer without showing that they are wrong. It is too bad that their pride got in the way. I know how hard it is to admit you are wrong. I wrestle with it every day of my life. Sometimes it is a little easier to admit I am wrong, but more often than not I really have to swallow my pride in order to say that someone else is right. Especially when it is someone I am not a fan of. Man. I can really be like a Pharisee.
So what did you think?
2 comments:
I see this section about prayer fitting in with the one a few chapters ago where the guy said 'I do believe, help my unbelief". I can so relate to him. I do believe that with God all thngs are possible. I believe that before I am dead I will see the lame walking, the deaf hearing and the blind seeing. I just don't know as I have enough faith to be able to be the one to say 'take up your mat and walk' or 'you, mountain (literal or figurative) get into the sea'.
I have something, but I wouldn't call it faith...more like testing God. I would say things like, "Ok, God, I believe you could move that mountain...so, like, let's see it moved right now!" And then it doesn't move. So that can't be faith. Or I'm really lacking faith. I don't think about lacking faith a lot because I see and hear many people cling to generic Faith (like some political hope combined with warm fuzzies) but I have a specific faith in the power of Christ in me. I think there is a lack of truth in most people's beliefs and that makes a difference for each of them on how their prayers are heard and answered by God. It's based on trust and God wants us to trust in Him, through Christ, specifically. If we trust in the works of our hands or our minds for something it will not happen. We also can't expect it to happen just because we say so. On the other hand if we are in a right relationship with God we will be tuned to His will and will have a better idea of what to ask, and that improves the chances that it is actually what God wants and the what will happen.
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