Barren Judaism: The House of Prayer had Become a Den of Robbers
TT-Judaism had become a barren appearance that looked impressive from a distance but up close had no real spiritual fruit or purpose.
Jesus and His disciples are going back and forth now from Jerusalem to Bethany where they stay at night. Our Lord left Jerusalem and went out to Bethany for the night and now they are returning from Bethany to Jerusalem.
I have grouped these three episodes together because that’s what Mark does. He does so to help us see what Jesus is doing and how we should understand these verses of Scripture. This is what is known as an A-B-A form or sandwich.
A-Cursing of the Fig Tree
B- Clearing the Temple
A- The Withered Fig Tree
It’s in these groupings that Mark keeps together we are able to see what’s going on and what it all means.
Mark is not reporting random events but the structure even leads us to truth.
Please Stand:
Gracious and Glorious Father, this is Your word, show us truth through this passage. Lead us to our Savior and may we see more of His sovereignty and power. Show us what is going on and by your Holy Spirit, change us into the image of Jesus our Lord, for Your glory…Amen.
Mark 11:12–25 (ESV)
12 On the following day, when they came from Bethany, he was hungry. 13 And seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to see if he could find anything on it. When he came to it, he found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. 14 And he said to it, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” And his disciples heard it.
15 And they came to Jerusalem. And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold and those who bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. 16 And he would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple. 17 And he was teaching them and saying to them, “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 the chief priests and the scribes heard it and were seeking a way to destroy him, for they feared him, because all the crowd was astonished at his teaching. 19 And when evening came they went out of the city.
20 As they passed by in the morning, they saw the fig tree withered away to its roots. 21 And Peter remembered and said to him, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree that you cursed has withered.” 22 And Jesus answered them, “Have faith in God. 23 Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him. 24 Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. 25 And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.”
1. The Barren Fig Tree (11:12-14)
12 On the following day, when they came from Bethany, he was hungry. 13 And seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to see if he could find anything on it. When he came to it, he found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. 14 And he said to it, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” And his disciples heard it.
Jesus and his disciple are walking a distance of about two miles from Bethany back to Jerusalem. Along the way He sees a fig tree. The tree has leaves but nothing on it to eat. Jesus curses the tree.
Once the fig tree gets leaves, it should already have produced what is called paggim. The paggim comes first (March-April) then the leaves and then mature figs later. The tree should have had the small edible buds because leaves were present. Jesus found none.
What our Lord is doing here is what some have called a visual parable. The fig tree with no fruit as been compared to the fruitlessness of Judaism and the outward expression found in the Temple.
Throughout the OT the withering and fruitless fig tree has been used to symbolize fruitless Israel and the barren temple. Many prophets have used for the symbol of Israel’s barrenness the fruitless fig tree.
Jeremiah 8:13 (ESV)
13 When I would gather them, declares the Lord,
there are no grapes on the vine,
nor figs on the fig tree;
even the leaves are withered,
and what I gave them has passed away from them.”
Jeremiah is prophesying of the day when what God had given Judaism will begin to pass away, wither away. This is what Jesus is telling His disciples. The fig tree is the visible parable that shows what was taking place in Israel. The Old Covenant was withering away.
As Jesus and the disciples walked the two miles to the Temple, they approached this fig tree which should have had the edible pods because it had leaves. However, when they arrived, they only found leaves.
One thing Jesus is going to do before the crucifixion is curse Judaism for its fruitlessness. Like the fig tree with leaves, Judaism looked fruitful from a distance. The Temple had religious activities. In reality it was not a Temple that worshipped God but Jesus will call it a den of iniquity. The Temple was to be the place where all who worshipped God could gather in prayer and worship but it had become not a place of prayer and worship but a place where schemes and crooked business was conducted. The very people that gathered to worship were cheated in the Temple. Jesus has had enough.
The Temple was very impressive from a distance but up close was anything but a house of prayer.
2. The Barren Temple (11:15-19)
15 And they came to Jerusalem. And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold and those who bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. 16 And he would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple. 17 And he was teaching them and saying to them, “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 the chief priests and the scribes heard it and were seeking a way to destroy him, for they feared him, because all the crowd was astonished at his teaching. 19 And when evening came they went out of the city.
The scene was that the money changers and those who sold sacrificial animals were set up and had overtaken the court of the Gentiles. This was a great hinderance to their worship. It would be most difficult to bow down to pray next to someone shouting for business or next to the bleating lambs which were in their stalls, also in the court yard area. This was not the purpose of the Temple.
The practice of money changing began because the Jews required Jewish coinage and not Roman coinage to be used for the Temple Tax which was paid just before Passover. So, the Jews would greatly benefit from the crowds that would gather in Jerusalem at Passover and they would greatly profit when these pilgrim worshippers who often spoke another language had to pay their tax in Jewish currency. Not only would the Jews profit but so would the money changers.
Because Jewish law required a temple tax of a half-shekel (Exodus 30:11–16), Jews and visitors from other nations came to pay their taxes when they offered their sacrifices. But foreign coins with the likeness of pagan emperors would not be accepted in God’s temple. So, money changers exchanged those foreign coins for Jewish money, but they did so at an excessive profit. Rather than provide this service as a business in another part of town, they exploited the religious zeal of the visitors to Jerusalem and did their business on temple grounds. Because they determined their own exchange rate, money changers easily took advantage of the poor and the foreigners pouring into Jerusalem for Passover.
he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold and those who bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. 16 And he would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple.
Notice Jesus was focused on the Jewish Money Changers and those Jews who sold pigeons. Money Changers were there to cheat the foreigners who came to worship. Those who sold pigeons were there to cheat the poor. Remember God desired a lamb sacrificed but if you could not afford a lamb, you could sacrifice a pigeon. By the time those sellers of pigeons were finished they too became expensive and possibly even more than a poor worshipper could afford. God makes a concession for the poor and the Jews in the Temple were taking that away from the poor.
They had turned God’s house of prayer for all nations into literally, a den of robbers. The imagery is the place where the thieves gather after their crimes to count and split up the money. Like bank robbers who get split up have a meeting house where they agree to come together and divide the loot.
We see Jesus, the Messiah in action here today in our text. He is greatly angered by the misuse of the Temple for business rather than for prayer and worship.
Jesus is concerned that the Temple, a place for worship had become a place for commercial business. Not just business but the business conducted within the Temple precinct greatly hindered worship.
This event not only takes place because Jesus is concerned for true worship within the Temple area but it also takes place to fulfill messianic hope. Just as surely as Jesus’ donkey ride into the City fulfilled a messianic prophecy found in Zechariah so too does His cleansing the Temple fit another prophecy in Zechariah.
Zechariah 14:21 (ESV)
21 And every pot in Jerusalem and Judah shall be holy to the Lord of hosts, so that all who sacrifice may come and take of them and boil the meat of the sacrifice in them. And there shall no longer be a trader in the house of the Lord of hosts on that day.
If you entered the Temple that day to worship you would have witnessed a one-Man recking ball. Jesus was on a mission to restore worship in the Temple. He was angry, He was passionate, and He was greatly concerned. The coins went rolling, the lambs got loose and the pigeons flew away.
We cannot over state what Jerusalem saw that day. The Messiah King was on a divine mission to reform Temple worship. Jesus is out to expose the issues concerning His house of worship. The people were using this wonderful time of Passover for greedy gain with no concern for the wellbeing of the people who were coming in from all around to seek God, show their support, and worship Him.
As Jesus turns over the tables, He is quoting Scripture. That would have been something to see. This goes against what many see as right. They somehow think that Jesus is being too passionate or to mean somehow. The reality is this is absolutely the right thing for Him to do.
Jesus is not just quoting from Isaiah, He is showing us Isaiah 56…
Isaiah 56:7 (ESV)
7 these I will bring to my holy mountain,
and make them joyful in my house of prayer;
their burnt offerings and their sacrifices
will be accepted on my altar;
for my house shall be called a house of prayer
for all peoples.”
The reality is because of His zeal for His Father’s house, He would be put to death. Judaism had become so corrupt that it would be ended in the New Covenant with Jesus’ death and the temple being completely destroyed in 70AD.
Think of it, the Scribes and Pharisees were angry because Jesus was concerned about true worship of His Father while their priority was commerce. The Day of Passover was a great day of profit not a great day of worship.
In Matthew 23 Jesus speaks words of death to the entire Jewish system. When He speaks the seven woes, He is condemning Judaism and burying it in the grave. They is a new and better way to God and it is through Jesus Christ alone.
Matthew 23:13–15 (ESV)
13 “But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. For you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in. 15 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves.
Just like the fig tree, the entire Jewish sacrificial system becomes something that was dying on the vine.
3. The Withered and Dying Fig Tree (11:20-25)
20 As they passed by in the morning, they saw the fig tree withered away to its roots. 21 And Peter remembered and said to him, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree that you cursed has withered.” 22 And Jesus answered them, “Have faith in God. 23 Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him. 24 Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. 25 And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.”
The next day, Jesus and the disciples are going back into the City and the disciples notice the tree. It is completely withered even to its very roots. This indicates the totality of Judaism’s destruction. No one will ever eat fruit from Judaism again.
There are some who wait for the Temple to be rebuilt and worry because the Muslim dome sits on the Temple mount. Beloved Judaism is dead. No one will ever be saved through that old system. Jesus is salvation. He is considered the Temple.
The New Testament presents Jesus Christ as the fulfillment of the temple’s purpose and symbolism. In the Gospel of John, Jesus explicitly identifies Himself with the temple. After cleansing the temple, He declares, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up” (John 2:19). The Jews misunderstand Him, thinking He refers to the physical building, but John clarifies, “But He was speaking about the temple of His body” (John 2:21). Here, Jesus reveals that His body is the true temple, the ultimate dwelling place of God’s presence.
Jesus now shifts from dead Judaism and its works salvation, it’s fruitlessness and it’s great hindrance to true worship to what things will be like through His great work of reconciliation to God.
22 And Jesus answered them, “Have faith in God. 23 Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him.
Our prayers will move a specific mountain. I’m afraid so many misunderstand this passage and have used it to teach something it was not intended to teach.
Jesus says, say to this mountain , this is the Mount of Olives. By prayer and faith, say to this mountain be taken up and thrown into the sea…
When Jesus returns He will land on the Mount of Olives and it will split in two and one half will fall into the sea.
This is the Passover prayer when God’s people will pray with faith for the return of Jesus. When our prayers are answered that mountain will be cast into the sea.
Zechariah 14:4 (ESV)
4 On that day his feet shall stand on the Mount of Olives that lies before Jerusalem on the east, and the Mount of Olives shall be split in two from east to west by a very wide valley, so that one half of the Mount shall move northward, and the other half southward.
Pray for Christ’s return. Pray come Lord Jesus. As we pray for His return and one day He does come back that mountain will be split in two.
Conclusion
God’s Temple was to be a place of worship and a house of prayer. It became a dead fruitless Temple where people were not brought closer to God but kept from God by sinful scheming lost people who only cared about making money.
Judaism cannot save anyone. If a Jewish person is to be in a right relationship with God the Father, it is not through Judaism but through Jesus Christ alone…No one comes to the Father except through Me, our Lord has said.
We must always guard against substituting other things for worship and prayer.
In our lives, is worship and prayer a vital part or does it take a back seat to other things? I pray we don’t just look good from a distance like the fig tree with green leaves but no fruit. We are to be producing the fruit of the Spirit.
Galatians 5:22–24 (ESV)
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. 24 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
That’s the fruit Jesus desires to see in each and every one who calls themselves a Christian. Don’t seek to just look the part but actually be a Christian and produce the wonderful fruit of the Spirit.
Resources
Mark by William Lane
Mark by James Edwards
Words of grace
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