The Final Days Of Jesus. (Tuesday)

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Tuesday, 30 AD. (3 Days Before His Death)

Jesus arrived at Lazarus’ house in Bethany later than people normally travel. After an emotional ride into the city of Jerusalem and a reflective trip to the temple, one would expect our Lord to sleep in and take it easy. He did not. Jesus awoke early in Bethany and promptly returned to Jerusalem where several key events occurred.

THE MORNING,

On His way into the city He became hungry, so He stopped by a nearby fig tree to eat. When He saw that nothing was on the tree, He cursed the tree and sentenced it to perpetual fruitlessness, which would result in it being chopped down, and used as firewood. This act confused disciples (Mark 11:12-14) and intrigues many of us today. Why was Jesus so angry at a fig tree? As you might suspect, there is more going on in this scene than at first meets the eye.

The text tells us that Jesus was hungry. Perhaps, He and His disciples awoke before Mary or Martha could prepare breakfast? This of course is speculation.

But what is crystal clear is that Jesus did not curse this tree out of divine supernatural immaturity. He is not so bitterly disappointed at this tree that He throws a Zeus-like hissy fit and zaps the tree. Instead, He is doing what many of the prophets of old would do. He is performing a lived out miracle, which is called a “sign act”, that was meant to be a wordless parable to showcase an important truth. These usually involve extreme cases of judgment as in the case of Isaiah walking about naked for 3 years of his ministry (Isaiah 20:20-24), Ezekiel building and attacking a model city (Ezekiel 4:1-3) or Hosea marrying a prostitute to showcase the marriage God had with adulterous Israel (The whole book of Hosea). So when Jesus acts out this parable, cursing the fig tree, He is pronouncing swift judgment on Jerusalem.

The tree represented the city of God, the one who was supposed to be healthy and bearing the fruit of God (Isaiah 5:1-7). But, instead of finding this city healthy and about the Lord’s work, Jesus found her spiritually withering and barren. And as He curses this simple tree, the overarching point is that the end is coming for Jerusalem and her temple. Her fruitless days will soon be over. In forty years, a single generation from the events of this week (Matthew 24:1-3), the Roman armies would descend upon the city and burn it to the ground, just like a dead fig tree that was long overdue to be thrown in the camp fire. This scene was a lived our parable of the judgment of God upon the fruitless city. 

Think about the symbolism. Jesus curses a fruitless tree en route to a fruitless city. The meaning takes on vivid severity when we see it for what it is.

FROM THERE,

Jesus continued into Jerusalem and approached the fruitless temple, which was the epicenter of the rot and was the same temple He had inspected the night before and found no fruit. On Tuesday, like a wise gardener, He began pruning the dead branches as a last ditch effort to save the tree. This meant cleansing the temple from the paganism that was infecting it.

In the temple, specifically in the court of the Gentiles (The outermost court), men and women were buying and selling, exchanging currency, and filling this courtyard with all kinds of commerce and industry. This pushed the Gentiles and all of those who were infirm or ceremonially unclean outside of the temple with no place to worship Yahweh (Mark 11:15-16). 

Instead of it being a place of prayer for the Gentile nations, sinful men had turned it into a den of liars and thieves who would make a profit off of their cold and dead religion. Like the barren fig tree Jesus cursed, Jesus diagnoses their fruitless deeds, drives them out with a corded whip (John 2:13-17), and promised to give the Kingdom over to those who would produce His fruit (Matthew 21:43).

Do you see the irony?

Jesus went into a fruitless city, would take away the kingdom from the fruitless people, and would give it to the Gentiles, who would ,by the Spirit’s power, bear much fruit. The whole lived out parable of the fig tree was coming true right before their very eyes.

ONCE THE TEMPLE WAS CLEANSED,

All those who were driven from the outer courtyard returned. This would have included the Gentiles. Yes! And praise God for that! But, it also included those who were perpetually unclean!

According to the Law of Moses, people who suffered various diseases or other physical abnormalities would need to be kept at a distance from the temple. The reason is deeply embedded in the ceremonial law of Moses, but the short answer is that God’s presence is ferociously Holy. Even perfectly clean priests would need to go to extraordinary lengths to be in His presence, so there was a danger of approaching God in a caviler way. Unfortunately, the Pharisees relished policing the courtyard and prohibiting people from approaching God. They functioned as the purveyors of God to the masses and were more than happy to exclude anyone from knowing God who crossed them or how they interpreted Moses.

And while it is clear they misunderstood the entire heart of the law, Jesus demonstrates it by cleansing the temple and then healing the sick, the lame, the infirm, and the diseased (Matthew 21:14). In this way, He not only provided them access to the temple, He provided them with the entire point of the temple, by meeting with them face to face. For in that encounter, the weak, the sick, and the infirm were approaching their covenant God face to face with Jesus Christ.

The entire point of the temple was being fulfilled before their eyes in Jesus Christ. And, as a result, anthems of praise began reverberating from the outer courtyard in ways that had never been heard before! The moment was pandemonium.

The crowds were clearly excited, crying out “Hosanna to the Son of David”, which means “Son of David save us now” (Matthew 21:15). Unfortunately, not everyone there was filled with praise.

This loud and public display of affection to Christ, sadly, did not last long. The Jewish elites who saw all of this going down, not only refused to celebrate, they also openly challenged Him. In spite of all of the good God was doing through His Son, they took this moment to critique Jesus and to also denigrate the crowd who praised Him (Matthew 21:16). They sensed power slipping from their hands and they were ready to do whatever it took to get it back.

After a short exchange, Jesus departed the city once more. He left to spend the night again in Bethany (Mark 11:19). While Jesus and His disciples were sleeping, the power brokers in Jerusalem were awake and planning how they might destroy Him (Mark 11:18). Things were certainly heating up in Jerusalem.

Join us tomorrow, as we explore what Jesus and His disciples were doing on Wednesday, 2 days before He died.