Welcome to Timeless Truth with Pastor Jim Thomas. In season 2, Pastor Jim is leading us in a study of Mark. Today’s passage is Mark 11:12-21
Mark: It’s All About Jesus!—Who is Jesus?—How should we respond to Jesus?
This passage is what some NT scholars have come to call a “Markan Sandwich” and this time the sandwich might be called a “Temple” Sandwich within two slices of Fig Tree bread. The real subject of this enacted parable is the sad and spiritually barren Temple under its failed leadership.
These religious leaders were guilty not only of indifference to the poor but abuse and exploitation of the poor. These guys were supposed to be the trustworthy shepherds of God’s people and there they were using the flock for their own advantage. This was false religion and injustice all rolled into one. Here in the cleansing of the Temple we see a lack of authentic worship, a lack of prayer, and a bunch of godless profiteers masquerading as religious leaders.
“The leafy fig tree, with all it’s promise of fruit, is as deceptive as the Temple was, which, despite its religious commerce and activity, is really an outlaw’s hideout. The curse of the fig tree is a symbol of God’s judgment of the Temple.”
James R. Edwards
“Christianity is eminently a practical religion: sound doctrine is its root and foundation, but holy living should always be its fruit; and if we want to know what holy living is, let us often think about who Jesus calls ‘blessed’.”
J. C. Ryle
