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FUNU... 260822 Mark 11:1-19

It’s ironic that I frequently find immediately after I post Funu—or within days, anyway—I come across an anecdote or information that would have made the post memorable; and I realize that I had missed it. Remember the blind beggar Bartimaeus at the end of Mark 10? Mark’s account mentions matter-of-factly that when he realized that Jesus was calling for him to come from his spot, he cast away his garment, or cloak or coat, got up, and went to Jesus.

In the post I didn’t mention that I thought that detail of his encounter with Jesus seemed a bit odd, but then I saw what someone else had written. That garment was as important to Bartimaeus as Linus’s security blanket: padding as he sat by the road, warmth and shelter for this possibly homeless blind beggar, and target/coin-catcher for coins tossed to help him survive. Still blind, Bartimaeus gets up to get to Jesus, trusting that Jesus could give him sight, and throws off his security, his lifeline through years of blindness. He lays it all down, goes all in, and demonstrates it by this one act. Jesus could see that he had faith in him, and gave him sight.

Now, in the first verses of chapter 11, Mark reports that Jesus and his disciples have come to Bethphage and Bethany, villages near Jerusalem. At the Mount of Olives (in sight of and across a valley from Jerusalem), Jesus sends out two of his disciples. “Go into the village, and as soon as you enter it you’ll find a colt that hasn’t been broken [trained to allow someone to ride him]. Untie him and bring him here.” If you’re looking for something that could be a setup, that is, that Jesus had it arranged ahead of time, well, in light of everything else Jesus has been done, this seems like a childish trick, if that is what it was. Read on, beginning in verse 3: “If somebody asks you, Hey, what are you guys trying to do, taking that donkey—he’s not yours! tell him The Lord needs him, and he’ll let you take him right away.”

So the two go and find the donkey colt tied up outside someone’s house, and they untie him. Some people standing there ask, “What are you guys doing, untying that colt,” and the two disciples tell him what Jesus said to say, and they let them take the colt. Pretty elaborate, perfectly executed, if it was a setup; pretty accurate prophecy or prediction, if, as Mark tells us, it was.

Now, do you know about horses or donkeys, and how they turn into bucking broncos the first time somebody tries to saddle up and sit them? Pay attention. The disciples take the colt to Jesus and throw their cloaks on him, and Jesus sits on him. Not only does he sit on an untamed donkey, but the surrounding crowd could not but have made it nervous, and they strew their cloaks and palm branches on the road shouting “Hosanna! Blessed is he that comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the kingdom of our ancestor David, that’s coming in the name of the Lord. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!”

Hosanna is not an everyday word in the English language, because it is a proclamation of welcome to the Messiah, to someone Nietsche might have labeled Uberman or in English, “Superman.” The people are celebrating the arrival of someone they consider Messiah, perhaps God. Jesus does not try to downplay their adulation, or quell their enthusiasm. Mark says matter-of-factly that Jesus goes into Jerusalem, and into the temple. After he looks all around, and as evening is drawing near, he goes out of Jerusalem to Bethany with his twelve closest disciples.

The next morning they’re walking back toward Jerusalem, and Jesus is hungry. He sees a fig tree in leaf, and goes up to it as if to find some fruit. Two things about this: the fig tree often represents Israel; and everybody knows that fig trees do not bear fruit in the Spring. (Remember, this all happens near Passover, which is around the first full moon after the Spring Equinox.) Jesus (of course) finds nothing but leaves on the fig tree. “May one ever eat your fruit again!” Jesus proclaims. What is Jesus proclaiming? He can’t really be angry at that fig tree for not producing fruit off-season. He must be directing his ire at what the tree symbolizes, Israel, but exactly what? Is Jesus canceling out centuries of covenant between God and Israel, as some suggest, and cursing Israel? For him to override God’s covenant with Israel makes Jesus greater than, or at least equal to, the Almighty, and willing to default on his sacred covenants on a whim—demanding fruit out of season.

It seems to me that Jesus is criticizing Israel, but not abandoning all those centuries of relationship and covenant. You are, of course, to take issue with my opinion, but look at what happens next: Right after Jesus curses the fig tree, he and his disciples go into the temple in Jerusalem, where Jesus turns over the tables and booths where moneychangers and dove-sellers (doves were offered for sacrifice, especially by people too poor to afford a lamb or ox) would milk worshipers, who had traveled long distances to sacrifice at the holy temple. Jesus stops all the trade and commercial activity in the temple. “Is it not written,” Jesus demands in verse 17, “ ‘My house shall be called of all nations the house of prayer’? But [you] have made it a den of thieves.” Jesus is putting himself in the place of God Almighty, and attacking the priests and Scribes for desecrating “His” house.

The Scribes and chief priests are furious, not about their failure , which Jesus reveals, but that Jesus interrupted their money-making, God-demeaning scheme. Rather than own up, confess, and repair, they try to figure out how to destroy Jesus. They fear him, because all the people are enraptured by what he is teaching. As evening comes on, Jesus again leaves Jerusalem.

The next verse, verse 20, tells what happens to that fig tree, but since it is tied to a longer, profound teaching about faith and trust, I will leave that to the next post.

Meanwhile, think through the implications of the ideas in this post, remembering that often, debating the meaning and implications of Scripture is more important than declaring that your understanding is impeccably true. For “extra credit,” read the book of Job in the Old Testament, where Job and his friends debate numerous deep questions about God and how he works in the world. Form your answers, and defend them to others; listen to their answers, discuss them, and remain friends, committed to seeking to know God ever more fully.

In particular, I challenge you to consider whether your ideas stand up to who Jesus reveals himself to be. Don’t take my word for it, but read the Bible yourself and think through what Mark and the writers who knew Jesus best have to say.

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