Holy Monday
Read Matthew 21:12-22 & Mark 11:12-19
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Matthew 21:12-22 (NASB)
And Jesus entered the temple area and drove out all those who were selling and buying on the temple grounds, and He overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who were selling doves. And He said to them, “It is written: ‘My house will be called a house of prayer’; but you are making it a den of robbers.” And those who were blind and those who limped came to Him in the temple area, and He healed them. But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that He had done, and the children who were shouting in the temple area, “ Hosanna to the Son of David,” they became indignant, and they said to Him, “Do You hear what these children are saying?” And Jesus said to them, “Yes. Have you never read, ‘From the mouths of infants and nursing babies You have prepared praise for Yourself’?” And He left them and went out of the city to Bethany, and spent the night there. Now in the early morning, when He was returning to the city, He became hungry. And seeing a lone fig tree by the road, He came to it and found nothing on it except leaves alone; and He *said to it, “No longer shall there ever be any fruit from you.” And at once the fig tree withered. Seeing this, the disciples were amazed and asked, “How did the fig tree wither all at once?” And Jesus answered and said to them, “Truly I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ it will happen. And whatever you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive it all.”
Matthew 21:12-22 (NASB)
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Mark 11:12-19 (NASB)
On the next day, when they had left Bethany, He became hungry. Seeing from a distance a fig tree in leaf, He went to see if perhaps He would find anything on it; and when He came to it, He found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. And He said to it, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again!” And His disciples were listening. Then they *came to Jerusalem. And He entered the temple area and began to drive out those who were selling and buying on the temple grounds, and He overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who were selling doves; and He would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple grounds. And He began to teach and say to them, “Is it not written: ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? But you have made it a den of robbers.” And the chief priests and the scribes heard this, and they began seeking how to put Him to death; for they were afraid of Him, because all the crowd was astonished at His teaching. And whenever evening came, they would leave the city.
Mark 11:12-19 (NASB)
Have you wondered what you would do if you were given one day or one week left to live? You would probably make time and prioritize people and things that mattered. Maybe you would do things that you never could. Maybe you would take that trip you always wanted to take. Maybe you would make amends with someone. Regardless, I bet you would make sure that people knew where you stood with them and where your heart was.
That’s what Holy Week is all about. We see Jesus, intentionally, spend His last week teaching, showing and reminding His disciples and those around Him things about Himself and the Kingdom of God. This is His last chance before His sacrifice to stress the points that He has been making this whole time.
And on Monday, we see Him in many places, but one place is on the way to the Temple in Bethany. The text tells us that Jesus was hungry while making His way back to the city and spotted a fig tree that was shown to be in season. As He went to get a fig from it, it showed to have no fruit! How disappointing to someone who was hungry! When He saw that there was no fruit, He cursed the tree that had no fruit so that no fruit would come from it again (as we see a few verses later as the tree itself rotted).
Again, why spend time doing such specific things on the last days leading up to His death? We need to take careful examination of the interactions of Jesus. In Jeremiah 8:13 and Micah 7:1, we see the nation of Israel be compared to that of a fig tree before. The nation of Israel at this time, like this fig tree, appeared to soul-hungry people to have what they were looking for, but upon closer inspection, they lacked it all. The leaves on the tree were supposed to be a showing of fruit. A welcoming to those who desired hope, yet there was no fruit, no true hope. Those who profess to believe, yet reveal no fruit, are in danger of being hypocrites.
As you read later on today in this passage, Jesus later cleanses the temple as it had been turned into a house that profits off of making money on the sacrificial system, set up by the Chief Priest and his family, rather than a true place of worship and prayer. Jesus sets it right by rebuking those who are doing so and as He drives them away, we see those who are blind and lame come to Him and He heals them. Jesus restores the temple to what it was supposed to be; a place of prayer and healing.
The religious were as a fruitless fig tree. Seeming to have all of the fruit to a starving person but starving themselves. They put out what seemed important, but when you got close enough, you could see that the fruit was not evident. Jesus was warning His disciples of this. And the warning holds for us today as well.
Prayer
“Jesus, reveal to our hearts the areas that we may be pretending and may not even know it. If there is any place where we have allowed our leaves to become our focus of our tending and not the tender caring of the fruit that your Spirit brings, please show it to us so that we can redirect our gaze. We don’t want to be consumed with our appearance of religion. We want to be consumed with you. All of you. More of you, Jesus.”