Day 62

Leviticus 27:14-34; Numbers 1:1-54; Mark 11:1-25; Psalm 46:1-11; Proverbs 10:23

Our Temple for Real Faith and Worship

In Mark, we read of Jesus’ Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem, which happened at the beginning of Passover week. At the end of that day, Mark reports that Jesus, having looked around at everything going on in the temple, went to Bethany. The next day He went back to judge the temple for having become a center of worldly commerce rather than worship. Sandwiched between these temple visits is the curious episode of the fig tree. Jesus curses the tree because there is no fruit. But Mark reports that, “it was not the season for figs.” So why the curse? One ill effect of the section headers in our Bibles––not in the original text––is that they sometimes lead us to disconnect events from the surrounding context.

What is the bread around this cursed fig tree sandwich? The temple in Jerusalem, the place Jesus reminds us was to be a house of prayer for all the nations had become a place of faithlessness. The fig tree points to the cursing of temple life because of its lack of fruit. “It is a visual parable to signify Jesus’ unrequited search for the true fruit of worship, prayer and righteousness in the Jewish nation and its religious practices,” says the ESV commentary. Back in Matthew 7, Jesus says that “every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” Even now, as our hearts and lives are to be the tabernacle where God dwells, we need continually seek His face, His presence. Don’t let your heart just be a place for business as usual today. Strengthen your faith, let your mountain of doubt be cast into the sea, and as we are reminded in the Psalm for today, “Be still and know that He is God.”

Kent Madison