Have you never read, "Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants You have perfected praise"?

 

 Then Jesus went into the temple of God and drove out all those who bought and sold in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves.  And He said to them, "It is written, 'My house shall be called a house of prayer,' but you have made it a 'den of thieves.'"  Then the blind and the lame came to Him in the temple, and He healed them.  

 

But when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that He did, and the children crying out in the temple and saying, "Hosanna to the Son of David!" they were indignant and said to Him, "Do You hear what these are saying?"  And Jesus said to them, "Yes.  Have you never read,

'Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants

You have perfected praise'?"  

Then He left them and went out of the city to Bethany, and He lodged there.

Now in the morning, as He returned to the city, He was hungry.  And seeing a fig tree by the road, He came to it and found nothing on it but leaves, and said to it, "Let no fruit grow on you ever again."  Immediately the fig tree withered away.

And when the disciples saw it, they marveled, saying, "How did the fig tree wither away so soon?"  So Jesus answered and said to them, "Assuredly, 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 also if you say to this mountain, 'Be removed and be cast into the sea,' it will be done.  And whatever things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive."

 

- Matthew 21:12-22 

 

Yesterday we read that when Jesus and the disciples drew near Jerusalem, and came to Bethphage, at the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, "Go into the village opposite you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her.  Loose them and bring them to Me.  And if anyone says anything to you, you shall say, 'The Lord has need of them,' and immediately he will send them."  All this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying:  "Tell the daughter of Zion, 'Behold, your King is coming to you, lowly, and sitting on a donkey, a colt, the foal of a donkey.'"  So the disciples went and did as Jesus commanded them.  They brought the donkey and the colt, laid their clothes on them, and set Him on them.  And a very great multitude spread their clothes on the road; others cut down branches from the trees and spread them on the road.  Then the multitudes who went before and those who followed cried out, saying:  "Hosanna to the Son of David!  'Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!'  Hosanna in the highest!"  And when He had come into Jerusalem, all the city was moved, saying, "Who is this?"  So the multitudes said, "This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth of Galilee."

 

Then Jesus went into the temple of God and drove out all those who bought and sold in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves.  And He said to them, "It is written, 'My house shall be called a house of prayer,' but you have made it a 'den of thieves.'"  Then the blind and the lame came to Him in the temple, and He healed them.   Those who bought and sold in the temple were trading in live animals which would be used in the Passover sacrifices.  The money changers were trading Roman coins for Jewish coins.  It was considered that Roman coins, which bore the image of Caesar, were defiling in the temple.  Jesus quotes from Isaiah 56:7, Jeremiah 7:11.   According to my study Bible, the cleansing of the temple also points to the necessity that the Church be kept free from earthly pursuits.  As each person is considered to be a temple of God (1 Corinthians 3:16, 6:19), it is also a sign that our hearts and minds must be cleansed of earthly matters.

But when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that He did, and the children crying out in the temple and saying, "Hosanna to the Son of David!" they were indignant and said to Him, "Do You hear what these are saying?"  And Jesus said to them, "Yes.  Have you never read, 'Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants You have perfected praise'?"  Then He left them and went out of the city to Bethany, and He lodged there.  Psalm 8:3 of the Septuagint declares, "From the mouths of babies and nursing infants You prepared praise because of Your enemies, that You may destroy the enemy and avenger."  (When we read quotations in the New Testament, it is the Septuagint being quoted; in most versions of the New Testament this is from Psalm 8:2.)  In the Palm Sunday Vespers of the Orthodox Church, it is declared, "Keep the feast with the children, and holding branches in your hands, sing 'Hosanna'."  My study Bible comments that many liturgical hymns of this day emphasize the perfect praise of the children, which unlike that of the adults, was innocent, fitting, unashamed, and from hearts of pure love.  So we are called to glorify Christ in the same spirit (see Matthew 18:1-4).  In contrast, my study Bible notes, the adults' praise carried earthly expectations and agendas which, when left unfulfilled, led them to rebel against Jesus just five days later (Matthew 27:20-23). 

 Now in the morning, as He returned to the city, He was hungry.  And seeing a fig tree by the road, He came to it and found nothing on it but leaves, and said to it, "Let no fruit grow on you ever again."  Immediately the fig tree withered away.  My study Bible notes that the fig tree is a symbol of prosperity and peace.  In this case, it withers because it is fruitless.  This is a prophetic act by Jesus, directed toward those who reject Him, since after three years of Christ's preaching, teaching, and healing, both the leaders and the crowds were destitute of spiritual fruit.  He curses the tree also to warn those in every generation of what will befall anyone who fails to listen to His message. 

And when the disciples saw it, they marveled, saying, "How did the fig tree wither away so soon?"  So Jesus answered and said to them, "Assuredly, 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 also if you say to this mountain, 'Be removed and be cast into the sea,' it will be done.  And whatever things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive."  My study Bible comments that while it is not recorded that an apostle literally moved a mountain, in Patristic tradition it is clear that they had this authority if the need had arisen (there were certain saints who made crevices appear in mountains).  Moreover, not everything accomplished by the apostles has written down.  Beyond the literal meaning, however, this promise is also an illustration of the power of faith and prayer in all areas of our lives.  Theophan writes, "Whatever we ask, without hesitation and believing in God's power, we shall receive" when we ask for things which are spiritually profitable.

Today's reading, taken altogether, seems to emphasize the power of God as it works in our lives.  There are things God would teach us to do, and how to live, and we have the choice to seek out this will, the way of God, or to pay lip service to that will, and do otherwise.  There are varying degrees to which a person is aware of the things of God and rejects them outright.  There is also the soul within which we have the capacity to be receptive to these things.  So often, Jesus' repeated iteration is of the words of Isaiah:  "He who has ears to hear, let him hear."  These words are directly connected to healing in the prophecy of Isaiah from which Jesus draws.   Isaiah is told, "Go, and tell this people, 'Keep on hearing, but do not understand; Keep on seeing, but do not perceive.'   Make the heart of this people dull, and their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; Lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and return and be healed" (Isaiah 6:9-10).  These words are also found echoed by the prophets Jeremiah and Ezekiel, and in the Epistles of St. Paul (Jeremiah 5:21, Ezekiel 12:2, Acts 28:27, Romans 11:8).  In Christ's cleansing of the temple, He's taking decisive action against practices which seem to violate the commands and intent of God for this house of worship and prayer, which He says has been made into a "den of thieves."  Earlier Jesus has already quoted from Isaiah regarding the religious leadership:  "Inasmuch as these people draw near with their mouths and honor Me with their lips, but have removed their hearts far from Me, and their fear toward Me is taught by the commandment of men" (see Isaiah 29:13, Matthew 15:8).  The withering of the fig tree illustrates a principle regarding spiritual fruitlessness, the result of dullness of hearing and seeing in a spiritual sense, a lack of perception of spiritual matters, and specifically in the teachings that He has offered through the course of His mission and ministry.  It is an illustration of the power of God in the sense that to understand this importance and yet to continue to ignore and abuse such a gift through one's own life is to court the results of fruitlessness and whatever that means in our own lives.  Whether we realize it or not, the fruits of faith are borne out not simply in forms of piousness but also of creativity and ingenuity in many ways; to truly study history with a sense of insight into the origins of principles of law such as mercy and rehabilitation, or the development of forms of beauty in architecture and art which seek to elevate our sight to the origins of beauty, truth, and goodness, owe a great deal to Christ and His ministry.  People may decisively seek to scorn such ideas, but there can be no rational doubt of the impact on the world of the story of the Crucifixion of this most innocent Man and His goodness and love and giving of Himself.  Finally, we come to Christ's discussion of faith with the disciples, in which He chooses to emphasize what faith can do in a positive sense.  Surely we are meant to understand that the faith Jesus has preached all along isn't a kind of magic in which we are capable of selfishly manifesting anything we desire through prayer, but rather the result of the pursuit of the will of God, the process of repentance as growth which is always continuing in that life of discipleship, and the growing dependency upon and trust in God along the way of this process.  It is in this way that prayer becomes truly effective, because it is honed and aligned within the will of God for us, and the result of a prayerfully lived life in this pursuit of God's love and desire for God.  Surely what we are to take from today's reading in the contrast between the fruitless materialism couched in hypocrisy that Jesus criticizes, the symbolic withering of the promises in the fig tree, and Jesus' words about faith and prayer is simply the power of God and our own alignment with that power through a prayerful life of serious discipleship.  This power is always present and on offer to us:  we may ignore it all we wish, but we risk the consequences of spiritual fruitlessness, emptiness, and a materialist life devoid of the meaning that God would give to our lives lived in this world.  This touches ironically on the very meaning of sacrifice and sacrament:  that we live in a world given to us by God as are our very lives, but in the practice of faith we give that world back to God so that God may teach us how to live prayerfully in communion within our world as good stewards.  This is not about rationalizing what we do, but sincerely seeking God's will in developing a prayerful life where spiritual eyes and ears are opened -- or at the very least, we have that aim in our hearts and are willing to open ourselves to where it would guide us.  Without this, even the must beautiful services and practices, those enshrined in religious literature, will lose their meaning in hearts that have grown dull or calloused, where the truth of our inner being is hidden and does not wrestle with God (Genesis 32:22-32), or against the spiritual darkness we don't wish to perceive or acknowledge (Ephesians 6:12).  On this eve of Christ's final week of earthly life, He lays bare the questions that are posed to us all, which we will each answer in our way, and which will have a lasting effect according to the choices made in this week by the religious leadership.  There will be times in our lives when we are called to make such choices and decisions; let us pray that we are aware of the stakes, and that we prefer the fruits of the Spirit to all else.  Sometimes when we seek to gain, we lose what is most precious (Matthew 16:26), in the long game of history and of our lives.   The children shout "Hosannah" because their hearts are flooded with joy in the encounter with Jesus.  Let our hearts remain open to that joy and find it in our own prayerful encounters with Him, and endure in it, even in the midst of the world.