Rabbi, look! The fig tree which You cursed has withered away

 

 Now the next day, when they had come out from Bethany, He was hungry.  And seeing from afar a fig tree having leaves, He went to see if perhaps He would find something on it.  When He came to it, He found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs.  In response Jesus said to it, "Let no one eat fruit from you ever again."  And His disciples heard it. 

 

So they came to Jerusalem.  Then Jesus went into the temple and began to drive out 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 would not allow anyone to carry wares through the temple.  Then He taught, saying to them, "Is it not written, 'My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations'?  But you have made it a 'den of thieves.'"  And the scribes and chief priests heard it and sought how they might destroy Him; for they feared Him, because all the people were astonished at His teaching.  When evening had come, He went out of the city. 

 

 Now in the morning, as they passed by, they saw the fig tree dried up from the roots.  And Peter, remembering, said to Him, "Rabbi, look!  The fig tree which You cursed has withered away."  So Jesus answered and said to them, "Have faith in God.  For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, 'Be removed and be cast into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says.  Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.  And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses.  But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses."

 

- Mark 11:12-26 

 

On Saturday we read that when Jesus and the disciples drew near Jerusalem, to Bethphage and Bethany, at the Mount of Olives, He sent two of His disciples; and He said to them, "Go into the village opposite you; and as soon as you have entered it you will find a colt tied, on which no one has sat.  Loose it and bring it.  And if anyone says to you, 'Why are you doing this?' say, 'The Lord has need of it,' and immediately he will send it here."  So they went their way, and found the colt tied by the door outside on the street, and they loosed it.  But some of those who stood there said to them, "What are you doing, loosing the colt?"  And they spoke to them just as Jesus had commanded.  So they let him go.  Then they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their clothes on it, and He sat on it.  And many spread their clothes on the road, and the others cut down leafy branches from the trees and spread them on the road.  Then those who went before and those who followed cried out, saying: "Hosanna! 'Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!'  Blessed is the kingdom of our father David that comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!"  And Jesus went into Jerusalem and into the temple.  So when He had looked around at all things, as the hour was already late, He went out to Bethany with the twelve. 

 

Now the next day, when they had come out from Bethany, He was hungry.  And seeing from afar a fig tree having leaves, He went to see if perhaps He would find something on it.  When He came to it, He found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs.  In response Jesus said to it, "Let no one eat fruit from you ever again."  And His disciples heard it.   It was not the season for figs, my study Bible explains, means that this fig tree had sprouted an early fall foliage, which indicated a first crop, but without bearing any fruit.  So Jesus, finding not even one fig, condemns it.  In Scripture, my study Bible says, a fig tree is often a symbol of Israel (Hosea 9:10).  Her fruitfulness has ceased, so the Kingdom will be taken from her and given to another people, who are called to bear spiritual fruit (see Matthew 21:43; Galatians 5:22-23).  After three years of ministry, Christ has arrived in Jerusalem, where He will find refusal and rejection, rather than spiritual fruitfulness.

 

 So they came to Jerusalem.  Then Jesus went into the temple and began to drive out 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 would not allow anyone to carry wares through the temple.  Then He taught, saying to them, "Is it not written, 'My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations'?  But you have made it a 'den of thieves.'"  And the scribes and chief priests heard it and sought how they might destroy Him; for they feared Him, because all the people were astonished at His teaching.  When evening had come, He went out of the city.  Those who bought and sold in the temple were trading in life animals to be used for sacrifices.  The money changers would trade Roman coins for Jewish coins; this is because Roman coins bore the image of Caesar, who was worshiped as a god, and they were considered defiling in the temple.  The cleansing of the temple also points to the necessity that the Church be kept free from earthly pursuits.  As each person is considered 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.  Jesus quotes from Isaiah 56:7 and Jeremiah 7:11 to make His point clear regarding the use of the temple.  

 

  Now in the morning, as they passed by, they saw the fig tree dried up from the roots.  And Peter, remembering, said to Him, "Rabbi, look!  The fig tree which You cursed has withered away."   The cursing and withering of the fig tree is a prophetic act which signifies the judgment of Israel.  The disciples need to learn that the old covenant with Israel is becoming "obsolete" and will "vanish away" (Hebrews 8:13).  My study Bible explains that they will establish His Church, ultimately to be filled with Gentiles and Jews, and need assurance that they are following Christ's will.  The fig tree will be an indelible image in their minds. 

 

 So Jesus answered and said to them, "Have faith in God.  For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, 'Be removed and be cast into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says.  Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them."  To have faith in God is to believe and follow.  From this faith in God, then, it follows that what one asks in prayer means necessarily prayer according to the will of God, not simply our own whims or aspirations alone.  My study Bible comments that while it is not recorded that an apostle literally moved mountain, patristic commentary is clear that they had this authority if the need had arisen (certain saints did make crevices appear in mountains).  Additionally, it explains, not everything the apostles accomplished was written down.  Beyond the literal meaning, my study Bible adds, this promise is also an illustration of the power of faith and prayer in all areas of life.  Theophylact comments that "whatever we ask, without hesitation and believing in God's power, we shall receive" when we ask for spiritually profitable things.  This passage is inseparable from Christ's words that follow regarding forgiveness.  

 

 "And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses.  But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses."   Here Jesus insists upon mutual forgiveness between people as a precondition of God's forgiveness.  Those who do not forgive are not forgiven -- period, my study Bible claims.  This teaching is repeated in the parable of the unforgiving servant (Matthew 18:21-35), which concludes with this same teaching.  To not forgive others is to willfully flee from the forgiveness of God for ourselves.  

 

In today's reading, St. Peter draws attention to the fig tree, now dried up from its roots.  He says, "Rabbi, look!  The fig tree which You cursed has withered away."   All the disciples know very well this sequence of events, the curse by Jesus for fruitlessness (noted as metaphor to people), and then witnessing its complete desiccation (dried up from the roots).  Jesus' response is interesting, as He does not speak of the tree per se, but rather He speaks about faith.  He says, "Have faith in God.  For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, 'Be removed and be cast into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says.  Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them."  There are those who seemingly read these words as if Jesus is saying that no matter what we think we want or need, if we just pray for them without any doubt that Jesus will make them happen for us, then they will.  But this is not what Jesus is teaching here.  Prayer is not a magical incantation; it's not bargaining or bribing or manipulating God; it's not a formula for manifestation.  First of all, in the prayer that Jesus gave us Himself (the Lord's Prayer), He has taught us to pray, "Our Father in heaven . . . Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven" (Matthew 6:12; Luke 11:2).  Moreover, we recall from Christ's own life and practice His memorable prayer to the Father on the night before His Crucifixion.   Christ's first prayer, as reported by St. Matthew was as follows:  "O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will."  Christ's natural human response to death is to seek to let this cup pass from Him.  But His prayer ends with "not as I will, but as You will."  His next prayer is as follows:  "O My Father, if this cup cannot pass away from Me unless I drink it, Your will be done."  This further enforces that Jesus prays above all not for His own (human) will to be done, but for the divine will He shares with the Father, "Your will be done" -- even if it means this cup of Crucifixion He wishes to avoid cannot pass away by any other means except that He drinks it, accepts it.  So Jesus is not saying that all we have to do is believe that God will do what we ask God to do; He is teaching us about the power of faith in God, and the reality that brings to us in seeking God's will.  This is the way to effective prayer.  That is, as my study Bible puts it, when we ask for spiritually profitable things.  What He says next emphasizes this, for He speaks about forgiveness: "And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses.  But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses."   To forgive is to give up, to let go (this is the literal meaning of the word in Greek translated as forgive).   It is precisely as it is when a debt is forgiven; it is let go off the books.  When we thus "forgive" in this sense, when we let go and give it up, we are turning it over to God for God's will.  It's the same sense in which we are reminded by St. Paul that "'Vengeance is Mine; I will repay,' says the Lord" (Romans 12:19; quoting Deuteronomy 32:35).  To forgive in this sense, and particularly in the sense of giving up seeking vengeance, is to seek God's will instead of our own.  We let things go, and ask for God's way.  In this sense also, we are reminded that it is our work to seek God's will in all things, and to pursue that as best we can.  In this sense, our practices help us to discern God's will, to give ourselves to that will, to ask for the things we're led toward by that faith in God which Jesus says is of utmost importance.  And in this way, our prayers become effective and powerful.  We seek to align our will with God's will, to learn how to do that as best we can, and not the other way around.  Christ Himself gives us the ultimate example in seeking God's way.  It is this in which we are to place our faith and do not doubt.  Let us try as best we can to follow His word and teachings.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Take these things away!

 

 Now the Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.  And He found in the temple those who sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers doing business.  When He had made a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen, and poured out the changers' money and overturned the tables.   And He said to those who sold doves, "Take these things away!  Do not make My Father's house a house of merchandise!"  Then His disciples remembered that it was written, "Zeal for Your house has eaten Me up."  

 

So the Jews answered and said to Him, "What sign do You show to us, since You do these things?"  Jesus answered and said to them, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up."  Then the Jews said, "It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?"  But He was speaking of the temple of His body.  Therefore, when He had risen from the dead, His disciples remembered that He had said this to them; and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had said.

 

- John 2:13–22 

 

Yesterday we read about the sixth and seventh days of the beginning of Christ's earthly ministry given to us in John's Gospel:   There was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there.  Now both Jesus and His disciples were invited to the wedding.  And when they ran out of wine, the mother of Jesus said to Him, "They have no wine."  Jesus said to her, "Woman, what does your concern have to do with Me?  My hour has not yet come."  His mother said to the servants, "Whatever He says to you, do it."  Now there were set there six waterpots of stone, according to the manner of purification of the Jews, containing twenty or thirty gallons apiece.  Jesus said to them, "Fill the waterpots with water."  And they filled them up to the brim.  And He said to them, "Draw some out now, and take it to the master of the feast."  And they took it.  When the master of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine, and did not know where it came from (but the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom.  And he said to him, "Every man at the beginning sets out the good wine, and when the guests have well drunk, then the inferior.  You have kept the good wine until now!"  This beginning of signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and manifested His glory; and His disciples believed in Him.  After this He went down to Capernaum, He, His mother, His brothers, and His disciples; and they did not stay there many days.

 

  Now the Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.  And He found in the temple those who sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers doing business.  When He had made a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen, and poured out the changers' money and overturned the tables.   And He said to those who sold doves, "Take these things away!  Do not make My Father's house a house of merchandise!"  Then His disciples remembered that it was written, "Zeal for Your house has eaten Me up."  In the synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke) this event occurs at the end of Christ's ministry, at the start of what we call Holy Week.  But John places it at the beginning.  There are certain Church Fathers who teach that Christ performed this act twice.  Those who were selling oxen and sheep and doves traded in live animals to be used for sacrifices.  The money changers would trade Roman coins for Jewish coins.  Roman coins, my study Bible explains, bore the image of Caesar and so were considered to be defiling in the temple.  My study Bible adds that the cleansing of the temple also points to the need to keep the Church free from earthly pursuits.  Moreover, as each person is considered to be a temple of God (1 Corinthians 3:16, 6:19), so it's also a sign that our own hearts and minds be cleansed of earthly matters.  The disciples recall a passage from Psalm 69:9.

 

 So the Jews answered and said to Him, "What sign do You show to us, since You do these things?"  Jesus answered and said to them, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up."  Then the Jews said, "It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?"  But He was speaking of the temple of His body.  Therefore, when He had risen from the dead, His disciples remembered that He had said this to them; and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had said.  Because Jesus is not a Levitical priest, His authority to cleanse the temple is challenged by the religious authorities.  The term Jews in John's Gospel is most often a reference specifically to the Jewish leaders.  Here, it's a reference to the chief priests and the elders (see Matthew 21:23).  As Christ is careful not to reveal Himself to scoffers, my study Bible remarks, He answers in a hidden way.  The ultimate sign will be Christ's death and Resurrection. 

 

 My study Bible cites St. Paul, who teaches that each of us is a temple of God (1 Corinthians 3:16, 6:19).  In that respect, Jesus' example of cleansing the temple serves as a reminder that our journey as Christians is not one merely of nice and beautiful things added to us, but it is also a call for us to be discerning, and even to put down boundaries toward things that take away or diminish this understanding of ourselves which Jesus gives, together with St. Paul.  Christ's action here is decisive.  While it's done in accordance with His identity as Messiah, the application of such decisive action also belongs to us in our own private lives.  It is in the nature of sin to be something that has effects that spread beyond the single person responsible, or the one separate act of sinning.  In Christ, of course, we have repentance and forgiveness, and we are blessed with grace through our baptism.  But the effects of sin nevertheless are always things we need to consider.  Perhaps the most stark example of such is the example of a parent who commits a serious crime, and goes to prison.  While the crime can be forgiven in the context of repentance and forgiveness in the Church, and the person may pay the adjudicated debt to society, nevertheless the effects of the sin persist on those who are affected in relationship and proximity.  Children pay a price for a parent who is in prison, or for violence encountered within the family, even for the social stigma that may be attached -- real or imagined by the child.  This is but one small example of how sin is not a private affair, but is rather like the effects of a rock cast into a pool.  The ripples continue and affect the whole pool.  The same can be said for something unclean or poisonous cast into that pool.  In this sense, we should think of what we decide we want to "cleanse" from our lives as that which we neither want to cast into the pool around us or perhaps want to distance ourselves from for protection of ourselves and others.  Gossip is one such thing we could consider under these circumstances.  The effects of malicious gossip can range from harmless if ignored to exceptionally tragic when they take their toll.  But either way, we don't want that to spread into our "pool," neither to us nor to others around us.  Perhaps we don't want to spend so much time around people who constantly bring this into our lives.  Especially as it is now Lent, let us consider giving up those things which pollute our own temples, and give them up in exchange for things we can think of doing that add beauty to our "pool" instead.  Rather than using time to spread a rumor or story we don't know is even true, why not take that same time instead to pick up a book on an uplifting subject, to plant some flowers, to walk in a park, to say a prayer?  There are all kinds of ways we can think of beautifying our lives in a spiritual sense, and so let us do so.  Equally important is to rid ourselves and our environment of the things which pollute and poison, for sin has such effects, whether we see them or not.  

 

Take these things away! Do not make My Father's house a house of merchandise!

 

 Now the Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.  And He found in the temple those who sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers doing business.  When He had made a whip of cords, He drove them all  out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen, and poured out the changers' money and overturned the tables.  And He said to those who sold doves, "Take these things away!  Do not make My Father's house a house of merchandise!"  Then His disciples remembered that it was written, "Zeal for Your house has eaten Me up."  So the Jews answered and said to Him, "What sign do You show to us, since You do these things?"  Jesus answered and said to them, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up."  Then the Jews said, "It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?"  But He was speaking of the temple of His body.  Therefore, when He had risen from the dead, His disciples remembered that He had said this to them; and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had said. 

 

- John 2:13–22 

 

Yesterday we read that, on the sixth day given of seven in John's Gospel, telling the story of the beginning of Christ's public ministry, there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there.  Now both Jesus and His disciples were invited to the wedding.  And when they ran out of wine, the mother of Jesus said to Him, "They have no wine."  Jesus said to her, "Woman, what does your concern have to do with Me?  My hour has not yet come."  His mother said to the servants, "Whatever He says to you, do it."  Now there were set there six waterpots of stone, according to the manner of purification of the Jews, containing twenty or thirty gallons apiece.  Jesus said to them, "Fill the waterpots with water."  And they filled them up to the brim.  And He said to them, "Draw some out now, and take it to the master of the feast."  And they took it.  When the master of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine, and did not know where it came from (but the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom.  And he said to him, "Every man at the beginning sets out the good wine, and when the guests have well drunk, then the inferior.  You have kept the good wine until now!"  This beginning of signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and manifested His glory; and His disciples believed in Him.  After this He went down to Capernaum, He, His mother, His brothers, and His disciples; and they did not stay there many days.

 

  Now the Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Today's reading gives us the story of the cleansing of the temple in Jerusalem.  In the synoptic Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, this event occurs at the end of Christ's ministry.  But John places it at the beginning, which sets a strong tone for the Gospel.  My study Bible notes that some patristic commentary holds that Christ performed this act twice.   John's Gospel gives us three occasions on which Jesus participates in the Passover festival during Jesus' ministry, teaching us that His ministry lasted three years.  

 

 And He found in the temple those who sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers doing business.  When He had made a whip of cords, He drove them all  out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen, and poured out the changers' money and overturned the tables.  And He said to those who sold doves, "Take these things away!  Do not make My Father's house a house of merchandise!"  Then His disciples remembered that it was written, "Zeal for Your house has eaten Me up."  Those who sold oxen and sheep and doves were trading in live animals to be used for sacrifices.  The money changers would trade Roman coins for Jewish coins, since Roman coins bore the image of Ceasar and were considered to be defiling in the temple.  John gives us the detail that Jesus made a whip of cords, giving us an image of His decisive and strong action here.  It is also here in John's account that we're told the disciples remembered the words of the Psalm:  "Zeal for Your house has eaten Me up" (Psalm 69:9), also giving us a picture of the strength and energy of Jesus.  My study Bible reminds us that the cleansing of the temple points to the necessity that the Church be kept free from earthly pursuits.  Additionally, as each person is considered to be a temple of God (1 Corinthians 3:16, 6:19), it is a sign that our hearts and minds must be cleansed of earthly matters.  Jesus' energetic and decisive response is reminiscent of His language illustrating decisive action to separate ourselves from sin (see for example Matthew 18:8-9).

So the Jews answered and said to Him, "What sign do You show to us, since You do these things?"  Jesus answered and said to them, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up."  Then the Jews said, "It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?"  But He was speaking of the temple of His body.  Therefore, when He had risen from the dead, His disciples remembered that He had said this to them; and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had said.   As Jesus is not a Levitical priest, His authority to cleanse the temple is challenged by the religious leaders.  My study Bible reminds us that by the time of John's Gospel, early Jewish Christians had been subject to persecution.  Hence the term "the Jews" is used most often as a political term here, and does not mean the Jewish people.  It is most frequently used specifically to refer to the Jewish leadership at the time of Christ.  In this case, it's referring to the chief priests and the elders (see Matthew 21:23).  We would do well to remember that Jesus and all of His disciples, including the author of this Gospel, were Jews.  My study Bible comments that, as Christ is careful not to reveal Himself to scoffers, HE answers in a hidden way  the ultimate sign will be His death and Resurrection.  These words, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up" will be twisted and used against Him by false witnesses at His trial (Matthew 26:60-61).

 

Today's reading gives us an image of Christ that is dynamic and powerful.  In the cleansing of the temple, it shows Him as a man who is ready to take decisive action, and who can use strength for the right purposes.  Many people seem to get the impression from Christ's preaching, such as in the Sermon on the Mount (where we are taught, for example, to pray for our enemies), that Jesus was a man of very passive nature.  But to see Christ this way is not to understand Him or His strength, or even His teaching in a full perspective.  To know Christ is to know the great and true passion and dynamism in Him, even in the way that the disciples understand the line from the Psalm, "Zeal for Your house has eaten Me up."   In Matthew 5:5, we read iJesus teaching (in NKJV English), "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth."  In Matthew 11:29, we read Him saying, "Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls."    "Meek" in the first case, and "gentle" in the second case, are both translated from the same Greek word.  That word is πραΰς/prays (pronounced pra-EES).  This can also mean humble, but it is more than that.  It indicates not weakness, as is often imaged by English translations, but rather God's exercising strength under God's control.  That is (according to HELPS Word-Studies), "demonstrating power without undue harshness."  This kind of gentleness is a blend of both reserve and strength.  So John's picture of the dynamic Jesus here gives us a fullness of Christ we're apt to miss at times.  Although He comes into the world as a human being without social or material power, He is the Incarnate Son.  As such, He manifests and pronounces judgment and justice.  Therefore His actions in the temple represent this, as do His powerful words to the religious leaders as well -- see Matthew 23 for His vivid critique of their habits.  This is not a shrinking violet, not the meekness of someone who shows any fear whatsoever, but the supreme confidence of One who takes absolute nature and strength and judgment from God (and who is God), and One who has come into the world to show us what that is ("He who has seen Me has seen the Father" - John 14:9).  If we are to model Christ in our lives, we must take an understanding from the fullness of what we are taught in the Gospels, and our understanding must come not from contradiction between strength and meekness, but from a comprehension of what grace is and does, and the power of God's truth and judgment.  Moreover, the phrase "strength under control" could serve as a model for what real discipleship will make of us.  Above all, we rely on God, as does Jesus in the example He sets before us.  This is where we take confidence, and where Christ derives His supreme confidence.  In one other example of this we might note, when Jesus is arrested in Gethsemane, He says to His disciple who took up a sword, "Put your sword in its place, for all who take the sword will perish by the sword. Or do you think that I cannot now pray to My Father, and He will provide Me with more than twelve legions of angels? How then could the Scriptures be fulfilled, that it must happen thus?" (Matthew 26:52-54).  In citing the "more than twelve legions of angels" Jesus reminds us all of who He is, of His strength that He has available to Him.  But we are given to understand yet again that He is the Son of Man, on a mission, and that mission must be fulfilled as the supreme command for Him; it is the line He will not cross.  Let us understand meekness and gentleness not as weakness but as power under grace, strength under God's command -- a reserve that knows its boundaries and mission, with discipline and ultimate service.  Let us not be like those who cannot see for their blindness to God's grace.

 

Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up

 

 Now the Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.  And He found in the temple those who sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers doing business.  When He had made a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen, and poured out the changers' money and overturned the tables.  And he said to those who sold doves, "Take these things away!  Do not make My Father's house a house of merchandise!"  Then His disciples remembered that it was written, "Zeal for Your house has eaten Me up."  

 

So the Jews answered and said to Him, "What sign do You show to us, since You do these things?"  Jesus answered and said to them, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up."  Then the Jews said, "It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?"  But He was speaking of the temple of His body.  Therefore, when He had risen from the dead, His disciples remembered that He had said this to them, and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had said.

Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name when they saw the signs which He did.  But Jesus did not commit Himself to them, because He knew all men, and had no need that anyone should testify of man, for He knew what was in man. 

 

- John 2:13-25 

 

Yesterday we read that on the third day after choosing the disciples Philip and Nathanael, there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there.  Now both Jesus and His disciples were invited to the wedding.  And when they ran out of wine, the mother of Jesus said to Him, "They have no wine."  Jesus said to her, "Woman, what does your concern have to do with Me?  My hour has not yet come."  His mother said to the servants, "Whatever He says to you, do it."  Now there were set there six waterpots of stone, according to the manner of purification of the Jews, containing twenty or thirty gallons apiece.  Jesus said to them, "Fill the waterpots with water."  And they filled them up to the brim.  And He said to them, "Draw some out now, and take it to the master of the feast."  And they took it.  When the master of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine, and did not know where it came from (but the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom.  And he said to him, "Every man at the beginning sets out the good wine, and when the guests have well drunk, then the inferior.  You have kept the good wine until now!"  This beginning of signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and manifested His glory; and His disciples believed in Him.  After this He went down to Capernaum, He, His mother, His brothers, and His disciples; and they did not stay there many days.

 

  Now the Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.  And He found in the temple those who sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers doing business.  When He had made a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen, and poured out the changers' money and overturned the tables.  And he said to those who sold doves, "Take these things away!  Do not make My Father's house a house of merchandise!"  Then His disciples remembered that it was written, "Zeal for Your house has eaten Me up."   In the Synoptic Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, this event occurs at the end of Christ's ministry (the beginning of Holy Week).  See Matthew 21:12–17, Mark 11:15–19, Luke 19:45–48.  But here, John places it at the beginning of His Gospel.  My study Bible notes that some Church Fathers teach that Christ performed this act twice.  Those who sold oxen and sheep and doves were trading in live animals used for sacrifices, while the money changers traded Roman coins for Jewish ones.  Roman coins bore the image of Caesar as god and so were considered to be defiling in the temple.  My study Bible comments that the cleansing of the temple also points to the necessity that the Church be kept free from earthly pursuits.  As each person is considered 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.  The quotation which His disciples remembered is from Psalm 69:9.

So the Jews answered and said to Him, "What sign do You show to us, since You do these things?"  Jesus answered and said to them, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up."  Then the Jews said, "It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?"  But He was speaking of the temple of His body.  Therefore, when He had risen from the dead, His disciples remembered that He had said this to them, and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had said.  My study Bible comments that, as Jesus is not a Levitical priest, His authority to cleanse the temple is challenged.  The term Jews in John's Gospel frequently refers specifically to the leaders.  In this case, it refers to the chief priests and the elders (see Matthew 21:23).  As Christ is careful not to reveal Himself to scoffers, it says, He answers in a hidden way:  the ultimate sign will be His death and Resurrection.  These words will be twisted at Jesus' trial, and used to mock Christ, and to later lay suspicion on His disciples (see Matthew 26:60-61, 27:40, 27:63).

Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name when they saw the signs which He did.  But Jesus did not commit Himself to them, because He knew all men, and had no need that anyone should testify of man, for He knew what was in man.  My study Bible comments here that John reports three Passover feasts between Christ's Baptism and Passion (see also John 6:5, 11:55).  This is how we know that Christ's earthly ministry lasted three years.  

The cleansing of the temple has been understood in various ways.  From the text of the New Testament itself (see the quotations from Matthew's Gospel, above), we're told that Jesus' saying, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up" was used, even in the context of His earthly lifetime, against Him.  It was misunderstood, misinterpreted, used to discredit Him -- and His disciples after His death, for false testimony against Him, and to mock Him at the Cross.  The cleansing of the temple itself was understood by Origen, for example, to have been allegorical -- and clearly within the context of tradition, it is seen as both historical and allegorical, as my study Bible notes.  Not only does it give us an allegory regarding the things the Church should and should not be concerned with, but it also teaches us (again, as my study Bible noted) an allegory about what St. Paul said was the temple of our bodies, and our need to cleanse body, soul, spirit in following the path of Christ.  Our vigilance in prayer, for example, is thus part of this cleansing, our knowledge of ourselves essential to it -- and our willingness to part with that which actually endangers our well-being, spiritually and otherwise (see Matthew 5:29-30; 18:8-9, also allegorical statements by Jesus regarding the endangering things we need to cleanse from our lives).  As my study Bible noted, certain Church Fathers teach that the cleansing of the temple happened twice.  All of this is to say that when we read Scripture, we have to understand it as a particular kind of literature.  When we read about the life and ministry of Jesus, we have to understand that it is open to each of these ways to approach it, for Christ Himself spoke -- as reported here in John's Gospel -- in an allegorical way, especially in order to teach those who would hear and seek to understand, while disclosing nothing to those who would not (see Matthew 13:10-17).  What is important and essential is that we not fall into a rationalistic divide of "either/or" thinking, and we come to understand that each of these approaches is valid and gives us truth.  Each approach, especially taken together and considered for what each contributes to our spiritual lives and the understanding of our faith, and in particular the Person of Jesus Christ, should be seen as part of a whole, and more that is beyond what we can grasp.  For included in Scripture, and in the tradition of the Church through the Holy Spirit, is also mystery.  That is, the fullness of the mystery of Jesus Christ, which we don't know -- as only God can know God in God's fullness, and as the "way" of Christ is a road (the word translated as "way" in the Gospels, as in John 14:6, means also "road" in Greek.  So when we think about the Bible, we need to understand that all of these ways that come to us through Christ's own speech as given in the Gospels, through the Epistles and the Revelation, even "the Lord" of the Old Testament as understood through the lens of the New, and the different ways of understanding and hearing which we are given through tradition, especially patristics from the early centuries of the Church (what are called "Church Fathers") -- each of these things, though seemingly separate and different, are valid and may all be true at the same time.  We have to take the fullness of our faith as a whole if we are to accept and to understand and to grow in it, and this must also include the mystery and acknowledgement of what we don't know.  For what we don't know, and what we are unable to say about God, is also a part of our faith which we must keep in mind -- when we read Scripture, when we worship, when we pray.  For all intersect in faith, and even in the deepest place of the heart, which is also a mystery known fully only to God, and not to ourselves.  Jesus taught His disciples, "Therefore every scribe instructed concerning the kingdom of heaven is like a householder who brings out of his treasure things new and old" (Matthew 13:52).  The old and the new, and that yet to come, is all part of the treasure we receive.  Let us understand it as the whole of the kingdom of heaven, indivisible, and all a gift to treasure, every part valued and necessary and precious.

 

 

 

Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up

 

 Now the Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.  And He found in the temple those who sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers doing business.  When He had made a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen, and poured out the changers' money and overturned the tables.  And He said to those who sold doves, "Take these things away!  Do not make My Father's house a house of merchandise!"  Then His disciples remembered that it was written, "Zeal for Your house has eaten Me up."  So the Jews answered and said to Him, "What sign do You show to us, since You do these things?"  Jesus answered and said to them, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up."  Then the Jews said, "It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?"  But He was speaking of the temple of His body.  Therefore, when He had risen from the dead, His disciples remembered that He had said this to them; and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had said.

 

- John 2:13-22 

 

Yesterday we read that there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there.  Now both Jesus and His disciples were invited to the wedding.  And when they ran out of wine, the mother of Jesus said to Him, "They have no wine."  Jesus said to her, "Woman, what does your concern have to do with Me?  My hour has not yet come."  His mother said to the servants, "Whatever He says to you, do it."  Now there were set there six waterpots of stone, according to the manner of purification of the Jews, containing twenty or thirty gallons apiece.  Jesus said to them, "Fill the waterpots with water."  And they filled them up to the brim.  And He said to them, "Draw some out now, and take it to the master of the feast."  And they took it.  When the master of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine, and did not know where it came from (but the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom.  And he said to him, "Every man at the beginning sets out the good wine, and when the guests have well drunk, then the inferior.  You have kept the good wine until now!"  This beginning of signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and manifested His glory; and His disciples believed in Him.  After this He went down to Capernaum, He, His mother, His brothers, and His disciples; and they did not stay there many days. 

 

Now the Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.  And He found in the temple those who sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers doing business.  When He had made a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen, and poured out the changers' money and overturned the tables.  And He said to those who sold doves, "Take these things away!  Do not make My Father's house a house of merchandise!"  Then His disciples remembered that it was written, "Zeal for Your house has eaten Me up."   In the synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke), this event takes place at the end of Jesus' ministry.  But John places it in the beginning.  Some patristic commentaries that teach that, in fact, Christ performed this act twice.  Those who sold oxen and sheep and doves, we should understand, were trading in live animals to be used for sacrifices.  The money changers doing business were trading Roman coins for Jewish coins, since, according to my study Bible, the Roman coins bore the image of Caesar (worshiped as a god), and hence were considered defiling in the temple.  The cleansing of the temple, my study Bible adds, also points to the necessity that the Church be kept free from earthly pursuits.  It reminds us that each person is considered to be a temple of God (1 Corinthians 3:16, 6:19), and therefore Christ's cleansing of the temple becomes a sign as well that our hearts and minds must be cleansed of earthly matters.  The Scripture remembered by the disciples is found in Psalm 69:9.

So the Jews answered and said to Him, "What sign do You show to us, since You do these things?"  Jesus answered and said to them, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up."  Then the Jews said, "It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?"  But He was speaking of the temple of His body.  Therefore, when He had risen from the dead, His disciples remembered that He had said this to them; and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had said.  My study Bible explains that since Jesus is not a Levitical priest, His authority to cleanse the temple is challenged.  The term Jews in John's Gospel often refers specifically to the leaders; here, it refers to the chief priests and the elders (see Matthew 21:23).  As Christ is careful not to reveal Himself to scoffers, my study Bible comments, He answers in a hidden way:  the  ultimate sign will be His death and Resurrection.

In yesterday's reading and commentary, we remarked on the words of Christ to Mary (in Greek, "τί ἐμοὶ καὶ σοί").  In our English translations, this is rendered, "What does your concern have to do with Me?"  But it literally means "What you and Me" and could be more rightly understood as something like "What to you and Me?" or "What between you and Me?"  However, it is literally a quotation from the Septuagint, and the identical words of the widow Zarabeth to Elijah, after her son died following her help to Elijah.  (See yesterday's reading, above.)  Therefore we understand that already before the first sign given in John's Gospel (the changing of water to wine at the wedding in Cana), the presence of the Cross is already understood and known between mother and Son, as these words quoting a widow who lost her son make a clear inference between them.  In today's reading, the Cross and Resurrection are also present, as made explicit by John the Evangelist, when Jesus says, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up."  John writes very clearly for us that He was speaking of the temple of His body.  While we can understand the inference Mary could draw from Christ's quotation of the Scripture, and we know the prophecy given to her that she would suffer ("a sword will pierce through your own soul also" - see Luke 2:34-35), the disciples at this stage have no idea what Jesus is talking about.  This is still the relative beginning of Christ's ministry as given in this Gospel, and it is only later, when He had risen from the dead, that the disciples remembered both the Scripture and that He had said this to them.  The truth is explicitly there in Jesus' words, but like so much of what happens in the Gospels and the life of Christ, it is hidden in plain sight, one might say.  At any rate, the Gospel makes clear that Christ gives this prophecy right from the beginning.  But it is the disciples who are on the journey of faith, this road that Christ takes them on, and on which He also takes us.  It gives us a sense about the nature of revelation; that, in fact, what is gradually revealed to us has always been there, but that God's work in the world, God's grace which includes the life of Christ, reveals to us the true nature of things as they are.  Our journey of faith, our perceptions, unfold gradually and through time, as the way that we human beings and our world are "designed" to learn, to grow, to come to a fullness of something through experience.  We are reminded that the word in Scripture translated as "disciple" literally means "learner" (μαθητής/mathetes in Greek).  And this is what we are here to do.  We are here to learn, to grow, to journey on this path in Jesus' "way" (meaning literally "road" in John 14:6).  So, in looking at these aspects of today's reading, it seems we are to understand that the disciples -- and hence, we ourselves as those disciples who come after them -- are the ones truly at the center of this picture we're given.  Jesus knows what He is doing; He knows His mission and from whence He comes.  He also, as He'll make clear, is the only One who truly knows the Father, and will also reveal the Father.  The religious leaders have a great problem with Christ's authority, and will wrestle and dispute and finally seek to put Him to death over this issue.  But right in the middle are the disciples, the ones who follow in faith (as does Mary), who walk on this "road" or "way" of Jesus.  As the text explains, it will not be until much later that they understand what He teaches here about the temple and the three days in which He will raise it up again, in His warning to the religious leaders.  But they follow right behind Him, on this road full of bumps and twists and turns, and things they could never expect, and triumphs and great tragedies, betrayal and danger, and ultimate victory for us in the gospel of the Kingdom.  But that will have to be revealed through time and through the struggle for faith, in which Christ has taught us that we are simply to endure, as did they (see Matthew 24:13).  If we look at the history of the Church and its saints, it seems our own lives on this road will also be filled with triumphs and tragedies, hard things to face and to accept, revelations that challenge our faith.  What is true is timeless and present, but we, like the disciples, are to discover it for ourselves.  It is, after all, a road of repentance; that is, of change of mind, in which our assumptions and what we think we know will be challenged, but we are to persist nevertheless in faith and to continue that good fight as we follow Him.  Perhaps everything is all there in front of us had we but eyes to see, but it is Christ who leads the way, as the lamp for our feet (Psalm 119:105), the true Light we need by which to see.

Then His disciples remembered that it was written, "Zeal for Your house has eaten Me up"

Creation of the heavenly lights - Mosaic, 1180s.  Monreale Cathedral, Palermo, Sicily

 

Now the Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.  And He found in the temple those who sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers doing business.  When He had made a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen, and poured out the changers' money and overturned the tables.  And He said to those who sold doves, "Take these things away!  Do not make My Father's house a house of merchandise!"  Then His disciples remembered that it was written, "Zeal for Your house has eaten Me up."  So the Jews answered and said to Him, "What sign do You show to us, since You do these things?"  Jesus answered and said to them, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up."  Then the Jews said, "It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?"  But He was speaking of the temple of His body.  Therefore, when He had risen from the dead, His disciples remembered that He had said this to them; and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had said.

- John 2:13-22

In our reading from yesterday, we read of the events of the sixth day (and the seventh) given of Christ's ministry:  the wedding at Cana, and the first sign of seven John includes in His Gospel.   There was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there.  Now both Jesus and His disciples were invited to the wedding.  And when they ran out of wine, the mother of Jesus said to Him, "They have no wine."  Jesus said to her, "Woman, what does your concern have to do with Me?  My hour has not yet come."  His mother said to the servants, "Whatever He says to you, do it."  Now there were set there six waterpots of stone, according to the manner of purification of the Jews, containing twenty or thirty gallons apiece.  Jesus said to them, "Fill the waterpots with water."  And they filled them up to the brim.  And He said to them, "Draw some out now, and take it to the master of the feast."  And they took it.  When the master of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine, and did not know where it came from (but the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom.  And he said to him, "Every man at the beginning sets out the good wine, and when the guests have well drunk, then the inferior.  You have kept the good wine until now!"  This beginning of signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and manifested His glory; and His disciples believed in Him.  After this He went down to Capernaum, He, His mother, His brothers, and His disciples; and they did not stay there many days.

  Now the Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.  And He found in the temple those who sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers doing business.  When He had made a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen, and poured out the changers' money and overturned the tables.  And He said to those who sold doves, "Take these things away!  Do not make My Father's house a house of merchandise!"  Then His disciples remembered that it was written, "Zeal for Your house has eaten Me up."  In the synoptic Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, this event occurs at the end of Jesus' ministry.  But John places it right at the beginning, just after His first sign performed at the wedding in Cana, of turning the water to wine (see yesterday's reading, above).  Some Church Fathers teach that Christ performed this act twice.  We make note that this is the first Passover festival given in John's Gospel.  Altogether, He will attend three, and it is from this that we deduce Christ's ministry lasted three years.  The disciples remember the verse from Psalm 69:9.  Those who sell animals in the temple are selling them to pilgrims who must purchase them for sacrifice.  The money changers exchanged Roman coins for Jewish temple coins, as coins with the image of Caesar were considered to be defiling.  Those who sold doves did so to the poor, who could afford only the smallest sacrifice.

So the Jews answered and said to Him, "What sign do You show to us, since You do these things?"  Jesus answered and said to them, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up."  Then the Jews said, "It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?"  But He was speaking of the temple of His body.  Therefore, when He had risen from the dead, His disciples remembered that He had said this to them; and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had said.  My study bible comments that since Jesus is not a Levitical priest, His authority to cleanse the temple is challenged.  In John's Gospel, the term Jews most often refers specifically to the leaders; in this case, my study bible says, it refers to the chief priests and the elders (see Matthew 21:23).  Christ is careful not to reveal Himself to scoffers, and so He answers in a hidden way.  The ultimate sign given will be His death and Resurrection.

The psalm verse that the disciples remember is taken from Psalm 69, verse 9.  If we read it in context (verses 8 and 9 in full), it reads:  "I have become a stranger to my brothers, and an alien to my mother’s children;  because zeal for Your house has eaten me up, and the reproaches of those who reproach You have fallen on me."  In the full sense of the psalm verses, we will read later on in John's Gospel of the antagonism from Jesus' brothers (that is, those who are most likely stepbrothers -- sons by a previous marriage of Joseph, or cousins).  And the zeal with which Jesus approaches the temple as a house of prayer results in the reproaches from those who fail to honor the Father by making it a house of merchandise.  Therefore, if we follow Christ, we should also understand that our faith is not a faith of "merchandise."  It is not a sense of material commodities to be bought and sold, and belonging to this person or that one.  We do not purchase our faith with nominal good deeds, and even our most hallowed and cherished of rituals do not retain their meaning for us without a prayerful understanding of what our life with God is all about.  Nobody "owns" the wisdom and holiness of the long tradition and history of God's covenant and promise, begun in the Old and fulfilled in the New.  We do not earn it, it is given to us as a gift of grace.  We can't purchase it; it's not for sale.  It must be cherished for what it is, it must be beloved to be truly valued properly.  John's Gospel immediately sets up for us two ways of seeing, which are in complete contrast.  This was introduced in the Prologue, which spoke of the Light that came into the world, and the darkness that can neither overcome it nor understand it.  This is what we see played out in today's reading.  Jesus has a way of seeing and being in the world, He is the Light that illumines for us the truth about God and God's love and communion with us.  We are either going to "get it" or fail to see it; either it is going to reach us somehow in our perceptions, or we dash it by the wayside, seeing everything as commodity, as merchandise.  And it is in fact in the way we see that things take on meaning and value.  Is a beautiful house the thing that gives our life worthiness?  Or is a tattered and old photo, filled with the meaning and presence of someone we love, something we cherish for that memory?  The smallest gift with love present remains a memory of something cherished, and the most expensive thing we can buy becomes worthless without meaning and with an empty and always-hungry heart.  Without the presence of that Light which illumines such depth of meanings and relatedness, life doesn't give us anything but merchandise.  And this is the root of the sacramental life that the entire Bible teaches us.  God gives us an abundance of life and all the good things God creates for us.  We have been reading John's first chapter and the first sign given, a full seven days of Jesus' ministry (up through yesterday's reading), paralleling the creation story in Genesis.  All of it tells us about the gifts of good things God gives us, the crowning of God's creation.  And our job as those who return that love is simply to return all the gifts to God so that they may be endowed with God's value, God's love, God's way for us to live and to grow in communion.  Without that, they are merchandise for which we toil.  With God, all of it become Eucharist, securing a deeper communion.  Let us consider Jesus' zeal, and His way that tells us that all of life and all of this world of creation and cosmos is more than just merchandise.  Help is always here to give us that light, and to lead the way out of what seems only meaningless.  Our own zeal may even at times bring reproach from those who cannot see the point, but we enter into a struggle into which we are invited, with Him.  The image above is a mosaic of the creation of the lights of the heavens, the stars and the planets.  Let us remember that He is the Light we need to find meaning in all of this creation, made for us.  None of it is merely "merchandise," it is filled with meaning, and a gift to us, for life.  Let us not be like spoiled children, but keep in mind that there is so much to learn about how we are to dwell in it, with His light.

Have faith in God

 Now the next day, when they had come out from Bethany, He was hungry.  And seeing from afar a fig tree having leaves, He went to see if perhaps He would find something on it.  When He came to it, He found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs.  In response Jesus said to it, "Let no one eat fruit from you ever again."  And His disciples heard it.

So they came to Jerusalem.  Then Jesus went into the temple and began to drive out 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 would not allow anyone to carry wares through the temple.  Then He taught, saying to them, "Is it not written, 'My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations'? But you have made it a 'den of thieves.'  And the scribes and chief priests heard it and sought how they might destroy Him; for they feared Him, because all the people were astonished at His teaching.  When evening had come, He went out of the city.

Now in the morning, as they passed by, they saw the fig tree dried up from the roots.  And Peter, remembering, said to Him, "Rabbi, look!  The fig tree which You cursed has withered away."  So Jesus answered and said to them, "Have faith in God.  For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, 'Be removed and be cast into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says.  Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.   And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses.  But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses."

- Mark 11:12-26

On Saturday we read that when they drew near Jerusalem, to Bethphage and Bethany, at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two of His disciples; and He said to them, "Go into the village opposite you; and as soon as you have entered it you will find a colt tied, on which no one has sat.  Loose it and bring it.  And if anyone says to you, 'Why are you doing this?' say, 'The Lord has need of it,' and immediately he will send it here."  So they went their way, and found the colt tied by the door outside on the street, and they loosed it.  But some of those who stood there and said to them, "What are you doing, loosing the colt?"  And they spoke to them just as Jesus had commanded.  So they let them go.  Then they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their clothes on it, and He sat on it.  And many spread their clothes on the road, and others cut down leafy branches from the trees and spread them on the road.  Then those who went before and those who followed cried out, saying:  "Hosanna!  'Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!'  Blessed is the kingdom of our father David that comes in the name of the Lord!  Hosanna in the highest!"  And Jesus went into Jerusalem and into the temple.  So when He had looked around at all things, as the hour was already late, He went out to Bethany with the twelve.

  Now the next day, when they had come out from Bethany, He was hungry.  And seeing from afar a fig tree having leaves, He went to see if perhaps He would find something on it.  When He came to it, He found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs.  In response Jesus said to it, "Let no one eat fruit from you ever again."  And His disciples heard it.   That it was not the season for figs means that this fig tree had sprouted an early fall foliage, according to my study bible.  The early foliage would indicate a first crop, but there is no fruit borne on the tree.  Jesus doesn't find a single fig, and it results in a vivid symbol of condemnation.  In Scripture, my study bible comments, a fig tree is often a symbol of Israel (Hosea 9:10).   At this time of the Triumphal Entry (Saturday's reading, above), Jesus enters His last week of life as human being and earthly ministry, and this is a comment on the lack of fruitfulness under the present leadership; the Kingdom will be taken and given to another people, called out of the whole world to bear spiritual fruit (see Matthew 21;43, Galatians 5:22-23). 

So they came to Jerusalem.  Then Jesus went into the temple and began to drive out 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 would not allow anyone to carry wares through the temple.  Then He taught, saying to them, "Is it not written, 'My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations'? But you have made it a 'den of thieves.'  And the scribes and chief priests heard it and sought how they might destroy Him; for they feared Him, because all the people were astonished at His teaching.  When evening had come, He went out of the city.   Those who bought and sold in the temple were trading in live animals for sacrifice.  The money changers would trade Roman coins for Jewish coins.  Roman coins bore the image of Caesar, and were considered to be defiling in the temple.  It is particularly noteworthy that the text specifically mentions those who sold doves, as these were the affordable sacrifices of the poor.  My study bible comments that the cleansing of the temple points to the necessity that the Church be kept free from earthly pursuits.  As each one 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 that do not reflect the loving nature of God.

Now in the morning, as they passed by, they saw the fig tree dried up from the roots.  And Peter, remembering, said to Him, "Rabbi, look!  The fig tree which You cursed has withered away."   The disciples remark upon Christ's prophetic act of cursing and withering of the fig tree.   It is an image they won't forget, as they go out into the world as apostles after Christ's death, Resurrection, and Ascension.  The old covenant is becoming "obsolete" and will "vanish away" (Hebrews 8:13).  They will go on to establish Christ's Church, which will be filled ultimately with both Jews and Gentiles, and they will need assurance that they are following His will.  The image of the fig tree will remain significant to them in this way.

So Jesus answered and said to them, "Have faith in God.  For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, 'Be removed and be cast into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says.  Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.  And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses.  But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses."  Jesus uses this occasion to teach once again regarding faith, and it is important that this teaching on prayer and faith is couple with the admonition to forgive in prayer.  This is because it cements in the notion that all prayer is couched in the hands and will of God.  Prayer and faith go hand in hand simply because of this understanding that all things are given up to God for reconciliation, including whatever it is that we have against anyone.    Forgiveness is the act of giving up our hurts to God for God's will and adjudication; it does not mean excusing harm done to us or even necessarily reconciling in full with others, unless this, too, is something we find we are drawn to do through prayer.  But we are asked, rather, to put all things in God's hands, for God's will, including our own will.   The prayer given to us by Christ (Matthew 6:9-15) includes both of these understandings, that we give our will to God's will, and that we give up all "debts" and "trespasses" to God for God's reconciliation in our lives.  Therefore, the faith with which we pray becomes powerful in that will.  My study bible comments that while it is not recorded that an apostle literally moved am mountain, Church tradition is clear that the saints had this authority if the need has arisen (in certain stories of the saints they did make crevices appear in mountains).  Moreover, not everything the apostles accomplished has been written down.  Beyond the literally meaning of Christ's words, the promise is also an illustration, my study bible says, of the power of faith and prayer in all areas of life.  It quotes Theophan:  "Whatever we ask, without hesitation and believing in God's power, we shall receive" when we ask for spiritually profitable things.

What makes prayer powerful?  This is a question all kinds of people throughout history and the ages would like to ask.  But what makes prayer effective and powerful?  I think it could be understood that God hears every prayer.  Whether or not that prayer is necessarily good for us, effective, or profitable in a spiritual sense makes little difference.  God's messengers are everywhere and uncountable, and each has an angel who hears.  Within that system of messengers (for messenger is the root meaning of the word "angel" -- and even most likely why the visions of angels given to us have wings) we are all certain to have had our prayers heard.  The question becomes, then, what prayer is effective, and how it is so.   My belief is that we can be certain that our prayers are answered even when we don't think they have been.  Often, prayers are answered instead in ways that we need them to be answered for our own highest good.  An unanswered prayer in my own life has meant that I had further issues to deal with, to resolve and reconcile, new understandings to gain in my own spiritual life which would not have been possible if my prayers were simply answered as I had requested them in my own ignorance or lack of knowledge and understanding.  Sometimes an unresolved issue goes a long way to giving us new revelation about God's work in our lives and even the nature of God's love for us.  In this context, St. Paul's own experience is particularly enlightening.  He prayed several times for relief from a "thorn in the flesh" but was eventually told, "My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness."  "Therefore," concludes St. Paul, "most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me."  (See 2 Corinthians 12:7-9).  This new way of thinking was a message to St. Paul which opened up a new understanding of God's grace at work in the world.  Seemingly paradoxical, it teaches us about our own struggles and our own lives.  As human beings, we may be called upon to struggle with particular difficulties and obstacles, even so that God's grace may shine out from us.  We may consider Beethoven, the great composer, who wrote groundbreaking music through all manner of personal pain and illness, and even through deafness, completing and performing his "Ode to Joy" when he was completely deaf.  We may think about these twelve men, Christ's apostles who will go out into the whole of the known world of their time spreading the message of Christ's gospel.  The Gospels teach us all about their own personal flaws.  They are for the most part unlearned in a formal sense of educational institutions of their time.  None of them are a part of the institutional hierarchy of faith or national leadership.  And yet, what they do will -- in a very short span of one generation -- revolutionize the world.  It seems clear that God's grace works through our own imperfections.  The Cross of Christ -- as well as our individual crosses which He teaches each of us to bear (Luke 9:23) -- functions to give us an image of struggle in which each of us is bound by our very natures to engage.  That very struggle is for God's grace to work through us, imperfect as we are, bringing even greatness possible through each one.  This greatness is born of a struggle not necessarily known to the world, but is between ourselves and God -- and found especially through heartfelt and honest prayer.  If we are open to God's grace, placing ourselves and all of our lives in God's hands, then we are on the right track for answers to our prayers -- but most especially for that particular grace which might be known only to ourselves.  Let us be good disciples and find His way, for this is the true substance of life within us, and something we cannot predict or calculate.  But we can put trust in His promise of the power of our faith.  We just need to place faith in the answers we find.   The story of the cursing of the fig tree is couched in Mark's Gospel on either side of the cleansing of the temple.  Let us understand there is also a message for us there, about seeking God's will in all that we do and learning to set aside our own impulses for selfishness or corruption.  We give all things to God, but most especially the fullness of ourselves.  In this is our greatest expression of faith.

Zeal for Your house has eaten Me up

 Now the Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.  And He found in the temple those who sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers doing business.  When He had made a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen, and poured out the changers' money and overturned the tables.  And He said to those who sold doves, "Take these things away!  Do not make My Father's house a house of merchandise!"  Then His disciples remembered that it was written, "Zeal for Your house has eaten Me up."

So the Jews answered and said to Him, "What sign do You show to us, since You do these things?"  Jesus answered and said to them, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up."  Then the Jews said, "It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?"  But He was speaking of the temple of His body.  Therefore, when He had risen from the dead, his disciples remembered that He had said this to them; and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had said.

- John 2:13-22

 Yesterday, we read that there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there.  Now both Jesus and his disciples were invited to the wedding.  And when they ran out of wine, the mother of Jesus said to Him, "They have no wine."  Jesus said to her, "Woman, what does your concern have to do with Me?  My hour has not yet come."  His mother said to the servants, "Whatever He says to you, do it."  Now there were set there six waterpots of stone, according to the manner of purification of the Jews, containing twenty or thirty gallons apiece.  Jesus said to them, "Fill the waterpots with water."  And they filled them up to the brim.  And He said to them, "Draw some out now, and take it to the master of the feast."  And they took it.  When the master of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine, and did not know where it came from (but the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom.  And he said to him, "Every man at the beginning sets out the good wine, and when the guests have well drunk, then the inferior.  You have kept the good wine until now!"  This beginning of signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and manifested His glory; and His disciples believed in Him.  After this He went down to Capernaum, He, His mother, His brothers, and His disciples; and they did not stay there many days.

Now the Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.  And He found in the temple those who sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers doing business.  When He had made a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen, and poured out the changers' money and overturned the tables.  And He said to those who sold doves, "Take these things away!  Do not make My Father's house a house of merchandise!"  Then His disciples remembered that it was written, "Zeal for Your house has eaten Me up."  John's Gospel is organized differently than the synoptic Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke.  Here in John Jesus attends the first of three Passover festivals that John reports to us, and it is here, in contrast to the other Gospels, that a cleansing of the temple takes place.  Matthew, Mark, and Luke report this event at the beginning of the last week of Jesus' life, the end of His ministry.  Certain Church Fathers teach that Christ performed this act twice.   Jesus in every report of this act goes after those who are using what is holy merely for prophet.  Those who sold oxen and sheep and doves do so for sacrifices.  The money changers exchange Roman coin for Jewish, since the Roman coins had the image of Caesar and were therefore considered defiling.  What is holy is not meant merely for trade, as a market place.  In conjunction with this cleansing of the temple, we are to understand our hearts and minds also are not to be used merely as a place of "trade" with respect to our faith, as each person is considered to be a temple of God (1 Corinthians 3:16, 6:19).  The Scripture recalled by the disciples is from Psalm 69:9.

So the Jews answered and said to Him, "What sign do You show to us, since You do these things?"  Jesus answered and said to them, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up."  Then the Jews said, "It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?"  But He was speaking of the temple of His body.  Therefore, when He had risen from the dead, his disciples remembered that He had said this to them; and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had said.  We have just read of the first sign in John's Gospel, the changing of the water into wine at the wedding at Cana (yesterday's reading, above).  So here, when the officials in the temple ask Him to prove identity and authority to cleanse the temple by performing a sign, we already know that this is something possible for Jesus.  He's not a Levitical priest, so on these grounds His authority is challenged.   We must also remember that in John's Gospel, the term the Jews is mostly used as a kind of political term, to indicate the leaders.  Here the term is used to refer to the chief priests and the elders (see Matthew 21:23).  Despite the fact that we know He is capable of producing a sign, he won't reveal Himself to scoffers.  Jesus answers in a hidden way that is revealed through faith:  the ultimate sign will be his death and Resurrection. 

John's Gospel has already begun to teach us that there are ways of hearing Christ's words that point beyond the words themselves.  Like the signs in his Gospel, of which the turning of water to wine at the wedding in Cana is the first, everything about Jesus points to something more, something beyond.  His words are the same.  Often Jesus will say things that have meanings far beyond the surface value that conventional understanding can give to the words.  John's Gospel teaches us this kind of looking and seeing and understanding.  When Jesus cleanses the temple in such a vivid way (we're even given the detail of Him making a whip of cords), He says, "Do not make My Father's house a house of merchandise!"  But we're to think beyond this vivid literal scene, and to understand that what is holy can't be thought of as "merchandise," as something to be bought and sold.  Our souls aren't bought and sold, and our lives aren't just commodities.  Neither is the virtue we develop through faith.  What belongs to the kingdom of God "lives" in a different place, a different kind of reality, and it is that reality that is present Incarnate in Jesus Christ.  He is the kingdom of heaven brought near, and we belong to Him as much as we do to anything or anyone else.  This is the point of the Gospel, of His ministry, of the telling of Jesus' story.  Jesus refuses to produce signs of the presence of the Kingdom on demand for those who scoff, who won't have faith in Him, who think of themselves as His (and in effect, God's) judges.  He responds to the demand for a sign by telling them, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up."  He's speaking, of course, of His Resurrection.  But it won't be until that event happens that even Jesus' disciples come to understand what He's really saying here.  The same is true of the Scripture quoted from Psalm 69, "Zeal for your house has eaten Me up."  It is later when the disciples understand that Jesus is the fulfillment of this Scripture.  It is faith that gives us insight and discernment, that opens up perspectives and vistas we are not able to grasp if we see what is holy the same way that we see merchandise or trade.  There is something more that we must be a part of to come to see all the things that are really present here.  It is the capacity for faith that will show us what is really there, what God has to give us, the meanings and values and depth of intangibles that become a part of our souls in God's love for us.  This is why a sign won't be produced like a commodity, like a piece of merchandise on demand.  There is something more that is present here, a something more that Christ demands that we have spiritual eyes and ears to see and to discern.  It doesn't work by "worldly" rules or conventional aphorisms.  When we start to understand that, we begin to understand what John's Gospel offers to us, that something so much more than meets the eye or the ear on worldly terms.  We begin to enter into the Gospel of love, that builds up who we are, how we see, how we hear, and gives us relationship with God who is love.  This is the journey we are on, the place Christ is here to reveal to us.