It’s Monday of Holy Week. What we see on this day in this last week of Jesus’ earthly ministry is that he curses a fig tree and he cleanses the Temple. Why? Why does he do this?
Well, he comes upon a fig tree and he sees it in leaf. The presence of leaves signified that there should be fruit (even out of season), but there wasn’t. It looked as though it would have fruit, but it didn’t. And so Jesus cursed the tree.
Next he comes to the Temple. Let’s look at Mark’s account in chapter 11.
15 And they came to Jerusalem. And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold and those who bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. 16 And he would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple. 17 And he was teaching them and saying to them, “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? But you have made it a den of robbers.” 18 And the chief priests and the scribes heard it and were seeking a way to destroy him, for they feared him, because all the crowd was astonished at his teaching.
There is a relation between these two events. Jesus judged the fig tree for showing forth the signs of fruit, but not producing any. He judged the Temple for not being the place of prayer, the place of worship. It had the appearance of a place of worship and holiness, but it was not functioning in that manner. In a sense, both the tree and the Temple were hypocritical - they had the appearance of the right thing, but weren’t producing the fruit that was to be present…and he judged them both.
Isn’t that too true of all of us? Are we not all hypocrites? Do we not all deserve the judgment of God?
Praise God for the work of Christ to die for sinners and to take the judgment we deserve upon himself!! Without that work, without Christ, we would all be without hope. But by the grace of God, the love of God, we have a sure hope in what Christ did for sinners.
2 Corinthians 5:21: For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
This week I’m going to try and highlight hymns/songs about the passion of Christ. For our first installment, the great hymn “Alas! And did My Savior Bleed?”