Holy Week: Monday
Monday
It’s Monday of Holy Week, Jesus has ridden into town on a donkey, stirred up Jerusalem, and now He is going to throw a match into the tinder box. Our reading today is in Matthew 21:12-22, Mark 11:12-19, and Luke 19:45-48.
The first scene we see today is one that used to have me scratching my head over Jesus cursing a fig tree for not bearing fruit. To kick off today, let’s check out Matthew’s gospel.
Matthew 21: 18 In the morning, as he was returning to the city, he became hungry. 19 And seeing a fig tree by the wayside, he went to it and found nothing on it but only leaves. And he said to it, “May no fruit ever come from you again!” And the fig tree withered at once.
20 When the disciples saw it, they marveled, saying, “How did the fig tree wither at once?” 21 And Jesus answered them, “Truly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ it will happen. 22 And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith.”
Now, in Matthew’s Gospel, the focus is on Jesus’ supernatural power and what He teaches the Disciples once they marveled. Jesus tells them that if they have an undoubting faith in Him, they could do even greater works! That part has never confused me, but it’s what Mark points out in his Gospel that often had me confused.
Mark 11:13 And seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to see if he could find anything on it. When he came to it, he found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. 14 And he said to it, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again. “And his disciples heard it.
A simple google search will confirm what Mark tells us here, that even the early harvest season for figs was not until late May. On top of that, the normal harvest season was August and September! That had me confused. The realization of what went on here came when I did a deep dive into another moment in Jesus’ ministry where His actions made me scratch my head, when He wept over Lazarus.
When I dove into the reasoning that Jesus wept, while knowing that He was getting ready to raise Lazarus from the dead, I came to the realization that in that moment, the fallenness of Creation was what made Jesus so emotional. The Godhead never intended creation to experience the death and mourning that Jesus was witnessing that day. The same understanding can be had for the fig tree. God created a perfect ecosystem where the trees and plants bloomed year-round in the garden of Eden. This full foliage and empty fruit fig tree were just another frustrating reminder of the fallenness of creation and the impact that sin has on it. This scene, added with the one we see next, paints a very important picture that we are going to try to learn from today! Here’s what happens next:
Matthew 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. 19 And when evening came they went out of the city.
Jesus rolls into the temple and sees a ‘sacrificial flea market’ set up in the courts. There were people selling sacrificial animals for a profit! He becomes enraged, flips their tables, and drives them out! They were making a profit on the need to sacrifice. They were making a mockery of the system God had installed. They were turning what was supposed to be a painstaking, intimate, and lengthy process of raising these animals for the purpose of sacrifice into a drive-thru, for-profit experience! Jesus was not having it! One of the most important lines in there for you and I is this: “My house shall be called a house of prayer.” Once He did this, the religious leaders had enough, they plotted to destroy him.
So, what can we learn from Monday of Holy Week?
God has called us to be fruitful in season and out of season. The only way we can do this is to abide in the presence of the Creator.
John 15: 4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. 5 I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.
Our belief and trust, our faith, is our most powerful tool in our lives. If we have a strong faith in Jesus, there’s nothing that we will not see happen inside the will of God.
Hebrews 11: Faith shows the reality of what we hope for; it is the evidence of things we cannot see. 2 Through their faith, the people in days of old earned a good reputation. 3 By faith we understand that the entire universe was formed at God’s command, that what we now see did not come from anything that can be seen.
God desires an upright and sincere worship from His people, not a fast-food faith that is shallow in spirit and produces a consumerism mentality.
John 4: 23 But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”
The Church is called to be a place of prayer full of people of prayer.
Isaiah 56: 6 “And the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord, to minister to him, to love the name of the Lord, and to be his servants,everyone who keeps the Sabbath and does not profane it, and holds fast my covenant—7 these I will bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer;their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar;for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.”8 The Lord God, who gathers the outcasts of Israel, declares,“I will gather yet others to him besides those already gathered.”
2 Chronicles 7: 14 if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.15 Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayer that is made in this place.
So, this evening let's reflect on this: To honor God, we must become worshipful, fruitful, prayerful followers. He has made Himself available to us through the presence of the Holy Spirit, let’s not waste His availability! Let’s have a much deeper and stronger faith than we saw from the Jews when Jesus was here. Not a drive-thru worship experience, but a faithful, fruitful, and prayerful relationship with the Most High!