Reflections on Mark 11

Mark 11 (Contemporary English Version)


1. Jesus and his disciples reached Bethphage and Bethany near the Mount of Olives. When they were getting close to Jerusalem, Jesus sent two of them on ahead.
   
2. He told them, "Go into the next village. As soon as you enter it, you will find a young donkey that has never been ridden. Untie the donkey and bring it here.
   
3. If anyone asks why you are doing that, say, 'The Lord needs it and will soon bring it back.' "
   
4. The disciples left and found the donkey tied near a door that faced the street. While they were untying it,
   
5. some of the people standing there asked, "Why are you untying the donkey?"
   
6. They told them what Jesus had said, and the people let them take it.
   
7. The disciples led the donkey to Jesus. They put some of their clothes on its back, and Jesus got on.
   
8. Many people spread clothes on the road, while others went to cut branches from the fields.
   
9. In front of Jesus and behind him, people went along shouting, "Hooray! God bless the one who comes in the name of the Lord!
   
10. God bless the coming kingdom of our ancestor David. Hooray for God in heaven above!"
    
11. After Jesus had gone to Jerusalem, he went into the temple and looked around at everything. But since it was already late in the day, he went back to Bethany with the twelve disciples.
    
12. When Jesus and his disciples left Bethany the next morning, he was hungry.
    
13. From a distance Jesus saw a fig tree covered with leaves, and he went to see if there were any figs on the tree. But there were not any, because it wasn't the season for figs.
    
14. So Jesus said to the tree, "Never again will anyone eat fruit from this tree!" The disciples heard him say this.
    
15. After Jesus and his disciples reached Jerusalem, he went into the temple and began chasing out everyone who was selling and buying. He turned over the tables of the moneychangers and the benches of those who were selling doves.
    
16. Jesus would not let anyone carry things through the temple.
    
17. Then he taught the people and said, "The Scriptures say, 'My house should be called a place of worship for all nations.' But you have made it a place where robbers hide!"
    
18. The chief priests and the teachers of the Law of Moses heard what Jesus said, and they started looking for a way to kill him. They were afraid of him, because the crowds were completely amazed at his teaching.
    
19. That evening, Jesus and the disciples went outside the city.
    
20. As the disciples walked past the fig tree the next morning, they noticed that it was completely dried up, roots and all.
    
21. Peter remembered what Jesus had said to the tree. Then Peter said, "Teacher, look! The tree you put a curse on has dried up."
    
22. Jesus told his disciples: Have faith in God!
    
23. If you have faith in God and don't doubt, you can tell this mountain to get up and jump into the sea, and it will.
    
24. Everything you ask for in prayer will be yours, if you only have faith.
    
25. Whenever you stand up to pray, you must forgive what others have done to you. Then your Father in heaven will forgive your sins.
    
26. (SEE 11:25)
    
27. Jesus and his disciples returned to Jerusalem. And as he was walking through the temple, the chief priests, the nation's leaders, and the teachers of the Law of Moses came over to him.
    
28. They asked, "What right do you have to do these things? Who gave you this authority?"
    
29. Jesus answered, "I have just one question to ask you. If you answer it, I will tell you where I got the right to do these things.
    
30. Who gave John the right to baptize? Was it God in heaven or merely some human being?"
    
31. They thought it over and said to each other, "We can't say that God gave John this right. Jesus will ask us why we didn't believe John.
    
32. On the other hand, these people think that John was a prophet. So we can't say that it was merely some human who gave John the right to baptize." They were afraid of the crowd
    
33. and told Jesus, "We don't know." Jesus replied, "Then I won't tell you who gave me the right to do what I do."

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In this chapter we see a clear contrast between Jesus' popularity with the people and His rejection by the religious leaders. His popularity with the people is seen in His triumphal entry into Jerusalem and in the fear of the leaders to do anything critical of Jesus because of the people. This popularity with the people should not be mistaken for an acceptance of Jesus as the Messiah, though. It was a popularity more akin to that received by a celebrity. And popularity of this nature is always fickle, which at least partially explains why this crowd could cheer Jesus on this occasion and cry "Crucify Him" a few days later.

The rejection of Jesus by the religious leaders is seen in their verbal challenges to Him and also in the illustration of the fig tree. The fig tree, which Jesus and the Twelve passed to and from Bethany, had the appearance of bearing fruit because of its leaves. But the appearance proved to be false, for which Jesus cursed the tree. Judaism, represented by these scribes and Pharisees who challenged Jesus, "flourished with the 'leaves' of ritual religion but lacked the 'fruit' of righteousness God demanded." (The Bible Knowledge Commentary) Jesus' curse of the tree may also apply to Judaism, "May no one ever eat fruit from you again!" Sandwiched with this account of the fig tree was Jesus' "cleansing" activities in and around the temple.

Jesus gave His disciples, and us, a lesson on prayer in conjunction with this incident with the fig tree. He gave the assurance of results in prayer. The results are predicated on 1 - faith in God, and 2 - forgiveness of others. We should also include the recognized premise that all petitions must be in harmony with God's will. Faith in God when we pray focuses our attention on Him as the source and as being fully capable of granting the petition. Prayer is not the exercise of special powers that have been granted to us. We are petitioning God and it is He who causes the outcome. It is a partnership, though. Our petition must be in accordance with His will, indicating that we are in agreement with His will. So the sense is that we are partnering with God concerning what He wants done and are making our petition out of agreement with what He wants done and not just what we want done. The other piece to prayer is that of forgiveness of others. Scripture is clear that we cannot be in right relationship with God and out of relationship with our neighbor. We cannot assume a partnership with God in prayer while being out of relationship with our neighbor for we are also out of relationship with God at that point.