Mark 11:1-14,
20-21
(A Bible Study Led by Dr. Larry Reynolds)
November 29, 2012
Mark 11:1-11
Verse 1
– “And as they approached Jerusalem…” – Jesus and His disciples had
come to the end of a long journey... approximately nine (9) months before He
and the disciples had left Galilee, travelled through down the Jordan River
valley, into Perea, and finally into Judea... along the way He had ministered
to and taught many people...He purposefully timed the journey so He would end
up in Jerusalem for the Passover celebration...was late in the day on the
Sunday before Passover that Jesus finally entered Jerusalem...look at what
happened...(Mark 11:1-11)
Normally we focus on this passage during the
Easter season as we celebrate what has come to be known as “Palm Sunday.” In this study, I want to take a little
different approach to this event and to focus on the part about Jesus sending
two of His disciples to get the colt on which He road into Jerusalem...
That particular incident raises a number of
questions in my mind?
·
How did Jesus know the colt would be
there? Had He made some type of
prearrangements? Had someone told Him it
was there? Or did He know through His
supernatural powers?
·
Why was the owner of the colt, which was a
valuable possession, willing to let the disciples take it? Did he know them? Was he, himself, a believer? Did he understand the significance of the
occasion?
Not sure this side of heaven we will ever know
answers to those questions, but I am sure there is something very important for
us to learn from this event.
Every
one of us has something in our lives of which the Lord has need and as
disciples of Jesus Christ we are to place all that we are and all that we have
in His hands
1. As attempted look at this event in fresh way
this week, became intrigued with a little phrase in v.3...when Jesus sent the
two disciples to get the colt on which He was going to ride, He told them if
anyone asked why they were taking it simply to say, "The Lord has
need of it."...and then v.6 says they did that and the people
watching the colt allowed them to take it...
2. "The Lord has need of it"...why?...why
did Jesus need that animal?...to answer that question, need to understand what
kind of animal it was...word Mark uses for colt can mean any kind of young
animal...but Matthew's account of this event makes it clear the animal was a
donkey...are a number of reasons Jesus chose to enter Jerusalem riding on a
donkey...
·
Over 500 years earlier the prophet Zechariah
prophesied the Messiah would enter the city in that way...Zechariah 9:9 says, "Rejoice
greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout daughter of Jerusalem! See, your king is comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and
riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey."...Jesus
needed the donkey to fulfill the prophecy about how the Messiah would enter
Jerusalem...
·
The donkey was royal animal during the reign
of David... wasn't until after David that the Hebrew kings switched to
horses...through the prophet Ezekiel God had promised He would send a new David
to rule over His people...Jesus needed the donkey to remind the people that He
was of the royal line of David...He was the new David, the Messiah, promised by
God long ago...
·
The donkey was a symbol of gentleness and
peace...unlike warrior kings who would charge into a city on proud, powerful
stallions with swords raised to kill, Jesus came slowly an purposefully on a
donkey bringing peace...Jesus needed a donkey to remind the people He was the
prince of peace promised long ago by the prophet Isaiah...
3. Did the owner of the colt understand all that
when he allowed his donkey to be used by Jesus?....I doubt it...but because he
had something the Lord needed and because he placed it in the Lord's hands,
this unnamed man played important part in greatest event in the history of the
world...
1. There's an important lesson in that for
us...may think what we have or what we can do is not very significant...it's
small...unimportant...just a donkey...what good can be done with that?...but
truth is we will probably never know how God can use our faithfulness in
seemingly small things in very significant ways...
2. In 19th
century a Boston Sunday School teacher led a shoe clerk to Christ...wouldn't recognize
the teacher's name, but the shoe clerk was Dwight L. Moody...became evangelist
and had major influence on young preacher named Frederick B. Meyer...Meyer
began preaching on college campuses and man named J. Wilbur Chapman was
converted to Christianity under his ministry...Chapman arranged for a former
baseball player named Billy Sunday to come to Charlotte, NC for a revival...a
group of Charlotte community leaders were so enthusiastic after that revival
they planned another and brought Mordecai Hamm to town to preach...in that
revival a young man named Billy Graham gave his life to Christ...[Lucado, And
the Angels Were Silent, p.56]
3. That Boston Sunday School teacher had no idea
the chain of events his simple act of faithfulness would start...but because he
was faithful and did what the Lord desired, millions of people have been
blessed...
Mark 11:12-14, 20-21
This rather unusual event is a reminder of the
consequences of not being faithful with the opportunities God entrusts to us. The cursing of the fig tree, on the surface at least, appears
to be out of character with the nature of Jesus. Apart from the drowning of the pigs in Mark
5, this is the only instance in Scripture where we see Jesus using His
miraculous power to destroy something in nature. The question has been raised if had power to
kill tree, why didn't use power to restore tree and make it productive? The answer is that Jesus used this tree to
teach His disciples in the first century and in all the centuries that will
follow some very important lessons. In
that sense, made that fig tree the most productive that has ever lived.
1. To understand this event need some understanding of the fruit-bearing
cycle of the common Palestinian fig tree...green figs would ordinarily appear
on the tree in early spring...the green figs were followed by leaves...then,
sometime in June the fruit would ripen and be ready for harvest...this event
occurred during the Passover season in April...Mark points out in v.13 "it
was not the season for figs" so Jesus could not have reasonably
expected to find ripened fruit on the tree...but since the tree had leaves and
since leaves on a healthy fig tree come after the green figs are produced, He
did expect to find some unripened figs on the tree...but Mark tells us in v.13 "He
found nothing but leaves"...that is, the tree gave the outward
appearance of fruit, but there was none present...
2. The fig tree was a standard symbol for the nation Israel...it is
used that way numerous times in the OT in writings of Jeremiah, Hosea, Joel,
and Micah...the lesson of the fig tree was directed first at Israel...a fig
tree with leaves but no fruit perfect picture of what Jesus saw when He entered
Jerusalem... people were everywhere...the city was crowded with pilgrims who
had come to celebrate the Passover at the Temple...the Temple was beautiful and
very busy...
3. But that outward appearance was very deceptive...the size of the
crowds, the beauty of the Temple, the elaborate well-planned, well executed
religious ceremonies did not hide from God the fact that the people's hearts
were not right...in the words of Isaiah they were people who "honored
God with their lips but their hearts were far from God."...they
said the right words, observed the right rituals, looked the part...but they
were like a fig tree with leaves but no fruit....
4. The next morning, when Jesus and the disciples were again entering
Jerusalem, they were surprised to see the fig tree withered...Mark gives us an
interesting detail about what they saw...said in v.20 "the fig tree
was withered from the roots up"...points back to the prophecy of
Hosea where the Scripture says in Hosea 9:16 - "Ephraim [Israel] is
stricken, their root is dried up, they will bear no fruit."
5. The withered fig tree is graphic picture, object lesson of God's
judgment on people who profess one thing but do another...by taking such
drastic action Jesus was saying this is the ultimate fate of all those who
separate outward religious observance from inward commitment and faithfulness
to God...
6. Jesus directed his harshest words toward those who were religious
hypocrites...see Matthew 23…May we never forget God looks beyond the externals
to see if there is any fruit in our lives...and what is He looking for?...the
Apostle Paul put it well..."...the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy,
peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and
self-control..." (Galatians 5:22-23)
And so this part of Mark
11 reminds us that as followers of Christ, we are constantly faced with two
choices. We can choose to place all that
we are and all that we have in the Lord’s hands for His purposes. When we do that, others are blessed and we
are blessed. Or we can choose the way of
profession without practice, the way of the fig tree. When we do that, others miss a blessing and,
in a spiritual sense, we wither and die.
