Mark 11

Mark 11:1

V. THE SERVANT’S MINISTRY IN JERUSALEM (Chaps. 11, 12) A. The Triumphal Entry (11:1-11) 11:1-3 The record of the last week begins here. Jesus had paused on the east slope of the Mount of Olives, near Bethphage (house of unripe figs) and Bethany (house of the poor, humble, oppressed). The time had arrived to present Himself openly to the Jewish people as their Messiah-King. He would do this in fulfillment of the prophecy of Zechariah (Zec_9:9), riding on a colt. So He sent two of His disciples from Bethany into Bethphage. With perfect knowledge and complete authority, He told them to bring an unbroken colt which they would find tethered. If anyone challenged them, they were to say, The Lord has need of it. The omniscience of the Lord, as seen here, has prompted someone to say, This is not the Christ of modernism, but of history and of Heaven.11:4-6 Everything happened as Jesus had predicted. They found the colt tied at a main intersection in the village. When challenged, the disciples replied as Jesus had told them. Then the people let them go. 11:7, 8 Though the colt had never been ridden before, it did not balk at carrying its Creator into Jerusalem. The Lord rode to the city on a carpet of clothes and palm branches, with the acclamation of the people ringing in His ears. For a moment, at least, He was acknowledged as King. 11:9, 10 The people cried:

1. Hosannawhich meant originally meant Save, we pray but which later became an exclamation of praise. Perhaps the people meant Save, we pray, from our Roman oppressors!2. Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lorda clear recognition that Jesus was the promised Messiah (Psa_118:26).
2. Blessed is the kingdom of our father David that comes in the name of the Lord!they thought that the kingdom was about to be set up, with Christ sitting on the throne of David.
3. Hosanna in the highest!a call to praise the Lord in the highest heavens, or for Him to save from the highest heavens. 11:11 Once in Jerusalem, Jesus went into the templenot inside the sanctuary but into the temple courts. Presumably it was the house of God, but He was not at home in this temple because the priests and people refused to give Him His rightful place. So when He had looked around briefly, the Savior withdrew to Bethany with the twelve disciples. It was Sunday evening.

Mark 11:12

B. The Barren Fig Tree (11:12-14) This incident is the Savior’s interpretation of the tumultuous welcome He had just received in Jerusalem. He saw the nation of Israel as a barren fig treeit had leaves of profession but no fruit. The cry of Hosanna would soon turn into the blood-curdling cry, Crucify Him!There is an apparent difficulty in that He condemned the fig tree because it had no fruit, although the record distinctly says that it was not the season for figs. This seems to picture the Savior as unreasonable and petulant. We know this is not true; yet how can we explain this curious circumstance? Fig trees in Bible lands produced an early edible fruit before the leaves appeared. It was a harbinger of the regular crop, here described as the season for figs. If no early figs appeared, it was a sign that there would be no regular crop later on. When Jesus came to the nation of Israel, there were leaves, which speak of profession, but there was no fruit for God. There was promise without fulfillment, profession without reality. Jesus was hungry for fruit from the nation. Because there was no early fruit, He knew that there would be no later fruit from that unbelieving people, and so He cursed the fig tree. This prepictured the judgment which was to fall on Israel in a.d. 70. However, the incident does not teach that Israel was cursed to perpetual barrenness. The Jewish people have been set aside temporarily, but when Christ returns to reign, the nation will be reborn and restored to a position of favor with God. This is the only miracle in which Christ cursed rather than blessed, destroyed life rather than restoring it. This has been raised as a difficulty. However, the objection is not valid. The Creator has the sovereign right to destroy an inanimate object in order to teach an important spiritual lesson and thus save men from eternal doom. Although the primary interpretation of this passage relates to the nation of Israel, it has application to people of all ages who combine high talk and low walk.

Mark 11:15

C. The Servant Cleanses the Temple (11:15-19) 11:15, 16 At the outset of His public ministry, Jesus had driven commercialism out of the temple environs (Joh_2:13-22). Now as His ministry drew to a close, He again entered the court of the temple and drove out those who were profiteering from sacred activities. He even stopped the carrying of ordinary wares through the temple area. 11:17 Combining quotations from Isaiah and Jeremiah, He condemned desecration, exclusivism, and commercialism. God had intended the temple to be a house of prayer for all nations (Isa_56:7), not just for Israel. They had made it a religious market, a hang-out for shysters and racketeers (Jer_7:11). 11:18 The scribes and chief priests were cut deeply by His accusations. They wanted to destroy Him, but could not do it brazenly because the common people still looked on Him with a great deal of awe. 11:19 In the evening … He went out of the city. The tense of the original verb suggests it was His custom, perhaps for safety’s sake. He was not afraid for Himself. We must keep in mind that part of His ministry was to preserve the sheep, that is, His own disciples (Joh_17:6-19) . Furthermore, it would be ludicrous for Him to surrender to His enemies’ wishes before the proper time.

Mark 11:20

D. The Lesson of the Barren Fig Tree (11:20-26) 11:20-23 On the morning following the cursing of the fig tree, the disciples passed it on their way to Jerusalem. It had withered away from the roots up. When Peter mentioned this to the Lord, He simply said, Have faith in God. But what do these words have to do with the fig tree? The following verses show that Jesus was encouraging faith as the means to remove difficulties. If disciples have faith in God, they can deal with the problem of fruitlessness, and remove mountainous obstacles. However, these verses do not give a person authority to pray for miraculous powers for his own convenience or acclaim. Every act of faith must rest on the promise of God. If we know that it is God’s will to remove a certain difficulty, then we can pray with utter confidence that it will be done. In fact, we can pray with confidence on any subject as long as we are confident it is according to God’s will as revealed in the Bible or by the inner witness of the Spirit. 11:24 When we are really living in touch with the Lord and praying in the Spirit, we can have the assurance of answered prayer before the answer actually comes. 11:25, 26 But one of the basic requirements for answered prayer is a forgiving spirit. If we nurse a harsh, vindictive attitude toward others, we cannot expect God to hear and answer us. We must forgive if we are to be forgiven. This does not refer to the judicial forgiveness of sins at the time of conversion; that is strictly a matter of grace through faith. This refers to God’s parental dealings with His children. An unforgiving spirit in a believer breaks fellowship with the Father in heaven and hinders the flow of blessing.

Mark 11:27

E. The Servant’s Authority Questioned (11:27-33) 11:27, 28 As soon as He reached the temple area, the religious leaders accosted Jesus and challenged His authority by asking two questions: (1) By what authority are You doing these things? (2) And who gave You this authority to do these things? (that is, to cleanse the temple, to curse the fig tree, and to ride triumphantly into Jerusalem). They hoped to trap Him, no matter how He answered. If He claimed to have authority in Himself as the Son of God, they would accuse Him of blasphemy. If He claimed authority from men, they would discredit Him. If He claimed to have received authority from God, they would challenge the claim; they considered themselves the God-appointed religious leaders of the people. 11:29-32 But Jesus answered by asking a question. Was John the Baptist divinely commissioned or not? (The baptism of John refers to his entire ministry.) They couldn’t answer without embarrassment. If John’s ministry was divinely appointed, they should have obeyed his call to repent. If they disparaged John’s ministry, they would risk the anger of the common people, who still considered John a spokesman for God. 11:33 When they refused to answer, professing ignorance, the Lord refused to discuss His authority. As long as they were unwilling to acknowledge the credentials of the forerunner, they would hardly acknowledge the higher credentials of the King Himself!