Mark 11

33 verses

The Jerusalem section opens with the triumphal entry — a deliberately arranged messianic sign fulfilling Zechariah 9:9, with the requisitioned colt, the cloaks spread on the road, and the Hosanna acclamation of Psalm 118 — and closes with the authority question, and between them are the temple cleansing and the fig tree cursing that interpret each other. The fig tree in full leaf without fruit is the sign of the temple full of religious activity without the kingdom's fruit, and Jesus curses it; the next day it is withered from the roots while the temple that it signified is cleared of its commercial operations with the double citation — Isaiah 56:7 (my house will be called a house of prayer for all nations) against Jeremiah 7:11 (you have made it a den of robbers). The withered fig tree's discovery the following morning becomes the occasion for the mountain-moving faith teaching and the forgiveness condition on effective prayer: whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours — and forgive, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you. The authority question from the full Sanhedrin (by what authority are you doing these things?) is deflected by the counter-question about John's baptism — was it from heaven or from human origin? — which the Sanhedrin cannot answer without either admitting Jesus' authority (John was from God, and John testified to Jesus) or facing the crowd who universally held John to be a genuine prophet. Their we don't know receives the Jesus' neither will I tell you — not evasion but the judgment that a dishonest question receives no honest answer.

VERSES IN THIS CHAPTER

COMMUNITY REFLECTIONS