Hi everyone. Welcome back to daily gospel.
Exegesis as always, we're going to do a deep dive into the
Gospel reading from today's mass.
We really want to find. What's the literal sense of the
scripture? What did it mean in its original
context? Now, today we have quite a long
reading and in many ways this is quite a difficult reading.
When I First started to read through this one and to prepare
for the exegesis, I found a quite challenging but as I
really dive into these commentaries, there's such an
amazing level of depth here. So I think this is going to be
quite an interesting episode for a number of reasons will
firstly. It's quite a long one because
there's a lot going on. In this particular scene, the
lectionary has decided to put a whole lot into one reading and
secondly, there's a lot of Old Testament references, but you
may not be aware of. There's a lot of Old Testament
stuff going on in the background.
And that you really need to understand if we want to get it,
the literal sense. And thirdly, because the words
here are some of Jesus, most challenging, and most sort of
strange teachings in a way. So hopefully you'll find a lot
of interesting stuff in today's episode.
So today's reading is from Mark chapter 11 verses 11 to 26,
After he had been acclaimed by the crowds.
Jesus entered Jerusalem and went into the temple.
He looked all around him, but as it was now late, he went out to
Bethany with the twelve next day as they were leaving Bethany.
He felt hungry seeing a fig tree in leaf some distance away.
He went to see if he could find any fruit on it but when he came
up to it, he found nothing. But leaves for it was not the
season for figs. Yes.
And he addressed the Fig Tree, May no one ever eat fruit from
you again he said and his disciples heard him say this.
So they reached Jerusalem and he went into the temple and began
driving out those who we're selling and buying their, he
upset the tables of the money changers and the chairs of those
who are selling pigeons. Nor would he allow anyone to
carry anything through the temple and he taught them and
said does not scripture say my house will be called a house of
prayer for all the peoples but you have turned it into a
robbers Den. This came to the ears of the
chief priests and the scribes and they tried to find some way
of doing away with him. They were afraid of him because
the people were Carried Away by his teaching and when evening
came, he went out of the city, Next morning as they passed by.
They saw the Fig Tree withered to the roots, Peter remembered
look Rabbi. He said to Jesus the Fig Tree,
you cursed has withered away. Jesus answered.
Have faith in God. I tell you, solemnly, if anyone
says to this mountain, get up and throw yourself into the sea,
with no hesitation in his heart, but believing that what he says
will happen, it will be done for him.
I tell you there for everything. You ask and pray for believe
that you have it already and it will be yours.
And when you stand in prayer, forgive whatever you have
against anybody. So that your father in Heaven
May forgive your failings, too. But if you do not forgive your
father in heaven, will not forgive your failings either.
So that is our long reading today from Mark chapter 11 and
it's quite a fascinating reading.
And I think it's one of these readings where if you don't look
at the literal sense of the text, if you don't take the time
to study this text, you're not going to understand its meaning.
There's a whole lot going on here behind the text that you
may not realize unless you do a deep dive into it.
Now, the text is divided roughly into three parts and it looks
like Mark has done this deliberately.
So part one is Jesus seeing the Fig Tree and He curses the Fig
Tree and then they go into the temple and Jesus cleanses the
temple that will be part 2. And then your part 3, they come
back the following day and they see the fig tree has withered,
and Jesus then has some teachings that he does there at
the side of the Fig Tree. So, let's start by thinking
about the context. So Jesus has just entered
Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, and if you want to hear an exegesis of
that reading that is on Palm Sunday in year be Be so you
might like to go through the podcast archives to find that
one. So Jesus has entered Jerusalem.
It's the last week of his life and we now get to today's
reading in Mark chapter 11 starting at verse 11 after he
had been acclaimed by the crowds.
Now our lectionary adds that phrase in but it's not actually
there in the original it does make sense.
It's just kind of a way of saying after Palm Sunday and the
triumphal entry have happened. Jesus entered Jerusalem and went
into the temple. So, Jesus goes into the temple,
the very center of Jewish life on the same day that he has
entered Jerusalem. So you go straight to the
temple. Notice what Mark says, he does
here on this day, he doesn't cleanse the temple yet on this
day. But what he does do, is he looks
all around him so he looks in the temple, you can translate
this. He looked around at everything,
so it's like Jesus is inspecting the temple.
You can imagine it as remember, Jesus Is God.
So the lord of the temple has come to his Temple to inspect
and see if it's true purposes, are being fulfilled.
And in a sense, this is a fulfillment of Malachi chapter
3, verse 1 to 2, which predicts that the Lord will come to his
Temple and purify it. So Jesus, here, inspecting the
temple is in a very real sense. The Lord coming to his Temple
now based on Jesus inspection. And what he does later, it looks
like Jesus doesn't like what he sees on this day.
Day and that prepares him for what is about to happen on the
following day. And then Mark says, but as it
was now late, so this might imply that if it wasn't late in
the day, Jesus might have cleanse the temple at this very
time. He wouldn't have waited to the
next day, but it appears that it might be dark.
It's late. So, Jesus decides not to do
anything in the temple on this day, he went out to Bethany with
the twelve. So, Jesus, and his Apostles stay
in Bethany at night time in the last week of his life.
If so, during the day they are in Jerusalem and at night time,
they come back to Bethany, which is close to Jerusalem.
It's possible that they stayed with Mary Martha and Lazarus,
who live in Bethany or maybe they stayed at some sort of
campsite, So that's kind of a prologue to reading today.
And then we get to verse 12, sort of what we can call part 1
of the reading next day as they were leaving Bethany, he felt
hungry. So this is the only time in
Mark's gospel where Jesus is said to be hungry and it's one
of the clearest examples of Jesus Humanity, maybe he hasn't
had breakfast that morning or something.
Who knows, verse 13. Seeing a fig tree in leaf some
distance away. Now fig trees work, Quite common
in Israel. He went to see if he could find
any fruit on it. So at first glance in this
reading, it looks like Jesus is coming to see if you can find
any food on the fig tree for himself because he's hungry.
That would be a natural real natural way of reading it so
far. But it seems that that's not
what Jesus is up to here. So he goes to the Fig Tree to
see if there's any fruit on it, but when he came up to it, he
found nothing. But leaves for it was not the
season for figs. This is an important verse
actually. Passover usually takes place in
April and this is around the time of Passover, ripe.
Figs do not appear in April. They only appear in about June.
This is really key, Jesus would know that the fig trees are not
going to produce figs on this day.
So even as he goes up to the Fig Tree, he's not going to expect
there to be any fruit there. So we shouldn't read this as
Jesus goes up to the fig tree, gets disappointed that there's
no fruit and then gets angry about it.
Which is how some critics. I've looked at this passage
know, Jesus knows even before he starts to walk into the fig
tree, that there's not actually going to be any fruit on it
because that it's not the right time of year for fruit.
And he knows that in fact, what this tells us is that Jesus is
not actually approaching the Fig Tree to look for literal fruit
at all. He's doing this as an object
lesson. So to understand this section,
we need to keep in mind that fig trees in the Old Testament are a
traditional symbol for Israel. So Jeremiah chapter 8, verse 13,
talks about Israel as being a fig tree and Hosea, 9:10 does as
well and there's a few other places in the Old Testament
marks readers probably would have picked up on Yes, they
would have as soon as Mark mentioned that Jesus goes to a
fig tree. His readers would have worked
out. Our this has going to have
something to do with Israel. In fact, Micah chapter 7 verse 1
in that passage, God says there is no cluster to eat no early
fig that I crave. So this part in the Old
Testament where God talks to Israel as though it is like a
fig tree. That's supposed to produce fruit
verse 14. Jesus addressed the Fig Tree May
no one ever. Ever eat fruit from you again.
He said, so Jesus here, pronounces an actual curse, a
supernatural curse on the tree, and we're going to see the
results of that in the next on the next day.
And his disciples heard him say this.
So this seems to be the whole point.
Jesus goes up to the Fig Tree and he says this curse on the
Fig Tree as an object lesson for his disciples.
That's the whole point. It's not.
The Jesus is angry that he's not going to find any food on the
food on the actual fig tree. So what does all this mean?
What's going on here? The basic idea seems to be that.
The main job of a fig tree is to produce figs if you think about
it, that's what a fig tree is for, for a Jewish person is to
make figs. So if a fig tree is not
producing fruit, then it's actually pretty useless at that
point in a similar way Israel. Which the Fig Tree represents as
we've seen. Israel is not producing.
The good works that God desires in.
The time of Jesus. Israel is not really doing what
God wants them to do. This, of course, is seen this
during his ministry. Israel has largely rejected his
message and they're refusing to come back to God.
And in particular, he seen a lack of faith and prayer in the
temple, and we're going to see how he feels about that later in
the day. So Jesus has kind of a valuated
Israel during his ministry and he's basically seeing that
they're not producing the fruit that they should be producing as
the people of God. This is an interesting
fulfillment of Luke Chapter 13. There's this interesting Parable
called the parable of the Fig. Tree which is only in the Gospel
of Luke that Parable is about Israel being a fig tree and the
parable ends in Luke 13 with Jesus saying, leave the fig tree
for one more year. Now the point Jesus says that
it's sort of early in his ministry hit that's when he
tells the parable of the Fig Tree and he says leave it for
one more year. Of course, the Fig Tree
represents Israel so he sort of saying leave Israel for one more
year will since he said that in Luke 13 When a year has passed,
it's now been a year since then. And Israel is still not doing
any better, they're not producing the fruit Jesus once.
So Jesus. Now officially produces a
pronounces, a curse on the fig tree.
So, I think this is one of these really interesting cases where
you can't fully understand what happens in this gospel unless
you add in some information that's included in another
gospel. Once we remember, the parable of
the Fig Tree, which is in Luke's gospel, we can understand why
Jesus curses the Fig Tree here. It's a really interesting
connection. So Jesus curses the Fig Tree and
in a sense this is a prophetic signal that Israel's Temple
worship and sacrifices a soon to end.
Now, we know from the other gospels that around this, same
time, perhaps in the same day, Jesus gets more explicit.
He doesn't just symbolically curse.
The Fig Tree as he does here. He actually verbally pronounces
a supernatural blindness on Israel.
You see this particularly in the Gospel of Luke in the last few
days of his life Jesus says to Israel.
That now a supernatural blindness will be put on you
because you did not recognize him a Sia.
And on top of that, Jesus goes on to say that Jerusalem will be
destroyed. Because they did not accept him
as their Messiah. That's all particularly brought
out in the Gospel of Luke. The gospel of Mark, doesn't
include a lot of that, more graphic language.
It just gives us this symbolic cursing of the fig tree.
Verse 15. So they reached Jerusalem and he
went into the temple. So, we're getting to Part 2.
Now, the Temple, of course, is the center of Jewish life.
It was always very busy. And the Jews believe that this
was where God dwelt among his among his people in a special
manner, the temple was divided into lots of different
compartments and quarters. The scene we're going to see
today occurs in What's called the outer Court, which was a
part of the temple that was open to Gentiles.
In fact, it was supposed to be basically for Gentiles to
worship God. Now as its Passover time at this
point, the area would be filled with pilgrims.
It would be packed with people. They would had to be given
entrance to the temple. In successive waves during
Passover, you couldn't allow all the pilgrims in at once because
they wouldn't fit. Remember that the night before
this Jesus have looked around at everything in the temple.
And now we're going to see Jesus evaluation off his inspection.
Jesus began to drive out those who we're selling and buying
their. So what is it?
That's being bought and sold. Is sold here.
Well, it's basically animals. So animals were sold in the
outer Court of the temple, as a service to Passover, pilgrims,
who traveled to the city. In order to offer sacrifice part
of the Passover rituals involved, sacrificing animals
and many of the Jewish pilgrims didn't have an animal with them
when they arrive to Jerusalem. So that have to get one in the
temple, it was actually an important markets.
This was a needed thing in order to fulfill the requirements of
Passover because some people weren't able to bring their own.
From home. Or if they did bring their own
animals from home, by the time they get to Jerusalem.
The animal is no longer in good shape.
The animal, the animal that's going to be sacrificed.
Remember, needs to be unblemished, so it's not really
suitable to bring your own animal from miles away.
So, most pilgrims would go to the temple to buy their animal
before the Passover. Now, the problem is that
merchants in the temple exploited, this arrangement, for
their own financial gain. So the problem is not that
they're buying and selling animals that Problem is the way
that they're doing that by inflating the prices and things
like that. Now, we do have historical
records that indicate that the market for this was primarily on
the Mount of Olives. So people could buy animals as
they come in on the Mount of Olives.
But some sources, do indicate that the high priest Caiaphas
permitted vendors to sell in the outer Court of the temple
itself. So we do have some records that
this did occur. Keep in mind, the main issue
that Jesus has here with what's going on, is the location of the
transactions. This is all occurring in the
temples outer Court. That's supposed to be an area
where Gentile pilgrims can worship.
It's very hard to do that. If it's been overtaken as a
Marketplace. So, Jesus upset the tables of
the moneychangers. Now, what are the money changes
doing? This is another thing,
altogether, all adult, Jewish men had to pay an annual Temple
tax and most men. Do this, when they came to
Jerusalem for Passover, Money Changes had been set up in the
outer Court of the temple, as a service to the pilgrims.
They would exchange the Greek or Roman coins that many of the
pilgrims had for the shekels that they needed to pay the tax
with. So it was kind of a currency
exchange service. Again the money changes although
it is a needed service in a way, they're probably inflating the
prices and thirdly, Jesus chones over the chairs of those who
we're selling pigeons or you can translate this doves.
Now, both pigeons and doves were animals.
That could be used for some of the sacrifices in particular,
these birds were required for purification of women after
childbirth, or for those who are healed of disease.
And particularly, if they could not have form afford a lamb,
they would use these He's birds for sacrifice instead you see
this in Leviticus 12 and Leviticus 14 as well?
Verse 16. Then we get this interesting
phrase here nor would Jesus allow anyone to carry anything
through the temple or more? Literally what it says there is
any vessel Jesus would not allow anyone to carry any vessel now.
Scholars are divided about what's going on here.
Some Scholars think that Jesus is forbidding them to use any
sacrificial vessel. He's getting them to actually,
stop doing all. The sacrifices is not allowing
the sacrificial vessels to be used.
That's probably not the best interpretation because that's
pretty radical with Jesus. Really stopped the temple
sacrifices for a while. You think that would bring that
up in his trial later on, but they don't bring that up.
That's a possible interpretation, but I think
maybe a better interpretation is just that Jesus is forbidding.
The Jewish leaders from using this area as a thoroughfare.
He says, this is a sacred area for worship.
You should not be carrying your boxes of items and stuff through
the temple, if it's for commercial transaction.
So he's issue appears to be with the commercial things that
they're doing. Verse 17 and he taught them.
So Jesus is going to know, explain why?
He's just done what he's done. Jesus said, does not scriptures.
Say so Jesus. Here quotes from the Old
Testament to help the merchants understand why he's doing, what
he's doing, my house will be called a house of prayer for all
the peoples. First thing to notice here is
that Jesus here is quoting from God.
God says my house will be called a House of Prayer.
That's in Isaiah 56, verse 7. So inocencia this is a hint of
Jesus Divinity, because Jesus by doing what he's doing is kind of
claiming that it's his own house, in a sense So it's from
Isaiah 56:10, seven. My house will be called a house
of prayer for all the peoples in context of Isaiah.
It's a prediction of the day when the Gentiles will share in
the Covenant worship of God in in the final kingdom of God.
So this is something that the Jews at the time we're looking
for, Now this would have could, of course, be particular concern
to Mark's audience because most of them are Gentiles.
So this idea that that temper will one day be a house of
prayer for all people. Mark's readers in particular,
would have been interested in that.
Now the current Arrangement that the Jewish leaders had set up
where they've made the outer Court, a transaction place makes
it basically impossible for the Gentiles to come and worship.
So this prophecy in Isaiah cannot be fulfilled.
As long as the markets are set up, In the outer Court of the
temple, but of course, Jesus himself will become the new
Temple for all nations. So there's a lot of theology
going on here. Jesus then says, but you have
turned it into a robbers Den. So the thievery in the business
transactions in the outer course.
By doing these things, the Jewish leaders had made prayer
to God basically impossible. Now when Jesus says here, you
have turned into a robbers Den. This comes from Jeremiah chapter
7, verse 11. And again, knowing the context
of the Jeremiah passage, he's going to help us in context of
Jeremiah 7. Jesus, Jeremiah delivers a
sermon in the temple to warned. Israel of God's coming.
Judgment upon On Jerusalem. So this is actually from
Jeremiah Zone sermon that he gives in his temple in his day.
Now, in Jeremiah's time, Israel was engaging in false piety.
They thought that God would protect them if they just did
Pious things, but they had failed to repent.
They were not really following God, Jeremiah was warning them
to repent and he says, if you don't repent your temple which
was Solomon's Temple, the first temple will be destroyed.
And indeed, Israel does not repent in the time of Jeremiah
and the first temple was destroyed in 586 BC by the
Babylonians. It's a very similar situation
with Jesus here. Jesus here is confronting the
Jewish leaders who presume that their Covenant relationship with
God is going to remain secure despite their sin.
And as we know the refusal of the Jewish leaders to repent and
follow Jesus, does result in the destruction of the second
temple. In 70 AD.
So there's a very parallel situation here between Jesus and
Jeremiah. On top of that, Jesus aggressive
cleansing of the outer Court here.
And some Scholars have said, Jesus is not really being
aggressive, but I think there is certainly an element of
aggressive aggression here. He's got a kind of holy anger, a
righteous anger when Jesus does this cleansing of the other
court. It recalls another Prophecy of
the Old Testament, Malachi chapter 3, verse 12 for when the
Lord for Warren Jerusalem, that he would make a Divine
inspection of the temple to purify the sanctuary and its
priests So, Malachi predicts, that God would make a Divine
inspection of the temple to purify it.
Well, that's exactly what Jesus is doing here.
On top of that. There's another passage, which
is relevant. The Zechariah Chapter 14 verse
21 says that in the Messianic age, no Trader will be found in
the temple. Well that's kind of what Jesus
although he doesn't clear them all out of the entire Temple.
It's sort of a foreshadowing of that.
You could also say that Jesus here is actually exercising a
royal. - in the Old Testament, many of the good Kings of Judah,
like, Hezekiah and Josiah. They cleaned house in the temple
in their own day. You see that in second
chronicles 29 and second Chronicles 34.
So, Jesus is just continuing the long line of holy leaders of
Israel who have cleansed the Temple of idolatry and false
worship basically. So there's a whole lot of Old
Testament background, which helps us shed light on Jesus
actions here. It's probably true that Jesus
intention here is not primarily to make a public scene.
His main point here is to get the merchants out of the outer
Court of the temple, so that others could come back, come
back in, and worship. He wants Gentiles in particular
to be able to worship God and the current Arrangement doesn't
allow that and that's what he's trying to fix.
Verse 18, this came to the ears of the chief priests and the
scribes. So that's those who run the
temple and they also profit from it.
And they try to find some way of doing away with him.
They were afraid of him because the people were Carried Away by
his teaching or more literally astonished at his teaching.
So the Jewish leaders here, I have a dilemma.
They recognize that Jesus has influence over the people.
So it's not as simple as them arresting him on the spot.
That's not going to work. Because there's so many
followers around who were impressed by Jesus.
So if they, if the Jewish leaders tried to arrest Jesus,
the people will probably rebel against them, and that's not
what they want. They want to continue to have
the support of the people. So they can't just Say Jesus is
a Madman. Let's arrest him.
Now, they like to do that but they can't it's not going to
work. So therefore they're going to
have to find some other way to get Jesus to incriminate himself
which is what they try and work on over the next few days.
And when evening came, he went out of the city.
So Jesus probably stays in the temple that day and continues to
teach and then at the end of the day he goes out of Jerusalem and
back to Bethany. So now we get to part three of
today's reading verse 20, Next morning as they passed by, they
saw the Fig Tree withered to the roots.
So not only does the tree not have any fruit.
It's now completely dead that fig tree from the previous day's
completely Ted. So, the death of the Fig Tree is
actually a visible Prophecy of the Doom that is to come upon
Jerusalem in the coming years. And also, another more.
Fruitful tree is going to take the place of Jerusalem.
That is the church and that's developed more in other places
in the Gospels. Now, some schools think Ben
might also be another Old Testament background to this.
When the Fig Tree dies, there's a passage in Ezekiel, when
Ezekiel is having his vision of the coming Temple, which is
relevant here in ezekiel's vision of the new Temple,
there's trees, which bear fruit all year round.
You can see that in Ezekiel chapter 47.
So here we have a tree that does not bear fruit.
All year round, but in the New Kingdom of God, in a sense,
there will be trees and you could say that that will be
people. People who will bear, fruit will
do God's will all year round. So that's an interesting
connection there. Now, here, we have a classic
example of what Scholars call a mark and sandwich.
So Mark does this a few times in his gospel where he sort of
talks about an event, but he breaks the event into to.
He starts to talk about the event and then he interrupts his
telling of the event with another story and then he comes
back to his telling of that first event.
So it's sort of a telling of a story in Departs, the event
occurs in two halves and then something is placed in the
middle, and the thing which is placed in the middle sheds,
light on the event on either side of it.
So in a mark and sandwich, all three parts of the sandwich
complement each other. So, how do we see that happening
here? Well, we have the start of the
Fig Tree story and then Jesus cleanses the temple and then the
following day, they come back and they have a look at the Fig
Tree again. So how does the cleansing of the
temple shed light on? On the Fig Tree.
Well, Israel remember is supposed to point the rest of
the nation's back to God. That's the whole point of
Israel. Their job is to bring the rest
of the world to God. So, Israel's good works should
bring Gentiles to God. And on top of that, their Temple
should be open for Gentiles to worship.
So, the cleansing of the temple. And the cursing of the Fig Tree,
were both a symbol of God's rejection of Jerusalem.
They're both indicators. That Israel is not doing the job
at supposed to do. And they get cursed as a result.
The cursing of the Fig Tree and the cleansing of the temple,
essentially, communicating the exact same message.
So, Peter sees this fig tree, that's with it.
And he remembers what happened the day before.
Look Rabbi he said, to Jesus the Fig Tree, you cursed has
withered away, and of course, Jesus knew that was going to
happen and that was the whole point.
Now, at this point, Jesus doesn't explain the theological
significance of the victory weathering or at least, Mark
doesn't record him as doing that.
So it's likely that the disciples the 12 apostles later,
with the help of the Holy Spirit, worked out the
significance of the Fig Tree instead Jesus says in verse 22
have faith in God. Why does Jesus just say that?
Now the link appears to be that Peter is astonished.
Maybe even afraid at the miracle Jesus has performed on The Fig
Tree So Jesus uses this as an opportunity to describe the
power of God. In particular, it looks like
Jesus doesn't want his disciples to lose confidence in God's
sovereignty over events. He says yes, the victory has
been cursed. Yes, a curse has been has come
upon Israel, but have faith in God.
He can still do miraculous things through you in the New
Covenant. Verse 23, I tell you, solemnly
or more literally truly, I say to you.
So Jesus is now going to give this really interesting
enigmatic statement about mountains, moving, you've
probably heard this before. It's actually found in different
contexts in Matthew, Matthew chapter 17, and then Luke
chapter 17 as well. And that probably suggest that
Jesus gives this same phrase about mountains.
Moving several times in his ministry, in different contexts.
It's one of his favorite images to use with his disciples about
the power of prayer. So this is the entire phrase.
He says here If anyone says to this mountain get up and throw
yourself into the sea, with no hesitation in his heart.
But believing that what he says will happen, it will be done for
him. So it's a really interesting
image. Isn't it of a mountain being
thrown into the sea? Notice that Jesus says if anyone
says to this mountain so it's a specific Mountain.
Jesus has in mind, what mountain is he thinking of well it's
either the Mount of Olives that they're traveling across as they
come into Jerusalem or maybe even Mount Zion where Jerusalem
stands, or whether Temple stands.
It's one of those that Jesus is pointing to apparently if anyone
says to this mountain get up and throw yourself into the sea.
Now this is a doubly strange image.
Not only is the mountain getting up and moving.
It's also moving into the sea and Islam is not really anywhere
near this. See.
So that's kind of the whole point of this image.
It's supposed to be something that's bizarre and impossible,
get up, and throw yourself into the sea, with no hesitation in
his heart or you can translate that and does not doubt in his
heart. Keep in mind that Faith.
According to the Bible is basically trust.
So the point Jesus is getting out here.
Is if one praise without trust, then press the just empty words,
that sort of an implication of this, but on the other hand, if
One does pray with trust interesting things can happen.
If anyone says to this mountain get up and throw yourself into
the sea, with no hesitation in his heart.
But believing that what he says will happen, it will be done for
him. Now certainly this is a form of
hyperbole. It's an exaggeration which was a
common Jewish way of speaking at the time.
Jesus picked an example of something which is amazing and
impossible kind of like the camel passing through the eye of
the needle. It's a similar.
Sort of genre, he's picking something, which his audience
would have known as impossible. So, Jesus, probably doesn't
literally mean that the apostles could command a mountain to
move. Though, we can't rule that out.
That is certainly within God's power but that's probably not
Jesus main point Jesus Main Here is that even a small amount of
genuine faith of genuine trusting God will enable God to
do great Miracles through them which would otherwise be
impossible. Remember the by now, Jesus has
already taught that all things are possible for God, he said
that in chapter 10. So Jesus, he is says the
Believers. When they pray, if they have
enough trust, and if something is within God's will, it will be
done for them. That is the basic teaching here.
It's a teaching about God's miraculous.
Power to do things. If Believers have genuine, trust
in him. Now, again some Scholars think
there might be an Old Testament background to this, and that
would make sense in context. It's possible here, that Jesus
is referring to Zechariah Chapter 4.
Verse 7. There's a Korea has a vision of
zerubbabel rebuilding the temple, after its first
destruction in 586 BC, and in this vision of zerubbabel,
rebuilding the temple. There's Right.
Mountain that standing in his way of building the Temple.
So is the ruble in this Vision clears away the mountain, in
order to begin construction of the temple.
So here, if you think about what's going on theologically
with Jesus, the mountain of Jerusalem and the temple has to
be pushed aside, in order to make room for a new Temple, the
Temple of Jesus himself and his Church, the true House of Prayer
that's going to be built of Christian Believers, which is
quarried from All Nations. So maybe when Jesus here talks
about a mountain being moved, he literally is theologically
thinking of the temple Mountain being moved out of the way,
theologically to make room for the New Covenant.
That's a really interesting connection.
Verse 24, I tell you, they're for everything you asked for and
pray for, or you can just translate this as whatever you
ask in prayer. So, Jesus is now going to talk
about prayer. Specifically, the implication
here might be that the temple is the House of Prayer is now going
to replaced by the Messianic Community gathered around Jesus
in faith and prayer and certainly that would fit with
everything that's happened in this episode.
So far, everything you ask and pray for believe that you have
it already and it will be yours. All literal translation here is
believe that you have received it and you will, this is a
really challenging verse, because our initial reaction to
this is, well, I pray for things all the time and I don't get
them. Why do some of our fervent
sincere Christian prayers, go unanswered.
I think the key to this is understanding what the word
believe means in the biblical sense.
And I'm going to quote here from the Catholic commentary on
sacred scripture for the gospel of Mark, I think this is a
really excellent quote. That helps us make sense of the
Theology of what Jesus is saying here.
When he says believe that you have it already and it will be
yours when you pray. So, here's the quote, to believe
is not to work up. A subjective feeling of
certitude that our prayers will be answered rather, it is to
enter into a personal trusting relationship with God.
So that our prayers become aligned with the true good that
he desires for us. Elsewhere in the New Testament.
This Promise includes the qualification that our prayers
must be in Jesus name. John 14 or according to his will
in 1 John chapter 5 and not with a divided heart, James chapter 4
Jesus himself. Is the model for prayer.
That is always answered because of his total surrender to the
father's. Will the more we are united with
him, the more, his desires and priorities become our own and
the more we will see how God answers them, this is the kind
of Faith. Jesus is referring to not a
faith. That views God as a kind of
cosmic. It vending machine.
Ready to carry out every request?
Do not be troubled. If you do not immediately
receive from God, what you ask from him for?
He desires to do something, even greater for you, while you cling
to him in prayer. So that's the end of that quote
there from the cafe commentary on sacred scripture.
And that last part is a quote from one of the Saints there
about what God wants for us in prayer.
So, the kind of prayer Jesus is thinking of, is this really deep
Christian sense of Prayer. You completely completely United
to the father's will, that's what Jesus wants a Believers.
He wants them to be. So United to the father's.
Will that when they pray, they're actually asking for what
God wants as well. That is the kind of prayer
that's that Jesus says, God will grant verse 25.
When you stand in prayer, notice he says, when you stand in
prayer, that's the typical Jewish posture for prayer.
We're used to kneeling or sitting, typically standing was
the way the Jews would pray. We see this in one Kings chapter
8, verse 22. And some 134 verse 1.
So Jesus is now going to give a condition to his disciples for
if they want their prayers. Granted he says when you stand
in prayer, forgive whatever you have against anybody.
So that your father in Heaven. So let's stop there.
Jesus has just said that, any anything you pray in Earnest in
accordance with God's will will be answered, but now he's going
to qualify that and say you can't have unforgiveness in your
heart. Forgive whatever you have
against anybody. So that your father in Heaven.
So, Jesus. Now, notice this you use the
words, the word, father up till. Now, in the gospel of Mark,
Jesus has said that. God is his father but he hasn't
said it's for other believers. Well here, he now says that his
disciples can call god. Father, that's quite an intimate
term actually that's important. The whole basis of Jesus
teaching on prayer here and the radical implication that God
will grant believe his prayers. The Whole thing, this is based
on is that God knows our needs as Christians and he listens to
them, because Christians are his beloved children, that's kind of
the whole thing undergirding. This forgive whatever you have
against anybody. So that your father in Heaven,
May forgive your failings. True more.
Literally, it says, may forgive your trespasses notice.
This forgiveness is conditional. Jesus says that if you want the
father to forgive your trespasses, you need to forgive
whatever you have against anybody.
That's actually what Is teaches forgiveness is conditional.
We're used to to believing and teaching that God will forgive
you, no matter what. But actually, Jesus has a pretty
strong condition on it. He says, if you want God's
forgiveness, you need to forgive others.
Now in some manuscripts, it actually finishes here.
That's the end of verse 25, but our lectionary keeps going and
it follows some of the other manuscripts that have a verse
26, which is, but if you do not forgive your father in heaven,
will not forgive your failings either.
That's pretty strong language. Is It, if you do not forgive
your father in Heaven, mate will not forgive your failings.
Either, it's possible that some manuscripts got rid of this
because they thought it was too strong and they didn't, like,
what it implied, but it's also possible that it wasn't in the
original and it was copied across from Matthew's gospel,
because Jesus does teach this in Matthew's gospel.
Certainly, it makes sense in context.
Jesus does teach adjust after. He gives the Our Father actually
in Matthew's gospel that if you don't forgive your father, That
will not forgive you. Either Christians have to keep
this in mind. Now, how exactly all this
forgiveness stuff works on a spiritual level, is a mystery,
how is it the case that God only forgives us?
If we forgive others? How does that work?
Not entirely clear some Scholars think that it has to do with if
you Harbor unforgiveness then you're not going to be open to
God's work in your life and that's certainly the case that
could be something deeper going on here though.
Certainly, it does tell us that our actions in this life can
gain Merit before God. And he's going to overlook our
offenses. If we strive to do the same to
others, this whole principle of forgiving others.
If we want God to forgive us is emphasize particularly in What's
called the parable of the unforgiving, servant.
And you can see that in Matthew chapter 18 verses 21 to 35.
You might like to check out that Parable.
So in the next section of Mark the disciples come back to the
temple for the second day and they're going to do more
confrontations with the L will see this in the coming days so
it's a long passage, isn't it? But I hope you can see that
taking the time to go through it properly.
Really sheds. A whole lot of interesting light
on this passage and you can't really understand it unless
you're willing to do a dive into the text.
Like we have today the lectionary has just decided to
keep this all together as one big block of text.
So our task is to take the time to go through this big block of
text. Let's finish with two paragraphs
from the catechism. Paragraph 2, 6, 10, I just as
Jesus prays to the father and gives thanks before receiving
his gifts. So he teaches us, fill your
boldness, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you receive
it and you will, such is the power of prayer and of faith
that does not doubt. All things are possible to him
who believes. So you can hear that quote
there, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you receive
it and you will. This is in the catechism, it's
actually part of Catholic teaching that if we pray
according to God's will, he will give us what Praful and Jesus
himself is the model for this and then paragraph 2840, this is
in the section which comments on the line from the Our Father,
forgive us our trespasses. And there's a really interesting
language here. So here's what paragraph 2840
says now, and this is daunting. The outpouring of Mercy cannot
penetrate. Our hearts as long as we have
not forgiven. Those who have trespassed
against us love like the body of Christ is indeed.
Divisible. We cannot love the God.
We cannot see if we do not love the brother or sister that we do
see in refusing to forgive our brothers and sisters, our hearts
are closed and the hardness makes them impervious to the
father's merciful love. But in confessing our sins, our
hearts are open to his grace. This petition is so important
that it is the only one to which the Lord returns and which he
develops, explicitly in The Sermon on the Mount.
This crucial requirement of the Covenant.
Mystery is Impossible for man, but With God, all things are
possible. That's a good spot to finish.
It is a longer episode today, one of the longest ones in this
podcast, but I hope you can see, it's been worth it and we'll go
back to having a shorter episode tomorrow.
If you've enjoyed this episode, if you have really enjoyed the
way, we've gone through it, verse by verse to unpack.
It please tell other people about this ministry.
The only way it can grow is by you telling other people about
it. Thanks once again and hopefully
you'll tune in again tomorrow.