Mark 11 Commentary
If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ say, ‘The Lord needs it and will send it back here shortly.’ ” Verse 3.
The NIV version gives the impression that the Lord would use the animal and return it to its owner shortly. This understanding is out of context. The correct rendering would be that the owner, the LORD, needs the animal. Based on this statement, the caretaker, otherwise called the human owner would promptly send, send it back – back to the animal’s Owner.
We hear the voice of the Sovereign Creator God. There are no questions when the Sovereign God speaks! It is a blessing at the highest level when the LORD suddenly and miraculously enables one to see that they own nothing. Everything comes from God. You are simply a steward.
There is another voice but it comes from the man Jesus Christ – it’s a suspicious voice, so thinks the chief priests and the scribes. This voice they can question. They seek to stop it at all costs!
The animal becomes an important tool during the inauguration ceremony. Jesus is the King. He is the human king with physical rules on humility, relationships, and the rest. There is a physical kingdom to which saints belong. There are physical temples that should function as hotspots for prayer.
But the chief priests and the scribes don’t mind. The temple is a business place. Men and women can buy and sell animals right in the temple yard! The mission of the Messiah is to rid the temple of this kind of wickedness. It is not acceptable in the kingdom of God.
The fig tree is cursed for having an appearance of fruitfulness while having absolutely nothing. Pretense is highlighted by the fact that this fig tree should not have this kind of appearance when it is actually out of season. Being nothing and having nothing of substance even beneath yet showing the world every sign possible that you’ve got it, that’s the point here. The systems at the temple in Jerusalem would fit this description. There is absolutely no substance in the system. And why not? It isn’t the season for it. The owner of the temple isn’t in the house. He is outside of it and they have actually rejected Him!
Forget your claims to salvation when the owner of salvation isn’t in the house. Don’t fake.
Check Jesus’ conversation with the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders – the entire Jewish governance system. They didn’t believe John’s baptism. Of course, John never claimed to be the Messiah. He never claimed to be the Son of God. Test these people in your own lab and see what an impossible situation they are! Unbelief (like Atheism) is unbelievably unreasonable! They pretend logic but it’s all empty!
An important prayer is to seek the opening of eyes. LORD, let me see things that I cannot by myself. It is often a term for the straightening of things in one’s mind. Then simple things like the question posed by the LORD Jesus would have a straight answer.
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