Mark 11: 12-21

"And seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, [Jesus] went to see if he could find anything on it. When he came to it, he found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. And he said to it, 'May no one ever eat fruit from you again.' And his disciples heard it....And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold and those who bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons;...As they passed by in the morning, [the disciples] saw the fig tree withered away to its roots." (Mark 11:13-14,15b, 20)

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"There can be no doubt that this, without exception, is the most difficult story in the gospel narrative. To take it as literal history presents difficulties which are well-nigh insuperable." (Barclay, The Gospel of Mark, New Daily Study Bible p. 314)

Not the most encouraging start to what is, indeed, a difficult passage to understand. In his above commentary, Wm. Barclay treats as a unit the two separate parts (the cause and effect if you will) of the incident with the fig tree and then moves on to the cleansing of the Temple. While this seems a good and desirable way to treat this narrative, the fact that it is presented in context in two parts with Jesus' cleansing of the Temple interposed is not insignificant and I believe the arrangement of the text this way helps to unravel something of its mystery.

Firstly, this story takes place in the midst of the Passover season, so it would be around mid-April. Figs don't generally bear fruit until May or June, so no one would have expected there to be any on the tree. While there is no fruit, it is in leaf, so there are obvious signs of life and continuity.

Is this in fact an allegory for the practices of the Temple in Jesus' time? The leaves are there: the prayers and sacrifices continue, the letter of the Law is being fulfilled, as it had been since Moses commanded what he had received from the Lord. The fruit, however, is missing: the offering of sacrifices has been overrun with commercialisation and people coming to worship are being victimised by extortioners.

Just as no one would expect to see figs on the tree, did anyone really think the current practice of the Temple could/should be reformed?

Sometimes the only way to effect a cure is to completely cut off the disease. Thus, Jesus' dramatic action in overturning the tables of the money-changers is symbolically represented in the withered tree. The fig tree is then both 1. what the Temple had become through corruption and 2. a sign of its coming supercession thanks to Christ's self-offering on Calvary.

When the disciples notice the withered tree, likely still in shock over what had happened the previous day, it becomes yet another sign for them of who Jesus is and what He has come to do. I imagine Him asking them: Do you see now how serious your situation is? This tree and the Temple are in exactly the same state of being.'

One thing is clear, things could not continue on as they had. A radical change/fulfillment was necessary both in the externals of worship and in the hearts of all men.

Here is an interesting story:

"Flavius Josephus reports strange happenings in the final years before the outbreak of the Jewish War, all of which, in different and unsettling ways, heralded the end of the Temple....In A.D. 66 '[A]t the Feast of Pentecost, when the priests had gone into the inner court of the Temple at night to perform the usual ceremonies, they declared that they were aware, first of a violent movement and a loud crash, then of a concerted cry: Let us go hence.' Whatever exactly may have happened, one thing is clear: in the final years before the dramatic events of the year 70, the Temple was enveloped in a mysterious premonition that its end was approaching." (Pope Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth, vol. 2, pp. 25-26)

Peace

Luke 5: 33-39

"And Jesus said to them, 'Can you make wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? The days will come, when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in those days'....But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins." (vv. 34, 38 – Revised Standard Version, 2nd Catholic Edition)

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How is the question of fasting resolved in the parable of the wineskins?

I have always taken the parable of the new/old wineskins to be an illustration of the problem that the scribes and Pharisees have in trying to shoe-horn Jesus into their religious framework: strict obedience to the Law (as they see it). Isn't it so easy to do that? We quite naturally develop a framework into which we can neatly compact our thoughts, words and actions and how we relate to other people and also how we "need" and expect them to relate to us. When they don't, what happens? No wonder there is so much offense taken and received, especially over an anonymous and comfortable medium such as the internet. So, the question is, how can we reasonably expect people to engage us on our own terms if we have not taken the time to explain what those terms are and expose them to the light of day to see how they stand up to our faith, our relationships, or other peoples' ideas and conceptions? Doing so is only scary if we reject out of hand the categorical imperative of all reasonable discourse: 'what if I might be wrong'. I think this gets to the root of the criticisms of the scribes and Pharisees.

The prescriptions of the Mosaic Law are not bad things in and of themselves. Fasting was, and is, a great good for those called to exercise it. [But, not everyone is called to exercise every discipline in the same way. If you are hypoglycemic, then fasting in any (and I hate to use the word because it can be taken the wrong way as an open invitation to comparison where none is needed or justified, but...) significant way is probably not an option]. These prescriptions as stated served their intended purpose until the coming of the Messiah. In Jesus, the former signs and types of the heavenly reality have given way to the real thing. Whatever came before has now to give way to that which it pointed to, but could never fully be. The new reality simply cannot be contained within anyone's previous conception because our human insights are necessarily limited by our finite condition. (Think: Doctrine of the Trinity)

So now, we no longer fast because of the letter of the Law, but because of our love and devotion to the One who fulfills the Law and calls us to a life of perfect holiness in imitation of His own.

It could also be thought of this way. We can think about and conceptualize "love" in the abstract. It is a concept that can fit neatly into our categories of thought and be contemplated without any serious mental gymnastics. But, once love becomes actualized in a relationship of two people, then the theory must give way to the reality which is tangentially related to our mental conceptions but oh so much more. It both fulfills and surpasses our mental expectations and is so wonderfully more complex in reality (Poof! There go those old wine skins!) than when it exists as nothing more than a platonic 'form' in the mind of the individual.

Peace

Finding our way

After the Roman persecution died down in the early centuries of Christianity, in the intensity of the Egyptian desert men and women sought the Lord. They came there to pray always, purify their hearts, slay their demons and give wisdom to those who sought them out. If you wished to become a follower of their tradition, you could ask your spiritual father for a "word" to meditate on, or digest if you will, in order to bring forth aspects of its meaning. This word could be just a single word or phrase from the Bible, something wise or edifying said by one of the saints of the desert, or the Jesus Prayer itself. (More on that later). So, in that spirit, here are some simple reflections on texts from Scripture. May they prove useful for you on your journey.

Peace.