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Agape Bible Study
Mark 11 -12
Chapter 11: The Supreme Prophet Performs Three Prophetic Acts
Prophetic Act #1: The Davidic King Comes to Jerusalem
The scepter shall never depart from Judah, or the mace from between his legs, while tribute is brought to him, and he receives the people's homage. He tethers his donkey to the vine, his purebred ass to the choicest stem. In wine he washes his garments, his robe in the blood of grapes.
Genesis 49:10-11
Rejoice heartily, O daughter Zion, shout for joy, O daughter Jerusalem! See, your king shall come to you; a just savior is he, meek, and riding on an ass, on a colt, the foal of an ass.
Zechariah 9:9
This is the day which Yahweh has made, a day for us to rejoice and be glad. We beg you Yahweh, save us [Hosanna]! Yahweh, give us victory! Blessed in the name of Yahweh is he who is coming. We bless you from the house of Yahweh. Yahweh is God, he give us light. Link your processions, branches in hand, up to the horns of the altar. You are my God, I thank you, all praise to you, my God. I thank you for hearing me, and making yourself my Savior.
Psalm 118:24-28 NJB
All these Old Testament prophecies are fulfilled in Jesus' triumphant ride into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday in the early spring of 30 AD.
Jesus Arrives in Jerusalem (Pietro lorenzetti)
Mark 11:1-10 ~ The Messiah's Triumphant Entry into Jerusalem
St. John's Gospel gives the countdown to the Passover sacrifice on Jesus' last week in Jerusalem: 12:1 Six days before Passover Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. They gave a dinner for him there, and Martha served, while Lazarus was one of those reclining at table with him .... 12:12 On the next day, when the great crowd that had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, 13 they took palm branches and went out to meet him, and cried out: "Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, the king of Israel." 14 Jesus found an ass and sat upon it, as is written: 15 "Fear no more, O daughter Zion; see, your king comes, seated upon an ass's colt" (Jn 12:1-2, 12-15; underlining added for emphasis and quotation from Zech 9:9 LXX).
On the day before Jesus' entry into Jerusalem, He had dinner at the home of His dear friends Martha, Mary, and Lazarus. Six days later was the Passover sacrifice on the prescribed day of the 14th of Nisan, as the ancients counted without the concept of a zero place-value (Ex 12:1-6; Lev 23:5; Num 28:16).(1)
Question: If Passover was six days from the dinner at Bethany and if the day of His entry into Jerusalem was on the day the Church celebrates as Palm Sunday, what day of the week was the dinner at Bethany and the Passover sacrifice six days later on the 14th of Nisan? Remember to count the days like the ancients with the first day in the cycle starting as day #1. The month was originally called Abib (Ex 13:4; 23:15; 34:18) but the name was changed to Nisan during the Babylonian captivity (Neh 2:1; Est 3:7).
Answer:
Day #1 Saturday, Nisan 9th: Jesus ate the Sabbath dinner with His friends in Bethany
Day #2 Sunday, Nisan 10th: Jesus made His triumphal ride into the city of Jerusalem
Day #3 Monday, Nisan 11th
Day #4 Tuesday, Nisan 12th
Day #5 Wednesday Nisan 13th
Day #6 Thursday, Nisan 14th: The day of the Passover sacrifice
All the Gospels and two thousand years of Christian tradition agree that the Passover sacrifice was on a Thursday, the day before Jesus' crucifixion on Friday which was "Preparation Day" for the Jewish Sabbath (Jn 19:31).
A prophetic act performed by a prophet was called in Hebrew an ot. Between Sunday and Monday, Jesus will perform three prophetic acts in the tradition of the Old Testament prophets:
- The manner of His entrance into Jerusalem (Mk 11:1-10)
- The cursing of the fruitless fig tree (11:12-14)
- The cleansing of the Temple (11:15-17)
The village of Bethany is located at the foot of the eastern slope of the Mount of Olives about two miles (literally 15 Roman strades) from Jerusalem (Jn 11:18). The Mount of Olives is mentioned as the site where the elderly King David wept as he took flight from Jerusalem after his sovereignty was rejected by the Israelites (2 Sam 15:30), and it is also mentioned by the 6th century BC prophet Zechariah where it is associated with the eschatological manifestation of God's kingship, His judgment against Jerusalem, and His military triumph over the nations of the earth (Zec 9:9-11; 14:1-21).
The next village toward Jerusalem is Bethpage, whose name means "place/house of figs." It is at this village that the two disciples are to find a colt of an ass that has never been ridden. When questioned, they are to say it is "the Lord" who has asked for it. In the Greek the word kyrios can mean a ruler, but it is also the word that replaced the Divine Name in the Septuagint and this is the way Jesus means the use of the word to be understood. It is the only time in the Gospel of Mark that Jesus will explicitly refer to Himself as "Lord," pointing to His divine identity (although Mark refers to Jesus as "Lord" in 1:3 and 16:19-20, and Jesus does so implicitly in 2:28; 5:19-20; 12:35-37 and 13:35).
Question: Why is it significant that Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a tethered colt of an ass that no one had ridden previously? See Gen 49:10-11; Num 19:2; Dt 21:3; 1 Sam 6:7; Zec 9:9; Ps 24:7-10.
Answer:
- The "tethered" colt of an ass invokes the prophecy of Jacob-Israel concerning the kingship of one who comes from the tribe of Judah, which is Jesus' tribe.
- That no one has previously used it recalls the stipulations of the Law that an animal devoted to a sacred purpose must be one that has not been used in any profane or ordinary way.
- It fulfills the mount of the Redeemer-Messiah in Zechariah's prophecy and the humility of the rider.
7 So they brought the colt to Jesus and put their cloaks over it. And he sat on it. 8 Many people spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that they had cut from the fields. 9 Those preceding him as well as those following kept crying out: "Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! 10 Blessed is the kingdom of our father David that is to come! Hosanna in the highest!"
Question: What prophecy from the prophet Zechariah in the sixth century BC is fulfilled in Jesus' entry into Jerusalem in 30 AD? See Zec 9:9 and Ps 118:25-27.
Answer: Jesus enacts Zechariah's the prophecy of the Davidic king riding humbly into Jerusalem on "a colt, the foal of an ass," as the people proclaim Him the Davidic Messiah.
Jesus' ride into Jerusalem takes on the aspect of a royal coronation. See 1 Kng 2:38-40; Ps 24:7-10; 118:27.
Question: Compare Jesus' entry into Jerusalem with David's heir Solomon who rode into the city of Jerusalem on his coronation day in c. 970 BC (1 Kng 2:38-40). Who is the king in Psalm 24:10?
Answer: Like Solomon, the son and heir of the King, Jesus, the divine Son and heir of God the great King was riding into the city of Jerusalem to the acclaim of the crowds. Unlike Solomon, Jesus was riding on the humble animal of the poor, an ass, while Solomon rode the royal mount for a king's son, a mule. And also, unlike Solomon who was the human son of the king, Jesus is both the Davidic heir and the "King of Glory." However, even though Jesus is the "King of Glory" riding into the holy city of Jerusalem He has not come as a conquering king like His ancestor David; He has come as a humble servant of God the Father.
Question: What does it mean that the crowd was placing leafy branches before the donkey and that they shouted verses from the Messianic Psalm 118:22-27? Note especially Psalm 118:27b.
Answer: The leafy branches the crowd spread before Jesus' mount and their shouting of verses 24-26a from Psalm 118 shows that they were acknowledging Jesus as the Davidic Messiah.
The crowd was not only thinking of Zechariah's prophecy of the coming of the Redeemer-Messiah (Zec 9:9-10) and the Messianic prophecy from Psalm 118, but also the deathbed prophecy of Jacob-Israel that kingship would never depart from the tribe of Judah (Gen 49:10-11). This prophecy was reinforced by God's eternal covenant with David's descendants that promised David's throne would endure forever (2 Sam 7:12-16; 23:5; 1 Kng 2:4; 2 Chr 13:5; Sir 45:25). All these prophecies were now converging on the rabbi from Nazareth. The Gospel of John even adds that in calling out Psalm 118:26b the crowd said: "Hosanna [Save us]! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the king of Israel" (Jn 12:13; underlined phrase added by the crowd).
Question: Why is it significant that it was the 10th of Nisan that Jesus rode into the city of Jerusalem? See Ex 12:3.
Answer: It was the day on which the victims for the Passover sacrifice were chosen in the first Passover event in Egypt that led to the freeing of the children of Israel from slavery. Jesus is the final, unblemished victim of the final Passover in which mankind will be freed from slavery to sin and death.
Mark 11:11 ~ Jesus goes into the Temple
The Temple that was rebuilt in the late 6th century BC after the Babylonian exile by the returning covenant people of Judah was located on the height of Mount Moriah. It was built on the same location as Solomon's Temple that was destroyed by the Babylonians in 587/6 BC. The Temple of Jesus' time was rebuilt by King Herod the Great into one of the most beautiful buildings of its time and was later destroyed by the Romans in AD 70. It was never rebuilt.
Jesus and the Apostles will spend every night on the Mount of Olives or in the village of Bethany (Mt 21:17; Mk 11:11; Lk 21:37). Bethany was the home of Jesus' friends Mary, Martha, and Lazarus who Jesus raised from the dead (Jn 11:17-44). During His last week He will eat two meals with His Apostles and His friends in Bethany; the first was the Sabbath meal at the home of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus and the second at the home of Simon the (former) Leper (Jn 12:1; Mt 26:6; Mk 14:3).
Prophetic Act #2: The Judgment against the Barren Fig Tree
I will gather them all in, says the LORD [YHWH]: no grapes on the vine, no figs on the fig trees, foliage withered! Why do we remain here? Let us form ranks and enter the walled cities, to perish there; for the LORD has wrought our destruction, he has given us poison to drink
Jeremiah 7:13-14
Alas! I am as when the fruit is gathered, as when the vines have been gleaned; there is no cluster to eat, no early fig that I crave. The faithful are gone from the earth, among men the upright are no more!
Micah 7:1-2a
Mark 11:12-14 ~ Jesus Curses the Barren Fig Tree
In Mark 11:12-18 Jesus will perform two more prophetic acts in the tradition of the Old Testament prophets. It is significant that Mark "sandwiches" Jesus' Temple cleansing between the continuing narratives of the cursed fig tree, thereby linking the two symbolic events (11:12-14 and 11:20-25/26).
Question: What day of the week is it?
Answer: It is the day after Palm Sunday, therefore it is Monday.
Only Matthew and Mark record the cursing of the fig tree (see Mt 21:18-19), and both Gospels agree that this event happened the day after Palm Sunday, on Monday of Passion Week. As Jesus is walking with his disciples from Bethany on the Mt. of Olives toward the Eastern Gate of the city of Jerusalem, they pass a fig tree growing beside the road.
St. Mark tells us in 11:13 that when Jesus cursed the fig tree it was not even the season that a fig tree bore fruit! No excuse is acceptable for the covenant people in not being able to bear the fruit of righteousness in good deeds that exemplify that they are a holy people who belong to a holy God.
Question: What is the first time a fig tree is mentioned in Scripture? See Gen 3:7.
Answer: It was leaves from the fig tree that Adam and Eve used to cover their nakedness. Their nakedness is a symbol for the consequences of their sin of rebellion against God's divine authority and being no longer "clothed" in God's divine grace but being "dis-graced."
The use the leaves of the fig tree to cover their nakedness may suggest that the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil was a fig. Jesus' prophetic act in cursing the fig tree will become clear after His third prophetic act and in what Jesus tells the disciples in Mark 11:20-26.
Prophetic Act #3: The Messiah Purifies God's House
And suddenly there will come to the Temple the LORD [YHWH = Yahweh] whom you seek, and the messenger of the covenant whom you desire. Yes, he is coming, says the LORD of Hosts [Yahweh Sabaoth]. But who will endure the day of his coming? And who can stand when he appears? For he is like the refiner's fire, or like the fuller's lye. He will sit refining and purifying and he will purity the sons of Levi, refining them like gold or like silver that they may offer due sacrifice to the LORD [YHWH]. Then the sacrifice of Judah and Jerusalem will please the LORD [YHW] as in the days of old, as in years gone by.
Malachi 3:1b-4
On that day there shall no longer be any merchant in the house of the LORD of hosts [Yahweh Sabaoth]."
Zechariah 14:21b
Mark 11:15-19 ~ Jesus Cleanses the Temple
Question: Is the prophecy of Malachi 3:1b-5 fulfilled in this prophetic act?
Answer: The prophecy of Malachi concerning the Messiah is fulfilled: He has come to the Temple in judgment to purify the Temple and the sons of Levi; the priests and Levites who are responsible for the Temple and for right liturgical worship.
Question: This was not Jesus' first Temple cleansing. When was the first Temple cleansing and during what festival season of the year did it take place? See Jn 2:13-25.
Answer: The first Temple cleansing was His first public act that took place after the miracle at the wedding at Cana. It occurred during the Passover festival, the same time of the year as this event.
The first Temple cleansing was to prepare the people for the beginning of His teaching ministry and proclamation of the Kingdom. Now He cleanses God's house of worship a second (Mt 21:12-17) and finally a third time, when He found the abuse was continuing. He does this in preparation for His final week of proclaiming the Gospel of salvation to the new, restored Israel. The merchants in the Temple area were selling doves and pigeons that were the sacrifices of the poor, for ritual purification of a woman, and for lepers (Lev 12:6-8; 14:21-22; 15:14, 29) as well the as sheep goats and bull calves that the priests had approved as other "unblemished" sacrifices according to the Law. The chief priests made money under this arrangement from the "cut" they took from the vendors. The vendors were also exchanging coins that bore pagan images or the images of the Roman emperor that were not acceptable for the purchase of sacrifices or for Temple donations. These could be exchanged for Tyrian coins that bore no forbidden images (Ex 30:11-16). Notice that He did not overturn the tables of the dove sellers, an action that could have injured the delicate birds. Jesus' actions also fulfill the prophecy of the 6th century BC prophet Zechariah that in the era of the Messiah ...there shall no longer be any merchant in the house of the LORD of hosts (Zec 14:21b).
Mark 11:20-26 ~ The Withered Fig Tree
Notice how Mark has purposely structure the narrative of the Temple cleansing between the narrative of the cursed fig tree so the reader does not miss the connection between the two prophetic acts.
Question: What day is it?
Answer: It is Tuesday, Nisan the 12th.
The next day, Tuesday, as Jesus and His disciples walk toward Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives, they passed the cursed fig tree and the disciples saw that it had withered to the roots and died. Jesus says to them: "Have faith in God. 23 Amen, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, 'Be lifted up and thrown into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it shall be done for him. Jesus connects the two prophetic acts of the cursed fig tree and the Temple cleansing by referring to Mount Moriah where the Temple was located. He probably gestured toward Mount Moriah and the Temple that could be seen from the Mount of Olives. His actions and His teaching connect the subjects of bareness, faith, and the Temple.
His cleansing of the Temple was a judgment on those who ministered in the Temple. The Temple was supposed to be God's "house of prayer" where all people could come to worship and be instructed in holiness through the sound teaching for the Gentiles and for the Jews in the obligations and rituals of liturgical worship. The Temple was the means by which this holiness would "bear fruit" in the lives of the covenant people, thereby allowing the works of God to work through the covenant people, providing a blessing and a witness to the other nations of the earth who were invited to learn about the true God in the Court of the Gentiles. But, in judging the Temple, Jesus found that like the fig tree it had not produced "good fruit." The absence of faith and right worship that Jesus found in the Temple is signified by the fruitless fig tree's completely withered state which is emphasis by Mark in the second half of the fig tree narrative. At the time of the visitation of their Redeemer-Messiah, the Temple and its hierarchy are devoid of the spiritual fruit that God desires in a faithful covenant people, and Jesus' pronouncement, "May no one ever eat of your fruit again!" is a prophetic signal that Israel's Temple worship and sacrifices are drawing to an end.
Mark 11:27-33 ~ The Religious Hierarchy Questions Jesus' Authority
The chief priests and scribes, who have been insulted by Jesus' accusations against them in quoting from Isaiah 56:7 and Jeremiah 7:11 during His Temple cleansings two days in a row, confront Jesus on the question of His authority to act as He does. They want to know if Jesus believes He is acting on God's authority or on His own authority. Jesus challenges their question with a question about St. John the Baptist, asking them if St. John's prophetic mission was from God.
Chapter 12: Jesus Continues to Confront the Religious Authorities and to Teach Daily in the Temple Complex
Thus says the Lord GOD: I swear I am coming against these shepherds. I will claim my sheep from them and put a stop to their shepherding my sheep so that they may no longer pasture themselves. I will save my sheep that they may no longer be food for their mouths.
Ezekiel 34:10
Jesus' judgment of the actions of the Temple hierarchy in allowing the Temple to become profane recalls the prophecy of Ezekiel 34:1-10 in which the priesthood of the Old Covenant is warned that God has judged them and will come against them (see the quotation above). If Jesus has indeed cleansed the Temple two days in a row, you can imagine how enraged the Temple authorities have become concerning Jesus' actions. No wonder they decided there was no way to control Him and the only answer is to eliminate Jesus and His influence completely: The chief priests, the scribes, and the leaders of the people, meanwhile, were seeking to put him to death ... (Lk 19:47b). Knowing their enmity, Jesus boldly tells a parable that is directed at them.
The Meaning of the Three Prophetic Acts
The vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel, and the people of Judah are his cherished plant; he looked for judgment, but see, bloodshed! for justice, but hark, the outcry!
Isaiah 5:7
Mark 12:1-12 ~ The Parable of the Wicked Tenants
This parable is told to the crowd of people standing in the Temple's outer courts, but the teaching is a warning to the religious leadership concerning their rejection of both St. John the Baptist and Jesus, thereby rejecting God's divine plan for mankind. The parable should be studied within the context of Jesus' warning in Luke 19:41-44 where He prophesied the destruction of the city of Jerusalem when He said: "They will smash you to the ground and your children within you, and they will not leave one stone upon another within you because you did not recognize the time of your visitation."
Question: What is the time of their "visitation" that is also the "proper time" in verse 2 of the parable?
Answer: Jesus' presence within the holy city is the time of "visitation" and now is the "proper time" (Mk 12:2)
The situation in the parable would have been familiar to first century AD Jews. Landholders often rented out their property to tenant farmers who had to share a percentage of the profits from the harvest with the owner of the land. Jesus uses the parable as an allegory predicting His death at the hands of the Jewish religious authorities, their eventual loss of authority as God's representatives to His people, and the destruction of the "vineyard" that is Old Covenant Israel. In the New Covenant Church, the Church Militant is the tenant working the land of which God is owner. This connects to all of our covenant obligations, obedience and tithing. We have been studying the vineyard/fig tree as one of the reoccurring images of the Old Testament prophets depicting God's relationship with His covenant people throughout this lesson.
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A Daily Defense
DAY 159 The Year Jesus Was Born
CHALLENGE: “Our calendars are mistaken. Jesus wasn’t born in 1 B.C. but around 7–6 B.C.”
DEFENSE: The year of the calendar is not a matter of faith.
The Anno Domini (Latin, “Year of the Lord”) system of reckoning was created in A.D. 525 by a monk named Dionysius Exiguus (Dennis “the Short” or “the Humble”). It later came into international use. Made centuries after Christ, this calculation is in no way essential to the Faith.
The Church does not teach Christ was born in any particular year, and it is universally recognized that Dionysius’s calculations are probably slightly off (Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth, vol. 3: The Infancy Narratives, 61–62).
The estimate that Christ was born in 7–6 B.C. is based on the view that Herod the Great died in 4 B.C. Matthew records that, attempting to kill Jesus, Herod slaughtered the male infants two years old and under in Bethlehem (Matt. 2:16). This suggests that Jesus’ birth took place two or more years before Herod’s death, leading many to propose a date of 7 or 6 B.C.
The view that Herod died in 4 B.C. has been popular for some time, but recent studies indicate that this view is probably wrong and that the traditional date of Herod’s death, 1 B.C., is correct.
This would put the birth of Jesus in the 3–2 B.C. time frame, which is when the Church Fathers say it was. A large majority of early Christian sources place Jesus’ birth at this time (see Jack Finegan, Handbook of Biblical Chronology, 2nd ed, 291).
Confirmation is found in the Gospel of Luke. It records that John the Baptist began his ministry in the fifteenth year of Tiberius Caesar, or A.D. 29 (Luke 3:1). Shortly afterward, Jesus began his own ministry and Luke reports that he was about thirty years old at the time (Luke 3:23).
Deducting thirty years from A.D. 29, and taking into account the fact that there is no “Year 0” (instead, there is a jump from 1 B.C. to A.D. 1), that would indicate Jesus was born around 3–2 B.C, when the Church Fathers say he was. Thus Dionysius Exiguus was probably only a year off.
Jimmy Akin, A Daily Defense: 365 Days (Plus One) to Becoming a Better Apologist
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