The next day, when they had come out from Bethany, he was hungry.
Parallel Translations
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The next day, when they had come out from Bethany, he was hungry.
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And on the morowe when they were come out from Bethany he hungred
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And on the morowe when they were come out from Bethania, he was hungry.
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Cross-references (7)
Passages linked to Mark 11:12 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Matthew 21:18-22 Now in the morning, as he returned to the city, he was hungry. Seeing a fig tree by the road, he came to it, and found nothing on it but leaves. He said to it, “Let there be no fruit from you forever!” Immediately the fig tree withered away. When the disciples saw it, they marveled, saying, “How did the fig tree immediately wither away?” Jesus answered them, “Most certainly I tell you, if you have faith, and don’t doubt, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree, but even if you told this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ it would be done. All things, whatever you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.”
- Matthew 4:2 When he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was hungry afterward.
- John 19:28 After this, Jesus, seeing that all things were now finished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, said, “I am thirsty.”
- Luke 4:2 for forty days, being tempted by the devil. He ate nothing in those days. Afterward, when they were completed, he was hungry.
- John 4:6-7 Jacob’s well was there. Jesus therefore, being tired from his journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour. A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.”
- John 4:31-33 In the meanwhile, the disciples urged him, saying, “Rabbi, eat.” But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you don’t know about.” The disciples therefore said to one another, “Has anyone brought him something to eat?”
- Hebrews 2:17 Therefore he was obligated in all things to be made like his brothers, that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make atonement for the sins of the people.
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John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain 12 And on the morrow, when they were come…
12 And on the morrow, when they were come from Bethany, he was hungry:
Ver. 12. He was hungry] This, and that he knew not but that there were figs on the tree, declare him to be the true man.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain Here is, I. Christ's cursing the fruitless fig-tree. He…
Here is, I. Christ's cursing the fruitless fig-tree. He had a convenient resting-place at Bethany, and therefore thither he went at resting-time; but his work lay at Jerusalem, and thither therefore he returned in the morning, at working-time; and so intent was he upon his work, that he went out from Bethany without breakfast, which, before he was gone far, he found the want of, and was hungry (Mar 11:12), for he was subject to all the sinless infirmities of our nature. Finding himself in want of food, he went to a fig-tree, which he saw at some distance, and which being well adorned with green leaves he hoped to find enriched with some sort of fruit. But he found nothing but leaves; he hoped to find some fruit, for though the time of gathering in figs was near, it was not yet; so that it could not be pretended that it had had fruit, but that it was gathered and gone; for the season had not yet arrived. Or, He found none, for indeed it was not a season of figs, it was no good fig-year. But this was worse than any fig-tree, for there was not so much as one fig to be found upon it, though it was so full of leaves. However, Christ was willing to make an example of it, not to the trees, but to the men, of that generation, and therefore cursed it with that curse which is the reverse of the first blessing, Be fruitful; he said unto it, Never let any man eat fruit of thee hereafter for ever, Mar 11:14. Sweetness and good fruit are, in Jotham's parable, the honour of the fig-tree (Jdg 9:11), and its serviceableness therein to man, preferable to the preferment of being promoted over the trees; now to be deprived of that, was a grievous curse. This was intended to be a type and figure of the doom passed upon the Jewish church, to which he came, seeking fruit, but found none (Luk 13:6, Luk 13:7); and though it was not, according to the doom in the parable, immediately cut down, yet, according to this in the history, blindness and hardness befell them (Rom 11:8, Rom 11:25), so that they were from henceforth good for nothing. The disciples heard what sentence Christ passed on this tree, and took notice of it. Woes from Christ's mouth are to be observed and kept in mind, as well as blessings.
II. His clearing the temple of the market-people that frequented it, and of those that made it a thoroughfare. We do not find that Christ met with food elsewhere, when he missed of it on the fig-tree; but the zeal of God's house so ate him up, and made him forget himself, that he came, hungry as he was, to Jerusalem, and went straight to the temple, and began to reform those abuses which the day before he had marked out; to show that when the Redeemer came to Zion, his errand was, to turn away ungodliness from Jacob (Rom 11:26), and that he came not, as he was falsely accused, to destroy the temple, but to purify and refine it, and reduce his church to its primitive rectitude.
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1. He cast out the buyers and sellers, overthrew the tables of the money-changers (and threw the money to the ground, the fitter place for it), and threw down the seats of them that sold doves. This he did as one having authority, as a Son in his own house. The filth of the daughter of Zion is purged away, not by might, nor by power, but by the spirit of judgment, and the spirit of burning. And he did it without opposition; for what he did, was manifested to be right and good, even in the consciences of those that had connived at it, and countenanced it, because they got money by it. Note, It may be some encouragement to zealous reformers, that frequently the purging out of corruptions, and the correcting of abuses, prove an easier piece of work than was apprehended. Prudent attempts sometimes prove successful beyond expectation, and there are not those lions found in the way, that were feared to be.
2. He would not suffer that any man should carry any vessel, any sort of goods or wares, through the temple, or any of the courts of it, because it was the nearer way, and would save them the labour of going about, Mar 11:16. The Jews owned that it was one of the instances of honour due to the temple, not to make the mountain of the house, or the court of the Gentiles, a road, or common passage, or to come into it with any bundle.
3. He gave a good reason for this; because it was written, My house shall be called of all nations, The house of prayer, Mar 11:17. So it is written, Isa 56:7. It shall pass among all people under that character. It shall be the house of prayer to all nations; it was so in the first institution of it; when Solomon dedicated it, it was with an eye to the sons of the strangers, Kg1 8:41. And it was prophesied that it should be yet more so. Christ will have the temple, as a type of the gospel-church, to be, (1.) A house of prayer. After he had turned out the oxen and doves, which were things for sacrifice, he revived the appointment of it as a house of prayer, to teach us that when all sacrifices and offerings should be abolished, the spiritual sacrifices of prayer and praise should continue and remain for ever. (2.) That it should be so to all nations, and not to the people of the Jews only; for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord, shall be saved, though not of the seed of Jacob, according to the flesh. It was therefore insufferable for them to make it a den of thieves, which would prejudice those nations against it, whom they should have invited to it. When Christ drove out the buyers and sellers at the beginning of his ministry, he only charged them with making the temple a house of merchandise (Joh 2:16); but now he chargeth them with making it a den of thieves, because since then they had twice gone about to stone him in the temple (Joh 8:59; Joh 10:31), or because the traders there were grown notorious for cheating their customers, and imposing upon the ignorance and necessity of the country people, which is no better than downright thievery. Those that suffer vain worldly thoughts to lodge within them when they are at their devotions, turn the house of prayer into a house of merchandise; but they that make long prayers for pretence to devour widows' houses, turn it into a den of thieves.
4. The scribes and the chief priests were extremely nettled at this, Mar 11:18. They hated him, and hated to be reformed by him; and yet they feared him, lest he should next overthrow their seats, and expel them, being conscious to themselves of the profaning and abusing of their power. They found that he had a great interest, that all the people were astonished at his doctrine, and that every thing he said, was an oracle and a law to them; and what durst he not attempt, what could he not effect, being thus supported? They therefore sought, not how he might make their peace with him, but how they might destroy him. A desperate attempt, and which, one would think, they themselves could not but fear was fighting against God. But they care not what they do, to support their own power and grandeur.
III. His discourse with his disciples, upon occasion of the fig-tree's withering away which he had cursed. At even, as usual, he went out of the city (Mar 11:19), to Bethany; but it is probable that it was in the dark, so that they could not see the fig-tree; but the next morning, as they passed by, they observed the fig-tree dried up from the roots, Mar 11:20. More is included many times in Christ's curses than is expressed, as appears by the effects of them. The curse was no more than that it should never bear fruit again, but the effect goes further, it is dried up from the roots. If it bear no fruit, it shall bear no leaves to cheat people. Now observe,
1. How the disciples were affected with it. Peter remembered Christ's words, and said, with surprise, Master, behold, the fig-tree which thou cursedst is withered away, Mar 11:21. Note, Christ's curses have wonderful effects, and make those to wither presently, that flourished like the green bay-tree. Those whom he curseth are cursed indeed. This represented the character and state of the Jewish church; which, from henceforward, was a tree dried up from the roots; no longer fit for food, but for fuel only. The first establishment of the Levitical priesthood was ratified and confirmed by the miracle of a dry rod, which in one night budded, and blossomed, and brought forth almonds (Num 17:8), a happy omen of the fruitlessness and flourishing of that priesthood. And now, by a contrary miracle, the expiration of that priesthood was signified by a flourishing tree dried up in a night; the just punishment of those priests that had abused it. And this seemed very strange to the disciples, and scarcely credible, that the Jews, who had been so long God's own, his only professing people in the world, should be thus abandoned; they could not imagine how that fig-tree should so soon wither away: but this comes of rejecting Christ, and being rejected by him.
2. The good instructions Christ gave them from it; for of those even this withered tree was fruitful.
(1.) Christ teacheth them from hence to pray in faith (Mar 11:22); Have faith in God. They admired the power of Christ's word of command; "Why," said Christ, "a lively active faith would put as great a power into your prayers, Mar 11:23, Mar 11:24. Whosoever shall say to this mountain, this mount of Olives, Be removed, and be cast into the sea; if he has but any word of God, general or particular, to build his faith upon, and if he shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith, according to the warrant he has from what God hath said, shall come to pass, he shall have whatsoever he saith." Through the strength and power of God in Christ, the greatest difficulty shall be got over, and the thing shall be effected. And therefore (Mar 11:24), "What things soever ye desire, when ye pray believe that ye shall receive them; nay, believe that ye do receive them, and he that has power to give them, saith, Ye shall have them. I say unto you, Ye shall, Mar 11:24. Verily I say unto you, Ye shall," Mar 11:23. Now this is to be applied, [1.] To that faith of miracles which the apostles and first preachers of the gospel were endued with, which did wonders in things natural, healing the sick, raising the dead, casting out devils; these were, in effect, the removing of mountains. The apostles speak of a faith which would do that, and yet might be found where holy love was not, Co1 13:2. [2.] It may be applied to that miracle of faith, which all true Christians are endued with, which doeth wonders in things spiritual. It justifies us (Rom 5:1), and so removes the mountains of guilt, and casts them into the depths of the sea, never to rise up in judgment against us, Mic 7:19. It purifies the heart (Act 15:9), and so removes mountains of corruption, and makes them plains before the grace of God, Zac 4:7. It is by faith that the world is conquered, Satan's fiery darts are quenched, a soul is crucified with Christ, and yet lives; by faith we set the Lord always before us, and see him that is invisible, and have him present to our minds; and this is effectual to remove mountains, for at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob, the mountains were not only moved, but removed, Psa 114:4-7.
(2.) To this is added here that necessary qualification of the prevailing prayer, that we freely forgive those who have been any way injurious to us, and be in charity with all men (Mar 11:25, Mar 11:26); When ye stand praying, forgive. Note, Standing is no improper posture for prayer; it was generally used among the Jews; hence they called their prayers, their standings; when they would say how the world was kept up by prayer, they expressed it thus, Stationibus stat mundus - The world is held up by standings. But the primitive Christians generally used more humble and reverent gesture of kneeling, especially on fast days, though not on Lord's days. When we are at prayer, we must remember to pray for others, particularly for our enemies, and those that have wronged us; now we cannot pray sincerely that God would do them good, if we bear malice to them, and wish them ill. If we have injured others before we pray, we must go and be reconciled to them; Mat 5:23, Mat 5:24. But if they have injured us, we go a nearer way to work, and must immediately from our hearts forgive them. [1.] Because this is a good step towards obtaining the pardon of our own sins: Forgive, that your Father may forgive you; that is, "that he may be qualified to receive forgiveness, that he may forgive you without injury to his honour, as it would be, if he should suffer those to have such benefit by his mercy, as are so far from being conformable to the pattern of it." [2.] Because the want of this is a certain bar to the obtaining of the pardon of our sins; "If ye do not forgive those who have injured you, if he hate their persons, bear them a grudge, meditate revenge, and take all occasion to speak ill of them, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses." This ought to be remembered in prayer, because one great errand we have to the throne of grace, is, to pray for the pardon of our sins: and care about it ought to be our daily care, because prayer is a part of our daily work. Our Saviour often insists on this, for it was his great design to engage his disciples to love one another.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain And on the morrow,.... The next day early in…
And on the morrow,.... The next day early in the morning,
when they were come from Bethany; Christ, and his twelve disciples. The Syriac and Persic versions read, "when he came out of Bethany"; though not alone, but with the twelve disciples, who went with him there, and returned with him, as appears from Mar 11:14, as he and they came out of that place early in the morning, having ate nothing, before they came from thence,
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he was hungry; See Gill on Mat 21:18.
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John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain Matt. xxi, 18.
Matt. xxi, 18.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Mar 11:12-14. On the morrow, when he was come…
Mar 11:12-14. On the morrow, when he was come from Bethany — Where he had lodged, and was returning into the city; he was hungry, &c. — See note on Mat 21:18-22. And seeing a fig-tree, having leaves — The fig-tree, it must be observed, puts forth its fruit first, and its leaves afterward, so that it was natural to suppose, as it had leaves, it would also have fruit upon it. And when he came, he found nothing but leaves — There was not so much as any fruit in the bud: which unfruitfulness at this season showed it to be absolutely barren. For the time of figs, that is, the season of gathering figs, was not yet. Thus, in Mat 21:34, καιρος των καρπων, signifies the season of gathering the fruits. In construing this passage, the latter clause must be joined with the words, He came, if haply, &c., the middle clause being a parenthesis; thus, He came, if haply he might find any thing thereon, for the season of gathering figs was not yet. That this is the true construction of the passage is plain, because the evangelist is not giving the reason why there were no figs on the tree, but the reason why Jesus expected to find some on it. He tells us the season of gathering figs was not come, to show that none had been taken off the tree; and consequently, that, having its whole produce upon it, there was nothing improper in Christ’s expecting fruit on it then. Whereas, if we should think the reason why he did not find any figs was, that the time of them was not come, we must acknowledge the tree was cursed very improperly for having none. It is true, this interpretation makes a trajection necessary; yet it is not more extraordinary than that which is found in Mar 16:3-4; where the clause, for it was very great, namely, the stone at the door of the sepulchre, does not relate to what immediately precedes it, namely, and when they looked they saw the stone rolled away, but to the remote member, they said, Who shall roll us away the stone? — This interpretation is approved by Dr. Campbell, who renders the original expression, the fig-harvest, justly asking, “What can the time of any fruit be, but the time of its full maturity? And what is the season of gathering, but the time of maturity? But figs may be eaten for allaying hunger before they be fully ripe: and the declaration that the season of figs was not yet come, cannot be the reason why there was nothing but leaves on the tree; for the fig is of that tribe of vegetables wherein the fruit appears before the leaf. The leaves therefore showed that the figs should not only be formed, but well advanced; and, the season of reaping being not yet come, removed all suspicion that they had been gathered. When both circumstances are considered, nothing could account for its want of fruit but the barrenness of the tree.” Jesus said, No man eat fruit of thee hereafter for ever — This, like some other of our Lord’s actions, was emblematical and prophetic. “This fig-tree,” says Origen, “was, δενδρον του λαου, a tree representing the people, εμψυχος συκη, a living fig-tree, on which was pronounced a curse suitable to its condition; for, δια τουτο ακαρπος εστιν η Ιουδαιων συναγωγη, και τουτο γινεται αυτη εως της συντελειας του αιωνος, therefore the synagogue of the Jews is unfruitful, and will continue so till the fulness of the Gentiles shall come in. And the disciples heard it — And took notice of the words.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain 4. The Withered Fig-tree, and the House of Prayer…
4. The Withered Fig-tree, and the House of Prayer made a Den of Thieves. The Cleansing of the Temple.
Mar_11:12-26.
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(Parallels: Mat_21:12-22; Luk_19:45-46.)
12 And on the morrow, when they were come from Bethany, he was hungry. 13And seeing a fig-tree afar off,9 having leaves, he came, if haply he might find anything thereon: and when he came to it, he found nothing but leaves; for the time10 of figs was14 not yet. And Jesus11 answered and said unto it, No man eat fruit of thee hereafter for ever. And his disciples heard it. 15And they come to Jerusalem: and Jesus went into the temple, and began to cast out them that sold and bought in the temple, and over-threw 16 the tables of the money-changers, and the seats of them that sold doves; And would not suffer that any man should carry any vessel through the temple. 17And he taught, saying unto them,12 Is it not written, My house shall be called of [by] all nations the house of prayer? but ye have made it a den of thieves. 18And the scribes and chief priests heard it, and sought how they might destroy him: for they feared him, because all the people was astonished at his doctrine. 19And when even was come, he went out of the city. 20And in the morning, as they passed by,13 they saw the fig-tree dried up 21 from the roots. And Peter, calling to remembrance, saith unto him, Master, behold, the fig-tree which thou cursedst is withered away. 22And Jesus answering, saith unto 23 them, Have faith in God. For14 verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith. 24Therefore I say unto you, “What things soever ye desire, when ye pray,15 believe that ye receive them,16 and ye shall have them. 25And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any; that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.17 26But if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
See on the parallels in Matthew and Luke.—Notwithstanding Mark’s conciseness in his record, we can yet distinguish three days of Jesus’ abode in the temple; that is, of the Messianic residence there of the King. Sunday was the day of entrance and looking around, Mar_11:1-11. Monday was the day on which the fig-tree was cursed, the temple was cleansed, and those festal works were done by Jesus in the temple which filled up the exasperation of His enemies, Mar_11:12-19. Then Tuesday was the day of His conflict in the temple with all the assaults of His enemies in their several divisions, and of His departure from the temple, Mar_11:20; Mar_13:37. On Wednesday Jesus remained in concealment, as we are positively assured by John (Mar_12:37); and probably it was then that He completed His discourse of the last things by adding those eschatological parables which Matthew communicates: unless we may assume rather that they were uttered on the night between Tuesday and Wednesday within the circle of His most confidential disciples. The allusions to night might suit such a view, Mat_24:42-43; Mat_25:6; Mat_25:30. The silent Wednesday of His concealment was then devoted to the preparation of His larger body of disciples, and to purposes of retired devotion.
The unity of this section lies in the narrative of the fig-tree cursed. Mark makes it the starting-point of His account of Jesus’ wonderful works in the temple during Monday. The individual particulars of these festal wonders are singled out prominently by Matthew, Mat_21:12-15. Therefore he brings into this second day the cursing of the fig-tree, with its withering up. Luke also indicates these festal hours, Luk_19:47-48. For the peculiar significance of the facts of the Greeks earnestly desiring to see Jesus, and the discourse which that occasioned, see the Notes on Joh_12:20-36. But the Evangelist Mark takes the whole day into his view under its severe aspect. Hence he connects all this with the narrative of the fig-tree; and this section embraces the time from Monday morning to Tuesday morning. Thus, according to his account, the cursing of the fig-tree preceded the cleansing of the temple on Monday morning. With Matthew, who likewise has the narrative, it follows it; because Matthew purposed more strongly to stamp the contrast of the two temple-days—the day of peace and the day of contest. Concerning the fig-tree, Mark preliminarily remarks that it had leaves (which from afar might seem to be inviting). But in connection with the circumstance that Jesus found no figs upon it, he has the remarkable clause οὐ γὰρ ἦν, etc., the time was not yet (concerning which, see below). Matthew’s word, “Let no fruit grow henceforth,” he gives concretely: “Let no man eat,” etc. He adds, that the disciples heard it. The cleansing of the temple he relates again with an ἤρξατο: He began. And he adds to the picture, that Jesus would not suffer any vessel to be carried through the temple. The explanatory word of Christ he introduces as instruction (ἐδίδασκε), and in vigorous interrogative form (οὐ γέγραπται). To the “house of prayer” he adds, “for all nations;” which Luke has not, and which reminds us of “every creature,” Luk_16:15. The confusion of the Sanhedrim on this day, and their projects as to the manner in which they should kill Jesus—seeing that they feared the people, who did earnest homage to Jesus—he connects rightly with this day; while Luke records it more indefinitely (Luk_19:47-48), as also Matthew in somewhat similar manner (Mat_21:15-16), and John also in another aspect of it (Joh_12:17-19). Then follows, according to Mark, the departure of Jesus from the city. Matthew tells us that the fig-tree had straightway withered. Mark relates that it was early in the morning, as they passed by. Thus the withering had proceeded in the course of a day and night; and that, as he remarks, from the root. Matthew makes the disciples see, wonder, and speak; Mark records more precisely how Peter remembered the circumstance and spoke. The words themselves are more vivid here: Rabbi, behold, etc. Thereupon Jesus utters the word concerning the removing of mountains by faith: more concretely apprehended in Mark; more generally in Matthew. But Mark connects with this promise of Jesus the very important word concerning the hearing of prayer (Mar_11:24), and the condition of being reconciled with our brother (Mat_6:14).
Mar_11:12. And on the morrow.—Therefore, on the Monday morning after the Sunday of the palms.—He was hungry.—Early departure, haste to enter the work of the day, and much else, lay at the foundation of this fact.
Mar_11:13. If haply, εἰ ἄρα: that is, because it had leaves; since the leaves of the fig-tree appear after the fruit. Mat_19:19.—The time of figs was not yet.—See the note on Matthew. As the tree had leaves, it promised fruit; for the harvest-time of figs, when it might have been stripped of its fruit, was not yet come. For the various explanations of this, see De Wette and Meyer. As καιρός signifies the full and perfect time, the meaning is clear enough. Between the period of leaf-formation and the time of fig-harvest, one might seek for figs from a tree standing exposed. But not till the καιρός had come could the tree be stripped. Thus the οὐ γὰρ is not an explanation of the circumstance that it had no figs, but of the Lord’s coming and seeking, by which it appeared that the tree had only produced its leaves. The expression, “He found nothing but leaves only,” signifies that He saw with displeasure that, as a worthless tree, it had nothing but leaves upon it. This He might conclude from the fact that the time of harvest had not yet come, and, therefore, that it was not already stripped of its fruit. According to Meyer, the meaning is, that the tree could not yet have borne fruit. “If it had been the time of figs, He would have found fruit besides the leaves.”18 But then a premature doom would have been pronounced on the tree. The early display of leaves was certainly irregular; but if it had been a certain sign of its dying, the Lord would not have sought fruit upon it. If it could put forth leaves, it must have been able previously to set its fruit.
Mar_11:14. And Jesus said unto it.—Properly, answered and said. Bengel: arbori fructum neganti.
Mar_11:16. Concerning the temple, see on Matthew.—And would not suffer that any man should, ί̔να; the toleration of evil is the procurement of it.—Any vessel.—No man durst carry tools and implements through the sacred precincts of the temple, that is, through the fore-court. Was it intended to avoid a circuitous route, as in a great city profane passages may be made through holy places? But the temple space was not in the way of such passing. Many, however, might bring their implements of toil with them at their devotions, in order to have them conveniently at hand. The carrying them through, was, therefore, not literally a passing through with them, but rather the having them at hand; and it is opposed to the business of money-changing and selling doves which was carried on within the temple itself. According to Lightfoot and Wetstein, the Rabbins afterwards forbade the same thing.
Mar_11:17. Of all nations.—The prediction of the prophets, that the temple should be a house of prayer for all nations, had a higher meaning (see Isaiah 2 and other passages). There must be a distinction, however, between the Israelite bondsmen who brought their offerings (Lev_17:8; Lev_22:19; Ezr_2:43; Ezr_7:7), and the later proselytes of the gate; the relative recognition of these latter had given occasion to the symbol of the Court of the Gentiles. Therein lay the germ of the universality of the religion of promise. See on Matthew. That the additional clause occurs only in Mark, is not to be accounted for only on Gentile-Christian grounds; for it is wanting in Luke. It is peculiar to Mark that he everywhere lays stress upon the universality of the Gospel.19
Mar_11:18. Sought how they might destroy Him.—This was their counsel on Monday: that Jesus should die, had been already previously decided (Joh_5:16; Joh_7:32; Joh_10:31; Joh_11:45). They now confusedly took counsel about the how;20 since it seemed almost an impossibility, on account of the people, on this day of His wonderful ascendancy in the temple. Then again on Wednesday: “not on the feast-day,” although Judas had preliminarily dealt with them on the Sunday concerning the matter. The Palm Sunday may have made Judas suspicious again, or brought his promise into doubt. Then he came on Thursday evening, after a new crisis had come (the departure of Jesus from the temple), and his exasperation had become complete.
Mar_11:20. They saw the fig-tree dried up from the roots.—See on Matthew. Meyer naturally finds here another discrepancy with Matthew. Matthew is inexact in his record, only on account of a higher end that he contemplated in his narrative. Nor does Mark say that the withering had just then taken place, or been finished. The tree was now in a marvellous manner dried up; and that, as he adds, from the roots—from its diseased root upwards, throughout.
Mar_11:22. Faith in God.—Trust towards God, πίστις Θεοῦ (Genitive of the object). More general view of faith, with reference to the personal source of miraculous power, the almighty God of the covenant: Mar_9:23. Compare Mat_17:20; Luk_17:6.
Mar_11:24. That ye receive them.—That is, in the divine confidence of faith that is already received which in external reality has yet to come: Heb_11:1. The prayer of faith is heard: as prayer in the name of Jesus, Joh_14:13-14; Joh_16:23-24; Joh_16:26; or, as the prayer of a holy society, the Church, Mat_18:19; or, as the prayer of the Holy Ghost, Rom_8:26-28.
Mar_11:25. When ye stand praying.—Comp. Mat_5:23-24; Mat_6:14-15. As the word concerning the faith which moves mountains might have originally been uttered in more than one connection, so also that concerning the forgiveness of others, as the condition of all true offering of prayer, and its answer. But in this place, where Jesus connected this strongest assurance of the marvellous power of faith with the cursing of the fig-tree, it seems inevitable that He should declare how such a faith could not be sundered from a placable love; that it should never be used in the service of hate and fanaticism.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1 See on the parallel in Matthew, and also the previous notes.
2. The so-called cursing of the fig-tree is the rather to be regarded as a grand prophetic act, because Christ, as Christ, now stood at the climax of the palm festivity, and it was obvious that all Israel might now do Him homage. This symbolical act at such a crisis was a sure sign that He was perfectly conscious of the situation of things; as also was the weeping over the city during the festal procession according to Luke.
3. The cleansing of the temple at the beginning and at the end of Christ’s pilgrimage, the earnest of a manifold cleansing of the Church from Gentile and Jewish perversions.
4. The declaration of the curse in its sacred form, a revelation to explain its real nature, and thereby to remove it; as contrasted with man’s curse of evil wishing.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
See on Matthew.—The fig-tree a figure of Israel, and a warning sign to the Church: 1. As the fruitful fig-tree, which sets forth fruit sooner than leaves. So Israel. It had faith, and the works of faith, before it had the ceremonies of faith. So the early Church. 2. As the unfruitful fig-tree, which had an adornment of leaves, promising fruit deceitfully. So the Israel of the time of Jesus, and so the external Church of later times and the last.—The cursing of the fig-tree in its relation to the cleansing of the temple: 1. An indication of the morning thoughts of the Lord concerning Israel; 2. a prelude to the coming expurgation of the temple; 3. a prophetic token (for the hopeful disciples, concerning the coming solemn issue of things).—The judgment of Jesus upon the fig-tree, and His judgment upon the temple with its service.—Christ hungering on the morn of His greatest day of honor: or, the great sign of the spiritual purity and freedom of the kingdom of Christ.—The Lord’s hunger on the temple-mountain, and His thirsting on Calvary.—How zeal for the Lord should keep itself pure from hatred against men.—Only in the spirit of reconciliation can the Christian execute the judicial office.—The flames of Christ’s wrath a loving zeal, which is always one with the spirit of reconciliation.—We cannot help others in the way to heaven by the hateful and tormenting fury of fanaticism.
Starke:—Christ knows what the feeling of the hungry is.—If we endure hunger, we should not murmur, remembering Him.—Canstein:—Christ demands nothing of man, if he has not had time; nor does He come to seek till the time is up.—Osiander:—Hypocrites have a semblance of godliness, but no true fruits of faith; and so, if they repent not, they must perish.—Hedinger:—We must rid the Church of every abuse, and spare no man.—Quesnel:—Every believer is a temple of God, and must entertain the same zeal for his own soul’s purity as Jesus displayed for the purity of the visible sanctuary.—Osiander:—The churches which celebrate a false worship of God are dens of thieves; they wrest for themselves the goods of simple people, and slay their souls.—Those who devote themselves to the correction of ecclesiastical abuses have commonly to encounter great opposition, their lives being sometimes laid in wait for.—An evil conscience must always tremble at itself, and is never bold in its work.—Quesnel:—The truth everywhere makes a division among the people; some think to oppress it, while others hear it with wonder and faith.—Gerlach:—If you do not find that your believing prayer is granted, ask yourself what lies within that hinders your being heard.—Braune:—Benevolent and like a Creator were all His miracles.—This is the only one which punishes and hurts, but it is performed on an inanimate object. It was designed to set luminously before us the reality of the divine punishments.—He pronounced here upon the tree that which, in the parable of the barren fig-tree, the vinedresser had spoken of as in store for it.—Enmity to man suffers not the philanthropy of God to reach us.—Faith and reconcilableness go together.—Schleiermacher:—All that pertains to the community of Christian life and fellowship should be so ordered as to be free from all reference to the outward commerce of this world (on the cleansing of the temple)—Gossner:—Words, oral prayers, formularies, external exercises without the spirit, good wishes and mere resolutions, are mere leaves, if the Spirit of God does not invigorate them, and they bear no fruit.
Footnotes:
[9]Mar_11:13.—[Griesbach, Fritzsche, Scholz, Lachmann, Tischendorf, Meyer, after important MSS., read ἀπό before μακρόθεν.]
[10]Mar_11:13.—Lachmann reads ὁ καιρός with the Article, following Origen and several Codd.; and thus the true meaning of the passage becomes more definite.
[11]Mar_11:14.—‘O’ Ἰησοῦς, interpolated.
[12]Mar_11:17.—Καὶ ἔλεγεν αὐτοῖς, according to C., L., Δ., &c. Πεποιήκατε, B., L., Δ., Origen, [Tischendorf, Meyer,] instead of ἐποιήσατε.
[13]Mar_11:20.—The order of B., C., L., Δ., Lachmann, and Tischendorf is παραπορευόμ. πρωἴ.
[14]Mar_11:23.—The γάρ (for) is wanting in B., D., Lachmann, Tischendorf. The additional clause, ὀ ἐὰν εἴπη, is wanting in B., C., D., L., Δ., Tischendorf.
[15]Mar_11:24.—Lachmann, Tischendorf, Meyer, after B., C., L., Δ., read προσεύχεσθε καὶ αἰτεῖσθε: a more comprehensive promise.
[16]Mar_11:24.—Codd. B., C., L., Δ., read ἐλάΒετε, instead of λαμβάνετε: accepted by Lachmann, Tischendorf, and Meyer.
[17]Mar_11:26.—This verse is wanting in B., L., S., Δ., and some others. Tischendorf gives it up. Lachmann and Meyer retain it, after C. and others. But it is an interpolation which some MSS., after Mar_11:26, add from Mat_7:7-8.
[18][“Ὀυ γὰρ ἦν καιρὸς σύκων gives the reason why Jesus found nothing but leaves. If it had been the season for figs (viz., June, when the early fig, Boccore, ripens), he would have found fruit besides leaves, and would not have been deceived by the unseasonable (abnormal) leafage of the tree.” Meyer, in loc.—Ed.]
[19]On the harmony here, Starke says: This was the third time that He thus cleansed the temple. The first time in John 2; the second time on the day before this, immediately after His entrance, Mat_21:10; Mat_21:12.
[20][This would be indicated by the Future, ἀπολέσουσιν, of the Received Text; the Subjunctive, απολέσωσιν, adopted by Lachmann and Tischendorf, would imply that the purpose itself to put Christ to death was now formed.—Ed.]
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain § 112. — THE WITHERING OF THE FIG TREE,…
§ 112. — THE WITHERING OF THE FIG TREE, Mar_11:12-14.
(See notes on Mat_21:18-22.)
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12. The morrow — Monday of Passion Week.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 12–19. The Second Cleansing of the Temple
12–19. The Second Cleansing of the Temple
12. he was hungry] Probably, after a night of fasting; “shewing His Humanity, as usual, when about to give a proof of His Deity, that we may believe Him to be both God and Man.” Bp Wordsworth.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (12-14) And on the morrow.—On the chronological difficulty presented…
(12-14) And on the morrow.—On the chronological difficulty presented by this verse, see Note on Mat_21:18-19.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain And on the morrow, when they were come out…
And on the morrow, when they were come out from Bethany, he hungered. This was, therefore, the day after Paint Sunday (as we call it) on the Monday, the 11th day of the month Nisan, which, according to our computation, would be March 21. He hun g ered. This showed his humanity, which he was ever wont to do when he was about to display his Divine power. The fact that he hungered would lead us to the conclusion that he had not been spending the night in the house of Martha and Mary. It is far more likely that he had been in the open air during the previous night, fasting and praying.
Vers. 12-14, 19-25. The fruit of the fruitless fig tree.
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This action of our Lord Jesus is one of the very few he is recorded to have performed to which exception has been taken. It has been objected that the "cursing" of the fig tree was a vindictive act, and unlike and unworthy of the gracious and beneficent Redeemer. In answer to this objection, a distinction must be drawn between a vindictive and a judicial proceeding; the latter having no element of personal irritation or ill feeling. It must not be forgotten that the Lord Jesus was and is the Judge, and this symbolical action was a picture of his judicial function in exercise. It has also been objected that the doom pronounced and carried into effect was unjust, inasmuch as the season for figs had not yet come, and Jesus looked for what, in the nature of things, it was not reasonable to expect. In answer to this, it must be remembered that trees have no consciousness, and no capacity for sentient suffering; and that, in the analogous case of the barren professor of religion, no sentence of condemnation is pronounced except as the consequence of moral culpability. This passage has two distinct movements, each containing its own spiritual lesson impressively conveyed.
I HERE IS A SYMBOL OF "JUDGMENT IN THE HOUSE OF God.
1. The fruitless fig tree is an emblem of the immoral or useless professor of Christianity. Leaves are beautiful in themselves, are indicative of life and vital vigor, and seem to promise fruit; yet, in the case of such trees as that here spoken of, it is the fruit which is the end for which the tree is allowed to occupy ground, to absorb nourishment, to engage the toil of the husbandman or gardener. So in the moral domain. The foliage corresponds to outward position, to visible standing, and audible confession. These are excellent and admirable where they are not deceptive. But where there is "nothing hut leaves" to meet the eye of the husbandman, where there is the "name to live" without the life, where there is the language of belief and of devotion with no corresponding principles and conduct, all this is disappointing to the Divine Husbandman and Wine-dresser.
2. The withering of the fig tree is symbolical of the moral doom and destruction of the unfruitful professor of religion. The tree may live, although it bear no fruit. But the fruitless Christian carries his own condemnation within him. The Lord who came to earth to save, lives in heaven to reign, and finally will return to judge. It would not be just to found an argument upon what is but an illustration. Nevertheless, there is very much express teaching from our Lord"s lips as to the doom of the hypocrite. The fruitless scribes and Pharisees incurred his anger and his condemnation; and there is no reason to suppose that those more privileged, and equally false and spiritually worthless, can escape their doom. To be fruitless is to "wither away." For the barren there is no place in the vineyard of God.
II HERE IS INSTRUCTION AS TO THE POWER OF FAITH AND PRAYER. It is a lesson we should scarcely have expected to find attached to this miracle. The amazement of Peter and the other disciples was excited by this exercise of power on the part of the Master. In reply to their expressions of wonder, Jesus, who was ever ready to give to the conversation a practical and profitable turn, discoursed upon the power of faith and prayer.
1. Faith gives efficacy to effort. It removes mountains. But such is not the work of the doubter or of the vacillating. All moral miracles and spiritual triumphs are due to the faith which is placed, not in human skill or power, but in God himself.
2. Faith gives efficacy to prayer. There are those who are mighty in prayer. This is because they believe in God, to whom "all things are possible." Hesitating, half-hearted prayer is dishonoring to God. We are directed to believe that we have received, at the very moment when we offer our entreaties; which is certainly only possible to strong faith. Yet what encouragement is there so to pray!
3. The works which may in this manner be accomplished, the blessings which may thus be obtained, are described in remarkable language. Trees may be withered, mountains may be removed, all things may be had, by those who have faith. No wonder that the poet says of faith, it"Laughs at impossibilities, And cries, "It shall be done!
4. Yet there is a condition of a moral kind laid down by Christ. A sincere and forgiving disposition is indispensable. If we appeal to a gracious and benignant Father, if we ask of him needed forgiveness, we must approach him with a mind unstained by wrath, by malice, by any lack of charity.
Vers. 12-14, 20 -25. The destruction of the fig tree.
I THE SUFFICIENT REASON FOR THE ACT.
1. Not an outcome of petulance or disappointment. The idea of Christ being "in a temper" is preposterous! The difficulty as to the phrases, "if haply he might find anything thereon," and "he found nothing but leaves; for it was not the season of figs," is for the most part factitious and artificial. Our Lord was not mistaken first expectant and then disappointed. "He came to the tree, not for the sake of eating, but for the sake of performing an adumbrative action (sed aliquid praefigurandi causa)" (Zuiugli). "His hunger, too, was the occasion that gave shape to his adumbrative action, when he went to the leafy tree to see if there was fruit on it" (Morison).
2. But neither was it an action symbolizing the penalty of spiritual barrenness. Its proximity in spirit and time to the cleansing of the temple inclines the mind to a parabolic meaning in that direction; so also Peter"s strong word "cursedst," which seems at first to convey an impression of moral displeasure. As a merely natural incident, it is hard to reduce the disproportion it exhibits between the apparently judicial sentence and its occasion. On the other hand, it is harder still to explain Christ"s total silence as to the reference to spiritual barrenness and its penalty, if such a reference had ever been intended. The circumstance that a day intervened between the sentence of Christ and Peter"s noting the result, would seem to demand that the Master should have "pointed the moral" in some more manifest way. Again, what he did teach concerning the occurrence, so far as it has been preserved, suggests that the action was "adumbrative" in a simpler and more direct sense, of that, namely, of which he spoke the power of God commanded through faith. "The significance of this event is different from that of the parable given by St. Luke, (Luk_13:6) to show the doom of impenitence. In that, the fig tree was planted in a vineyard; everything was done for its culture that could be done; and not till after years of barrenness was it cut down. Here the fig tree was growing by the road; it belonged to no one, and nothing had been done for its improvement; and it was destroyed when its uselessness was made manifest. It was fruitless, because the fruit season had not come, and no old fruit remained on the branches. It was, therefore, not a fit emblem of the impenitent Jews. But the destruction of a senseless and worthless thing made known the power of Christ, as sufficient to destroy, though used only to restore" (Godwin, "Matthew"). As illustrative of Divine power it was splendidly significant. To wither was within the power of any one, but to wither by a word was a supernatural act only possible to one in closest fellowship with God.
II CHRIST"S OWN APPLICATION OF THE INCIDENT. "Have faith in God.
1. Greater results than it are attained by his servants if they will but believe.
(1) In doing. The words "shall say unto this mountain," etc., are figurative. A magnificent promise! Not only such an act as the withering of the fig tree, but one comparable to the uprooting of the Mount of Olives on which it grew (against which, by the way, there could surely be no "judicial resentment" even in the most metaphorical sense). It is spoken of moral and spiritual difficulties met with in fulfilling the great commission, or in individual spiritual growth.
(2) In receiving. Here the whole doctrine of prayer came up again for review. The answer was not to be merely looked forward to as coming, or even imminent, but was to be realized as already fulfilling itself in present experience. A secret of intense and successful devotion.
2. The ground of all such power is moral and spiritual oneness with God. The general conditions of prayer being answered, viz. agreeableness to the Divine will, advantage of the kingdom of God, etc., are all supposed. But, in addition, the boon of forgiveness is chiefly referred to as of greatest moment; and, in connection with it, the necessity of a forgiving disposition in the petitioner, as a condition of his being answered. This is one of the highest phases of spiritual or moral power, and is only possible through partaking of the Divine Spirit, in other words, through oneness with God. M.
Vers. 12-19. God"s house vindicated.
I THE TEMPLE WAS DESIGNED AS A RELIGIOUS CENTRE FOR THE NATIONS. It contains the idea of the Divine house, and therefore of the home for all men.
II THE ASSOCIATIONS SHOULD BE SUCH AS BECOME THE PLACE. "Peace and purity should be maintained in the service of God." The Church should be like the home. The associates of traffic and the passions it excites should be shut out. "Let vain and busy thoughts have there no part; Bring not thy plough, thy plots, thy pleasures thither. Christ purged his temple; so must thou thy heart. All worldly thoughts are but thieves met together To cozen thee. Look to thy actions well; For churches either are our heaven or hell. (George Herbert.)
III IN THE RELIGIOUS CALLING MEN ENJOY GREAT ADVANTAGES, AND ARE EXPOSED TO GREAT TEMPTATIONS. Religion intensifies all it touches. "We become better or worse in dealing with sacred things" (Godwin). J.
Vers. 12-26. Parallel passages: Mat_21:12-22 Luk_19:45-48. The blighting of the barren fig tree.
I SYMBOLISM.
1. Miracles of mercy. Mercy has been called God"s darling attribute; judgment is his strange work. The only-begotten Son, who has declared the Father unto us, has manifested the selfsame character. His miracles are miracles of mercy all save two. Of these two, one was permissive and punitive, when our Lord allowed the devils to enter into the swine of the Gadarenes; the other, which is recorded in this passage, is a sort of symbol such as the old prophets used when they inculcated any solemn utterance, or wished specially to impress any predicted event. This custom was common in New as well as in Old Testament times. Thus Jesus washed his disciples" feet. Thus also Agabus, when he foretold Paul"s imprisonment at Jerusalem, symbolized the fact by taking the apostle"s girdle and therewith binding his own hands and feet, saying, "So shall the Jews at Jerusalem bind the man that owneth this girdle." In like manner our Lord, by this miracle of the blasted fig tree, most symbolically and significantly sets forth the blight of barrenness which so justly fell upon the Jewish people, and which is sure to fall upon any people or any person who has only the leaves of an outside profession, but who wants the fruits of a genuine faith or a heartfelt piety. To pronounce a curse on a senseless tree might appear meaningless it might even seem vindictive. Not so, however, when the Savior, in order to express the hopes which the appearance of the tree excited, and the disappointment which its want of fruit occasioned, devoted that tree by a striking figure to future and for ever fruitlessness. He thereby converts that tree into a symbol of the hypocrite or false professor, be he Gentile or be he Jew; and makes it a danger-signal, at once to warn us of the danger and ward off the doom.
2. Judgment succeeds the abuse of mercy. Another lesson which our Lord teaches us by this tree is the consequence of abused mercy. When mercy has been abused, judgment must succeed. The day of grace does not always last; and when that day has passed, and its privileges have been misused, the axe is then laid to the root of the tree, that it may be hewn down and cast into the fire. Such was the case with the body of the Jewish nation at the very time this miracle was wrought. Their day of grace was expiring. Their heart had remained untouched by that most pathetic appeal, "If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace!" Now, however, they were hid from their eyes. A woe similar to that pronounced on Chorazin and Bethsaida and Capernaum had gone forth against all that people, notwithstanding the fact that they had once been the people of God, and notwithstanding the many and great privileges which they had enjoyed, as well as the loud and leafy professions they had made.
3. The relation of the miracle of the fig tree to the parable of the fig tree. The fact of this relationship should be kept in view. The miracle narrated in this passage and the parable recorded by St. Luke are in a great measure the converse of each other. The parable of the fig tree long spared through the intercession of the vine-dresser, and this miracle of the fig tree suddenly withered to the very roots, are to a large extent the right opposite of each other. The one represents mercy pleading, the other judgment suddenly and surely Overtaking the guilty; the one the long-suffering kindness of God, the other the swift vengeance of Heaven; the one mercy prevailing over judgment, the other judgment without mercy; the one a tree spared in hope of fruitfulness, the other a tree suddenly scathed to the very earth because of its barrenness. There is, however, one point, and only one point, in common; and that is, the end of continued unfruitfulness is cursing, the end of barrenness is burning, and the end of all leaf and no fruit is the speedy execution of the sentence, "Bind them in bundles, and burn them.
4. A comparison and a contrast. In the sixth chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews, we find a beautiful comparison and an awful contrast; by the former the lesson of the parable is enforced, and by the latter the warning of this miracle receives a solemn sanction. "The earth," we there read, "which drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs meet for them for whom it is dressed, receiveth blessing from God: but that which beareth thorns and briers is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing; whose end is to be burned.
II OUR LORD"S DISAPPOINTMENT.
1. He hungered. The Savior was on his way from Bethany to Jerusalem. It was in the morning, and he was hungry. This may appear strange. What had been the matter with the friendly family of Bethany, under whose roof our Lord had been so often and so hospitably entertained? Had they forfeited the high character for hospitality which they had so well earned? Had they forgotten its rights and become inconsiderate towards their Guest a Guest whom they so highly honored, and who had such claims upon them? Had they forgotten his wants, or neglected to supply them? Had Martha ceased her thrift, and given up her housewifery? Be this as it may, it could be no intentional neglect, much less a studied slight; it must have been some strange oversight. Or, as our Lord"s time on earth was soon to terminate, and as much was to be done that day, perhaps he left Bethany at an earlier hour than usual; and, doing so, he could not wait till the customary hour for breakfast, and would not allow the household arrangements to be broken through for his convenience. Or perhaps he wished to reach the temple in time for the morning sacrifice at nine o"clock, before which time a devout Jew seldom broke his fast. Or perhaps he was so intent on his Father"s business, and so intensely absorbed in his own great work, and so rapt in contemplation of its grand results, that he neglected the food provided for him. Or, in the absence of any direct statement, and where we are left to conjecture, we may suppose that it is just possible that he had shunned the shelter of any roof, and spent the previous night in prayer on some lone hillside or other sequestered spot. At all events, the broad fact stands out that he, by whom all things were made, became hungry; that he, who had fed thousands in a wilderness with a few loaves and fishes, would fain have satisfied the cravings of appetite with a few unripe figs.
2. Leafage without fruitage, or all leaf and no fruit. The district through which our Lord passed on his way, as he went from Bethany to Jerusalem, was a fig region. A village by the way had its name from this very circumstance; that village was Bethphage, which, as we have already seen, means "house of figs." Journeying through this district, he would, as might be expected, see many fig trees. His eye, however, rested on one at some distance. From St. Matthew"s special mention of this one fig tree we conclude that there must have been something peculiar in its appearance. Our Lord singled it out from all or any in the district. It was rich in leaves, and so, full of promise. We must have in recollection the well-known fact in reference to the fig tree, that it puts forth its fruit before its leaves. The leaves of the fig tree, when they appeared, warranted the expectation of the figs. The leaves of this tree, visible to a distance, must have been large and numerous, and thus they held out the hope of abundant figs. The leafy honors of the tree bespoke its abundant fruitfulness. On the other hand, we are informed that "the time of figs was not yet," by which some
(1) understand that the fig harvest had not yet come the time of gathering the figs had not yet arrived. According to this understanding, in which Wakefield, Wetstein, Newcome, Campbell, Bloomfield, and others coincide, while the leaves indicated the existence of figs on the tree, the season of the year intimated with equal certainty that they had not been gathered off the tree; whatever fruit, therefore, the tree had, it retained. Figs there should have been, and if the tree had been true to its promise, figs there would have been. Figs there should have been still on the tree, for they had had time to grow, but not yet time to be gathered. There was every reason to expect figs on that fig tree, still green they might be, still immature, and not yet fully ripened. And yet this forwardness of the foliage implied the forwardness of its fruit. The advanced state of the one naturally induced the hope of a proportionately advanced state in the other. But not so. Our Lord approaches this goodly tree, but no fruit is there not one fig among all its branches, not one fig among all its leaves. We must notice another explanation of the supposed difficulty in the words "for the time of figs was not yet." We put aside at once such attempted explanations as that of Heinsius, who, by accenting and changing the breathing, read ou instead of ou the negative, and rendered accordingly, "for where he was, it was the season of figs," that is, fruits ripened in Judaea considerably earlier than in the less mild climate of Galilee; also the still more forced interpretation of those who read the clause interrogatively, viz. "for was it not the time of figs?" and the no less objectionable explanation of kairo in the sense of a favorable season, for in that case the season, not the tree, would have deserved the malediction; or in the signification of favorable weather, as Olshausen. All these, however ingenious they may appear, are evasive shifts and no more. But, discounting them, we find an interpretation other than that first given and simpler, which,
(2) understanding the reference to be to a pr ecocious or premature foliation, takes the words in their plain and natural sense. It was not the time or season of figs es war nicht Feigenzet," as Fritzsche properly renders it; but this tree antedated the season by putting forth its leaves prematurely. The appearance of the leaves was unseasonably early; still, as their appearance implied the prior existence of fruit, the passer-by was thus invited to approach the tree, and induced to expect and hope for fruit. The show of leaves, though not the season of the year, favored this expectation; accordingly he came, if therefore (ara), as it was reasonable to expect from the tree having leaves, he shall find anything in it (en auth) within the compass of this umbrageous tree, among its leaves and branches. But though he came (ep authn) close upon it, right up to it, yet, notwithstanding his nearness to it, and the narrowness with which he inspected it, he found nothing but leaves.
3. Symbol of profession without performance. According to either of the explanations above given, either (1) or (2), especially perhaps the latter, that large fig tree, with its fine foliage and luxuriant leaves, occupying, as it did, a prominent position near the wayside, and visible far off by reason of its grand proportions and magnificent appearance, was nothing better than a huge practical lie, an embodied falsehood, a palpable untruth. That tree made a promise, but it broke it; it held out a hope, but it disappointed it; it professed much, but performed nothing. Never was there a more striking symbol of any people than that fig tree was of the Jews. They had enjoyed covenant promises and covenant privileges and covenant hopes, and their professions corresponded therewith. These were their leaves, but they had no real fruitfulness. They occupied a high and prominent position; theirs were a very fruitful hillside the horn of the son of oil an exceedingly fertile soil, glorious fostering sunshine, and rich refreshing dews; "they were Israelites; to whom pertained the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the Law, and the service of God, and the promises;" but they proved themselves unworthy, shamefully unworthy, of these favors. They had commandments and ordinances; they made loud professions and long prayers; they were strict in certain religious observances, and scrupulous in their ritual. In some things they went beyond the letter of the Law, for they tithed rue and anise and cummin; but, in matters of much greater magnitude and really enjoined by the Law, they fell short, and were in fact woefully deficient. God looked for judgment, but behold oppression; for righteousness, but behold a cry." They called themselves children of Abraham, but they had none of that precious faith that so distinguished Abraham. They were proud of Moses, their great lawgiver, but they attended not to the Prophet to whom Moses pointed as greater than himself, and to whom he commanded them to hearken. They professed themselves expectants of Messiah, but when he came to them they received him not. They were no better than the dark world around world that knew not when he came, even God"s eternal Son." We need not trace further the application of this symbolic fig tree to the Jews; let us see its application to Gentiles also.
4. Adumbrative of Gentile as well as Jew. There may be the leaves of profession without any corresponding fruitfulness in the case of Gentiles as well as of Jews. This symbolic fig tree may have a personal application to ourselves. We may profess Christ to please men, to keep up appearances, to maintain a respectable position, or advance in some way our worldly prospects. We may rest in a mere form; we may have a form of Godliness without the power; we may have a name to live, and yet be spiritually dead; we may be content with the outward visible sign, and care nothing for the inward spiritual grace. This was the complaint of God against his professing people in the days of Ezekiel. "They come unto thee as the people cometh, and they sit before thee as my people, and they hear thy words, but they will not do them: for with their mouth they show much love, but their heart goeth after their covetousness. And, lo, thou art unto them as a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice, and can play well on an instrument: for they hear thy words, but they do them not." Here is the too common defect of profession without practice, naming the name of Christ and not departing from iniquity. Others, again, it is to be feared, are downrightly insincere; they put religion on like a cloak, and lay it aside when it suits them; like their Sunday clothes, they wear it on the sabbath, but lay it past throughout the week. They impose on their fellowmen, they trifle with the Almighty, and deceive their own souls.
5. The Savior"s dissatisfaction with barren professors. Many a time Christ comes to professors, and when he finds no fruit, no figs, no real goodness, nothing but leaves, oh, how he is disappointed! Many a time he is wounded in the house of his friends; many a time he has reason to be indignant with the false professor; many a time religion is scandalized by the leaf of profession and the life of sin. We can conceive Christ coming to such professors and saying Was it for this you trod my courts? for this you joined yourself to my people? for this you sat at my table? for this you took the cup of salvation in your hand? for this you avouched yourself to be the Lord"s in solemn sacramental action?
6. His remonstrance. Besides the expression of just indignation, there is tender remonstrance on his part. That remonstrance may be supposed couched in some such terms as the following: After all my care for you, and love to you, and provision for your salvation; after all my goodness and grace to your soul; after all my sufferings, both in life and death; after all my agony of soul and anguish of body; after the many precepts I have given you, the exhortations I have addressed to you, the warnings I have sent you; after all the checks of conscience, and after all the strivings of my Spirit, is this the return you make me? Have you so soon forgotten your covenant engagements; so soon forgotten all your vows; so soon belied the profession you made, saying by act, if not by word, "O Lord, I am thy servant: thou hast loosed my bends"? Have you so soon and so sadly violated your pledged allegiance expressed in the words, "I am not my own; I am bought with a price; and bound therefore to serve the Lord with body and spirit, which are the Lord"s"? God forbid that this should be the case with any of us! May better things be hoped, and reasonably hoped, of us all, and "things that accompany salvation"! Let our motto be, "Now being made free from sin, and become servants of God, we have our fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life." Let our conduct be in accordance with the statement, "I have put off my coat; how shall I put it on? I have washed my feet; how shall I defile them?" Let our meditation be on "whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report;" and "if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise," let us "think on these things.
III DOOM PRONOUNCED ON THE FIG TREE.
1. He stereotypes its state. Christ does not make this fig tree barren, he only stereotypes its barrenness; he found it in that state, and, as far as its condition of barrenness was concerned, he left it pretty much as he found it. It bare no fruit before, it should bear no fruit afterwards, and so no fruit for ever. As far, however, as his own action was concerned, he did more; for he withered its leaves, he scathed its trunk, he blighted it both root and branch. It was cursed, and so devoted to barrenness; it was dried up from the roots, and so inevitably destined to decay; it was completely withered, and so doomed to entire destruction. To the present hour the Jew has an unmistakable resemblance to this symbolic fig tree. Nationally, he is barked and peeled; he is a tree of which the branches are withered; he is one of a nation on which the blight of Heaven rests; the curse has come upon them to the uttermost. He has neither Church, as in days of old, nor State, nor proper nationality. He has neither temple, nor priest, nor sacrifice. He is still doomed to the "wandering foot and weary breast one of a people resembling this withered fig tree to which the curse of Heaven clings.
2. Applicability of the symbol to our own case. What is the conclusion from all this, and what is its connection with ourselves? Just that of which the apostle, in writing to the Romans (Rom_11:21, Rom_11:22) speaks: "For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee. Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off.
3. Responsibility pertaining to the Church of God. It is no light matter to have the Church of God in our midst, its ordinances dispensed to us, its sacraments enjoyed by us, its doctrines proclaimed to us, its duties declared to us. What weighty responsibilities does all this impose? "Unto whomsoever much is given, of them shall much be required." What a blessing, if we improve these privileges, and know the time of our merciful visitation! What a millstone weight of condemnation is hung about our neck, when, in the full enjoyment of ordinances, we prove ourselves at once unfaithful and ungrateful? We see here what Christ expects of us, and what he has every right to expect. He sees on us the leaves of profession; he requires the living power of religion in our souls. He beholds the leaves of confession; he demands correspondence of character, conduct, and conversation. He has heard your proclamation with the lips to the effect, "Henceforth shall the Lord be my God;" he looks, therefore, for piety of heart and purity of life. He observes with you the show of Godliness; he will not be satisfied unless you diffuse the savor of it all around. Truth binds you to this; you have sworn, and must not go back; you have vowed, and must fulfill your vow; you have avouched the Lord to be your God, and the covenant entered into may not be broken, except at terrible risk. Gratitude binds to this. What shall we render unto the Lord for all his gracious benefits and gifts to us? "Love so amazing, so Divine, Demands my heart, my life, my all.
Consistency binds to this. What can be thought of any one who enters into the most solemn engagements and then practically repudiates them? Our welfare, both for time and eternity, binds to this; for "blessed is every one that feareth the Lord; that walketh in his ways. For thou shalt eat the labor of thine hands: happy shalt thou be, and it shall be well with thee.
IV APPLICATION OF THE WHOLE.
1. Think for a moment of the awful doom of this withered fig tree. It is the doom of every hypocrite and of every false professor. The first blessing pronounced on man was fruitfulness; one of the severest curses is barrenness. The leaf of the merely nominal Christian will soon wither; it will soon decay and die. There is no root, and so even the leaf of profession will not last long; no faith, and so no fruitfulness; no principle, and so no practical Godliness. The sparks of his own kindling make but a flickering light at best; and that light, bad as it is, soon goes out altogether in utter darkness. "The wicked is driven away in his wickedness, but the righteous hath hope in his death.
2. As it fared with the Jews, so will it fare with every individual who abuses God"s mercies by continued unfruitfulness. God"s ancient people has been unchurched, and, if we may so say, unpeopled; and if this was done in a green tree, what shall not be done in a dry? The seven Churches of Asia had been unfaithful, and the candlestick was removed out of its place. So with the African Churches Alexandria, Hippo, and Carthage.
3. God looks for fruit, and claims it as his due. The more fruitful you are, the more is he glorified. "Herein," said the Savior, "is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit;" the more, also, is your own soul benefited and blessed. Often, when men become unfruitful, and prove false to their vows, neglecting God"s ordinances, and abusing his mercies, he gives them over to judicial blindness of mind, hardness of heart, sacredness of conscience, or to strong delusion, or to a famine not of bread but of bearing the Word of the Lord. Sickness, or age, or poverty, or removal of their habitation, deprives them of the once possessed, but little esteemed and much abused, mercies. So with Ephraim; he is "joined to his idols: let him alone.
4. During our walks in summer or early autumn we used to see a tree withered and decayed; its leaves were gone, its bark peeled off, and its branches quite bare. Near to it on every side were trees green and leafy, healthy and vigorous, beautiful and flourishing. How ghastly looked that naked skeleton tree beside them! We often said as we passed it by What a true type of a barren professor, "twice dead, plucked up by the roots"!
5. From this miracle our Lord took occasion to speak of the wonders which faith works, and to urge the necessity of faith to the success of prayer. J.J.G.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain CHAPTER 11:12-14, 20-25 (Mar_11:12-14; Mar_11:20-25)
CHAPTER 11:12-14, 20-25 (Mar_11:12-14; Mar_11:20-25)
THE BARREN FIG-TREE
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"And on the morrow, when they were come out from Bethany, He hungered. And seeing a fig-tree afar off having leaves, He came, if haply He might find anything thereon: and when He came to it, He found nothing but leaves; for it was not the season of figs. And He answered and said unto it, No man eat fruit from thee henceforward forever. And His disciples heard it."
"And as they passed by in the morning, they saw the fig-tree withered away from the roots. And Peter calling to remembrance saith unto Him, Rabbi, behold, the fig-tree which Thou cursedst is withered away. And Jesus answering saith unto them, Have faith in God. Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou taken up and cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that what he saith cometh to pass; he shall have it. Therefore I say unto you, All things whatsoever ye pray and ask for, believe that ye have received them, and ye shall have them. And whensoever ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have aught against any one; that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses." Mar_11:12-14; Mar_11:20-25 (R.V.)
NO sooner has Jesus claimed His kingdom, than He performs His first and only miracle of judgment. And it is certain that no mortal, informed that such a miracle was impending, could have guessed where the blow would fall. In this miracle an element is predominant which exists in all, since it is wrought as an acted dramatized parable, not for any physical advantage, but wholly for the instruction which it conveys. Jesus hungered at the very outset of a day of toil, as He came out from Bethany. And this was not due to poverty, since the disciples there had recently made Him a great feast, but to His own absorbing ardor. The zeal of God's house, which He had seen polluted and was about to cleanse, had either left Him indifferent to food until the keen air of morning aroused the sense of need, or else it had detained Him, all night long, in prayer and meditation out of doors. As He walks, He sees afar off a lonely fig-tree covered with leaves, and comes if haply He might find anything thereon. It is true that figs would not be in season for two months, but yet they ought to present themselves before the leaves did; and since the tree was precocious in the show and profusion of luxuriance, it ought to bear early figs. If it failed, it would at least point a powerful moral; and, therefore, when only leaves appeared upon it, Jesus cursed it with perpetual barrenness, and passed on. Not in the dusk of that evening as they returned, but when they passed by again in the morning the blight was manifest, the tree was withered from its very roots.
It is complained that by this act Jesus deprived some one of his property. But the same retributive justice of which this was an expression was preparing to blight, presently, all the possessions of all the nation. Was this unjust? And of the numberless trees that are blasted year by year, why should the loss of this one only be resented? Every physical injury must be intended to further some spiritual end; but it is not often that the purpose is so clear, and the lesson so distinctly learned.
Others blame our Lord's word of sentence, because a tree, not being a moral agent, ought not to be punished. It is an obvious rejoinder that neither could it suffer pain; that the whole action is symbolic; and that we ourselves justify the Savior's method of expression as often as we call one tree "good" and another "bad," and say that a third "ought" to bear fruit, while not much could be "expected of" a fourth. It should rather be observed that in this word of sentence Jesus revealed His tenderness. It would have been a false and cruel kindness never to work any miracle except of compassion, and thus to suggest the inference that He could never strike, whereas indeed, before that generation passed away, He would break His enemies in pieces like a potter's vessel.
Yet He came not to destroy men's lives but to save them. And, therefore, while showing Himself neither indifferent nor powerless against barren and false pretensions, He did this only once, and then only by a sign wrought upon an insentient tree.
Retribution fell upon it not for its lack of fruit, since at that season it shared this with all its tribe, but for ostentatious, much-professing fruitlessness. And thus it pointed with dread significance to the condition of God's own people, differing from Greece and Rome and Syria, not in the want of fruit, but in the show of luxuriant frondage, in the expectation it excited and mocked. When the season of the world's fruitfulness was yet remote, only Israel put forth leaves, and made professions which were not fulfilled. And the permanent warning of the miracle is not for heathen men and races, but for Christians who have a name to live, and who are called to bear fruit unto God.
While the disciples marveled at the sudden fulfillment of its sentence, they could not have forgotten the parable of a fig-tree in the vineyard, on which care and labor were lavished, but which must be destroyed after one year of respite if it continued to be a cumberer of the ground.
And Jesus drove the lesson home. He pointed to "this mountain" full in front, with the gold and marble of the temple sparkling like a diadem upon its brow, and declared that faith is not only able to smite barrenness with death, but to remove into the midst of the sea, to plant among the wild and stormswept races of the immeasurable pagan world, the glory and privilege of the realized presence of the Lord. To do this was the purpose of God, hinted by many a prophet, and clearly announced by Christ Himself. But its accomplishment was left to His followers, who should succeed in exact proportion to the union of their will and that of God, so that the condition of that moral miracle, transcending all others in marvel and in efficacy, was simple faith.
And the same rule covers all the exigencies of life. One who truly relies on God, whose mind and will are attuned to those of the Eternal, cannot be selfish, or vindictive, or presumptuous. As far as we rise to the grandeur of this condition we enter into the Omnipotence of God, and no limit need be imposed upon the prevalence of really and utterly believing prayer. The wishes that ought to be refused will vanish as we attain that eminence, like the hoar frost of morning as the sun grows strong.
To this promise Jesus added a precept, the admirable suitability of which is not at first apparent. Most sins are made evident to the conscience in the act of prayer. Drawing nigh to God, we feel our unfitness to be there, we are made conscious of what He frowns upon, and if we have such faith as Jesus spoke of, we at once resign what would grieve the Spirit of adoption. No saint is ignorant of the convicting power of prayer. But it is not of necessity so with resentment for real grievances. We may think we do well to be angry. We may confound our selfish fire with the pure flame of holy zeal, and begin, with confidence enough, yet not with the mind of Christ, to remove mountains, not because they impede a holy cause, but because they throw a shadow upon our own field. And, therefore, Jesus reminds us that not only wonder-working faith, but even the forgiveness of our sins requires from us the forgiveness of our brother. This saying is the clearest proof of how much is implied in a truly undoubting heart. And this promise is the sternest rebuke of the Church, endowed with such ample powers, and yet after nineteen centuries confronted by an unconverted world.
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain 12–14. And on the morrow, when they were come…
12–14. And on the morrow, when they were come out from Bethany, he hungered. etc. See notes on Matt. 21:17–22.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain Mar_11:13. If haply.—If, after all—although not the proper time…
CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL NOTES
Mar_11:13. If haply.—If, after all—although not the proper time for fruit.
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Mar_11:17. The marginal rendering is preferable.
Mar_11:19. See R. V.
Mar_11:23-24. See R. V.
Mar_11:26. MS. authority for retention or omission is about equally divided.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Mar_11:12-26
(PARALLELS: Mat_21:12-22; Luk_19:45-48.)
Mar_11:12-14. The useless tree.—Dangers were closing round the Saviour, and He prudently spent His nights, except the last fatal one, not at Jerusalem, but the neighbouring village of Bethany. This miracle was wrought on Monday, the second day of Holy Week. Perhaps the reason of His being hungry so early in the day was that He had spent a portion of the night or early morning in prayer. His early departure probably arose from a holy haste to enter upon the work of the day. He inherited the physical weaknesses of our nature, and so qualified Himself to sympathise with His people in all physical trials (Heb_2:14; Heb_4:15).
I. The miracles of our Lord generally contained a symbolic element; but this miracle is a symbol in itself.—In this He was following the examples of the prophets, who often acted out their parables. It was a mode of teaching that excited livelier attention than an oral statement, and produced a deeper impression upon the mind. Indeed the Jewish Temple, with its outer court, high priests, offerings and ordinances, was a stupendous parable uttered in the form of sign and symbol. It is objected that our Lord, knowing, as from His omniscience He must have done, that there was no fruit upon the fig tree, went to it as though expecting to find fruit. In His action there was no insincerity. The language used is a mode of speech often used, especially in figurative teaching.
II. But is not this miracle at variance with the ordinary operations of Him who came “not to destroy, but to fulfil”?—Other miracles were exercises of love, acts of giving and creation; this is an act of destruction. Here He appears as a punishing God. Solitary as it is, it shews that, while our Lord “delighteth in mercy,” He does not shrink from executing judgment when required. Its solitariness as an act of judgment exhibits in impressive lights the exceeding greatness and bountifulness of His love. But why should He put forth His anger upon a tree, which, not being a moral agent, could not be conscious of guilt? A tree has no sentient existence, much less intelligent and moral consciousness, and therefore could not be a fit subject for praise or blame. That the fig tree was an inanimate existence is a sufficient reply to the objection. It was not capable of suffering, and could therefore be lawfully used as a means for ends lying beyond itself. Our Lord did not attribute any moral responsibilities to the fig tree; He simply used it to represent moral qualities. Other considerations may be advanced which bear upon the justice of this act. The situation of the tree was very favourable for fruit-bearing. Being planted on the roadside, it was not private property. It was not a sound tree that our Lord caused to wither. Its life had begun to decay, and our Saviour’s sentence only hastened a process that would have advanced in the course of nature.
III. But why should Christ vent His indignation upon the fig tree if the usual season for fruit-bearing had not arrived?—Was this consistent with the justice and reasonableness which ruled Him in all His dealings? It was: for the fruit usually appeared before the leaves; and if the fig tree could produce leaves, what excuse had it for being fruitless? “Where is the propriety,” says Dr. Thomas, “of allowing it to occupy a position, and to appropriate nourishment, which, if granted to another tree, would result in abundant fruitfulness? Let it die. Why should its roots steal the nutriment of the soil, its leafy branches obstruct the genial rays of heaven, and prevent their falling on better plants? Usefulness is the grand end of all created existence, and the function of justice is to remove out of the way whatever answers not its original design. Justice clears the universe of the worthless. The fruitless tree it burns; the salt that has lost its savour it casts forth as rubbish; the spirit that perverts its powers it divests of its freedom and its influence, its privileges and enjoyments. Justice weeds the garden of the universe.”
Lessons.—
1. It teaches that to our existence God has set a specific purpose. The fruit we are expected to bear is goodness—in other words, holy and useful living (Rom_6:22; Jas_3:18; Gal_3:22; Eph_5:5; Psa_126:5-6; Jas_5:20).
2. Like the fruitless fig tree, we are surrounded by conditions and means favourable to fruit-bearing. If no fruit appears, no fault can be found with the soil, air, clouds, sun, or with the culturing methods and appliances of the vine-dresser; the evil is in the tree (Jas_1:13-15).
3. The appearance of goodness without the reality only aggravates our guilt. Standing beside the fruitless tree, the Master did not say, “This tree is an ornament to the surrounding landscape, a grateful shelter to the weary traveller; choirs of birds now and then make the branches quiver with delightful music.” Its leaves and blossoms could not be accepted as substitutes for fruit.
4. The evil of our spiritual barrenness is not confined to ourselves. We occupy space in the community that might be occupied with greater advantage by others.
5. When the sentence goes forth, ruin follows—complete, final, and irretrievable.—J. H. Morgan.
Mar_11:15-17. Reverence for God’s house.—On two very different occasions our Lord shewed His zeal for the honour of the Temple of God. At the commencement of His public ministry, when He went up to the Feast of the Passover, He found the sale of oxen and sheep and doves going on within the court of the Temple. And He drove them out and said, “Take these things hence; make not My Father’s house a house of merchandise.” And now again, at the close of His ministry, He went up to the Passover, and He found the same abomination going on. And once more He drove out the profaners, and claimed for God’s house the reverence and respect which is due to the house of prayer.
I. There can be no doubt that the decay of religious feeling among the people, the loss of reverence for holy things and places, the weakening of their belief in God’s actual and immediate presence with them, was very closely connected and bound up with the coming destruction of the Jewish nation.
1. This faith in the presence of God in the Temple, and among the people whom He had chosen for Himself, was impressed on them by the law perhaps more distinctly and solemnly than any other truth.
2. And while their trust in God’s presence was firm and unshaken, so long it was well with them. God did protect them from their enemies, and raised them to prosperity, and gave them abundance and peace and power. But when their faith failed, and they forgot God, and they lost their reverence and fell into sin, then He caused suffering to come upon them. Their sin found them out.
3. Is there not a lesson for us in this age? Are not the two besetting sins of the time, on the one hand, a craving after money, a spirit of merchandise, which takes up our thoughts and occupies our time, and sorely interferes with our higher interests; and, on the other hand, a want of reverence, a slowness to see and confess the presence of God, that all we do and say is in His sight: that He is about our path and about our bed, and spieth out all our ways. Our longing for money, what is it but a want of faith? We cannot trust God, that He will provide for us. We will make provision for ourselves and for our children’s wants. We are slow to believe that it is really required that we should make sacrifice for Christ’s sake. And therefore the love of the world is in danger of eating more and more into our hearts and driving out our religion, our trust, and our love, and our faith in a heavenly reward and coming glory. And if so, if this is a real evil, and if it be not timely checked, then assuredly the glory will be departing from us.
II. Besides this larger and more general lesson, there is also a thought which may come closer and more personally to ourselves. Our Lord teaches us very plainly, by cleansing the Temple at Jerusalem, that a reverence is due to holy places; that where the presence of God ought to be recognised and felt the common affairs of life ought not to find entrance.
1. When we come to approach God in prayer, and when we enter into the house which has been dedicated to the Lord, the charge given to Moses may still have its meaning for us: “Put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground.”
2. And does not this condemn very strongly the lightness and irreverence with which so many will come to church? When we kneel upon our knees, it is not to go through an unmeaning form, but to pray for pardon and for grace. When we listen, we must try to apply to our hearts the lessons which God’s Word would teach. Our carelessness, our littleness, our vanity, our worldly thoughts, all these must be put away. We are drawing near to our God, and we desire to be drawn yet closer towards Him in faith and love. And He will draw nigh to us. He is present with us when we seek His pardon—present with us when we sing His praise—present with us when we hear His message—present with us when we kneel to receive the Blessed Sacrament of His Body and Blood.—Canon Nevill.
Mar_11:17. God’s house “an house of prayer for all nations.”—The Temple at Jerusalem, while it stood, might well be classed amongst “the wonders of the world”: not merely on account of the magnificence of its conception, the splendour of its ornaments, or the costliness of its worship; but, even more, for the anomalous character of the principle on which it was founded, and of the religious system to which it belonged. In the Jewish creed it was regarded as the habitation of Him who, according to another article of the same belief, “dwelleth not in temples made with hands.” Dedicated to the service of the God of the whole earth, who “made of one blood all nations of men,” it was yet strictly exclusive. It was surrounded by spacious courts. Of these the first or outer court, which encompassed all the rest, was called “the Court of the Gentiles,” because Gentiles were allowed to enter into but not beyond it. This court was separated from the next—that of the Israelites—by a low stone wall, on which stood pillars at equal distances, with inscriptions signifying to all not of the seed of Abraham that that was their place and they must proceed no farther. Now, it is the removal of this particular disability, which is predicted in the words quoted by our Lord from Isaiah. There was at all times a prescribed method by which “the son of the stranger” might join himself to the Lord’s people, and become a member of “the commonwealth of Israel,” and entitled to all the privileges of a born Jew. But this method was so little adopted in practice that it entirely fails to meet the language here used, even if the words did not plainly refer to something to take place at a future time, and not to a provision already existing. And we know in fact that the Temple at Jerusalem never was, and could at no time be called, “an house of prayer for all nations.” We must therefore understand the prophecy in a wider sense, as foretelling “the opening of the kingdom of heaven”—much more, therefore, the doors of the sanctuary—“to all believers.” See Mal_1:11; Joh_4:21-24.
I. The perfect freedom and openness of Divine ordinances in the Church of Christ.—The Gentiles having long since been admitted into the Church—or rather, the Church as it now exists being composed for the most part of Gentiles—we may pass over that distinction as obsolete, and proceed to others.
1. There is no distinction of rich and poor in our Churches. In early times, indeed, some abuse of this kind appears to have crept in. See Jas_2:1-4. But we may fearlessly say that our assemblies are not liable to this charge. None is excluded or insulted because he is poor or meanly clad. Many, it is true, exclude themselves, on the ground that they have no clothes fit to come in, and they are ashamed to exhibit their “vile raiment” among the “gay clothing” of their neighbours. This is, in most cases, only a miserable subterfuge.
2. We acknowledge no distinction between learned and unlearned in Church. Neither class is shut out by any custom or practice calculated to repel. Everything said or done in the sanctuary has for its object the general edification, “that all may learn, and all may be comforted.”
(1) The Anglican Liturgy is a “Book of Common Prayer”—suited “for all people.” Its greatest admirers are, no doubt, its most refined and intelligent ones, as an exquisite picture or statue or other work of art is best appreciated by those who have studied the principles of art. But “the common people” also are great admirers of the Prayer Book, and find therein—besides such plainness and simplicity as enables the most unlearned to say “Amen” to every sentence—a savour and spirit of devotion which is not perceptible, or in far less degree, in other compositions.
(2) And with respect to the public instructions of the Church, here also the profit of all alike is kept in view. A minister, in preparing his sermon, remembers that there will be among his hearers persons of very different degrees of intelligence and cultivation. That he may not leave the unlearned entirely behind him, he has to use great plainness of speech, a good deal of repetition, and a certain homeliness and familiarity of illustration. On the other hand, the minds of the better educated demand correctness of style, closeness of reasoning, and general propriety of manner. He endeavours, therefore, not simply to descend to the level of the former class, but so to descend as to carry the others with him, so to adapt his instructions to both that the adaptation shall not be offensively perceptible to either.
3. Our churches are open to all characters of people—to good and bad, righteous and sinner, him that feareth God and him that feareth Him not. How could it be otherwise? Should we exclude the righteous? But these are the very persons whom God would have to worship Him, and whose godly supplications and “pure offerings” give a savour and seasoning to the whole sacrifice. Or should we refuse admission to the sinner? How, then, could we be the ministers of Him who “came to call,” etc.? How could we, with any consistency, come into the house of God ourselves, seeing we are all “miserable sinners”? Only one class of persons there is whom we do not invite, and would rather not see, within the walls of the sanctuary, viz. those who are living in the open, shameless, and defiant practice of iniquity. These we would exclude, not permanently, but for a time, until they shew so much regard to decency and public morality as constitutes the lowest qualification for one who seeks admission into a religious assembly. We would, by this temporary exclusion, shame them and bring them to a better mind; or, if not, lighten their damnation by just so much guilt as they would have incurred by offering to the Lord an abomination instead of a sacrifice.
II. The true nature of the Christian sanctuary—it is a house of prayer.—In thus setting aside not only a part, but the emphatic part, of the sentence as originally uttered—“for all nations”—we are justified by our Lord Himself, who here refers the quotation to a question, not of the admissibility or inadmissibility of others than Jews to the privileges of the Temple, but of the use and abuse of the Temple itself. Whether open to all people, or reserved for a privileged tribe; whether appropriated to the imposing ceremonies of the Jewish ritual, or to the less sensuous solemnities of Christian worships,—the Lord’s house still maintains its character of “an house of prayer.” From this expression we may learn—
1. What is the proper business of this place—prayer; i. e. prayer in its widest sense, including every act of devotion in which a Christian congregation may appropriately unite. Besides prayer, properly so called, by which we make our joint requests known unto God, “the voice of joy and praise” enters largely into those common supplications which we make with one accord in the Lord’s house. But let us ever remember that, being thus explained, prayer, and prayer alone, is our proper business there. It is necessary to lay great stress upon this, for it is a matter which is greatly misapprehended by many. They will tell one they go to Church to hear. They listen to the prayers, and that is all. It is only when these are concluded that they rouse themselves, and begin to give their best attention to the discourse which is expected to follow, in the hope of hearing, if not something new, at least something not quite so stale and antiquated as that “form of sound words” in which the Church has for centuries poured forth her devotions before God. Such persons are fond of talking of the more or less “good” that they get from their attendance at public worship; and they estimate the amount of “good” by the manner and degree in which their feelings are excited by the sermon. There is a better test than that. Shew me the man who has prayed the best, and I will shew you the man who has got the most “good”; for he has got—whatever he asked. But if any man who has not truly joined in the prayers imagines that he has received any real benefit from the sermon, he deceives himself. The thing is impossible. It is opposed to the clearest rule of the dispensation of grace. See Luk_8:18.
2. What is the proper behaviour of this place. Whatever deportment, in look, gesture, or manner, is suited to the act of prayer, the same is becoming demeanour in “the house of prayer”; and whatever is foreign to the business of the place is also inappropriate to the place itself. Now what is prayer, and what are the manner and behaviour of a person engaged in prayer? Prayer is the most serious—I had almost said awful—transaction in which a human being can be employed. A man who is truly praying, whether in public or private—praying effectually, fervently, and with all his soul—is a sight which cannot be mistaken for anything but what it really is. And when a number of persons are so engaged, praying with one accord in one place, striving together in their fervent addresses to the “Father of mercies and God of all comfort,” we should expect to see still more legibly stamped on every feature and gesture the characteristic marks of their employment, the outward and visible signs of heartfelt devotion. Is it so in our churches? Would a stranger entering while service is going on perceive at once that it was a place in which prayer was wont to be made, and that the congregation was so engaged at that moment? Would he be carried away by the contagion of so many bended knees and blended voices, so many eyes cast down to the ground and hands lifted up to heaven; and so, falling down on his face, would he worship God, and report that God was in us of a truth?
Mar_11:17. The advantage of a liturgy in public worship.—One of the most interesting objects to the eye of the contemplative man must ever be an assembly of Christians engaged in public worship. The literary mind may revert on such an occasion, to those sad spectacles of superstition and cruelty which disgraced even the most enlightened periods of heathen history; and the observer of human character will call to mind and compare the infinite variety of follies and delusions which to this day mar the religious observances of all uncivilised nations. The purity of Christian worship will be well illustrated by the contrast. There are differences, however, among the professors of Christianity with regard to the public worship of God. These may be considered to resolve themselves, in some degree, into one great question—that of the use of a liturgy or set form of prayer.
I. The great criterion, by which we may judge of the advantage of a liturgy in public worship, is its effect on the minds of the worshippers, and its suitableness to the object for which they are assembled.—God’s house is “the house of prayer.” How, then, is a congregation assembled there to address itself to the throne of grace? How is it to speak, with only one voice, the language of all, so that each individual may thoroughly enter into the spirit of the supplication without perplexity a distraction? This result can only be secured, we apprehend, by the use of a regular “form of sound words” (2Ti_1:13), known, understood, and approved by all, which shall be a guarantee to them that they are not going to utter collectively what they dissent from as individuals, and that they are not going to insult the Majesty of Heaven with what is unintelligible, offensive, or unscriptural; so that the understanding not being now employed in comprehending or the judgment in approving it, the heart may be at full liberty to feel its effect, and every prayer uttered by the minister may ascend at once to heaven as the united offering of the congregation. Thus the object of the assembly is fully answered. Though but one for the most part spoke, they all prayed; and having thus poured forth their collective petitions, they retire to their homes, where, at their accustomed seasons, and according to their individual methods, each may address his particular prayer to the Father which seeth in secret.
II. Another advantage of a liturgy is its efficacy as a source of union—a rallying-point around which, as a centre, a whole nation may assemble with that harmony of religious intercourse which should distinguish all who profess and call themselves Christians. A liturgy protects a Church against needless innovations—against the effects of misguided zeal or internal faction, which would disturb or rend it asunder—against the caprice, the errors, and the passions of the human mind. It is also most useful as a standard of purity in doctrine, through which, as an untainted channel, the great truths of Christianity having been crystallised, may be transmitted, unaltered and uncorrupted, to future generations. If these truths were left to be explained only through the uncertain and variable medium of preaching, they would soon be wrested and tortured by the injudicious or the enthusiastic minister, and the people would be lost in a labyrinth of unintelligible or contradictory doctrine; but when they are embodied and illustrated in a well-modelled form of public worship, the perversion of them becomes more difficult, and the minds of the people are less likely to be led astray.
III. A liturgy is a constant reminder that the great object of our meeting in church is prayer.—The importance of this point being kept prominently in view will be evident if we glance for a moment at the appearance which the religious world at this day exhibits. It is notorious that amongst the adherents of the numerous Christian societies which have sprung up during the last three centuries a spirit of preaching has superseded the spirit of prayer. They assemble together for the avowed purpose of listening to the discourse of a minister, which is the main feature of their meeting. Some of them, indeed, sensible that this is not as it should be, have introduced the Anglican Liturgy, or selections from it, into their religious services. Others have attempted to defend their disuse of a Prayer Book by the authority of the Primitive Church, asserting that in so doing they are only laying aside the unnecessary accretions which time has attached to public worship, and returning to the purity and simplicity of original usage. But there is little force in this argument. The worship of the early Christians, who were scattered abroad in small numbers, and who had moreover been just converted to Christianity, was necessarily imperfect in various respects. They had not yet had time to arrange for themselves a regular form of service to take the place of the old Jewish ritual, although there are traces in the New Testament that they had already begun to do so. They existed also in a state of constant alarm, from persecution either impending or actually raging, which forced them to be content to assemble when they could and how they could. No comparison can be instituted between their case and that of Christians in this present age, who enjoy leisure, liberty, and all means of organisation in abundance. The Church is never likely to consent to such a retrograde step as the abandonment of what has been found so practically beneficial. To do this would be to exchange system and order for confusion and chaos.
Mar_11:22-23. The power of faith.—Our Lord’s grand earthly work was the work of atonement. But there were other designs of great importance which He accomplished whilst He sojourned among men. Not the least of these was to fit and prepare His disciples for carrying on the work of the kingdom after His departure. And, in reference to this matter, His anxiety manifestly deepens, and His efforts become more urgent, as the time of His offering-up draws near. At this period how earnest and how oft repeated were His warnings to the disciples regarding the dangers and sufferings and disappointments of their carnal expectations which awaited them! how earnest and oft repeated His efforts to lead them to their true source of strength and victory in God! “Have faith in God” is the burden of many a discourse, the peculiar lesson of many a parable and many a wondrous work. This was the lesson which the miracle of the cursing and withering of the fig tree was designed to illustrate. He would thus prepare the mind of His disciples to meet many and great difficulties in the prosecution of their work, and would teach them also that they must not be downcast and discouraged, since their faith in God endowed them with an irresistible strength, before which every difficulty must vanish.
I. Who are those to whom these cheering words are addressed?—Primarily, they were addressed by our Lord to His personal friends and followers whom He had chosen as apostles. The promise was given to them in their character of labourers in the Lord’s vineyard, servants of the kingdom of God. And it is equally valid for all who labour and strive for the advancement of Christ’s kingdom. The work of the world’s salvation from sin and Satan was begun by the Lord in person, and by His death on the Cross and His resurrection from the dead He ensured its successful issue. But it was ordained by Divine Wisdom that the prosecution of the work in detail should be accomplished by the instrumentality of human agents. Every Christian is entitled to appropriate the gracious language of our text as addressed to him; for he is one whom the Lord hath found in the market-place, and hired, and sent to work in His vineyard. Every preacher of the gospel can claim the promises as specially made to him; for is he not sent expressly on the Lord’s business? Every congregation of the Lord’s people is entitled to rest upon it; for have they not banded themselves together in the Lord’s name, for the very purpose of advancing His work and His kingdom in the world?
II. What is the promise made to those who are doing the Lord’s work and seeking the advancement of His kingdom? (Mar_11:23 : see also Mat_17:20).—There is no enemy so mighty, no difficulty so great, that may not be conquered in the might of that Divine strength with which the Christian is endowed.
1. Look at the individual Christian, even if he be one of the lowliest and feeblest of the children of the kingdom—one of those hidden ones whom the world notices not. Mark well his history, and you will find that his whole life has been, at every step, the march of a mighty, resistless power, going forth conquering and to conquer. He has waged a warfare with no mere power of flesh and blood, but with principalities and powers, with the rulers of the darkness of this world, with spiritual wickedness in high places; and he has triumphed. Sin and Satan still abide with him indeed, ever striving to foment rebellion among the members of his mortal body; but they no longer reign—their hour of power is gone. And in the exercise of that same power by which he has subjected them, he shall at length shake himself fully and for ever clear of their polluting touch. Nor is this all the victory that every humblest Christian has gained. He has triumphed over a condemning law. The mountain of guilt and the sentence of death are powerless to arrest his progress, as he presses forward toward the mark for the prize of the high calling in Christ.
2. Look also at the Church in general, in its progress from age to age. The work given her to do is nothing less than the salvation of the world from the dominion of Satan, and the subjection of it, in all its nations, to the holy and righteous rule of the Prince of Peace. In the barren fig tree, with its large promise and total lack of fruit, the disciples were called on to recognise a symbol of the enemies of the gospel—a striking symbol especially of the Church’s mightiest and most malignant foe, Antichrist—the service of the devil, under the name and profession of the truth. Always is the Lord’s vineyard preoccupied by the deceitful plants of the devil’s sowing. Before the seed of life can grow these must be hewn down and rooted out. But who shall venture to touch them, guarded as they are by a banded world and by the hosts of hell? What weapon do the feeble followers of the Crucified wield, with which to strike down the deep-rooted, wide-spreading evil power? Their Lord reveals to them the secret of their strength in that mighty word of faith before which the barren fig tree withered and died in a day. But that tree which sucked the strength of the garden of the Lord, and covered it with its deadly shade, withered at a word. And so is it with all the Church’s enemies. The Church is as yet in the agony of the contest. She sees with trembling heart the tide of victory sway continually backwards and forwards. Her battle is not fought, her warfare is not accomplished, until the knowledge of the Lord covers the earth as the waters cover the sea. The Church is a tree which must still grow on, until she fills the earth with her branches. But, all imperfect as she is, what marvellous growth has she made since her beginning, when she was small as a mustard seed!
III. What is the secret of the Church’s marvellous strength?—It is revealed in the words, “Have faith in God.” Have faith in God, and then shall follow the wonderful triumphs indicated.
1. God’s people work their work and fight their foes in the strength of the Almighty. Have faith, not in yourself, but in God: expect success, not in your own strength, but in God’s. Not only is He with us amid the mountains, the grand towering difficulties of the Christian life; even in the performance of duties apparently the most simple and easy man could do nothing in the strength of the flesh. And, blessed be God, the Christian does not need to try. Though we are not sufficient of ourselves, we are sufficient, ay, even to work wonders, if the Christian work should require them, and our Lord should command. In all things, external or internal, great or small, it is ever God that worketh in us to will and to do of His good pleasure.
2. God interposes on behalf of His people to work with them and fight for them on occasion of their faith. Their faith is the measure and condition of their victory. So that in a sense their strength lies in their faith. There is indeed no true efficacy in faith itself; but only on occasion of faith does the Almighty work for His people. To remove the mountains of our difficulties, then, we must apply ourselves to our work in faith,—not in the spirit of presumptuous self-confidence, but in faith; not in the spirit of doubt and fear, but in faith.—Jas. Hamilton.
Mar_11:23. The weakness and difficulties of doubt.—I wish to speak of doubt rather than of doubtfulness. Doubtfulness is a chronic, sensitive condition of soul; doubt, an acute, sensitive condition of mind. Doubt, in the end, may degenerate into spiritual doubtfulness—spiritual doubtfulness amounting, in extreme instances, to spiritual death; but, in the beginning, doubt, at least in its higher forms, is less often spiritual than intellectual. Without contradiction there are many low and base forms of doubt—doubt supervening on spiritual neglect, and moral transgressions, and sensual indulgences. But without contradiction also there are high and noble forms of doubt—unwilling doubt, which is most painfully miserable at its incapacity to believe.
I. Nor is this species of doubt altogether an evil.—For there is a strong tendency in human nature to acquiesce in authority, most of all in spiritual authority. Spiritual truths are often so difficult to discern, there is such a chaos of religious opinion weltering in Christendom, that for peace and certainty’s sake men are inclined to bow beneath any dominion which professes to hold the keys of truth and light. And the more subjugate men are, the more autocratic and unreasoning this dominion becomes, until at length, in order completely to enslave human reason, the dominion utterly violates it, ever encroaching upon and narrowing the limits of free, religious intelligence. And if it were not for the resistances and reformations of doubt, this tyrannous dominion of authority would assuredly usurp the throne of all religious life. Even in Christian Churches which boast of their liberties, and profess to abhor all manner of ecclesiastical despotism, the prevalence of doubt is rapidly expanding those liberties, and imparting greater health and vigour to the general religious tone. It is making the Bible a more real, more intelligible, more living book. It is stripping prayer of its spurious attributes, and clothing it with vast and most heavenly power. It is insisting, with St. James, that faith is more than confessions and creeds—it is life and work. It is making manifest that the essence of Christianity is sacrifice, and that without sacrifice no one can be a Christian. By taking away the false, doubt is making conspicuous the true elements in religion.
II. Yet there are obvious dangers attending the practice of doubt.—Doubt is apt to run into excess, and the excess of anything is evil. If the excess of faith be superstition, the excess of doubt is feebleness. The tendency of doubt is always to cripple men, to make them hesitate and do nothing. In every department of life it is impossible to succeed without believing; if we do not believe in what we are doing, we cannot do it well. We are like trees whose roots are all on the surface; the first winds of obstacle uproot and blow us down. Our strength is as the strengthlessness of a fractured arm, dangling down in impotence and pain; no one can lean upon us for support, and we ourselves are maimed and powerless. Most of all is this true of religion. In religion the stern necessity for occasional doubt may be wholesome; but the easy indulgence in continuous doubt is deadly. Doubt starves the soul; it makes lean and feeble the inner man. The pre-essential of all success in religion is mighty, living faith. Without faith even Christianity itself is feebleness.
III. There are doubters and doubters.—There are those who scarcely care whether they believe or not; to them doubting is at least painless, if not absolutely welcome. But there are others who earnestly desire to believe, to whom doubting is misery, and yet who seem unable to preserve themselves from doubt. These yearning souls long for that eye which sees the Invisible, that hand which touches the Eternal, that spirit which can commune with the Infinite and be inspired with the All-Holy; yet, amid all the wonders and loveliness of nature, all the solaces and promises of the gospel, all the experiences and mercies of daily life, they are unable to believe; or, if they believe at all, their faith is like the dimness of the twilight, and not like the splendour of the meridian sun. To such persons, I say, doubt is misery—the misery of the caged bird, the misery of the shorn and blinded Samson, the misery of the discrowned king. What are they to do? Is there no relief or way of escape? Will the darkness never turn to light, and the weakness of doubt be exchanged for the power of faith?
IV. There is one method of strengthening faith which we all may wisely practise.—It is the method of fairly confronting doubt with its own difficulties. It is when we throw ourselves out of ourselves, and project our thoughts upon the universe, that the difficulties of doubt present themselves with huge force and emphasis. For what is the nature of the universe in which we live? It is boundless in extent, yet perfect in harmony. Whence then, I ask, comes this perfection, this punctuality, this absolute order and precision of the universe—an order compared with which the highest human regulations are chaos, a precision than which the keenest human intelligence cannot conceive anything more precise? You answer it is all the result of law. But what is law? I reply. Whence came the law? An effect without a cause is, to my mind, an inconceivable idea. So also is an effect higher than its cause. If the effect be reasonable and intelligible, the cause must be Intelligence and Reason; for you cannot deduce reasonableness from non-reason, or intelligibleness from non-intelligence. I am thus compelled by the sublimities and the harmonies of the universe to assign their origin to an intelligent Creator. And when we ascend the scale of being until we reach the kingdom of man (man, with all his littleness and sin, but with all his greatness too—his powers to think, to love, to remember, to aspire), we ask again, Whence spring all this intelligence, these emotions, these longings of our human nature? Water will not rise higher than its source; and man cannot soar beyond his original. The original of man therefore must be higher and greater than man himself. And when to all this you add the teachings of history, the character of the world’s moral government, the voice of conscience, the imaginations and inspirations of the human soul, and ask from what beginning did they come, the simplest and the most satisfying of all answers is, “Their builder and maker is God.”—Canon Diggle.
OUTLINES AND COMMENTS ON THE VERSES
Mar_11:13-14. Pretension and performance.—
1. There is apt to be most pretension where there is least performance (Rev_3:17).
2. There are many ways of making profession. Observance of the forms of Christian life is profession; Church membership is profession; statement of our habit and ways is a profession, and generally a loud one, for no one can easily speak about himself without self-laudation, openly or covertly, coming in; criticism, assumptions of being all right, and fault-finding are professions, loud professions, for to censure others’ faults is tantamount to declaring our freedom from them; and self-defence is some-times a form of profession.
3. The only ground on which men or things are spared by the judgment of God is that they yield good fruit. Where love is, and the likeness to Christ is, there is endurance and reward. Where only profession is there is judgment.
4. The stroke of judgment is swift. Fearfulness surprises the hypocrites. It is striking by what slow processes reputations are built up, and by what swift judgments they are brought down.
5. The angerless judgment of Christ is very solemn.—R. Glover.
The mission of the Church—to feed hungry souls.—As Jesus turned to that fig tree, drawn thereto by the tree’s profession of fruitfulness, so hungry souls turn to the Church and to God’s professed people to find spiritual food. What that tree with leaves and no fruit was to Jesus, the Jewish Church was to people in their soul-hunger. With their burden of sin, with their deep heart-questionings, with their sorrows, with their unsatisfied longings, with their yearnings for help and sympathy, they turned to the priests, the professed spiritual guides, if haply they might get from them what they wanted. So the mission of the Church is to feed hungry souls. In the hour of penitence, when the soul is conscious of guilt; in the day of trouble, when the world has no more to give; in the shadow of death; in all the great crises of life,—even the most worldly turn to the Church for what they need.—J. R. Miller, D.D.
The cursing of the fig tree.—This is Christ’s first and only miracle of judgment. It is wrought as an acted dramatised parable, not for any physical advantage, but wholly for the instruction which it conveys.
1. It is complained that by this act Jesus deprived some one of his property. But the same retributive justice of which this was an expression was preparing to blight presently all the possessions of all the nation. Was this unjust? And of the numberless trees that are blasted year by year, why should the loss of this one only be resented? Every physical injury must be intended to further some spiritual end; but it is not often that the purpose is so clear, and the lesson so distinctly learned.
2. Others blame our Lord’s word of sentence, because a tree, not being a moral agent, ought not to be punished. It is an obvious rejoinder that neither could it suffer pain; that the whole action is symbolic; and that we ourselves justify the Saviour’s method of expression as often as we call one tree “good” and another “bad,” and say that a third “ought” to bear fruit, while not much could be “expected of” a fourth.
3. In this word of sentence Jesus revealed His tenderness. It would have been a false and cruel kindness never to work any miracle except of compassion, and thus to suggest the inference that He could never strike, whereas indeed, before that generation passed away, He would break His enemies in pieces like a potter’s vessel.—Dean Chadwick.
Mar_11:14. That which does no service to Christ is found unworthy to render service to man (Luk_3:9).—J. A. Bengel.
Usefulness the sole test.—This fig tree was in some respects a good one. Its timber probably was sound; and as for its leaves, they were abundant. But a fruit tree is valued neither for its timber nor its foliage, but for its fruit. As with trees, so with everything else: the important question is, “What is their obvious purpose or final cause?” A building may be a very good thing in its way; it may be at once durable and ornamental. But if it is not subserving the purpose for which it was erected nor any purpose, what then? Simply this—Let it be “improved from off the face of the earth.” This is, I think, the dictum of common sense, as it certainly is the principle to which Jesus Christ gives a practical and concrete Amen! “No man eat fruit of thee hereafter for ever”; for thou art not meeting “the wants of the time.”—J. S. Swan.
Mar_11:15-17. Cleansing of the Temple.—From this narrative we learn—
1. The blinding force of self-interest, for doubtless they were no more sensible of their iniquity than many a modern slave-dealer. And we must never rest content because our own conscience acquits us, unless we have by thought and prayer supplied it with light and guiding.
2. Reverence for sacred places, since the one exercise of His royal authority which Jesus publicly displayed was to cleanse the Temple, even though upon the morrow He would relinquish it for ever, to be “your house”—and desolate.
3. How much apparent sanctity, what dignity of worship, splendour of offerings, and pomp of architecture, may go along with corruption and unreality!
4. The might of holy indignation, and the awakening power of a bold appeal to conscience.—Dean Chadwick.
Reverence due to Churches.—Man has two employments in the present scene: the one earthly, the other of heaven; the one pertaining to the body, the other to the soul. And as the world generally is the place where He treats with man, and makes provision for the well-being of the body, so is this the chief appointed place for the business of heaven, and for securing those advantages which are great, but unspeakable.
1. Here, to take the first point in our spiritual history, we are baptised. Born into the world in a state of sin, born mere worldly beings, only fitted for and having no heritage but the earth: hither we are brought by our believing parents and pious sponsors, and are made the children of grace. Ought we not, then, to feel an awful and deep interest in the place where we have been set free from Adam’s stain, and admitted to the light; where we have been delivered from the original curse, and obtained a blessing; where we have been saved from the bondage of the devil, and been made the free sons of God; where, in short, the utterly lost and ruined were reinstated in their heritage, and again placed in their native home?
2. Here, when our reason and understanding are in some degree developed, we approach the sacred fount of inspiration, and drink in knowledge from the oracles of God. Ought we not to listen with reverence, when although we behold nothing with our outward senses, but men like ourselves, and the ambassador is weak and unworthy to do his office, yet the King of kings is here by his side, and by so worthless an instrument speaks His commandment?
3. Here we profess to do Him homage, and to fall low on our knees before His footstool. We are to feel our dependence, we are to lean on His arm, we are to confide in His love, we are to be pierced with the conviction of our helplessness and His power, and our distress and longings are to find utterance in prayer. And then to such prayers and such convictions, to such sincerity and such earnestness, He represents Himself as listening eagerly. How should you be careful and reverent when here, and “keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God”! “My house is a house of prayer.” “There am I in the midst of them.”
4. Here is offered up that feast and sacrifice peculiar to Christians, which commemorate the sacrifice made on the Cross. We have temples erected, we have altars set up, we have priests ordained, in succession, from age to age, that this great rite, the crown and sum of our solemnities, may be duly administered, and never cease whilst the world stands. Here, then, is another reason for exceeding reverence, that here “we spiritually eat the flesh of Christ and drink His blood, we dwell in Christ and Christ in us, we are one with Christ and Christ with us.” Here is the Divine Victim, here the health and life of man, here the precious blood, here the strengthening and refreshing of souls. Oh, how reverently should we deal with and approach that house where the Son of God comes!
5. And shall I not add one other reason for affectionate yet solemn feeling towards the Churches of God?—that here the dead are lying, and that here are treasured up unto the dawn of the resurrection all the earthly remains of those you loved.
II. The methods by which we can shew that we have a becoming sense of God’s presence and majesty.—
1. If we have that respectful feeling which I have desired to inculcate, and which is pleasant to God, our hearts will be in a state of adoration and worship. We shall not permit, at least willingly, and if they intrude we shall strive against them, vain and idle thoughts or dreams from the world.
2. If the spirit of devotion fill the soul, it will make itself manifest in the outward gesture; for the body is the soul’s instrument, and complies with the biddings of that which dwells within, even the immortal part of us, whether it be for evil or for good.
3. When a man considers that this is God’s house; when he considers who God is; when he reflects on the purposes for which it is set apart, to be the audience chamber of the Almighty when He treats with man; that here he was reconciled to the Father, made a member of Christ, and sanctified by the Spirit; that here God speaks to him, as from His heavenly throne; that he may lay before Him here his supplications; that here our Saviour Jesus Christ comes by a mysterious presence; and that here are deposited the ashes of the dead,—he will desire the house of God to be in some degree worthy of its Divine Possessor. If an earthly prince choose to honour a subject, what expense is spared? What a cost of silver and gold, of gems and of raiment, of furniture and attendants. Ought the Almighty to be less honoured when He comes? Should His royal palace be less glorious?—J. M. Chanter.
Mar_11:15-16. The force of a Holy Personality.—The instrument which Christ wielded was the power inherent in sinlessness. That made cravens of these worldlings. The voice of His holy zeal, entering with the paramount influence of purity and truth, awoke long-slumbering echoes in souls case-hardened with unholy commerce, and drove them from the scene of profane gain.—S. D. F. Salmond.
Mar_11:15. Christ resorting to the Temple.—Being come to the city, He straightway entered into the Temple, either, as Gregory noteth, to declare “that the fault of the priests is the ruin of the people,” and therefore His principal care was to correct and reform them; or else to give all men an example of diligence in repairing to the house of God.—Archbishop Sandys.
Mar_11:16. A great principle vindicated.—It seems to have become a common practice for the Jews to take the implements of their daily toil with them into the Temple at the hours of devotion, and make the sacred inclosure a thoroughfare from one part of the city to another. There was no express ordinance interdicting such a practice, and in ordinary circumstances it might have seemed innocent enough to avail oneself of the short cut there provided. But it was at variance with the spirit in which the place was to be used, and Jesus could give it no licence. So uncompromising was the Son’s jealousy for the Father’s honour even in trivial circumstances and seemingly indifferent incidents! The principle here again illustrated is of the highest consequence. It means that in order to keep ourselves unspotted from the world it is necessary to cast off along with the evil itself everything auxiliary to it or connected with it. Innocence from the great transgression implies practised self-restraint, not merely against the profanity which is seen, but against its appliances, occasions, accompaniments—against all that looks like it, conduces to it, is in sympathy with it.—S. D. F. Salmond.
Mar_11:18. The Indestructible Jesus.—“Destroy Jesus.” How incredibly astounding these words sound in the ears of men who are accustomed to survey the world after it has been subjected for upwards of eighteen centuries to the uninterrupted presence of Jesus and the accumulating influences of Christianity! Yet they are words of a definite import: they are exact and significant enough; they announced a determination on the part of certain men, to which they were ready to give effect, and for the failure of which neither their wills nor their zeal may be held responsible.
I. To what extent could the purpose of the foes of Jesus succeed?—
1. They might succeed in disparaging His character and station before men. Their object is to prove that He is a blasphemer, a godless man, a rebel, an impostor.
2. Maliciously assaulting the person of Jesus was another step in the attainment of their merciless end.
3. Restraining His personal freedom was another step towards accomplishing their purpose.
4. A farther element in this series is the silencing of His tongue. They will hear its accusations no more; its severe utterances will grate on their feelings no more; no more will it publish before God and man their gross and wanton infidelity.
5. Another advance towards their full achievement is the torture they applied to His feelings. The arraigning, the accusation, the fearful perjury, the corrupt and vacillating judge, how must all these have wounded the spirit of the falsely accused! The barbarity, however, has not yet reached its height. Jesus heard them shout away His life, and shout out their preference of Barabbas to Himself.
6. Our next step takes us to the climax of this wicked purpose. They who had secured His condemnation felt that but one act was now wanting to perfect their design, and that they hasten to effect. As soon as the semblance and perversion of law permitted, they led Him away to crucify Him. They did crucify Him amid the cheering of hardened spectators, and to the ineffable delight of those who had contrived the plot which ended here.
(1) In that it was possible for Jesus to die lies the very basis of our redemption.
(2) In the death of Jesus promises of the deepest import to our race were accomplished.
(3) In the stooping of Jesus to death He knew our degradation in its farthest depth.
(4) In the death of Jesus lay His most sublime victory for men.
II. Some of the grand points in which the purpose of Jesus’ assailants was an entire and egregious failure.—
1. The very body of Jesus recovers its vitality.
2. The Deity that was within the destructible Temple they could not touch. 3. The violence of men against the person of Jesus could not frustrate or retard His designs.
4. The violent death of Jesus did not secure the permanence of the old Jewish establishment. Jesus was destroyed after the flesh, but lives again and lives for evermore; Judaism, in the very death of Jesus, expired, and has never since revived; it has vanished away, whilst Jesus abideth ever.
5. The success of the ungodly did not lead to the destruction of the new kingdom, or to the dethronement of Jesus.
In conclusion, to render the topic practically useful, we shall briefly indicate who they are that now sympathise with the unholy purpose we have been discussing, and also who they are who are in a living and sanctifying sympathy with the Indestructible Jesus.
1. To the first class belong—
(1) All such as are unbelievers in Jesus.
(2) Those who, however upright their outward life may be, yet, in spite of God’s commending His Son to them, remain utter worldlings.
(3) Where too must they rank who but partially receive the record that God gave of His ?Song of Solomon 2. But there are some that belong to the latter class whom we have no difficulty in identifying.
(1) Such as labour and pray daily to purify themselves as Christ is pure.
(2) The penitent, who in his grief and humiliation comes to Jesus Christ for pardon and peace.
(3) The Christian who leaves all and follows Jesus, who is content with deprivations, bereavements, and shame, that he may follow and serve Jesus, gives a most convincing proof of where his sympathies lie.
Truth divides men.—Truth always makes a division among men. Some think of nothing but to persecute and suppress it, while others admire, love, embrace, and practise it. It is a dreadful thing to see here who they are who take the resolution to destroy it, without doubt not imagining they were doing it, but really believing themselves on its side. There are some particular seasons in which it is almost necessary for a man to lie concealed in the crowd of people, to prevent his having any hand in the persecution of truth. That which a man is hindered from doing against it by nothing but fear alone is already done in the heart.—P. Quesnel.
Mar_11:19. The conservation of human energy.—In these days of high pressure, when the capital as well as the interest of life has often to be drawn upon, when we have to make such unnatural and excessive drains upon our energies, and when as a consequence our ailments are not specific diseases, nor organic maladies, but simply nervous exhaustion, loss of tone throughout the fibre of our constitution, the example of our Lord even in a purely physical way inculcates a most salutary lesson, urges upon us the solemn obligation to maintain the fabric of our energies in good repair. To preserve the conditions and to obey the commands of the laws of health, to exercise our force so as best to conserve it, to regard life as an inviolable unity, where hurt or loss to one member entails lack of energy or good condition on the rest, where such is the quick and constant sympathy of the various parts that disregard of the meanest involves the derangement and desecration of the whole—these simple intimations of common sense, little as at times we may wot, are yet the prime, the paramount obligations of Christianity.—D. Dickie.
Mar_11:20. The withered fig tree.—The real fig tree is the chosen people, planted by God in a chosen land. At the appointed time Jesus, the Messenger of the Father, has come to urge upon them penitence and faith. These are the fruits for which He hungered, and which He longed to gather. God strikes with death whatsoever of His favoured creatures has received His bounty and His care, His waiting and His love, in vain. All history is strewn with the remains of those works of man which the living Spirit of God has not builded, lying shattered under the blows of time. All history is cumbered with the dead bodies of those sterile beings who, though born of the breath of God, have not responded to His call, but have falsified His hopes for them. The very type of their decay is found in Judaism, withered to the roots. Incapable of producing any fruits of religion, it yet remains standing, shewing even in its barrenness the terrible malediction with which Jesus has weighed it down.—Father Didon.
Mar_11:22-24. The source of supernatural power.—All supernatural power has its source in absolute faith in God. He who is endued with perfect faith enters into communion with the Divine Being, and God makes him the instrument of His goodness and His power. If omnipotence has been granted to Jesus, it is because His humanity is permeated with the fulness of the Divine Spirit; in subordination to its sovereign control He executes unfailingly its wishes, its motions, and its works. What He Himself was, Jesus required of His disciples to become. “Then,” He said, “nothing will withstand you.” We should strangely misinterpret His words if we were to believe that the Spirit of God is at the beck and call of the caprice and vain desires of men. We must ask of God only His holy will; and in order to thoroughly enter into it we must pray—that is, we must make ourselves one with it in absolute self-denial. Then and then only will the Spirit of God inspire us with a good desire, the desire which is always listened to by God, for it comes from Him.—Ibid.
Mar_11:22. Faith in God is a living, dominant conviction concerning God, His being, His character and government. It is that act and habit of the soul by which the truth concerning God is drawn in from the distant regions of speculation and enthroned over the character and the life. It is an act of the whole mind: of the intellect, which sees; but also of the conscience, which responds; of the will, which chooses; of the heart, which fears and reveres, which loves and trusts. It is that act and habit of the soul by which the notion concerning God becomes a reality, the chief of realities, ever present, all controlling, the perfect object of fear, of service, and of love.—e.g. Andrews.
Faith in God means faith in the supremacy of good.—By this faith Christianity accomplished its successes at first; by this faith all great reforms have been carried on. It is faith, not only in God, but in man, as the child of God. It is the faith that man is capable of seeing truth and obeying it—capable of seeing the right and doing it. Thus, and thus alone, is evil overcome by good. We can only overcome the evil in ourselves in the same way—by faith that Jesus is really the Christ; therefore that goodness will at last rule in our souls, mould our consciences, lift us above temptation and evil.—J. F. Clarke.
Mar_11:23. Faith removing mountains.—The only mountains faith desires to remove are such as are substantial obstacles in the path of mercy. It is marvellous how many such have been removed,—enormous evils, like the slave-trade of seventy years ago, like slavery in America; degradation and superstition, like those holding the natives of New Guinea; pride and secularity, like that which seemed to make the conversion of the Roman Empire impossible. There is no impossibility to those who can lay hold on God.—R. Glover.
The spirit of doubt is the spirit of weakness.—It cripples the will, so that no life of high resolve is possible to it; it produces unrest and discontent; it looks always at the dark side of the picture; and its prevalence in this age largely accounts for that pessimism which, like a shadow, follows it into all its dreary and desolate places. Trace the social discontent, the destructive tendency of much of our literature, especially in the sphere of philosophy—the socialism, anarchism, and all the grumbling and rebelling against constitutional order and the law of the land,—trace these tendencies of our modern life to their source, and you will find there religious doubt, as one of the essential preconditions accounting to a large extent for what we see amongst a vast class of our population. For I maintain that when a nation or any large community forming part of its organic life loses faith in the verities of religion, when it is given over to the service of selfishness or halts between faith and unbelief, and when this tendency continues for any lengthened period, then there has begun the downward movement of national dismemberment and decay. But, on the other hand, the spirit of faith is the spirit of strength, so that all things are possible to him who believeth.—M. McLellan.
Mar_11:24. The conditions of effectual prayer.—
1. We must pray in truth—that is, we must ask for what we really wish. We must pray in spirit—that is, we must ask for the right thing.
3. We must pray in faith, believing that our prayers will be heard and answered.—J. F. Clarke.
Prayer and its answer.—“All things whatsoever ye pray and ask for, believe”—not that ye receive them, but “that ye have received them,” or, still more closely, “that ye received them,” “and ye shall have them.” The answer to the prayer is thus declared to be coincident with the prayer itself. The petition is granted at the very moment when it is framed; the blessing for which we look does not follow at some distant time through any outward events, but is given at once, when, with absolute, childlike trust, we lay the thoughts of our hearts open before our Father. Prayer, in a word, is the conscious and glad acceptance of God’s will for us when we have first endeavoured to estimate our own wants.—Bishop Westcott.
Confidence in prayer.—It is only when the heart is very childlike that its desires are pure and wise enough to be left with God, and faith strong enough to leave them. If there seem but few prayers answered, it only proves that there are few prayers offered. For it is only good prayers that can be really prayed. Many that we “say” do not lift our desires to God and lodge them in His heart. Let this word shew us how great a thing is prayer, and how great are its issues. The time for the answer is not pledged, and the manner of it may differ from what we expected; but if we really pray we shall be heard.—R. Glover.
Faith the substance of things hoped for.—He doth not say, “believe that ye shall receive them,” but that you do receive them, which plainly shews what kind of faith it is that He requires of us, even such a faith as is the very “substance of the things we hope for” (Heb_11:1), and gives a present being and substance to them. Faith is also “the evidence of things not seen.” As by it we enjoy what God hath promised, so by it we behold what He hath revealed to us, though never so much above our reason or beyond our sight.—Bishop Beveridge.
The power of believing prayer.—Prayer obtains grace, wisdom, strength, self-mastery, peace, all which the soul dares wish for, for time or eternity; but it obtains more—it gains God. O glorious prerogative of the faith of the simple peasant, ignorant of this world’s knowledge, but having access to Divine! O glorious compendium of Divine illumining, whereby, not as in a mirror nor by laborious process, the soul shall have all knowledge, and shall see the secret cause of all created things, in the light of God, in God! Even gifts of God could not satisfy that vast soul of man—no wisdom, no intelligence, nothing which has any bound or end. Prayer fills this void, which all creation, out of God, could not fill. Prayer is “the ascent of the soul to God”; it is the beginning of that blessed converse which shall be the exhaustless fulness of eternal bliss; it is the continuance or renewal of union with God.—E. B. Pusey, D.D.
Mar_11:25-26. Prayer and forgiveness.—To His promise Jesus adds a precept, the admirable suitability of which is not at first apparent. Most sins are made evident to the conscience in the act of prayer. Drawing nigh to God, we feel our unfitness to be there; we are made conscious of what He frowns upon; and if we have such faith as Jesus spoke of, we at once resign what would grieve the Spirit of adoption. No saint is ignorant of the convicting power of prayer. But it is not of necessity so with resentment for real grievances. We may think we do well to be angry. We may confound our selfish fire with the pure flame of holy zeal, and begin, with confidence enough, yet not with the mind of Christ, to remove mountains, not because they impede a holy cause, but because they throw a shadow upon our own field. And therefore Jesus reminds us that not only wonder-working faith but even the forgiveness of our sins requires from us the forgiveness of our brother.—Dean Chadwick.
God forgives us as we forgive others.—We know that when rain falls not upon hard rock but upon broken ground, in due time a mist ascends from the ground and clothes itself in the shape of clouds and returns in the form of showers, so that there is an action and reaction between the rich rain of heaven and the thin mists of earth. And in like manner there is a mutual interaction between God’s mercy to man and man’s mercy to his fellow: the first kindles the second, and the second rekindles the first; they produce and reproduce each other. This is an immutable moral law; therefore we pray, “Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us,” i.e. in the like spirit of forgiving love. But if the sense of Divine forgiveness produces in the contrite heart a readiness to forgive, remember that it is this readiness to forgive in you, this tenderness of heart in you, this spirit of love in you, which keeps ever flowing full and free the current of God’s forgiveness. That current may languish, dwindle, cease to flow; nay, from the sweet running water of love it may turn into a sullen pool of hate: it is, indeed, sure to stagnate in the stagnation of your faith and love. If you grow indifferent to your neighbour’s welfare, envious, malicious, vindictive, your soul, as it recedes from the desire to shew mercy, will precisely in the same degree recede from the power to receive mercy. See Mat_18:21-35.
Mar_11:26. Anger a bar to forgiveness.—What an inconsistency, to seek reconciliation with God while we ourselves are unreconciled to our neighbours! to seek to have our own sins remitted while we retain the sins of others! How can he who is “angry with his brother” hope to please God, since from the very beginning all such anger is prohibited? (Gen_4:6; Isa_1:10-15).—Tertullian.
Anger drives away the Spirit.—Anger is a passion which, if it be long cherished, drives away the Spirit. For how canst thou think that the dovelike Spirit of God will reside where the heart remains full of gall? or that the celestial flame of Divine love should burn bright and clear where there are so many thick fumes and vapours rising up to damp and choke it? Canst thou in faith pray for forgiveness who dost not thyself forgive? (Eph_4:26; 1Ti_2:8).—Bishop Hopkins.
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 11
Mar_11:13-14. Christ’s search for fruit.—When He comes He will turn up our leaves; and look that, like the tree of life (Rev_22:21), we bear fruit every month, or that we be like the lemon tree, which ever and anon sendeth forth new lemons as soon as the former are fallen down with ripeness; or the Egyptian fig tree, which, saith Solinus, beareth fruit seven times a year—pull off a fig and another breaks forth in the place shortly after.—J. Trapp.
Mar_11:15-17. Traffic im, holy places.—Descriptions left us of what used to take place in the great cathedrals of Europe—the commercial bustle, the exchange and barter, the hiring of servants, the transit of heavy market-produce, which went on familiarly in our own St. Paul’s less than three centuries ago—may help us to realise the state of matters suggested by these pregnant words.
Rebuke of irreverence.—When Walter Hook (Dean) was vicar of Coventry, he was once presiding at a vestry meeting which was so largely attended as to necessitate an adjournment to the church. Several persons kept their hats on. The vicar requested them to take them off, but they refused. “Very well, gentlemen,” he replied; “but remember that in this house the insult is not done to me, but to your God.” And the hats were immediately taken off.
Mar_11:22. “Have faith in God.”—There is something very interesting in looking at one of those triumphs of human ingenuity like the clock in Strasburg Cathedral, which tells not only the hours of the day, but shews all the motions of the moon and planets, foretells the eclipses, takes account of “leap year,” and performs a multitude of other curious manifestations of thought and contrivance. Could any one be so foolish as to doubt the power of its maker to alter some particular portion of its works? And yet why will men doubt the power of God, or refuse to permit Him to act as He sees fit? The laws of nature are His servants, and God is not the slave of His own rules.
Filial confidence.—The celebrated preacher Cecil once bade his little daughter cast a favourite necklace into the fire at his simple request. With tears in her eyes the child obeyed, and the next day her father brought her a jewel of far more value, and explained to her how God rewards the faith of those who trust in His wisdom and love.
Mar_11:23. “This mountain.”—We find in the prophetic writings the expressions, “The Mountain of the House of the Lord,” “The Mountain of the Lord’s House,” “The Holy Mountain”; and thus we may apply the epithet to the Temple of Jerusalem, with its noble buildings and golden roof, standing on the rocky heights of Mount Moriah. Perhaps our Lord, by some glance or gesture, made this meaning plain. The Mountain of the Lord’s House, the grand Sanctuary of ancient Israel, was the very sign and figure of the Old Dispensation, which was in its character concentrated, local, and centralised—one God, one nation, one Temple, one law. But Jesus Christ came to alter and change, to widen and enlarge the Covenant of Grace, to unlock the gates of mercy, to welcome in the wanderers, to stretch out the cords of the Heavenly Tabernacle, so that all nations might enter in, to break down the wall of partition, and to make His organisation, the Catholic Church, embrace all nations and kindreds and people. This great change He declares in prophetic words. This Mountain was to be removed, this Jewish religion was to be transferred from its local home on the rocky height of Jerusalem, and it was to be cast “into the sea.” “The sea,” in the language of prophetic symbols, means the nations, the Gentiles, the various races of men. Our Lord’s words were fulfilled when, under Divine inspiration, St. Peter baptised the Roman Cornelius and his family; when St. Paul said, “Lo, we turn to the Gentiles”; when St. James gave sentence, “Trouble not the Gentiles which believe, with the Mosaic restrictions.”—Dr. Hardman.
Stages of faith.—We are told that a piece of iron probably becomes a magnet by a sort of polarised arrangement of its molecules, but that this polarised or magnetised condition cannot be maintained at very high temperatures. Now it is observed that if a magnet is put into the fire it heats to redness like any other piece of iron, but that when it has reached a certain temperature, though still in the fire, it grows almost suddenly less red and less hot, after which it gradually regains its heat and redness, and goes forward to whiteness, and melting like any other piece of iron; but it is no longer a magnet. An internal and invisible alteration in its own structure has taken place, and the expenditure of energy upon the change in its own molecular constitution, in the process of being demagnetised, has been such as not merely to arrest its progressive heating, but more or less to chill it in the midst of the fire. Yet it is true that the magnet could not have become white hot without passing through this constitutional change, and what appeared like retrogression was really a necessary stage of progress. Is not this in very striking analogy with what happens in the history of many a soul? and if so, is not doubt in those souls a stage in the growth of faith?
Prayer and the laws of nature.—Our faith is, that God hears His creatures’ prayers, as to everything which concerns their well-being, and specifically as to those changes, upon which even life so often depends, as it is good for us. Now neither science nor theology has any right to set these two beliefs in contradiction to each other. They can be harmonised. Professor Tyndall’s argument, that the fixity of laws precludes God’s hearing our prayers in this respect, would, if pressed (as he doubtless would not press it) equally militate against any belief in God’s providence. For those who believe in God’s providence must believe that those fixed laws (if they exist) were adapted in their marvellous variations, or at least in some of their more striking coincidences, to the moral condition of moral agents. All Europe was electrified by the shock of that terrific Russian winter which destroyed the great army of Napoleon I. If the laws upon which that extreme cold depended were laws fixed (as Professor Tyndall must hold) in all eternity, then, if we believe in God’s providence, we must believe that God, in all eternity, adapted them to that end in His moral government which they subserved, whatever that end was. And if those fixed laws (supposing them to exist) could be adapted to that act of Napoleon I. which they served to chasten, although Napoleon was free to invade Russia or not to invade it, then equally the same fixed laws (if they exist) may be so adapted in all eternity to our foreseen moral condition, that any other scourges which (like the cholera, plague, locusts) are brought upon man for his moral discipline, without violation of those laws, may equally, without violation of those laws, be, on man’s repentant prayer, removed The adaptation of the supposed fixed laws, to our praying or not praying, our repenting or not repenting, has no other difficulty than their adaptation to any other part of our moral character which is equally free.—E. B. Pusey, D.D.
God’s control of nature.—There is a remarkable note in Darwin’s Botanic Garden (Canto iv., l. 320), in which the author conjectures that changes of wind may depend on some minute chemical cause, which, if it were discovered, might probably, like other chemical causes, be governed by human agency. Whatever may be thought of the probability of this anticipation being realised, it is at least sufficient to suggest one reflexion. If atmospheric changes may conceivably, without any violation of natural law, be brought under the control of man, may they not now, equally without violation of natural law, be under the control of God? And are we so fully informed of the manner of God’s working with regard to these contingent phenomena of nature, as to know for certain that He can never exercise such a control for purposes connected with His moral government?—Dean Mansel.
Mar_11:25-26. Necessity of forgiving spirit.—In the Middle Ages, when the lords and knights were always at war with each other, one of them resolved to revenge himself on a neighbour who had offended him. It chanced that, on the very evening when he had made this resolution, he heard that his enemy was to pass near his castle, with only a very few men with him. It was a good opportunity to take his revenge, and he determined not to let it pass. He spoke of his plan in the presence of his chaplain, who tried in vain to persuade him to give it up. The good man said a great deal to the duke about the sin of what he was going to do, but in vain. At length, seeing that all his words had no effect, he said, “My lord, since I cannot persuade you to give up this plan of yours, you will at least come with me to the chapel, that we may pray together before you go.” The duke consented, and the chaplain and he kneeled together in prayer. Then the mercy-loving Christian said to the revengeful warrior, “Will you repeat after me, sentence by sentence, the prayer which our Lord Jesus Christ Himself taught to His disciples?” “I will do it,” replied the duke. He did it accordingly. The chaplain said a sentence, and the duke repeated it, till he came to the petition, “Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us.” There the duke was silent. “My lord duke, you are silent,” said the chaplain. “Will you be so good as to continue to repeat the words after me, if you dare to do so: ‘Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us’?” “I cannot,” replied the duke. “Well, God cannot forgive you, for He has said so. He Himself has given us this prayer. Therefore you must either give up your revenge or give up saying this prayer; for to ask God to pardon you as you pardon others is to ask Him to take vengeance on you for all your sins. Go now, my lord, and meet your, victim God will meet you at the great day of judgment.” The iron will of the duke was broken. “No,” said he, “I will finish my prayer. My God, my Father, pardon me; forgive me as I desire to forgive him who has offended me; ‘lead me not into temptation, but deliver me from evil.’ ” “Amen,” said the chaplain. “Amen,” repeated the duke, who now understood the Lord’s Prayer better than he had ever done before, since he had learned to apply it to himself.
Christian treatment of enemies.—A poor widow, who was a washerwoman, partly depended for support upon the produce of her garden. In it was a peach tree, the fruit of which was coveted by some boys of the village. Accordingly one night they entered the garden to rob the tree. The widow had, however, made a timely gathering of her fruit that day. In revenge for their disappointment the wicked lads turned some swine into the garden, who by morning had wrought havoc among the poor woman’s vegetables, and made her suffer in consequence through the winter. In looking at the desolation she picked up a knife with a name engraved on the handle. It was the name of a village boy whom she knew, and whom she thus recognised as the cause of her loss. However, nothing was said about the matter. During the ensuing months a revival took place in the village in question, and among those who became convicted of sin was the owner of the knife. Becoming converted, he obeyed his conscience by going to the widow and confessing the wrong he had done her. Thereupon she told him she had long known it, and shewed him bis knife. “But why did you not inform upon me, and make me pay the damage?” he asked. “There was a more excellent way,” she said; “I took that.” “What was it?” asked the lad. “To pray for you, in accordance with the Master’s directions.” So the widow had her revenge.
Christian feeling towards enemies.—At Tamatave, on the eve of the bombardment (by the French), all the natives, from the governor downwards, were at a prayer-meeting, and “there were no prayers for the lives of their enemies, and no cries for vengeance upon them. Prayers for a righteous vindication, for guidance, for faith to trust where they could not see, and for eventual peace and goodwill, were the only petitions.”
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
William B. Godbey 1900 · Public Domain Mat 21:18-19; Mar 11:12-14. “And on the following day,…
THE BARREN FIG-TREE
Mat 21:18-19; Mar 11:12-14. “And on the following day, they having come out from Bethany, He was hungry.” Doubtless He had enjoyed the kind hospitality of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus, the hunger here mentioned being simply an appetite for some good figs, as they were very scarce in that time of the year, April 11th, as they ripen in the summer and fall. “And seeing a fig-tree afar off having leaves, He came, if perchance He shall find something on it; and having come to it, He found nothing but leaves; for it was not the time of figs. Responding, He said to it, Let no one ever eat fruit from thee. And His disciples were hearing.” Matthew says the fig-tree immediately withered away. Why did He go to it if it was not the fruit season?
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a. As this was early in April, and the figs do not ripen till summer and fall, it was not the time of fruit.
b. The fact of its grand foliage was calculated to impress the traveler that it belonged to the species known as winter figs, which hold their fruit tough the winter, which is there very mild, and ripen it in the spring. Hence the nice, full foliage, indicating a healthful condition, led Him to expect ripe figs on it, having survived the winter, and now ready and delicious for eating. We must not conclude that the man Jesus always utilized the God Jesus, especially in the small affairs of life; as in that case He would have known that there was no fruit before He went.
c. There are some trees belonging to all the fruitful genera which do not produce fruit. This was one of the non-fruit-bearing species, and consequently not only worthless, but deceptive.
d. The foliage of a tree is the advertisement of its vitality and consequent fruitfulness, corresponding to the profession of a Christian.
e. Here is a tree with full foliage and no fruit, never had borne any, and never would; but by its copious leaves attracting people to it only to be disappointed. Hence it is not pertinent that it cumber the ground, and absorb the fertility away from fruit-bearing trees. So Jesus pronounces on it a woe, and it withers away instantaneously.
f. This is an awful warning to hypocrites, who make a loud profession, but have no spiritual fruit, which is experimental and practical holiness. The meaning of this transaction is, that though you may occupy a prominent place in the Church, and make ever so loud profession, without holiness, you are destined to wither away and abide the fate of all dead trees, which is to be burned with fire. The Lord help us all to profit by the fate of the barren fig-tree, which so suddenly withered away! The time is at hand when all who do not bear the fruit of holiness shall wither away so suddenly that all will be astonished, as the disciples were in case of the fig- tree.
g. The Jewish Church and people are often compared to a fig-tree. Hence the withering of this fig-tree, because it bore no fruit, symbolized the terrible fate destined so quickly and decisively to overtake and even annihilate the Jewish polity.
William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. W. McGarvey 1914 · Public Domain J. W. McGarvey's The Fourfold Gospel [CVI. The Barren…
J. W. McGarvey's The Fourfold Gospel [CVI. The Barren Fig-Tree].
CVI. BARREN FIG-TREE. TEMPLE CLEANSED. (Road from Bethany and Jerusalem. Monday, April 4, A. D. 30.) aMATT. XXI. 18, 19, 12, 13; bMARK XI. 12-18; cLUKE XIX. 45-48.
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b12 And a18 Now bon the morrow [on the Monday following the triumphal entry], ain the morning bwhen they were come out from Bethany, aas he returned to the city [Jerusalem], he hungered. [Breakfast with the Jews came late in the forenoon, and these closing days of our Lord's ministry were full of activity that did not have time to tarry at Bethany for it. Our Lord's hunger implies that of the disciples also.] 19 And seeing a fig tree by the way side, bafar off having leaves, ahe came to it, bif haply he might find anything thereon: and when he came to it, [580] he afound nothing but leaves only; bfor it was not the season of figs. [Two varieties of figs are common in Palestine. The bicura or boccore, an early fig with large green leaves and with fruit which ripens in May or June, and sometimes earlier near Jerusalem. Thomson found ripe fruit of this variety as early as May in the mountains of Lebanon, a hundred fifty miles north of Jerusalem, and Professor Post, of Beyrut, states that fig-trees there have fruit formed as early as February, which is fully ripe in April. The second variety is the summer fig or kermus. This ripens its main crop in August, but its later fruitage often hangs on all winter when the weather is mild, dropping off when the new spring leaves come. As the fruit usually appears before the leaves, the leaves were a promise that fruit might be found, and the fruit, though not perfectly ripe, is considered edible when the leaves are developed. Though it was too early for fruit, it was also too early for leaves. The tree evidently had an unusually favorable position. It seemed to vaunt itself by being in advance of the other trees, and to challenge the wayfarer to come and refresh himself.] 14 And he answered and said { asaith unto it, Let there be no fruit from thee henceforward for ever. bNo man eat fruit of thee henceforward for ever. And his disciples heard it. aAnd immediately the fig tree withered away. [The disciples did not pause to watch the effect of Christ's words upon the tree. But from the degree to which it had shriveled when they saw it next day it became evident to them that it had begun to wither as soon as Christ had finished uttering its sentence. Our Lord here performed a miracle of judgment unlike any other of his wonderful works. The reader can hardly fail to note how perfectly this fig-tree, in its separation from the other trees, its showy pretensions, its barrenness of results and its judgment typifies the Jewish people. In fact, Christ's treatment of it appears in some respects to be a visible and practical application of the principles which he had formerly set forth in a parable ( Luk_13:6-9). But we must not too confidently make such an application of the parable since Jesus himself gave [581] no hint that he intended us so to apply it.] b15 And they come to Jerusalem: and he entered into the temple, and began to cast out aall them that sold band them that bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold the doves [three years before, Jesus had thus cleansed the temple at the first passover of his ministry, for an account of which see Mat_12:29, Luk_17:31. The LXX. uses it as equivalent to "instruments of war" at Deu_1:41, and to "vestments" at Deu_22:5.] 17 And he taught, and said { asaith c46 Saying unto them, It is written [the prophecy cited is a combination of Isa_56:7, Jer_7:11], { bIs it not written, cAnd my house shall be bshall be called a house of prayer for all the nations? but ye have made aye make it a den of robbers. [The caves in certain sections of Palestine have been immemorially infested with robbers, and Jesus, because of the injustice of extortion practiced by the merchants, likens the polluted temple to such a den. The dickering and chafing and market talk were probably not unlike the grumbling and quarreling of thieves as they divide the booty.] b18 And the chief priests and the scribes heard it, and sought how they might destroy him: for they feared him, c47 And he was teaching daily in the temple. But the chief priests and the scribes and the principal men of the people sought to destroy him: 48 and they could not find what they might do; for the people all hung upon him, listening bfor all the people was astonished at his teaching. [Overawed by the magnitude [582] of the popular demonstration made on Sunday, the Jewish rulers feared to attempt any violent measures in dealing with Jesus. But they neglected no opportunity by appeals to Jesus himself, by treacherous questions, etc., to divert the popular favor from the Lord that they might put him to death.]
[FFG 580-583]
J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain The Miracle of the Fig-Tree.
The Miracle of the Fig-Tree.
The curse upon the tree:
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v. 12. And on the morrow, when they were come from Bethany, He was hungry;
v. 13. and seeing a fig-tree afar off having leaves, He came, if haply He might find anything thereon; and when He came to it, He found nothing but leaves; for the time of figs was not yet.
v. 14. And Jesus answered and said unto it, No man eat fruit of thee hereafter forever. And His disciples heard it.
So eager, so concerned, was Jesus about the work of His ministry and about various other matters that had come to His attention that He did not even take time to eat on Monday morning. On their way from Bethany to Jerusalem He felt the pangs of hunger. There was a fig-tree growing by the side of the road, which was in full foliage, though the season was early. But when Jesus went over to it, either to find some of last year’s late figs, which sometimes matured in the spring, or to find fruit of the new crop, He was disappointed. All the strength of the tree had gone into foliage; there were no figs. This tree was a type and picture of the Jewish people, and Christ’s purpose in performing this peculiar miracle was to bring the attention of His disciples to that fact. The Jews also had the form of godliness, while they denied its power. Three years the Lord had worked in the midst of this nation, in the North and ill the South, but there was little evidence of any Jesuits. The great majority of the people wanted nothing of the Messiah. There was much profession of religion, much boasting of being God’s own, peculiar people, but no real, tangible proof of a worship in spirit and ill truth. And so this nation, which God had chosen as His own, would become subject to the curse, just as Jesus here pronounced the curse upon its type, the barren fig-tree. Mark notes that the disciples heard the words of Jesus as He spoke to the tree.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 11:12-25 In the synoptic Gospels, Jesus’ messianic entry into…
11:12-25 In the synoptic Gospels, Jesus’ messianic entry into Jerusalem is intimately associated with the cleansing of the Temple (see 11:15-17; cp. Matt 21:1-17; Luke 19:28-48). In John, however, the account of the cleansing is recorded early in Jesus’ ministry (John 2:13-22). It is uncertain whether there were two separate cleansings of the Temple (an early event recorded in John and this later event recorded in Matthew, Mark, and Luke) or just one cleansing recorded at different places by John and the synoptic writers. • In Mark’s account, the cursing of the fig tree (Mark 11:12-14, 20-25) forms an inclusio (bookends) around the cleansing of the Temple (11:15-19). Mark thus indicates that Jesus’ cleansing of the Temple should be interpreted in light of his cursing of the fig tree—as an act of judgment rather than reformation.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.