28 One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?” 29 “The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ 31 The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.” 32 “Well said, teacher,” the man replied. “You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. 33 To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.” 34 When Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And from then on no one dared ask him any more questions.

Mark 12:28-34

Do you see yourself as a revolutionary, striding out to radically alter the world we live in?  Do you see yourself as a messenger, bringing a message of hope to the world?  Do you get excited about your faith?  If you’re a Christian, then you should!  The world may see the Christian message as dull, dry and boring.  Some may see the Gospel message we proclaim as irrelevant and pointless.  Many may mock us for what we believe.  The truth is, though, that the Gospel, the good news, that we believe is earth-shattering.  It is immensely powerful.  If every Christian sought to faithfully follow the teachings of Christ as they went about their daily lives, there really would be a global revolution for peace and love, respect and kindness.

In today’s passage, we see Jesus, in a few simple words, teaching one of the most incredible messages of the entire Bible.  We see here Jesus announcing a “love revolution.”

At the beginning of this passage, Jesus is asked by a scribe, an expert on the Jewish law, “which commandment is the greatest of all?” Many over the generations had found themselves tied up in knots trying to decide what the most fundamental of God’s rules is.  Jesus replies with great simplicity that the most important commandment is, “you shall love the Lord your God with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.” Jesus neatly wraps all of the teaching of the Old Testament, the entirety of God’s message for the world, this simple commandment: just love God. That’s it. Just love him. If you do that, then all the other laws and commandments will be fulfilled.

Of course, loving is not always that easy. If we say we love another person, we put them first in everything, we place their needs above our own, we do everything within our power to make them happy. We certainly don’t betray them, lie to them, cheat on them or neglect them. This is the same attitude we should have with our relationship with God. Do we put him first in everything, or do we neglect him? Is every fibre of our being, our soul, our mind and our strength, dedicated to loving God? Or is loving God something that we do on a Sunday morning, and then forget about the rest of the week? If we really love God, if we really do make loving him our first priority, then our relationship with him will underpin our entire lives; what we do, what we think, what we say. Every waking minute should be dedicated to displaying our love for God; listening to him, talking to him, and striving to live out his commands in our lives.

How do we do this, though? How, practically, do we show that God is our first priority? Jesus addresses this point in the next section of this passage, when he says that the second commandment is, “you shall love your neighbour as yourself.” If the best way to serve God is to follow his commandments, we can demonstrate our love for God by loving those around us: not just our literal neighbours, those who live near us, but also our friends, our family, our work colleagues, people at our Church, people we see in the gym, people we see as we pay for our parking. In short, we show our love for God by loving all those we encounter.

Sometimes, it can be hard to love our neighbours. How do we love that irritating person in our office? How do we love the person who cuts us up whilst we’re driving? How do we show love to the person in the supermarket who grabs the last bag of Braeburns? At the most basic level we love them by liking them, by not getting irritated or angry, by seeking to serve them. Go for a coffee with that irritating guy at work. Let that driver who is trying to cut us up pull in in front of us. Offer that last bag of apples to our fellow customer. These are all small things, but if we all based our actions on loving our neighbours, if we all sought to demonstrate love in everything we did, the world would be a remarkably different place. Homes would be happier. Offices less stressful. Wars would be a thing of the past. A world in which every action taken is based on love for other people seems like a pipe dream, but as Christians, we are called to be the vanguard. Even if we are the only people in the world who live this way, we can transform it with our actions. There are two billion Christians in the world. That’s a lot of us to bring about a love revolution!

Within this verse, there’s an assumption that is often overlooked. Jesus says, “you shall love your neighbour as yourself,” the assumption being that we love ourselves. Sadly, this is not always the case. Over the last few years, I have met so many people who not only don’t love themselves, but actively hate themselves. They feel inadequate, useless, worthless. They hide themselves away, they tell themselves that they are a burden on those around them, and that no-one could possibly love them. Sometimes they cut themselves, and sometimes they even consider taking their own lives. This is one of the greatest sorrows of the world today.

Perhaps you feel this way about yourself. If you don’t, then I will guarantee that at least one of your close friends does. You’d be surprised at how many people do. The truth is, though, that God loves every single person on this planet. When he created the human race, he saw that his creation was “very good;” everything else he made he thought was simply “good.” He loves us so much that, even though throughout our history we have demonstrated hate towards him, he sent his son to die for us, for you and for me, so that we could once again be brought into his arms. God doesn’t see us as worthless, or useless, or hateful; he loves us, and that is a remarkable thing. It’s also true that, despite what we may think, there are people around us who love us passionately. Our lives have touched the lives of others more than we will ever know. We matter to our family and our friends. We have value and worth in their eyes, even if we can’t see it ourselves.

Sometimes we can get bogged down in theology. We wonder whether women should be allowed to be vicars or bishops. We struggle with how to deal with our best friend who has just come out as gay. We worry about whether we should allow a yoga class to use our Church hall. When we dwell on issues like these, being a Christian can seem really hard, if not impossible. In this section of Mark’s Gospel, however, Jesus condenses all of the teachings of the Church into just two commandments; love God, and love each other. That’s what is at the heart of our faith. Sometimes even fulfilling these commandments can seem hard, but if we all strived to live them out in the world, if we put love at the heart of our lives and everything we do, we could transform the world. If all two billion Christians sought to live out the message of this passage, we really would start a love revolution. So let’s do it!

“Give unto Caesar what is Caesar’s”

13 Later they sent some of the Pharisees and Herodians to Jesus to catch him in his words. 14 They came to him and said, “Teacher, we know that you are a man of integrity. You aren’t swayed by others, because you pay no attention to who they are; but you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. Is it right to pay the imperial tax to Caesar or not? 15 Should we pay or shouldn’t we?” But Jesus knew their hypocrisy. “Why are you trying to trap me?” he asked. “Bring me a denarius and let me look at it.” 16 They brought the coin, and he asked them, “Whose image is this? And whose inscription?” “Caesar’s,” they replied. 17 Then Jesus said to them, “Give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.” And they were amazed at him. 18 Then the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him with a question. 19 “Teacher,” they said, “Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies and leaves a wife but no children, the man must marry the widow and raise up offspring for his brother. 20 Now there were seven brothers. The first one married and died without leaving any children. 21 The second one married the widow, but he also died, leaving no child. It was the same with the third.22 In fact, none of the seven left any children. Last of all, the woman died too. 23 At the resurrection whose wife will she be, since the seven were married to her?” 24 Jesus replied, “Are you not in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God? 25 When the dead rise, they will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven. 26 Now about the dead rising—have you not read in the Book of Moses, in the account of the burning bush, how God said to him, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? 27 He is not the God of the dead, but of the living. You are badly mistaken!”

Mark 12:13-27

Last summer, on August 13th to be precise, I married my beautiful fiancee, Claire, at Ballynafeigh Methodist Church in Belfast.  It was the happiest day of my life.  Not only was I marrying the woman of my dreams, but all my family and friends were gathered around me, and, to cap it all off, the weather was stunning, which was certainly not a given in Northern Ireland!  Since we got married in a Methodist Church, after we signed the documentation, it had to be taken to the Belfast Records Office within three days for the wedding to be legalised.  Whilst our wedding was binding in the eyes of God and the Church, the state needed to put their stamp on it before they recognised it.  For us, the most important aspect of our marriage was that the ceremony was solemnised before God, but we recognised the necessity of the state making it “official.”

In our current reading, we see both the issue of marriage and the state being raised in an attempt to trick Jesus.  Two questions are posed that are intended to catch Jesus out in the hope that he would say something that would leave him open to arrest, or show him up in front of the many people who were following him.  As we might expect, both questions failed in their intent.

The first question is concerned with the payment of taxes to Caesar.  The unlikely pairing of the Pharisees with the Herodians was without doubt aiming to cause trouble for Jesus.  They approached him in a very crafty manner, calling him “Teacher,” telling him that they knew he was an honest and trustworthy person, and seeming to ask him to settle a dispute that the two groups had.  Whilst the Pharisees, as devout Jews, would have been dubious about paying taxes to their Roman overlords, the Herodians, who were little more than puppets for the Roman control of Judea, would have advocated coughing up.  Behind this question, however, we can see their true purpose; they were trying to catch Jesus out.  If he said that the people should pay their taxes to Caesar, he would lose face with those who followed him, many of whom were strongly opposed to giving anything to the Romans.  If, on the other hand, he said that people should withhold their taxes, he risked certain arrest for treason.  It seemed to them like they had presented Jesus with a question that would implicate him in one way or another.

Jesus surprised both groups with his answer.  He probably did not have a coin to his name, but he asked them to give him one.  They did just that, and Jesus pointed to the face on the coin.  Whose face was this, he asked?  It was plain for them all to see that it was Caesar’s face.  Well, then, Jesus said, give to Caesar what belongs to him.  To God, though, they must give what belongs to God.  By drawing attention to the image on the coin, Jesus also rather neatly drew attention to our own image; if taxes have to be paid to Caesar because coins are created in his image, what should we give to God?  The answer implicit in Jesus’ statement is that we should give to God what is in God’s image.  Genesis 1:26-27 states:

Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”  So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.

We are created in God’s image.  We need to give ourselves to God.  All around him, people were coming to the temple to offer sacrifices to God, but things were changing, that was not what God was interested in any more.  He wanted people to turn to him, obey him, and give their lives to him.  Paul outlines this idea in Romans 12:1 when he states, “therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God – this is your true act of worship.”

What Jesus is not telling those listening was that they must slavishly obey those who are governing them.  It is true that Paul said:

Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established.  The authorities that exist have been established by God.  Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgement on themselves.  (Romans 13:1-2).

It is clear from Peter and John’s example in Acts, however, that there are limits to this.  When the Sanhedrin warns the apostles not to speak any more of Jesus, they reply:

“Which is right in God’s eyes: to listen to you, or to him?  You be the judges!  As for us, we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.” (Acts 4:19-20).

They know that the Sanhedrin has been established by God, but they also recognise that when it is running contrary to God’s will, they need to resort to the higher authority; God himself.  It’s a bit like a department manager at work telling you to do something that runs contrary to the wishes of the CEO – the CEO’s word is final.

So, just as when Claire and I had to follow the law of the land and register our marriage at the registry office, even though we were already married in God’s eyes, since the law did not run contrary to Biblical teaching, we had to obey.

Marriage is the topic of the next question that Jesus was posed, this time by the Sadducees.  The Sadducees had some interesting beliefs.  They based their whole religion on the pentateuch, or the five books of Moses.  Luke records in Acts that, “the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, and that there are neither angels nor spirits, but the Pharisees believe all these things” (Acts 23:8).  By asking Jesus about the resurrection, the Sadducees were testing Jesus to see which side of the argument he came down on, and, specifically, to see if he sided with their arch rivals, the Pharisees.  The question they asked relates to a levirate marriage, which obliges a brother to marry the widow of his childless deceased brother, as per the instructions of Deuteronomy 25:5-10 and Genesis 38:8.  Surely, the Sadducees imply, if this is an instruction that God has laid down for his people, there can’t be a resurrection?  Otherwise who would the woman be married to?

Once again, though, Jesus manages to confound his audience with the response he gives.  He turns the question right back on the Sadducees and tells them that they are completely wrong and that they have a weak understanding of the power of God, and a poor knowledge of Scripture.  This last accusation would have hurt, since it was Scripture that they believed they had based their beliefs on.  Jesus refers them to the time when Moses encountered the burning bush, and God told him, “I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob” (Exodus 3:6).  God didn’t say that he was but that he is. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were clearly long dead, but in God’s eyes they were still in some sense alive, otherwise how could he be their God now?  God is not the God of the dead Jesus said, but the God of the living.

The idea of resurrection that the Sadducees present to Jesus is, Jesus explains, totally false.  They’re viewing heaven in a particular way, but that way is inaccurate.  There won’t be any marriage in heaven.  When the dead rise, they will be like angels.  Jesus does not fully elaborate here what this means, but there is no doubt that this statement would have further infuriated the Sadducees who, as we have seen, not only did not believe in resurrection, but did not believe in angels either!

In this one passage, we see Jesus tackling two questions that were designed to catch him out, but he does not fall into either trap.  In answering the first question, he tells us that we have to give to God what is God’s.  Since he identified the coin as belonging to Caesar since it bore his likeness, he implies that, since we are created in the image of God, we have to give ourselves to God.  Our first loyalty is to him.  When there is no contradiction between God’s commands and the commands of those in authority over us in this life, we also have an obligation to be good citizens, and to respect our rulers.  In the second, Jesus demonstrates the danger of bringing our own, earthly understanding to the ways of God.  If we rely on our own understanding rather than trusting in God, we will generally come to the wrong conclusion.  If we trust in God, we accept that there are things that we do not understand, but, since he wants what is best for all of us, he will not let us down.  I find that rather reassuring; I love my wife, and the thought of not being married to her in the resurrection is a little disappointing.  Ultimately, though, I know that God has great things in store for us, and that heaven will be even better than being married!

 Header image © copyright Eric Jones and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence

By Whose Authority?

27 They arrived again in Jerusalem, and while Jesus was walking in the temple courts, the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders came to him. 28 “By what authority are you doing these things?” they asked. “And who gave you authority to do this?” 29 Jesus replied, “I will ask you one question. Answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I am doing these things.30 John’s baptism—was it from heaven, or of human origin? Tell me!” 31 They discussed it among themselves and said, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will ask, ‘Then why didn’t you believe him?’ 32 But if we say, ‘Of human origin’ …” (They feared the people, for everyone held that John really was a prophet.) 33 So they answered Jesus, “We don’t know.” Jesus said, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.”

Mark 11:27-33

As a regular at the cinema, I object to the outrageous price of Pick ‘n’ Mix that cinema chains charge, as you might have seen if you read the last article in our “Mark Marathon” series.  Now, imagine if one day I got so angry about the issue that I started turning over the sweet counter and tipping over the cash desk.  I should imagine that if I did this, it would not take long for the cinema manager to come over and demand to know what I thought I was doing.  They’d think I’d gone mad and tell me that I had no right to act in this way.  If I told them that I was a senior executive of the company and that I was unhappy with how they were ripping our customers off, they would be in a bit of a quandary.  Surely a senior executive would not act this way in a cinema, would he?  If they didn’t believe me, they might face the wrath of their boss if I was telling the truth.  Do they believe me and accept that they have been ripping off their punters, or do they think I’m bluffing?

This passage from Mark’s Gospel sees the religious leaders facing an even more problematic situation.  Jesus has just gone through the Temple, tipping over tables, shouting, and generally causing trouble.  There is no doubt that they would be enraged by this; they would have suffered embarrassment, and would almost certainly have lost money as a consequence of Jesus’ actions.  Just who did this man think he was?  He had no right to do this!  It didn’t take too long for representatives of the Sanhedrin, which comprised the chief priests, teachers of the law and the elders, to approach Jesus to demand what gave him the right to act the way that he had.  For them, it was a matter of authority.  They had been given authority to run the Temple, and this guy lacked any authority to act in the way that he had.

Jesus answers them with a question: were the actions of John the Baptist from God, or was he acting solely on his own initiative?  This presented the Sanhedrin with a problem.  John the Baptist was a hugely popular figure, attracting significant numbers of followers.  Indeed, Mark tells us that “the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him” (Mark 1:5).  His popularity was not really surprising; he was regarded as the first prophet for over a thousand years, and was building up expectation of the imminent arrival of the promised messiah.  John was a thorn in the sides of the religious leaders – he spoke out against them, memorably describing a group of Pharisees and Sadducees as a “brood of vipers” (Matthew 3:7), but was clearly popular with the people.  If the Sanhedrin answered Jesus by saying that John was not from God, they faced a huge backlash from their people who would be outraged that their own religious leaders did not accept John’s identity.  If they accepted that John was indeed a representative of God, then they faced an even more difficult situation; they would effectively be accepting that Jesus was also of God.

At this stage it’s worth turning back briefly to the beginning of Mark’s gospel.  Here we witness the ministry of John the Baptist.  He announced the arrival of the messiah, proclaiming “prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him” (Mark 1:3), and stating that “after me comes the one more powerful than I, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie.  I baptise you with water, but he will baptise you with the Holy Spirit” (Mark 1:7-8).  A little later, Jesus himself appears and is baptised by John.  Immediately after his baptism a voice announced from heaven, “you are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.” (Mark 1:11).  All of this activity pointed to the fact that Jesus was the promised messiah, whom the Jewish people had been eagerly awaiting for centuries.  The problem for the religious leaders of the day is that they had not responded to John the Baptist’s call to “repent and believe the good news” (Mark 1:15); instead, they had continued in exactly the same manner that they had always done, ripping off the people and corrupting the Temple, which is what aroused Jesus’ anger that we witnessed in the last article on this series.  The greater problem, though, was that John had pointed to Jesus as the messiah.  If John was indeed a prophet of God, then Jesus must in fact be the messiah, and so he would indeed have authority over the religious leaders and the Temple.

Facing a lose-lose situation, the Sanhedrin fudge the issue and avoid giving in answer, preferring the non-committal “we don’t know” that we see in verse 33.  Since they refused to answer Jesus’ question, he refuses to answer theirs.  Instead, he speaks to them in a parable, which we’ll reflect on in the next article in this series.  From this incident, though, it is becoming clear to the Sanhedrin that Jesus is going to be a real issue for them; they simply do not know how to respond to him.  If they accept that he is who he says he is, then they lose face and risk their elevated positions in Jewish society, since their behaviour will be revealed.  If they dismiss him, they risk enraging the people whom they claim to lead and, potentially, if Jesus was the Christ, risk losing their salvation.  What is clear, though, is that Jesus is not going to go away, and sooner or later they were undoubtedly going to have to make a decision; they could not fudge the issue for ever.

The issue for us here is that we are in a position not too dissimilar to the Sanhedrin.  Do we accept that Jesus is the messiah, that he is the Son of God?  If we do then we have to face up to the mistakes that we’ve made previously, admit to God that we’ve not lived in the way he would have us live, and ask for repentance.  We also have to change the way that we live our lives, striving to follow the teachings of Jesus.  That is by no means an easy decision to make; none of us like admitting that we’ve been wrong and owning up to our mistakes.  The other option is to go the other way, dismiss the evidence that we have presented to us, and regard Jesus as a fraud, who has no authority over our lives.  Alternatively, we can go the way of the Sanhedrin, and fudge the issue, saying that “we don’t know” who Jesus is.  Just as the religious leaders would surely have to make a decision sooner or later, however, the time will come when we have to nail our colours to the mast, and declare who we believe Jesus to be.  As Jesus said, “whoever is not with me is against me” (Matthew 12:30).

12 The next day as they were leaving Bethany, Jesus was hungry. 13 Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to find out if it had any fruit. When he reached it, he found nothing but leaves, because it was not the season for figs. 14 Then he said to the tree, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” And his disciples heard him say it. 15 On reaching Jerusalem, Jesus entered the temple courts and began driving out those who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves, 16 and would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts. 17 And as he taught them, he said, “Is it not written: ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations’? But you have made it ‘a den of robbers.’” 18 The chief priests and the teachers of the law heard this and began looking for a way to kill him, for they feared him, because the whole crowd was amazed at his teaching. 19 When evening came, Jesus and his disciples went out of the city. 20 In the morning, as they went along, they saw the fig tree withered from the roots. 21 Peter remembered and said to Jesus, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree you cursed has withered!” 22 “Have faith in God,” Jesus answered. 23 “Truly I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in their heart but believes that what they say will happen, it will be done for them. 24 Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. 25 And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive them, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins.” [26]

Mark 11:12-26

I never used to go to the cinema, but in the last couple of years or so I’ve started going quite a bit. I really enjoy watching movies on a big screen, and, of course, all cinemas are kitted out with fantastic sound systems that really help to bring the experience to life. The whole pleasurable experience is topped off with a big bag of Pick ‘n’ Mix and an ice cold Coke. What does irritate me, though, is the rip-off prices that cinemas charge for their food and drink. Once, when I went with a friend, he took his own bag of Minstrels with him, but was caught by the cinema manager. The manager told my friend that he could not take his own food in to the movie with him. When my friend asked why, the manager told him that the food and drink that they sold in the cinema had been specially selected because it would not damage their upholstery. My friend queried how the Minstrels that the cinema sold were any different to the ones that he had brought with him, but the manager was not prepared to continue the discussion any further, and confiscated my friend’s sweets.

In this passage from Mark, we see Jesus getting angry at the way in which the Temple was trying to rip off people who had gone to offer sacrifices to God. He watched with horror as he saw people who had brought doves to offer as sacrifices were told that they were not suitable, and were sold replacement by the High Priest’s family at greatly inflated prices. He could not believe it when he saw the Temple insisting that fees were paid using their own currency and watched as people were ripped-off as they tried to change their money. The scene that Jesus saw was so far from the ideal of the Temple as a “house of prayer” that he was moved to action. He overturned the tables, and accused those present of turning his father’s house into a “den of robbers.” Those who sought to honour God were being ripped off. Those who should have known better, and were tasked with running the Temple had corrupted it and were using it as an opportunity to get rich themselves. God’s people were being abused by their religious leaders. It’s no wonder that Jesus was angry!

Jesus’ anger goes beyond the commercialisation of religion, however. This scene took place in the Court of Gentiles, the only area of the Temple in which non-Jews were permitted. What should have been a “house of prayer for all nations,” a quiet place where anyone could come and worship God, had become a busy, noisy, and smelly location where the emphasis was on making money rather than listening to God. The Gentiles were not able to enjoy the privileges that they had been promised because of the evil ways of the Temple priests.

The rather confusing incident with the fig tree is perhaps a living parable of what was happening at the Temple. Jesus looked at the fig tree, and whilst it had leaves, there was no sign of any fruit. Jesus curses the fig tree; without fruit, it was useless. To many this seems absurd; Mark tells us that it “was not the season for figs,” so surely Jesus should not have expected to see fruit. It was normal, however, that when a fig tree began to leaf, small fruits would appear that would then fall off prior to the proper figs growing. These fruits, although not particularly tasty, were often eaten by people working in the fields. If a tree lacked this early growth, it was a good indication that the tree was not going to bear fruit at the correct time. Jesus, knowing such detail, would be well aware that the tree was destined not to bear fruit when the proper time came.

Jesus often spoke about fruit in his teaching since this was something that those listening to him could easily relate to. In Matthew’s Gospel, for example, Jesus tells his disciples that “by their fruit you will recognise them” (Matthew 7:16a). He goes on to say that “every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.” The fig tree that Jesus encountered, however, wasn’t bearing any fruit, and the signs of it ever doing so were not good. In the same passage, Jesus says what should be done to such a tree: “every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” The fig tree on the way to Jerusalem, therefore, deserved to be destroyed. The same could be said of the Temple; it was not currently bearing any fruit, since it was corrupting the experience of worshipping God, and all the signs suggested that it would never bear any fruit. If this was the case, if it wasn’t pointing to God, it was no longer fit for purpose, and deserved to be destroyed.

Jesus next speaks to his disciples about prayer. Prayer is something that many of us struggle with. We know that we are told to do it continuously (1 Thessalonians 5:17), but most of us fall way short of that instruction. Jesus tells us that “whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.” This is quite a remarkable statement to make! There are a couple of requirements that go with this bold statement, however. The first is to “have faith in God.” We have to bring ourselves in line with God, to be faithful to his will, and to seek to serve him. If we do these things, then we will desire what God wants and our prayer will be answered. We also have to ensure that we are not nursing any grievances against anyone. Jesus tells us that before we pray, we have to forgive anyone who has hurt us. By doing so, God will forgive us too, and then our prayer will be answered. Jesus perhaps was thinking of the scene that he had just witnessed in the Temple; he knew that it was necessary to forgive those who had offended him, no matter how great the offence they had caused him.

This passage is by no means an easy one to understand and interpret. What is clear, however, is how Jesus hates those who seek to make it difficult to follow him and to worship his Father. Are there things that we do, as individual Christians or as Churches that make it difficult for people to worship Jesus, or to listen to God? Do we need to “clear our temples” in the same way that Jesus did in order to return to a pure and perfect relationship with God? If we are known by our fruit, are we bearing good fruit, bad fruit or none at all? What about how we pray? Do we forgive those who offend us before we pray to God? When we pray, do we have faith in God? Do we have the confidence for a mountain to be thrown into the sea it will happen? I know that I find this really difficult, and will be praying that God will help me to get better. How about you? Will you join me?

The Triumphal Entry

1 As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage and Bethany at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two of his disciples, 2 saying to them, “Go to the village ahead of you, and just as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, which no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. 3 If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ say, ‘The Lord needs it and will send it back here shortly.’” 4 They went and found a colt outside in the street, tied at a doorway. As they untied it, 5 some people standing there asked, “What are you doing, untying that colt?” 6 They answered as Jesus had told them to, and the people let them go. 7 When they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks over it, he sat on it. 8 Many people spread their cloaks on the road, while others spread branches they had cut in the fields. 9 Those who went ahead and those who followed shouted, “Hosanna!” “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” 10 “Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David!” “Hosanna in the highest heaven!” 11 Jesus entered Jerusalem and went into the temple courts. He looked around at everything, but since it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the Twelve.

Mark 11:1-11

One of my friends, who shall remain nameless, has had a few cars in his time. For a while, he had a rather nice Mini – one of the new, BMW-built ones that is not really that mini at all. I thought it was a great car, but I’ll admit to being a little scared when, on numerous occasions, he attempted to demonstrate how it “clung to the road,” even when he threw it round tight bends at high-speed. Okay, so he was right, it did stick firmly to the road, but that didn’t stop me getting a little nervous! One day, though, my friend got a promotion to quite a senior role at work. He now found himself with not one, but two offices, a PA, and over two hundred staff. He decided that his Mini didn’t quite set the right tone for someone who was now so important, so he sold it and bought an Audi A3. When my friend took me for a drive in it, I had to concede that it was indeed a very nice car. Despite that, I was a little disappointed because it just seems a little, well, grown-up I suppose!

In our current passage we see Jesus entering Jerusalem to face, in a few days time, what was for him the inevitability of his death. He was not concerned about picking a mode of transport that reflected his identity, however. He entered Jerusalem as the messiah, the Son of God, and the King of the Jews. As a king, we might expect him to select something slightly more grand to carry him into the city, but no. He could have used a magnificent stallion, but instead he selected a colt. Jesus’ entrance into Jerusalem was not a display of power and prestige, but the arrival of a humble man keen to avoid the misconceptions about his role that were commonplace. He was not a powerful military figure who had come to liberate his people from the yoke of Roman rule, but a peaceful man whose plans extended far beyond that particular short-term goal. Jesus had come not to defeat the ruling authority, but Satan and death. His arrival on the colt was also the fulfilment of a prophecy in the Old Testament book of Zechariah. Here, the prophet tells of a great day when the promised king will arrive, saying, “Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion! Shout, Daughter Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and victorious, lowly and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.” (Zechariah 9:9). Here he was, then, the king and messiah that Israel have been waiting for! He’s finally here!

The people of Jerusalem certainly welcomed Jesus by rejoicing and shouting, just as the prophecy said that they would. Mark tells us how people threw their cloaks in the road ahead of Jesus, and held branches overhead. They greeted him by shouting, “hosanna!”, meaning “please save!” The people of Jerusalem had clearly understood who Jesus was, and were really excited about greeting their messiah. Suddenly, everything seemed better. Things were going to improve. They would be freed and liberated from their overlords. Here was the man who was going to bring about the change that they had dreamt of. It didn’t stop there, though. The people shouted, “blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the coming kingdom of our Father David!” I don’t know about you, but I can feel the passion and excitement, the expectation that surrounded Jesus’ triumphal entry jumping off the page of Mark’s gospel, straight at me. The people are expressing real hope of a better, brighter future, a future where, once again they have a great and mighty king like David to watch over them.

As I read and reflect on this passage, though, it doesn’t take long for that excitement to develop into a rather unpleasant feeling in my stomach. Looking back at the welcome that Jesus was given from the perspective of calvary leaves me feeling cold. Just a few days after the triumphant entry, the crowds who were welcoming Jesus were baying for his death. When Pontius Pilate asked whether the people wanted him to free Jesus, or a murderer by the name of Barabbas, the crowd called for the crucifixion of Jesus. It’s a sobering thought that such emotive and enthusiastic faith can dissipate in just a few days. It’s easy to look back and deride the fickleness of this particular crowd, but can any of us say with any certainty that it we were there, we would not have done exactly the same? This was brought home to me recently when we sang, “How deep the Father’s love for me” in church. This is a song that I’ve sung countless times before, but on this particular occasion, the line, “ashamed, I hear my mocking voice, call out among the scoffers” really hit home. It begs the question of just how firmly rooted is our faith? Is it secure? Does is have secure foundations? Is it rooted firmly in good soil? Or is it lacking stability, build on sandy ground, with no solid roots to speak of? I think that’s worth reflecting in.

After the passion of the entry into Jerusalem, the quietness of verse 11 strikes me as quite surprising. Jesus visits the temple courts, but late in the day after most of the activity had died down. In some ways it seems that Jesus is investigating the scene of a drama that he knows is coming. I’m sure we’ve all done that; I know that I certainly have. Sometimes, before a job interview, I have done a “dry run,” to make sure that I know where I am going and how long it will take be to get there. It also puts my mind at ease when it comes to the interview, having seen the location before. I did something similar recently when I was invited to lead a service at a church I hadn’t been to before. I drove up to the town, located the church, and established what the building looked like, where the lectern was, and other seemingly trivial things like that. Again, it put my mind at ease on the Sunday. I wonder if there was an element of that with Jesus? Perhaps he knew that to take decisive action in the temple so soon after his triumphal arrival would have led to his ministry being cut short prematurely, since he would inevitably aroused the suspicions of the religious leaders. Or perhaps he had expected to take action, but realised that he would be better off waiting until there were more people around to observe him. Ultimately, though, this is pure speculation. What is clear, though, is the total contrast between the loud and energetic arrival of Jesus in Jerusalem and the quiet and pensive Jesus we see in the temple courts.

I don’t know about you, but I find this passage deeply moving. I feel myself getting swept up with the crowd when Jesus arrives in Jerusalem, excited as we witness the fulfilment of that ancient prophecy about the arrival of the messiah. Then I find myself questioning whether, like many in that city, it is possible that I could suddenly find myself rejecting exactly what I have been looking for, drawn in by the wisdom of the crowd. There’s also that poignant moment of quiet as we see Jesus in the temple courts, a brief pause before we witness the world-changing events of the coming days.

A Child-like Faith

13 People were bringing little children to Jesus for him to place his hands on them, but the disciples rebuked them. 14 When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. 15 Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” 16 And he took the children in his arms, placed his hands on them and blessed them. 17 As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. “Good teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 18 “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone. 19 You know the commandments: ‘You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, you shall not defraud, honor your father and mother.’” 20 “Teacher,” he declared, “all these I have kept since I was a boy.” 21 Jesus looked at him and loved him. “One thing you lack,” he said. “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” 22 At this the man’s face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth. 23 Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!” 24 The disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said again, “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! 25 It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” 26 The disciples were even more amazed, and said to each other, “Who then can be saved?” 27 Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.” 28 Then Peter spoke up, “We have left everything to follow you!” 29 “Truly I tell you,” Jesus replied, “no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel 30 will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age: homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields—along with persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life. 31 But many who are first will be last, and the last first.”

Mark 10:13-31

Prior to becoming a writer, I worked as a teacher. During that stage of my professional life, I was surrounded by children, day after day after day. I couldn’t begin to guess how many children I have come into contact with, but it easily runs into the thousands. I have to admit that I have forgotten many of those children; if one was to come up to me in the street, it would take me a while to realise who they are. A surprisingly large number, though, are etched onto my brain. It might be because they were badly behaved or spent their life in detention, but I remember a lot of them because they impressed me with their understanding of life. Untainted by the worries of the adult world, children approach life with an innocence that is always refreshing. If you listen to children, they often speak with real clarity of the world around them, and show amazing insight into things that we adults think they couldn’t possibly know about. It saddens me that there are so many children in our world who are ignored and mistreated because they are “only children,” and I fervently believe that, if we listened more to our young people, we could learn a great deal about life and the world.

It’s refreshing in this passage to see Jesus’ approach to children. Parents, who had heard that Jesus was in the area, had brought their children to see him. They had clearly heard all about Jesus and the incredible powers that he seemed to possess, and they seemed in no doubt that it could only be a positive experience for their children to meet this man. The disciples, though, rebuked the parents for pushing their children towards Jesus. Jesus was a very busy man, after all, and had many people who wanted to meet him. He had no time for children. This was simply not the case, though. Jesus had plenty of time to speak to the children, to hold them, and to bless them. His view is not to ignore the children because they were too young to understand, but that actually, adults could learn a great deal from them. He tells all those gathered around him that “the kingdom of God belongs to such as these,” and further, “anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a child will never enter it.” Just as a young child approaches its parents with open arms, asking for a hug, trusting completely that they will hug them back, look after them, and protect them, so we should approach Jesus. We need to have faith and believe that he loves us, and just draw close to him. He is waiting with outstretched arms to receive us, to bless us – but we have to take that first step and go to him.

The attitude of the children contrasts strongly with that of the rich man we encounter next in the passage. He’s a man who has clearly done well for himself, but there’s one thing that he still craves; eternal life. He has kept the law and followed the ten commandments, but, despite that, clearly still feels that he is lacking something in his spiritual life. He is desperate to be a good follower of Christ, and Jesus recognises this; he might not have gained his salvation, but Mark tells us that, despite this, Jesus still loves him.

The problem is that there is a real stumbling block preventing the rich man from gaining his salvation; he doesn’t have the faith that the children we have just encountered displayed. He doesn’t trust God to provide for him, to ensure that he always has all he needs, and has worked hard to gain as many riches as he could, placing his trust in his wealth. He might try to follow God, but he doesn’t really have faith. This is something that has particular resonance in the western world today, a world in which many of us are rich and have so much. There are many, many Christians in our society who believe themselves to be Christians, who follow all of God’s rules, but, when it comes down to it, they don’t have real faith. They place their faith in themselves and all that they have to see them through life. Now, there’s nothing wrong, per se, in having “stuff.” Indeed, it can be useful, because we need people who can use their wealth to feed the poor, pay for medicines to heal the sick and support the work of the Church. The problem comes when that “stuff” becomes our focus, and prevents us from having real faith. For the rich man, there is only one solution; he must divest himself of all his riches, sell all his “stuff,” and give the money to the poor. Only by giving up what has become his stumbling block will he be able to enter heaven.

A little later in our passage, Jesus clarifies this point very clearly. The disciples express shock at what Jesus says to the rich man. They may have been his disciples, but there were elements of his message that they were still struggling to understand. No doubt they had heard Pharisees talk in the past about how riches were a sign God’s grace, and they were therefore horrified when Jesus suggested that the rich man, despite his obvious success in human terms, was not guaranteed a place in heaven. If he isn’t saved, they thought, how can anyone be saved? Jesus tells them, though, that there is nothing at all that a man can do to gain eternal life; that can only be gained through God. Relying on yourself or on what you have shows a complete lack of faith; what is needed is faith in God’s love and is promises.

The disciples were astounded at what they had heard. They might not have been as rich as the man Jesus had just encountered, but many of them had come from profitable fishing businesses, and felt that they had given up a great deal to follow Jesus. Reading the passage, it’s almost possible to feel their hearts sink as the realisation of what Jesus has just said dawns on them. Why had they given up everything that they had to follow Jesus? Jesus, in response, makes an amazing statement. Those who make sacrifices to follow him will be receive a hundred times as much, and in the age to come will receive eternal life. That’s not to say that they will find themselves living in palaces with pockets full of gold, but they will experience the riches of God’s blessings in their lives as they see his kingdom grow and develop before their very eyes. That’s quite a promise! All that is necessary is for them to put their complete trust in Jesus, to have total faith that he will provide for them, and not to put their faith in material things that will serve as a barrier between themselves and God.

Jesus also tells his disciples that following him will not be without costs. Yes, God will provide for all their needs and they will gain eternal life if they acknowledge him, but they will also be persecuted for their faith. With the benefit of hindsight, we know just how painfully true this was for the disciples, almost all of whom were martyred; most notably, Peter, who asks Jesus the question here, who was crucified upside down in Rome.

This is quite a message for us. We might call ourselves Christians, but do we really put our complete trust in God? How complete is our faith? Do we know without doubt that he will provide us with all that we need? Or do we stockpile stuff just in case? Are we aware that there is every possibility that we will be subjected to persecution as a consequence of our beliefs?

Let’s strive to be more like the children we see at the beginning of this passage, who approach Jesus with complete faith and total trust. Their faith is rewarded by an encounter with an open-armed Jesus who blesses them. Many of us will feel the same way as the rich man we read about here; we think we’re doing all the right things, but we can feel a hole inside us that we want God to fill. The only way to fill that hole is by trusting completely in God’s grace and providence. We will have to give up a great deal, we may experience persecution, but ultimately, we will be so much better off.

Listen to Him!

2After six days Jesus took Peter, James and John with him and led them up a high mountain, where they were all alone. There he was transfigured before them. 3His clothes became dazzling white, whiter than anyone in the world could bleach them. 4And there appeared before them Elijah and Moses, who were talking with Jesus.

5Peter said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here. Let us put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.” 6(He did not know what to say, they were so frightened.)

7Then a cloud appeared and enveloped them, and a voice came from the cloud: “This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him!”

8Suddenly, when they looked around, they no longer saw anyone with them except Jesus.

9As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus gave them orders not to tell anyone what they had seen until the Son of Man had risen from the dead. 10They kept the matter to themselves, discussing what “rising from the dead” meant.

11And they asked him, “Why do the teachers of the law say that Elijah must come first?”

12Jesus replied, “To be sure, Elijah does come first, and restores all things. Why then is it written that the Son of Man must suffer much and be rejected? 13But I tell you, Elijah has come, and they have done to him everything they wished, just as it is written about him.”

Mark 9:2-13

Sometimes you think you know someone, but then you discover something about them that you never knew, which totally shakes the way you see them. It might be something truly astounding; you might discover that they have previously been a famous pop star or a published author. It might be something that they say – perhaps you always thought of them as polite and well-mannered, but then you see them transform into a swearing maniac behind the wheel of a car. Maybe it’s something to do with their background – maybe it transpires that one of your best friends is an orphan or was abused as a child and you never knew about it. All of these things can transform the way that we see someone. We might never see them in the same light again.

It’s interesting to pick up Mark’s Gospel once more at this point. The disciples, having spent some time with Jesus and observed his teaching and healing ministry, think that they have a fair idea of who Jesus is. But then, in Mark 8, they were challenged significantly about Jesus identity. Peter, one of Jesus’ best friends amongst the disciples, recognised Jesus as ‘the Christ’ but saw this in a purely human way; he thought that Jesus would be more of a military figure who would liberate the Jews from the Romans. Peter proceeded to rebuke Jesus when he was told that Jesus would suffer, be killed and then rise again.

Today’s the day, though, when the apostles’ view of Christ begins to change. Jesus takes them to the top of a mountain, and there he was “transfigured,” or transformed, right before their very eyes. His clothes glow whiter than white. For just a little while, Jesus’ inner purity and holiness shines out of him, and he is revealed for who he is – the good and blameless Christ. Jesus’ identity as the messiah is witnessed to by Moses and Elijah. To the Jews, Moses was the personification of the law, and Elijah of the prophets. Mark does not record the incident, but in Matthew 5 Jesus tells those listening to the sermon on the mount that he has not come to abolish the Law and the Prophets, but to fulfil them. Here then are the Law and the Prophets, bowing to Jesus’ superiority over them. They concede that Jesus is what they have been pointing towards. Jesus’ identity, therefore, as the messiah, is made clear to the apostles he was closest to – Peter, James and John – and through them, to us. What is very exciting that, seeing Jesus in all his sinless glory is perhaps a foresight of how we will appear in heaven, when our sins have been cleansed and we are restored to our pre-fall condition. Paul picks up on this in Romans 12, when we says that we should strive in the here and now to live a pure and blameless life. He says that we, too, should be “transfigured” (although most translations use the word “transformed”) by the renewing of our minds, and no longer conform to the ways of the world. In other words, we should aim to resemble Jesus in all that we do. Not only do we get a glimpse of Jesus as Son of God at the transfiguration, but we also gain a rare insight into what might lie beyond death for us – if we start that process now of living as if we are destined for heaven.

Interestingly, even though we see Jesus as he is in this incident, the apostles still fail to grasp the true significance of this; they see him as somehow similar to Moses and Elijah, wanting to build the three of them shelters on the mountain top. We have to feel some sympathy for the apostles, however, since they are clearly petrified at what they are seeing – as I would be too!

If there was any doubt about Jesus’ divinity, it is blown out of the water by what happens next. Suddenly that big, bombing voice that is the stereotypical view of God, sounds from the cloud, telling the apostles that Jesus is his son, and he loves him. There is no mistaking Jesus’ identity. He comes from God, he is his son, and he loves him. What follows is of great importance for the disciples; they are told that they must listen to Jesus. That’s not a hint that they might like to, but a direct order from God. Since we too are disciples of Christ, even if we are not apostles, this clear instruction comes down to us too. We must listen to Christ. We must study what he said by reading the gospels. We must be open to God speaking to us through the entirety of scripture. It is only through listening to Jesus that we understand who God is, and only by listening to Jesus that we can understand what is expected of us if we wish to enter God’s new creation after our deaths. This is a perfect reminder for us of the importance of listening to Jesus, just as we start our second Mark Marathon, studying the second half of Mark’s gospel.

As they begin to grasp Jesus’ true identity, Peter, James and John continue to have questions. They know that it is foretold that before the messiah arrives, Elijah will return to prepare the way. Apart from their recent fleeting glimpse of him, they have not seen Elijah. They certainly haven’t seen a full-scale return, in which Elijah declares the arrival of the Christ. They are taking things too literally, however. Jesus tells them that in actual fact Elijah HAS returned, and he was treated in the way that scripture foretold. For Jesus, John the Baptist is the embodiment of Elijah, having come in Elijah’s “spirit and power” (see Luke 1:17). Here, then, is a further indication that Jesus just might be the promised messiah that the Jewish world have been waiting for with bated breath.

In this episode, three of Jesus’ most trusted apostles, Peter, James and John, begin to see Jesus in a new light, as they begin to understand who he is. As we study the rest of Mark’s gospel we will see whether they grasp the significance of what they have seen on that mountain top. For us, though, with the benefit of hindsight, we see Jesus in all his glory, and gain an insight into what heaven may be like. We also begin to see the importance of living as if we are already in that reality, not living for the world today. And finally, we get that important order direct from God – listen to Jesus. Let’s strive to do that as we study the rest of Mark’s gospel!