Mark's Sandwiches 1.3

There is one of Mark’s Sandwichs that I think people often interpret wrongly. Here I am talking about Mark 11:12-25:

11:12 Now the next day, as they went out from Bethany, he was hungry. 11:13 After noticing in the distance a fig tree with leaves, he went to see if he could find any fruit on it. When he came to it he found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. 11:14 He said to it, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” And his disciples heard it.

11:15 Then they came to Jerusalem. Jesus entered the temple area and began to drive out those who were selling and buying in the temple courts. He turned over the tables of the money changers and the chairs of those selling doves, 11:16 and he would not permit anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts. 11:17 Then he began to teach them and said, “Is it not written: ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations’? But you have turned it into a den of robbers!” 11:18 The chief priests and the experts in the law heard it and they considered how they could assassinate him, for they feared him, because the whole crowd was amazed by his teaching. 11:19 When evening came, Jesus and his disciples went out of the city.

11:20 In the morning as they passed by, they saw the fig tree withered from the roots. 11:21 Peter remembered and said to him, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree you cursed has withered.” 11:22 Jesus said to them, “Have faith in God. 11:23 I tell you the truth, if someone says to this mountain, ‘Be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. 11:24 For this reason I tell you, whatever you pray and ask for, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. 11:25 Whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven will also forgive you your sins.”

Here we have the “turning of the tables” in the Temple. But the turning of the tables here in Mark actually splits another story into two halves forcing that story to sandwich the Temple incident. This passage is admittedly more difficult to interpret mainly due to what many people believe about the Temple incident. Many believe that the Temple incident is Jesus cleansing the Temple of the corrupt money changers who infest the Temple courts. But, if we see the Mark’s Sandwich here we see that the Temple incident mutually interprets the cursing of the fig tree story. It seems to be the case that the Temple incident isn’t a mere running out of some money changers, but rather it’s a more serious symbolic act of judgment on Israel.

The fig tree should be understood to symbolically represent Israel,. In the OT, the fig tree either directly represents Israel [1] or it is used to represent God’s favor or disfavor to Israel; if Israel was doing right, the fig trees blossomed [2] if Israel was in the wrong the fig trees were dying [3].

The Temple incident mutually interprets the fig tree cursing. When Jesus comes up to the fig tree it was producing no fruit, though he seemed to think it should have been. If understood to represent Israel, the fig tree producing no fruit represents Israel not living up to her calling. Jesus then curses the fig tree and we roll right into the Temple incident. The Temple incident, if mutually interpreted with the fig tree story, is a symbolic act of judgment on Israel [4]. Jesus’ actions in the Temple are very comparable to other symbolic actions done by the Prophets like Jeremiah, Hosea, and Ezekiel where the Prophet symbolically acts out their message (often in very vivid ways). The crashing of the Temple tables is symbolic of the much larger “crashing” that would eventually come in the form of Roman weapons and the Temple’s actual destruction.

This understanding also helps make sense of what would otherwise be very cryptic words that follow in verses 22-25. Jesus’ actions seem to be troubling for the disciples who comment on the withered fig tree (vs. 20). Jesus responds by going on about how if one has faith they can say to “this mountain” to be thrown into the sea. “This mountain” that can be thrown into the sea should be understood to be the Temple Mount whose destruction was just prophesied by the fig tree and Temple incidents. Jesus then goes on to talk about the disciples ability to forgive the sins of others. It’s important for Jesus to talk about this at this point since the place where forgiveness of sins took place (aka: the Temple with a sacrifice) just had it’s destruction prophesied. The disciples were concerned not just about the destruction that was coming, but the implication it carried about the forgiveness of sin and man’s ability to come into the presence of God.

Here we have another one of Mark’s Sandwiches which yields interesting results. Jesus directly prophecies against the Temple and predicts it’s fall, and he does so by use of symbolic actions in the Temple and with the fig tree.

[1] Jer 24:5; Hos 9:10
[2] 1 Kings 4:25; Hos 9:10; Joe 2:22; Mic 4:4; Zech 3:10),
[3] Jer 5:17, 8:13; Joe 1:7; Am 4:9; Hag 2:19; Hos 2:12
[4] “The Last Week”, Borg & Crossan, pp 34-53.
“The Gospel of Mark”, Witherington, pp 311-318.
“Jesus Remembered”, Christianity in the Making vol. I, Dunn, pp 769-770.
“Jesus and the Victory of God”, Wright, pp 333-336.
“Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament”, Beale & Carson, pp 208-212.
“Jewish New Testament Commentary”, Stern, pp 95-96.