NOTES for Mar 11:11-23

It is by no means accidental that the Gospel narrative joins the accounts of the cursing of the fig tree and the cleansing of the Temple. In both cases, the Lord Jesus performs prophetic signs, that is, actions through which an important part of revelation is disclosed to the disciples. By performing such actions, the Lord directly connects His ministry with the preaching of the prophets. In both cases, the meaning of the signs is also similar.

The fig tree that withered because it bore no fruit for the Creator of the world is, as Christ Himself explains to the disciples, a sign concerning faith. The Lord says that it is faith that will give the disciples authority to work miracles on earth. Yet there is another aspect. In the Gospel of John, in Christ’s words during His farewell discourse at the Last Supper, we read that every branch that bears no fruit is cut off and thrown into the fire. Once again we see that everything which fails to bear for God the fruit He desires has no place in His creation and is therefore doomed.

The sign performed by Christ in the Jerusalem Temple is related above all to the prophecy of the psalm, “Zeal for Your house consumes Me” (Ps 69:9), and to the sign of the prophet Jeremiah at the gates of Jerusalem (Jer 17:19–27). Moreover, the meaning of this sign coincides with that of the preceding one: the House of God has no place if it is not a house of prayer. This is precisely how the scribes and chief priests understand Christ, and precisely why they take up arms against Him.