Ready to Clean House?

(85) Cleansing the Temple

Last week Jesus rode a donkey, entered Jerusalem, visited the Temple briefly, and set up base in Bethany with Martha, Mary and Lazarus. Jerusalem is packed out with people looking for places to stay, booking rooms for the Passover meal, buying lambs at the Temple or presenting their own lambs, etc... Bethany is a couple of miles east of the city, just over the Mount of Olives, and Jesus heads back to Jerusalem the next morning. Read Mark 11:12-14

1.       Would Jesus have known it was the wrong time of year for figs (or at least, for useful figs)? (Did you know?)

2.       Would his disciples have known? If so, what might they have thought when Jesus looked for figs?

3.       What might they have thought when Jesus cursed the tree?

a.       What’s the connection between miraculous healings and parables?

b.      What might be the connection between a miraculous curse and a parable?

4.       Jesus curses a tree—not a city, not a group of people, not a person… What does this tell you?

a.       What about today? What fig trees might Jesus curse today?

Continuing his journey, Jesus reaches the Temple. Read Matthew 21:12-13, Mark 11:15-17, Luke 19:45-46, Isaiah 56:3-7, Jeremiah 7:9-11. (John’s gospel includes cleansing the Temple at the start of Jesus’ ministry in John 2:13-22)

1.       How is the Temple like a fig tree?

2.       What would have been the right “season” for the Temple to be ready for the Messiah?

3.       What “fruit” should have been found in the Temple?

a.       What was wrong with there being moneychangers and dove-sellers? (No lambs?)

b.      Are money and doves the problem, or is it something deeper?

c.       What might be our equivalent of moneychangers and dover-sellers?

4.       What “fruit” should be found in our churches?

a.       Are we bearing fruit? How will we know?

b.      Are we ready? And what should we be ready for?

But the story doesn’t stop with cleansing the Temple. Read Matthew 21:14-17, Mark 11:18-19, Luke 19:47-48

1.       The blind and lame would have to stop in the outer courts, so where do you imagine Jesus was teaching?

2.       Read Psalm 8. What have babes and children to do with it?

3.       Why do the church leaders fear Jesus?

a.       Do we “fear” false teachers?

b.      How should we react if we think someone is a false teacher?

Then Jesus goes home, and the following morning (since he’s teaching every day—Luke 19:47) Jesus and his disciples see the fig tree again. Read Matthew 21:18-22, Mark 11:20-26 (Do you have a verse 26 in your version?)

1.       How is the fig tree like a parable?

2.       Why would we want to move mountains? Or are they like parables too?

3.       Why would we want to be sure we’ll get exactly what we pray for? Wouldn’t we rather let God decide?

4.       Mark adds another restriction to praying with faith. Read Mark 11:25-26. Is it easier to have faith, or to forgive?