Mark 11:15-33. I actually started writing this the day following the last post.  I returned to it six weeks later in the middle of July but didn’t finish then either.  Now it’s the last day of August, it’s been twelve weeks and for that I apologize.  Life has been very complicated lately.  Extra teaching, a new project demanding extra time at work, and I’m getting older and feeling the effects of such a physical job (I work on houses), and then there have been several birthdays and graduation parties as well as beginning a new quarter in Delta Force.  Please pray that I can return to writing this blog regularly since it is a passion of mine and I am pretty upset when I get swept away from it.  I am so glad that this post was partially written since it gives me the momentum to get going again.  And one last thing, this does not mean that my relationship with God hasn’t been there for the past twelve weeks, we still talk, me to Him through prayer and him to me through church, other believers, and his word on the radio through preachers and Christian music.  Praise God for Christian radio.

Yesterday (OK May 29^th) we ended with Jesus cursing a fig tree on his way into Jerusalem.  The tree was a symbol of Israel, although it was not the right time for the physical tree to have fruit it was the right time for Israel to be doing what God created her for, teaching the world about him.  The next day Jesus returned to the temple and found money changers in the temple.  In Jesus’ day people would use Roman coins, Staters, but the Jewish leaders demanded temple taxes to be paid in local money, Shekels.  People visiting Jerusalem could go to the temple and exchange Roman money for Shekels but the “money changers” would cheat them in the exchange.  The place that they ran their business was in a part of the temple called, “The Court (think patio) of the Gentiles (non-Jews)”.  Only Jewish people were allowed into the Temple and anyone else who came had to stay out on the “Gentile Patio”.  Clearly the Jewish leadership didn’t care about the Gentiles because they had businesses set up in their area.  On his visit the first evening Jesus probably saw all of their tables set up in an area that should have been available for non-Jews to come and pray and honor God.  Since the area was filled with other stuff clearly the Jewish people were not doing what God wanted them to do, they were being “unfruitful” spiritually.

In today’s reading Jesus and his followers return to the temple.  Jesus went in and started throwing the money changers out of the area, tipping over their tables and their chairs.  He wouldn’t even let people carry stuff through the temple area.  Then he started teaching.  The temple was to be a place to talk to God.  One thing that Jesus wanted them to talk to God about was the non-Jews, Gentiles, and he didn’t mean to complain about them but to ask God to help the Gentiles come to him.  The leader became very angry about what he was doing, if he kept teaching this way their whole way of living and getting money would be affected, the people wouldn’t listen to them any more.  They were afraid so they plotted to destroy Jesus.

On the way out of town that night they noticed that the tree Jesus had cursed had died.  When they pointed it out to Jesus His response was basically, “Well what did you expect?  Don’t you trust God?  That same power that I have is going to help you guys too.”  He then told them that if they were trusting God and honoring Him with their lives that they could ask God to do things for them and they would be done.  Part of what Jesus told them was that hey needed to forgive others just like God had forgiven them.  That instruction probably ties together all the ideas so far in the reading.  In a way Jesus was telling them to see people the same way that God sees them.  God wants to forgive and have a relationship with each person, Jew or Gentile.  In contrast the money changers and the religious leaders of Jesus’ time saw these people (really all people) as someone that could be taken advantage of.

The next day Jesus and his followers returned to the temple and he was confronted by the religious leaders.  They questioned his authority to be dealing with people in the temple.  Instead of answering them he asked them a question which they were unwilling to answer because of their hypocrisy.  Although Jesus does not call them hypocrites in this section he did on many other occasions.  The word hypocrite was used in the Greek language for someone who was acting; pretending to be someone they were not.  Theses leaders should have been interested in the truth but instead they were playing games; being “politically correct”.  A second time in today’s reading we see the leaders “afraid”, this time about the reaction of the crowd.

I think in today’s reading we see a contrast, the leaders were afraid and that fear controlled their actions, they were all about their power and their comfort; they were filled with pride and were selfish.  On the other hand Jesus showed real power to his followers the fig tree died just because he told it to.  If his followers would admit that they needed to be forgiven by God and would live God honoring lives by seeing other people as important and worthy of forgiveness by them, then they would have real power.  We need to be careful to treat others the way we want God to treat us; we need to see others through God’s eyes and not according to our won selfishness.

God thank you for helping me get back to this blog.  I hope I can keep doing it.  I hope it helps others understand their relationship with you better.  I know it helps me keep you in focus in my life.  Give me wisdom and strength and let me help the world see you better.  Give me your eyes for others.