Chapter Eleven

1–11. The Lord’s entry into Jerusalem. – 12–14. The cursing of the fig tree. – 15–19. The cleansing of the temple. – 20–26. The conversation about the withered fig tree. – 27–33. About the divine authority of Christ.

Mark 11:1. When they came near to Jerusalem, to Bethphage and Bethany, at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two of His disciples Mark 11:2. and said to them: Go into the village ahead of you, and immediately as you enter it, you will find a young donkey tied that no one has ever ridden; untie it and bring it. Mark 11:3. If anyone says to you, “Why are you doing this?” just say, “The Lord needs it,” and He will send it back here at once. Mark 11:4. So they went away and found a young donkey tied by a door on the street, and untied it. Mark 11:5. Some of those standing there said to them: What are you doing, untying the colt? Mark 11:6. They answered them as Jesus had directed; and they let them go. Mark 11:7. Then they brought the young donkey to Jesus and threw their cloaks on it; and He sat on it. Mark 11:8. Many spread their cloaks on the road; and others spread leafy branches that they had cut from the fields. Mark 11:9. Then those ahead and those who followed were shouting: Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Mark 11:10. Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David, that comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest! Mark 11:11. Then Jesus entered Jerusalem and went into the temple; and when He had looked around at everything, as it was already late, He went out to Bethany with the twelve. Regarding the Lord’s entry into Jerusalem, see Matt 21:1-11. The evangelist Mark adds (in verse 1) to the name Bethphage the name Bethany. Possibly he made this addition in order to explain the almost unknown name Bethphage (this word is not found in Tischendorf, 8th ed.) by the better-known name Bethany. This latter village (now El-Azariyeh) was located on the southeastern slope of the Mount of Olives. The road to Jerusalem from Bethany led, as it does now, first in a southwestern, then in a northwestern direction, between the Mount of Olives and the Mount of Offense. “And He will send it back here at once” (verse 3). According to the more reliable reading: “at once He sends it back here.” From this “back” it is natural to conclude that the young donkey was an animal belonging to the owner of the house in which Christ was staying at this time. It was only temporarily given to some neighbor. “Tied by a door on the street” (verse 4). More precisely: “at the door, close to the very road that passed by the house” (ἐπὶ τοῦ ἀμφόδου). “Then they brought” the donkey (verse 7). According to Mark’s account, it would seem that the Lord made His entry into Jerusalem only on a young donkey: Mark does not mention the she-donkey of which the evangelist Matthew speaks. By this, however, he does not say that she was not there at the time of Christ’s procession. He makes it clear that the Lord rode on a young donkey—the she-donkey, meanwhile, could have walked alongside. In this connection, the evangelist Mark notes that no one had ever sat on this young donkey (see the comments on Matt 21:4-5). “Leafy branches that they had cut from the fields” (verse 8), more precisely: “leafy branches cut from vegetation growing in the field” (στιβάδας κόψαντες ἐκ τῶν ἀγρῶν). The Mount of Olives at that time, as now, was cultivated by farmers, and there was abundant vegetation of all kinds on it. “Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David! Hosanna in the highest!” (verse 10). This means that the people recognized Jesus as the legitimate descendant of David, in whom and through whom the universally expected promised Kingdom should come. The readers of Mark’s Gospel have by now read several times about the “Kingdom of God” (Mark 1:14 and others), which should come soon (Mark 1:15). And if now the people call the approaching kingdom the “Kingdom of David,” they want to say that God has made Jesus, whom the blind man called the Son of David (Mark 10:47), King of this Divine Kingdom, and that the opening of this Kingdom should be expected in the near future. “And when He had looked around at everything...” (verse 11). According to Mark’s Gospel, Christ did not begin to teach on the day of His entry because of the late hour, but only carefully looked at what was being done in the temple. Apparently, according to Mark’s understanding, nothing particularly important was done by Christ that day, though the evangelist Matthew remembered some miracles performed by Christ at that time (Matt 21:14).

Mark 11:12. The next day, when they left Bethany, He was hungry; Mark 11:13. and seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, He went to see if perhaps it had any fruit. When He came to it, He found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. Mark 11:14. Jesus said to it: May no one ever eat fruit from you again! And His disciples heard it. (See Matt 21:18-19). “For it was not the season for figs.” This remark of the evangelist Mark undoubtedly refers only to the immediately preceding statement: “He found nothing but leaves.” He explains why the Lord did not find fruit on the fig tree: the summer had not yet come when the fruits ripen. But then, why did the Lord curse the tree? There is no doubt that all this event had a symbolic meaning. The Lord knew that there was no fruit on the tree, but this fig tree, contrary to the natural order (in early April, when the Lord passed by the fig tree, there was generally no foliage yet on fig trees), was adorned with leaves. It was this circumstance that gave the Lord occasion to give the disciples an instruction about a similar deception that Jerusalem and the magnificent temple service, which the Lord had just observed the day before, represented. Jerusalem and the temple, as it were, the evangelist wants to say, did not bring forth the good fruit desired by Christ; the time for this had not yet come. With time, Judaism was supposed to bear the fruit of faith. Now, however, it was destined to drink the cup of God’s wrath and to be subjected to the awesome curse of God (cf. Matt 23:28). “And His disciples heard it,” that is, understood the meaning of Christ’s words, which could not be incomprehensible to them after the parable of the fig tree, in which the Lord had earlier depicted for them the sad fate of Judaism (Luke 13:6-9).

Mark 11:15. Then they came to Jerusalem. And Jesus entered the temple and began to drive out those who were selling and those who were buying in the temple, and He overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves; Mark 11:16. and He would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple. Mark 11:17. He taught and said: Is it not written, “My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations”? But you have made it a den of robbers. Mark 11:18. The chief priests and the scribes heard this, and they kept looking for a way to kill Him; for they were afraid of Him, because the whole crowd was spellbound by His teaching. Mark 11:19. When evening came, Jesus and His disciples went out of the city. (See Matt 21:12-17). According to Mark’s Gospel, the Lord performed the cleansing of the temple, driving out the merchants, on Monday, not on Sunday, as appears from the Gospel of Matthew (and Luke). One can think that the evangelist Mark here violated the chronological order of events in order to set apart the entry into Jerusalem itself as an event of extraordinary importance. In any case, the testimony of the other two synoptic evangelists should be considered more accurate than that of Mark alone. “And He would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple.” To shorten the way, various things could be carried through the vestibule, which was from ancient times condemned by Jewish rabbis. “He taught and said.” Only the evangelist Mark makes this remark, clearly wishing to show that the Lord, appearing as a stern Judge of the Jews, at the same time did not cease to instruct them because of His great love for them. Regarding the chief priests and scribes—enemies of Christ (cf. Matt 21:15)—the evangelist Mark notes that they “were afraid” of Christ, “because the whole crowd was spellbound by His teaching.” By this the evangelist makes it clear that the enemies of Christ were restrained in their hostile and malicious designs only by the reverence with which the people listened to Christ. “When evening came...” More accurately: “when evening was coming, the Lord, as was His custom, was leaving the city.”

Mark 11:20. In the morning, as they passed by, they saw the fig tree withered to its roots. Mark 11:21. Peter remembered and said to Him: Rabbi! Look, the fig tree that You cursed has withered. Mark 11:22. Jesus answered them, saying: Mark 11:23. Have faith in God; for truly I tell you, if you say to this mountain, “Be taken up and thrown into the sea,” and if you do not doubt in your heart, but believe that what you say will come to pass, it will be done for you. Mark 11:24. So I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. Mark 11:25. Whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone; so that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses. Mark 11:26. But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses. (See Matt 21:20-22). The evangelist Mark conveys a more extensive discourse of Christ than what is found in the Gospel of Matthew. “Have faith in God” (verse 23), that is, faith in God as Almighty, who can do all that the disciples of Christ might ask. The discourse here is perhaps about that miraculous faith which was given in the times of the apostles to some Christians as a special gift of the Holy Spirit (cf. 1 Cor 13:2). By indicating such faith, the Lord comforts His disciples in view of the difficulties awaiting them in preaching the gospel. “Whatever you ask for in prayer...” (verse 24). When the disciples pray about something, they should believe that they will receive it. One can say that faith puts the one praying in such a situation where he imagines himself already to have received from God all that he prays for and desires.

Matthew 6:5. “Whenever you stand praying, forgive...” (verse 25). On the other hand, one standing (cf. Mt.6:5 regarding standing while performing prayer) in prayer must be pervaded by a feeling of forgiveness toward his insulters. Otherwise God will not forgive the one who prays his guilt before Him, and in such a case he cannot count on the hearing of his petition about the performance of some extraordinary work of God (miracle). (Cf. Matt 6:14-15). Mark 11:27. Then they came again to Jerusalem. As He was walking in the temple, the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders came to Him Mark 11:28. and said to Him: By what authority are You doing these things? Who gave You this authority to do them? Mark 11:29. Jesus said to them in response: I will ask you one question; answer Me, and then I will tell you by what authority I do these things. Mark 11:30. Did the baptism of John come from heaven or from men? Answer Me. Mark 11:31. They argued with one another, saying: If we say, “From heaven,” He will say, “Then why did you not believe him? Mark 11:32. But shall we say, “From men”?”—they were afraid of the crowd, for all really held that John was a true prophet. Mark 11:33. So they answered Jesus, “We do not know.” And Jesus said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things. (See Matt 21:23-27). “Walking in the temple” (verse 27). By these words the evangelist Mark means not merely walking about in the temple, but the conversations that Christ held here with the Jews and the miracles that He worked. Both of these, of course, are understood by the chief priests when they ask by what “authority” Christ does “this.” According to Mark’s Gospel, they asked Christ about his entire way of acting—both His teaching and His miracles.