Hey everyone – I’m glad to be back from my sabbatical, and thank you all for being so supportive of this time for me. We’ve had some great teachings in my absence – and I’m excited about continuing our exploration of Mark together! Our text for this Sunday will be Mark 11:12-25 – the account of Jesus cursing a fig tree and then throwing out the sellers of sacrificial animals and money changers from the temple in Jerusalem.
All the gospels have an account of Jesus’ activity in the temple – some accounts are conflated with Jesus’ triumphal entry, and John throws the thing at the beginning of his gospel – but all of them see this as an important event.
The question that confronts us is why? Why did Jesus do this? Why pick on a poor fig tree when it wasn’t even the time for figs yet? Why run off animals and knock over tables? What was Jesus trying to tell them, and us by doing these things?
That’s what we’ll be examining in our teaching this Sunday. Why do you think Jesus did these two things? Are they related? What can we learn about our lives and purpose as 21st century Christians from these events?
Hope to see you Sunday!