Title Mark 11:15-18
However, the Gospels are strangely silent about how Jesus reacted to the cheers of this enthusiastic crowd. There is no mention of Jesus raising his hands in response to the cheers of the crowd, that he rose to a place where everyone could see him and gave a Japanese speech, or that he even smiled a smile of conversion.
Moreover, the first two acts he performed after entering Jerusalem seem to be contrary to the enthusiastic reception of the crowd. One of those two acts, as the verse tells us today, that he entered the temple and drove out those who bought and sold there, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the chairs of those who sold doves, and did not allow anyone carrying anything to pass through the temple. is.
First, Jesus was angry because of the injustice of the merchants and money changers who exploited the poor pilgrims; secondly, he was angry because the temple was defiled by such injustice; and thirdly, he wanted all Gentiles to come and pray. It is understood that he was angry because of the fact that the will of God was trampled underfoot. It was a temple on the outside, but it was not a temple on the inside.
What was the second of the first two acts Jesus performed upon entering Jerusalem? From a distance, the leaves look lush, but when you get closer, you see that the fig tree, which had no fruit, withered and died. However, it should be noted that there is an essential commonality between these two seemingly unrelated events, which we believe Jesus intended in doing them. What is that? It's just a seemingly plausible thing with no substance. From the outside, it looks like a temple and a house of prayer for all people, but inside the temple in Jerusalem has become a den of robbers, and on the outside, it is a fig tree that is full of leaves but has no fruit inside. It's common.
Now, then, what was the intention of Jesus, who took off his clothes, spread them on the road, cut palm branches and waved and cheered, and responded to the crowds who received him by cleansing the Jerusalem Temple and throwing away the fruitless fig tree? We will have to see the intention of Jesus there to teach us how to receive Him properly. Jesus already knew that the same crowds who had welcomed him in the hope of a political and practical gain would turn around and cry for him to be crucified in just a few days. I think that Jesus was trying to teach that it is not true faith to just be swept away by the crowd, cheer and receive him for some profit. I believe that his intention was to teach that the way to receive the Lord is to not lie according to the Word of God, to have no difference on the outside and inside, and to have fruitful faith. Receiving the Lord with true faith, this is what the Lord wants for us as we celebrate Palm Sunday again.