Find a colt. - Mark 11:2-6
Jesus sent them to find a
colt to fulfill the prophecy of Zech. 9:9. (Matt. 21:2 also mentions a donkey tied with the colt.) Jesus may have known that the colt would be available through supernatural insight. The reaction of the people in verse 6 makes it more likely that he had made prior arrangements.
Garments and branches - Mark 11:8-10
The people spread their
garments and
branches on the road in front of Jesus. It was a reminder of the royal treatment of Old Testament kings (2 Kgs. 9:13). The crowd shouting out the words of Ps. 118:25, 26 reinforced the picture of Jesus as the messianic son of David coming into his city.
Hosanna is the Greek translation of the Hebrew that means
save us. There is a mild irony in the scene as Jesus allows the crowd to proclaim his messianic identity even though the people have shown no sign of understanding that he is the suffering messiah of Isaiah and not a militaristic political messiah.
A Cleansing the Temple - Mark 11:11-26
There are chronological differences between this account and Matt. 21:12-21. Matthew reported the entirety of the fig tree story after the cleansing of the temple. Mark reported the cleansing of the temple between the two episodes regarding the fig tree. In Mark's narrative this emphasized the deep interconnection of the stories.
Inspection of the center of Israel's religious identity - Mark 11:11
Jesus
looked around at everything on the temple grounds. This was not the act of a casual visitor. It was the inspection of the center of Israel's religious identity by the Lord of the temple (Mal. 3:1). Jesus and his disciples stayed in the village of
Bethany during this last week, about 2 miles outside of Jerusalem. Possibly Jesus stayed with Mary, Martha, and Lazarus (John 12:1-3).
A fig tree - Mark 11:13-14
The
fig tree was used in the Old Testament as an image of Israel (Hos. 9:10, 16; Mic. 7:1). The leaves of the fig tree led Jesus to hope that he would also find figs even though it was not yet the season for ripened fruit; but he found none. It reminded him of the hypocrisy he had seen in the temple the night before. The leaders of Judaism had a show of being religious, but had no healthy fruit. So in a prophetic act of condemnation Jesus cursed the fig tree.
A Temple cleansing - Mark 11:15
At the temple Jesus
cast out the business men who had set up tables in the temple courtyard. The word Mark used that is translated
cast out is the same that was often used to describe Jesus casting out demons. These
money changers provided currency exchange for pilgrims who needed to change their Roman coinage into acceptable shekels to pay the temple tax. Some were also selling animals that were approved for the sacrifices of the temple worship.
Robbers - Mark 11:17
Jesus condemned them for two reasons. First, he called them
robbers because of abusive prices and greed. Second, and more important in Mark's narrative, was the way they frustrated the intention of God for the temple. Their tables were set up in the Court of the Gentiles. Jesus quoted from Isa. 56:5, 6. There God spoke of his intention for the temple to be a place of worship not only for Israel, but for foreigners as well. By taking over the Court of the Gentiles the businessmen had made it impossible for Gentiles to have any place of quiet and solitude for prayer in the temple complex.
Amazed - Mark 11:18
The crowd
was amazed. The Jewish leaders were determined to
kill Jesus because they
feared him. The Jewish leaders were losing the crowds to this miracle working preacher from Galilee. The reaction to Jesus again was astonishment and fear. Both the fear and the astonishment were understandable in light of all that Jesus said and did, but neither the astonishment nor the fear were the faith that Jesus sought to elicit.
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