(Part 1 of 2)
“When they arrived back in Jerusalem, Jesus entered the Temple and began to drive out the people buying and selling animals for sacrifices. He knocked over the tables of the money changers and the chairs of those selling doves, and he stopped everyone from using the Temple as a marketplace. He said to them, “The Scriptures declare, ‘My Temple will be called a house of prayer for all nations,’ but you have turned it into a den of thieves.”-Mark 11:15-17
How do you prepare yourself spiritually for Easter? How does one properly prepare one’s self for the death, burial and resurrection of our Savior?
Many Christians around the world participate in and observe Lent. Lent is a six week period that leads us into Easter. It is similar to the celebration of Advent that builds up to Christmas. However, while Advent is a time of expectation and anticipation, Lent is a more solemn observance looking ahead to Christ’s suffering and death. It is often celebrated with a time of fasting or giving up something as a means of staying our minds on Christ and preparing our hearts to remember His life, death, and resurrection.
It got me to thinking about what Jesus was doing in preparation for Easter. Jesus, at that time, was the only one who knew that His death was imminent. How did he spend that final week? Where did He go? What did He say?
One of the first things that I was drawn to was this story of Jesus cleansing the Temple.
Jesus arrived in Jerusalem, just prior to the Passover celebration on what would be His farewell tour. We read about it in Mark 11. It is called the Triumphal Entry. Here we read how Jesus comes into Jerusalem, riding on a donkey with crowds of people surrounding him, waving palm branches, praising God and shouting “Hosanna, blessed is He that comes in the name of the Lord.”
His first stop on the tour, upon entering the city, was the Temple.
“So Jesus came to Jerusalem and went into the Temple. After looking around carefully at everything, he left because it was late in the afternoon. Then he returned to Bethany with the twelve disciples.”-Mark 11:11
What was Jesus looking for? What was Jesus hoping to see? Jesus leaves the temple to return to Bethany for the night, but early the next morning, He beats a path once again for Jerusalem:
“Now the next day, when they had come out from Bethany, He was hungry. And seeing from afar a fig tree having leaves, He went to see if perhaps He would find something on it. When He came to it, He found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. In response Jesus said to it, “Let no one eat fruit from you ever again.”-Mark 11:12-14
As Jesus was returning to Jerusalem the next day he passed a fig tree. From a distance it was “full of leaf” and appeared as though it ought to have something on it. But on closer inspection, Jesus discovered that it did not and He cursed the tree. This encounter with the barren fig tree makes what happens next, so much more powerful.
Pastor Scott Burr
Dayspring Community Church
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