When I lived in Dublin, Ireland, I found myself eating at Subway almost every week. Sometimes I would eat there two or three times a week. It wasn't so much that I loved Subway, though I didn't mind it, but it was a fairly inexpensive meal that sustained me as I taught immigrants English, as I led Bible studies, as I went for occasional walks, and as I facilitated "Theology on Tap." I ate Subway so often in Ireland that I eventually got to the point where I could no longer stand it. I very rarely would eat there after returning to the States. I've only recently begun to eat there again. A sandwich isn't my favorite food, but it gets the job done, packing meat, cheese, and vegetables in between two slices of bread.
In Mark's gospel, sandwiches also get the job done. What job, might you ask? The job of allowing a narrative to teach important truths, without having to blatantly spell the message out. What literary critics call interpolations, is a technique whereby an author inserts one story into the middle of another one. The two stories then mutually interpret one another, and usually the story in the middle illuminates the most important aspects of the narrative. You can call it a literary sandwich.
In Mark 11:12-26, we clearly see this technique at work. "On the following day, when they came from Bethany, he (Jesus) was hungry. Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to see whether perhaps he would find anything on it. When he came to it, he found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. He said to it, 'May no one ever eat fruit from you again.' And his disciples heard it.
"Then they came to Jerusalem. And he 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; and he would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple. He was teaching and saying, '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.' And when the chief priests and the scribes heard it, they kept looking for a way to kill him; for they were afraid of him, because the whole crowd was spellbound by his teaching. And when evening came, Jesus and his disciples went out of the city.
"In the morning as they passed by, they saw the fig tree withered away to its roots. Then Peter remembered and said to him, 'Rabbi, look! The fig tree that you cursed has withered.' Jesus answered them, 'Have faith in God. 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. So I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. Whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone; so that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses.'" (NRSV).
To quote Nacho Libre, let's get down to the nitty gritty. We'll start in the middle of Mark's sandwich. For many people, Jesus' "cleansing" of the temple seems out of character. For others, their focus seems to be on the "market" or "trade" aspect of this demonstration. But these actions are neither out of character, nor do they have anything to do with religion and commerce. What Jesus is doing is brought to light when we consider the larger context of the scripture he quotes. After kicking butt and taking names, Jesus references the prophet Isaiah. About 500 years earlier, a writing that scholars sometimes refer to as Trito or Third Isaiah, foresaw a time when God's love and promises would be extended to not only foreigners (Gentiles), but even to those who were physically maimed and excluded from temple worship (Isaiah 56:1-8). God's heart had always been for the outsider, and Jesus' quotation of Isaiah 56:7 reminds his audience, and the later readers of Mark's gospel, many of whom were Gentiles, that the gospel is for everyone.
So, what was Jesus actually doing when he disrupted the buying and selling of animals for sacrifice? Well, he wasn't making a statement about the practice of buying and selling animals for sacrifice. This was an important and necessary service provided to diaspora Jews who would have been unable to bring their own animals from great distances. What Jesus was doing was to judge the place that this exchange occurred. The buying and selling took place in the court of the Gentiles, which was the only place a non-Jew could worship at the temple. Imagine making a pilgrimage to worship the God of Israel, the God of the Jews in the temple on Mount Zion, only to arrive at the court of the Gentiles and be forced to pray and worship in the midst of the distraction of all the buying and selling. Many of the Jews had forgotten that they were to serve as a light to the nations. But their selfish and inconsiderate actions were obscuring the glory of the God of Israel.
Now, then what does the "cleansing" of the temple have to do with the cursing and withering of the fig tree? Just as a fig tree in leaf, but out of season might appear to be fruitful and yet barren, so God's people had become good at producing a lot of religious activity, while failing to produce the kinds of fruit that God desired. On the surface, things looked good, but when one dug deeper, the religious activity was rotten to its core. Israel had been warned time and time again by God's prophets but had failed to heed those warnings. They had been called to be a light to the nations but had become completely insular in their religious devotion. So, the only thing left to do was to curse the tree and let it wither to its roots. In fact, as Jesus established his kingdom, it wasn't the religious leaders in Jerusalem who would be called to lead, but Jesus' disciples, like Peter, James, and John. That's what Jesus' statement about "casting this mountain into the sea" is about. This mountain is none other than Mount Zion and if Jesus' disciples have faith, they will be at the center of God's kingdom coming on earth as in heaven, not the Jerusalem establishment.
Jesus' final words also offer food for thought. The disciples, and the later readers of Mark's gospel (including us) were not to react to the religious leader's rejection of Jesus with a vindictive spirit, but rather in humility and grace. We only stand before the Father through his mercy and so we must extend that forgiveness to others too - even those who reject God's kingdom.
And that's really what this story is all about. God offers grace, mercy, and forgiveness freely, but he does not tolerate it when others would obscure that grace. As Jesus had said earlier (Mark 4:22), the secret of the gospel isn't to remain a secret for long. Like a lamp, it is to be brought into the center of everything to give light to all, including those of the house of Israel, and even Gentiles like me (Isaiah 56:7-8). - Shay
