Talk of JESUS . com

Tag: bethany

For you will always have the poor

Why mention the poor?

Once again, Jesus makes what appears to be an offhand remark about the poor. Jesus often criticized the leaders of Temple and Pharisees for their treatment of the poor; doesn’t this remark catch you off guard?

It would be easy enough to lose the context of Jesus’ apparent ambivalence toward the poor in the rush of events surrounding Passover week. Jesus’ final entry into Jerusalem has many seemingly more important things going on than what to us would first appear to be a slip of the tongue (sort of like cursing the fig tree). Yet like in our previous series you may find some subtleties worthy of note that impact more than just the poor.

The Gospel Quotes:

Prior to examining Jesus’ point of the comment, which we will do later in this series, let’s begin quotes from the view points of three different gospel writers.

Mark 14:7

For you always have the poor with you, and whenever you want, you can do good for them.

Matthew 26:7

For you always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me.

John 12:8

For the poor you always have with you, but you do not always have me.”

The 5 W’s

Now to discover the context we must examine all three stories asking:

Who, what, where, when and why?

You will find some variation in the three Gospel stories and some similarities. We begin today with Mark’s gospel.

Mark 14:

It was now two days before the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. And the chief priests and the scribes were seeking how to arrest him by stealth and kill him, 2 for they said, “Not during the feast, lest there be an uproar from the people.”

We have the ‘when:’ two days before the Passover, which in this particular year with the Passover on a Thursday, was Tuesday.

3 And while he was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he was reclining at table, a woman came with an alabaster flask of ointment of pure nard, very costly, and she broke the flask and poured it over his head.

4 There were some who said to themselves indignantly, “Why was the ointment wasted like that? 5 For this ointment could have been sold for more than three hundred denarii and given to the poor.” And they scolded her. 6 But Jesus said, “Leave her alone. Why do you trouble her? She has done a beautiful thing to me. 7 For you always have the poor with you, and whenever you want, you can do good for them. But you will not always have me. 8 She has done what she could; she has anointed my body beforehand for burial. 9 And truly, I say to you, wherever the gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in memory of her.”

Where? In the house of Simon the Leper, in Bethany, near Jerusalem.

Bethany is today el ‘Azareyeh (“the place of Lazarus”- the L being displaced to form the article).

Who is present? Jesus, of course; Simon, host of the meal (who Jesus had likely healed from leprosy; ‘some,’ likely the Twelve and others; and an unidentified woman who enters Simon’s home.

What happens? She pours out some very expensive oil on Jesus, an act of great humility and worship.

(More about her and her gracious act later.)

To be continued…

August 1, 2017
for it was not the season for figs – 8
The Fig Tree Languishes

In this concluding part of our 8-part series we draw our conclusions of why JESUS on his way to Jerusalem cursed the fig tree.
```
[circa 835 BC]
```
The Prophet Joel:

1:3 Tell your children of it,
and let your children tell their children,
and their children to another generation…

Generations recall what has been before.

Sin is always the downfall of the Lord’s chosen nation.

Surely scripture speaks contemporarily to those with ears to hear.

1:12 The vine dries up;
the fig tree languishes.
Pomegranate, palm, and apple,
all the trees of the field are dried up,
and gladness dries up
from the children of man.
```
~A.D. 30
```
Yesterday they shouted, ‘Hosanna!’

Eight centuries after Joel and other prophets warned Judah to repent, Jesus of Nazareth entered Jerusalem triumphantly. Even the children shouted praises and the crowds witness miracles.

Jesus then returned to nearby Bethany for the night.

A connection of Bethany to figs

Bethany was home to Lazarus, where some in the Jerusalem crowds had known that Jesus had raised him from the dead! Much is expected for this day.

Bethany “place of unripe fig tree near to Jerusalem

Bethany “house, place of unripe figs” is a village located on the E slope of Mt. Olivet, about one and one-half miles from Jerusalem.

It was called also the house of misery on account of its lonely situation and the invalids who congregated there.’ Source

Matthew 21:

18 In the morning, as he was returning to the city, he became hungry.
```
'It lies on the eastern slope of the Mount of Olives, fully a mile beyond the summit. Bethany has been commonly explained "house of dates," but it more probably signifies "house of misery." 
```
19 And seeing a fig tree by the wayside, he went to it and found nothing on it but only leaves. And he said to it, “May no fruit ever come from you again!”
Gospel of Matthew 21:19

And the fig tree withered at once.

Once a withered fig, Jerusalem will wither once more

Israel and Judah had been destroyed.

Jerusalem’s walls and Temple are rebuilt after many years, first by Ezra then built back bigger and better by Herod the Great.

Rome, like other nations, has again captured a chosen people; sons of Abraham, sons of David.

A King rides up to the gates triumphantly and crowds praise Jesus.

Now the Lord returns to Jerusalem and curses a fig tree.

Do these jews praising Jesus know their scripture?

Of course they do.

“Nearly every 1st century jew knew the word of God better than most jews or christians in these last days with abundant access to unread Bibles.”

32:46 וַיֹּאמֶר אֲלֵהֶם שִׂימוּ לְבַבְכֶם לְכָל־הַדְּבָרִים אֲשֶׁר אָנֹכִי מֵעִיד בָּכֶם הַיֹּום אֲשֶׁר תְּצַוֻּם אֶת־בְּנֵיכֶם לִשְׁמֹר לַעֲשֹׂות אֶת־כָּל־דִּבְרֵי הַתֹּורָה הַזֹּֽאת׃

and he said to them, “Place in your heart all the words with which I am warning you today, which you shall command your sons to be careful to do, even all the words of this law.
Deuteronomy 32:46

Deuteronomy 8:

6 So you shall keep the commandments of the Lord your God by walking in his ways and by fearing him. 7 For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, flowing out in the valleys and hills,

8 a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey, 9 a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity, in which you will lack nothing, a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills you can dig copper.

10 And you shall eat and be full, and you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land he has given you.”

Have we forgotten the lesson of the fig tree?
```
Just in case you have missed the Prologue and Scripture bringing us to this conclusion: GO BACK to the PROLOGUE HERE
```
Even as we have forgotten the Lord in our daily lives, Jesus the Messiah has found no fruit of repentance in Israel — in our nation

— perhaps rarely in our churches — and even in the landscapes and homes of this 21st century christian life.

The Lord found no desire of God’s chosen people to turn back to true worship of the Lord.

God our Father sent the Son to us in the flesh to become a Sacrifice for our sins.

Jesus neared the completion of His time with us on His created earth as Son of Man and then set his face toward Jerusalem and CURSED the fig tree.

‘Cursed be anyone who does not confirm the words of this law by doing them.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’”
Deuteronomy 27:26

It was not the season for figs, but a time for sacrifice.

“As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up – John 3:13

Matthew 21:

²⁰When the disciples saw it, they marveled, saying,

“How did the fig tree wither at once?”

²¹And Jesus answered them, “Truly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ it will happen. ²²And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith.”
What season is your faith?

+ Do you worship the Lord?

+ Would a King entering your town recognize your fruit?
```
Forgive me, Lord. Help me in my unbelief, for I have not asked you to take up the evil on this mountain of my mortal life and cast it into the sea.
```
Jesus IS Lord. He will return to reign forever and ever.

Amen.
July 12, 2017
for it was not the season for figs – 1
Whoever tends a fig tree will eat its fruit,
and he who guards his master will be honored.

– Proverbs 27:18

Consider the Creator of the garden approaching a fig tree before its season. Who will guard the Son of Man as He enters the Temple and fast-approaches the reproach of the Cross?
```
Prologue to this series (in case you missed it)
```
Mark 11: [ESV]

Jesus Curses the Fig Tree

¹²On the following day, when they came from Bethany, he was hungry.¹³And seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to see if he could find anything on it. When he came to it, he found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. ¹⁴And he said to it, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” And his disciples heard it.

Jesus Cleanses the Temple

¹⁵And they came to Jerusalem. And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold and those who bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons…

A triumphal entry into Jerusalem, as an anointed King of Israel. Jesus stays in a nearby town (Bethany) for the night, then returns to Jerusalem. A fig tree is not an uncommon sight along the rural roads leading to the gates of Jerusalem. He curses the tree with no fruit, then enters the Holy City, clearing the Holy Temple of unrighteousness.

The authorities will have to plot against this powerful and righteous Son of Man, lest their comfortable authority would be overthrown.

19 And when evening came they went out of the city.

Jesus leaves town.

Another night away from Jerusalem (probably once again with disciples in Bethany).

The Lesson from the Withered Fig Tree

²⁰As they passed by in the morning, they saw the fig tree withered away to its roots.

²¹And Peter remembered and said to him, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree that you cursed has withered.”

²²And Jesus answered them, “Have faith in God. ²³Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him.

Another miracle (kind of a scary one, though). Jesus had cursed a tree and it withered and died in a day.

(Have you ever thought that your life could pass just as quickly?)

Now, in typical rabbi fashion Jesus makes a teaching moment from fulfillment of His curse.

²⁴Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.

And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.
Mark 11:25

“Even a holy week spent in prayer is of no value to the unforgiving worshiper. You with ears to hear, forgive ,” learn the lesson of the fig tree.

Forgive, “… so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.”
```
Tend the tree of life and forgiveness. 
Bear the fruit of love. 
Guard the Lord, our Master and Savior.
He will curse the tree without fruit at the Judgment.
```
Roger@talkofJesus.com
Scripture has much more to say about the fig tree. Jesus does not choose such an important symbol of Israel to curse without cause.

To be continued
June 21, 2017