Then Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who were selling and buying in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold doves. He said to them, ‘It is written, “My house shall be called a house of prayer”; but you are making it a den of robbers.’ The blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he cured them. But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the amazing things that he did, and heard the children crying out in the temple, ‘Hosanna to the Son of David’, they became angry and said to him, ‘Do you hear what these are saying?’ Jesus said to them, ‘Yes; have you never read, “Out of the mouths of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise for yourself”?’ He left them, went out of the city to Bethany, and spent the night there. In the morning, when he returned to the city, he was hungry. And seeing a fig tree by the side of the road, he went to it and found nothing at all on it but leaves. Then he said to it, ‘May no fruit ever come from you again!’ And the fig tree withered at once. When the disciples saw it, they were amazed, saying, ‘How did the fig tree wither at once?’ Jesus answered them, ‘Truly I tell you, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only will you do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, “Be lifted up and thrown into the sea”, it will be done. Whatever you ask for in prayer with faith, you will receive.’ Matthew 21:12-22
Was Jesus just having a bad moment when he went into the temple and flipped tables or cursed the fig tree which immediately withered? These stories from Matthew 21 have us wondering. We have some insight but truly not the whole picture. We do know that wealthy merchants and temple leaders were charging exorbitant fees for sacrificial birds and animals, and money exchange. We know in our day how easily we can focus in money in our church communities and forget to focus on the needs of the people. I don't think I will ever be able to solve the fig tree dilemma, but I know that Jesus did very little just for fun in his earthly ministry. Jesus' act of turning calls us all to turn from our focus on money and income to our focus on the needs of the whole community.
Loving Creator, you provide all our earthly needs
and bring rain and snow to water our mother earth.
Too often people hoard those earthly provisions
and limit these blessings for the wealthy only.
Help us, Lord, to turn away from greed and to the people
so your love light might shine through us in these times. Amen.
