This week in our daily devotions, we will consider the activities of our Lord during Holy Week.
On Monday, Jesus and his disciples walked the two miles from Bethany to Jerusalem. Along the way he cursed a fig tree because it had failed to bear fruit. There are two lessons to glean from this story. First it represented God’s judgment on spiritually dead religious leaders. In 2 Timothy 3:5 Paul warned Timothy of people with a “form” of godliness, but they deny the power. They go through the motions and maintain all the external form of religion, but know nothing of the power of God to genuinely change lives. Paul told Timothy to “turn away” from such people. In these troubling times, I pray for our community to find in the Church a true representation of the love and power that Almighty God has to offer. Secondly, He used this experience to illustrate the power of prayer and faith. According to Matthew 21:19 immediately after He cursed the tree it “withered away.” Jesus followed this up with the admonition “whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them and you will have them” (Mark 11:24).
In Jerusalem He returned to the Temple and saw two offenses. First, animals were being sold for sacrifices at exorbitant prices, and secondly, foreign money exchanged for temple gifts were subject to taxes and a high exchange rate. Both of these offenses were for the financial benefit of the priests and Pharisees. In anger, Jesus overturned tables and drove the money changers out, saying “The Scriptures declare, ‘My Temple will be a house of prayer,’ but you have turned it into a den of thieves” (Luke 19:46).
I can’t help but see a parallel between Jesus cursing a barren fig tree and rebuking religious leaders for failing the people while padding their bank accounts. God wanted the temple to be a house of prayer for all people, not just the wealthy. He still does.
Let me encourage you, that in a culture of spiritual barrenness, we can be believers who take God at His word, pray in faith, and believe Almighty God to do the miraculous.
Scriptures for Monday: Matthew 21:12–22, Mark 11:15–19, Luke 19:45-48, and John 2:13-17.