Mark 11:11-17 [11] Jesus entered Jerusalem and came into the temple; and after looking around at everything, He left for Bethany with the twelve, since it was already late. [12] On the next day, when they had left Bethany, He became hungry. [13] Seeing at a distance a fig tree in leaf, He went to see if perhaps He would find anything on it; and when He came to it, He found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. [14] He said to it, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again!” And His disciples were listening. [15] Then they came to Jerusalem. And He entered the temple and began to drive out those who were buying and selling in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who were selling doves; [16] and He would not permit anyone to carry merchandise through the temple. [17] And He began to teach and say to them, “Is it not written,‘ MY HOUSE SHALL BE CALLED A HOUSE OF PRAYER FOR ALL THE NATIONS ’? But you have made it a ROBBERS’ DEN
I noticed something really interesting when I reread these passages of Scripture today. Actually, I saw it a couple of days ago but focused on it this morning in my time of prayer. Verse 11 says that Jesus went into the temple the day before He cleansed it, and when He went in that first time, He looked around at everything. After looking around at everything, He left for Bethany, presumably to stay in the household of Lazarus and his two sisters. The next morning, He got up and traveled to Jerusalem again, and on His way, cursed the fig tree. After cursing the fig tree, He went into the temple and confronted the evil that was going on with great authority. The fascinating thing to me is He didn’t cleanse the temple the day before. When He went in, He looked around and saw all the evil going on, yet He did nothing about it. Jesus says about himself that He only did those things He saw the Father doing, and He only said those things He heard the Father saying. Jesus never did anything in response or in reaction to the activity of the devil. He did everything in response to the Father. That way, Jesus never let the devil set the agenda. Obviously, that first day when He went into the temple, the mind of the Father was not yet clear, so He did nothing about the temple until He fully discerned what the Father was up to. I know there are times when we all have to make quick decisions, and if our number one priority is to give glory to God, that is, to reveal His nature, then we can trust that God is leading us. But often, we act in response to the activity of the enemy without having the mind of Christ. We can’t live by assumption; we must live by faith instead. I believe that Jesus, after looking around and seeing what was going on, spent time in prayer hearing the voice of the Father concerning the evil that Jesus saw. The Mount of Olives was between Bethany and the temple, and it was one of Jesus’s favorite prayer closets, so it is possible Jesus spent some time there praying about the temple. We know that He came the second day, and in the name of the Father, He acted, changing the Temple’s environment and atmosphere. It is possible that there were going to be some key people in the temple on the second day who needed to experience what Jesus did, who weren’t there on the first day. None of us know for sure, but we can be certain of the wisdom of God. Jesus was in union with the Father, just like we are in union with Jesus, and if we, in union with the will of Christ, will confront the evil that is set before us, then we too can change atmospheres and environments. One of the keys though, is to make sure we aren’t reacting to the evil, but instead we are responding to the mind of Christ. Timing matters. Only then, and in His name, can we confront evil and bring Heaven to earth in any situation.