Author: Wesley White

and would not allow anyone to carry anything across the Temple Courts.

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tables in one direction
chairs in another

doves released
coins scattered

all in all
quite a mess

needing fallow time
not a quick fix

so don’t bring
a broom just yet

such a picture
needs living with

imprinted on souls
for constant reflection

every system
comes to this

its calculated good
still frail

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Remember—no story takes place in a vacuum—there is a Judean security police and a Roman garrison close at hand. These bodies exert the control needed to see that commercial interests are cared for.

This is the case for both those directly involved in transactions within the Temple setting and for those who save steps by using the temple ground as a shortcut from one part of Jerusalem to another or the carrying of goods to and from one of the gates of the city.

If the upsetting of tables is a direct action against those controlling the temple economy and means to access the favor of G*D, then this action is equivalent to what we know as a boycott or blockade of the public to raise their awareness of a current difficulty.

In both cases, this moment of disruption is but a prelude to the eventual collapse of Jerusalem and the Temple in 70 CE when it is destroyed by the Romans as its political and military inconvenience came to outweigh its commercial benefit to them.

It is one thing to interfere with the day-to-day business of a religion, it is quite another to interfere with the business of individual citizens who make up one crowd or another. Every boycott or blockade reveals both supporters and opponents. Awareness of the larger issue that would bring forth this act of resistance is raised and more supporters gained. Interference with or interruption of daily business turns passive followers into active adversaries.

Beyond the reactions of those directly affected, security forces have their own interest in keeping a tight control on disputes and will use any needed force to preempt any potential or active disruption.

The odds are this event was relatively short in duration.

They came to Jerusalem. Jesus went into the Temple Courts, and began to drive out those who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers, and the seats of the pigeon-dealers,

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still a-hungering
an exorcism
is all that rises
to every occasion
in need of mercy
healing

oh we say first
no harm
but seeking all the harm
already done and done again
options become limited
to never again

into which our best cure
sets a next stage
for harm’s never-ending variety
to adjust its baseline
and bloom with a vengeance

a push here
a shove there
an expletive undeleted
scatters doves
as well as coins
hunger happens

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Still hungering, Jesus comes to the Temple looking for sustenance. While the fig tree bore no fruit to sustain, the Temple is bearing bad fruit. This is just as problematic, if not more so. Here one gets empty calories while believing that such nutrition will see them through. It doesn’t.

The verbal-curse at the fig tree is here turned into an action-curse. This is not just a rotational issue of seasons, which might be excused, but an intentional selling of a patent medicine based on the patter of the seller and need or gullibility of the buyer, not the worth of the potion itself.

Sabin-2₁₀₁ is clear that, “these actions must be understood in the context of … prophetic traditions.”

The confrontation is in line with the prophetic intention to purify the Temple from commercialization that ultimately runs counter to a Jubilee reset of generations of economic inequity. Sacrifices with a financial component, such as the selling of indulgences or promises of prosperity, can be traced back to Samuel’s sons, Abraham gifts to Melchizedek and the offerings of Cain and Abel.

The particular of doves is about the “sacrifices” of the poor—the sacrifice needed for the “purification” of women and the certification of a leper’s cleanliness. Jesus overturns “the stations used to make a profit off those condemned to second-class citizenship.” [Myers₁₄₇]

So, addressing the tree, he exclaimed, “May no one ever again eat of your fruit!” And his disciples heard what he said.

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driving forces
destination bound
brook no detour

all options
devolve to
either or

no excuse
for being
out of season

even absent
strange fruit
hangs heavy

this now
is all
there is

until awaking
beyond season
in larger love

---

This is often seen as an unnecessary curse (why would one naturally expect the fruit of figs before their season); it is not much different than prior teachings about dismissing a “Holy Spirit”, refusing to sell possessions, hanging millstones around the necks of others, and self-amputations.

Mark’s readers have, by now, become accustomed to knowing Jesus actions are as parabolic as his stories. At question is whether this action is literal rather than metaphoric and what justification there is for treating it literally.

We know the disciples have heard other things by Jesus, even specific directions, and have often not gotten the point.

We might remember them coming to Jesus complaining about others who are encroaching upon their territory and healing in Jesus’ name.

In hearing this curse, the disciples are likely to hear that they have another key that they can leverage into power and control.

They heard this statement to be about the fig tree, not about their not being ready for a next season or about Jesus’ hunger for mutual hospitality.

Mann₄₄₁ looks at “the tradition which nurtured Jesus” and notes that “the Messianic Age, the Age of Blessings, will cause the earth to produce abundantly and beyond human expectation”. There will be “natural wonders which will accompany the time of restoration [an un-cursing of the ground Adam was to till]” (see examples in Isaiah 40:4-5, 45:2, 49:11, 51:10; Psalm of Solomon 11:4; and 1 Baruch 5:7). “Fruit out of season may be looked for, or expected, only by one entering upon the New Age who is hungry and righteous.”

Sabin-1₈₃ uses a midrashic approach that connects with G*D’s curse of the ground in Genesis so this has a larger context than just Israel and is a set-up for a universal reversal of all curses, even Jesus’.

and, noticing a fig-tree at a distance in leaf, he went to it to see if by any chance he could find something on it; but, on coming up to it, he found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs.

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a mirage of food
is no less compelling
than a desired lake
in a thirsty land

a hunger to be satisfied
rises from general awareness
a commander of attention
reorienting every decision

a crowd-size need is narrowed
to one and only one imperative
from mission to maintenance
regardless of any other reality

without sufficient resources
in season or out
we’ll search out
trees or dumpsters

---

 

A season of belovedness is not yet here. We look for it. We yearn for it. We hunger for it. It is not yet present. Yet it could be.

That which satisfies the resolution of a current lack is yet present. What else have all the healing stories been telling us? That which is out-of-whack, out-of-season, dis-eased can, now, be aligned, harvested, made whole.

All our energy has gone into leaf-making, not fruit-making. Fishing for people is disciple-making not simply carrying prior-revelation forward.

It is not yet time for a new heaven and new earth, a new age. Yet, the experience of wilderness with beasts and angels gives evidence of a season available that is not currently acknowledged. Experience of the emergence of the future into the present can be gained, consolidated, and enjoyed.

The story about a fig tree (a prophetic symbol of Israel, see Hosea 9:10, Micah 7:1, and Jeremiah 24:1-10 for some references) will be interwoven with arguments within the Temple. Both will be found to be exhibiting a linear fault that comes with seasons—that the seasons are distinct instead of each one carrying the others within them. Whichever aspect of the multiverse we are in is available and is less limited than commonly admitted.

To see through “hungry” eyes is to be realistic about the limits we habitually use to keep us in our place, stuck. Our first reaction will be that of sorrow or anger that we use “normal” or “natural” to avoid the investment of energy, work, needed to take our gift, our “belovedness”, into the real world of wilderness that will refine it into being able to engage all the seasons of life from within any of them.

The next day, after they had left Bethany, Jesus became hungry;

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hunger is a suffering
residing deep within
bodies with a future
emotions with a present
spirit with a past

person hungers for person
place calls out to place
to meet habitual expectations
to cover a recent loss
to finally begin a quest

leaving little Bethany
for a short stroll to Jerusalem
is not a place for hunger
if Martha has any say
but Mary’s curiosity is never sated

Jerusalem to Bethany and back
is a long journey
calling for surprising reserves
unplanned-for preparations
unexpected wearing details

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Another scene begins and we are met with a strange comment about Jesus’ hunger. It would be a huge breach of hospitality to have a guest, particularly one in whom are seen great events, leave hungry.

The word for hunger here is πεινάω (peinaō, craving) and is the same word Matthew uses in his Beatitude: Privileged are people who are hungry and thirsty for “the rightwising eschatological activity of God”…. [“rightwising” phrase from M. Eugene Boring in The New Interpreter’s Bible, Volume VIII₁₇₉.]

Here we might speak of heart hunger instead of stomach hunger.

This shifts our perspective from individual desire to that unbending arc of justice or mercy enacted so needed if a community is to have a core strength beyond an economic measure of relative worth. It also returns us to the scene with the one asking the cost of eternity only to find it beyond his means to divest himself of the reigning power of resources.

To come to Jerusalem with cheers is a cheap victory. Even if Jesus had come to Jerusalem early on the previous Day of the Colt, he would have had to leave to come back “hungry”. The lateness of the day was not the triggering of his prior leaving, but a recognition that he had not given his “Son of David” title away.

Unlike a recent Snickers commercial, his hunger was not going to negatively happen to others, but it did need to be sharpened. His time back in Bethany was a return to his days in the wilderness following an announcement of belovedness—a hunger for mercy for all.

Jesus entered Jerusalem, and went into the Temple Courts; and, after looking around at everything, as it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the Twelve.

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what an anticlimax
specific risky plans
suspiciously complex preparations
extraordinary responses
arrival at the center
only to find it bare

there is no power here
nor its vacuum
only ordinary lives
trapped in ordinary lines
the holy of holies leads back
to an ordinary little town

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This is quite the dud of an adventure. “We came all this way to turn around?!”

All the build-up of redemption and overthrow seems to have come to nothing. Only a resurrection sputtering away into silence could be worse.

What false bravado we had. Our chants and banners turn out to be fake news, not good news.

Kings in David’s line are not supposed to surrender without a fight. At best this might be described as a feint, a casing-of-the-joint, for a later theft of power. “Surely, tomorrow will bring victory. Just as Joshua had to spy out Jericho and camp out for three days, so we will exalt over a new Jerusalem.”

Trying to follow these early days in Jerusalem leads Carrington₂₃₆ to recognize:

These notes of time in Mark do not help us to frame a chronology of the Gospel. The sense of motion and continuity and development is conveyed in other ways, by the dramatic presentation of various crises, by the repetition of important words or phrases, by the use of place-names, and so forth.

One of the clues of place-names lets us know this is the conclusion of the colt vignette. We began this chapter with reference to Bethany and Jerusalem. We end with Jerusalem and Bethany. If we were coding a website this portion would begin with <bethany><jerulsalem> and conclude with </jerusalem></bethany>.

We can’t help wondering what Bartimaeus is making of this. His “Son of David” reference seems to need redefining. Is Jesus not going to take a false ruler’s life when he had it right in his hand to do so? Surely Jesus will take over the failed kingship of Saul and the Temple Priests and the Romans. But, how if not by overthrow? Undermining?

Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David! God save him from on high!”

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so enthralled are we
with a golden past
we mistake tomorrow
as its extension

not knowing any better
we see only empire
ours theirs ours again
in unending line

condemned to repletion
we roller-coast stock prices
twitter feeds and inner angst
falsely analyzing progress

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We have heard a blessing on Jesus as he enters the danger that Jerusalem has become. We now hear a blessing on a still future presence of that which David and his physical descendants were not able to sustain.

We are also led back into further confusions in “Hosanna”. In particular to what a “highest” Hosanna might mean.

Bratcher₃₄₈ says it bluntly, “In English the phrase ‘Hosanna in the highest!’ is virtually devoid of meaning, since ‘hosanna’ conveys no meaning, other than as a shout of praise, while ‘in the highest’ … may be misunderstood as signifying ‘in the highest degree.’ Eventually Bratcher follows “Lagrange: ‘the acclamation rises as far as heaven, as though to thank God for inaugurating his salvation, and to ask him [for] his help.’”

Barkley₂₆₈ notes, “[Hosanna] occurs in exactly the same form in 2 Samuel 14:4 and 2 Kings 6:26, where it is used by people seeking for help and protection at the hands of the king. When the people shouted Hosanna it was not a cry of praise to Jesus, which it often sounds like when we quote it. It was a cry to God to break in and save his people now that the Messiah had come.”

Bartimaeus called out to the “Son of David” for mercy. Bartimaeus now joins with others in continuing that mercy or saving (Hosanna) into a presence of the best intention (“kingdom”) of David that will be for all, not just for some. This thanksgiving is also a plea.

Jerusalem is the seat of the current occupier—Rome. To have a “higher Hosanna!” is to call past Rome to a higher power. For everyday mercies (read Everyday Mercies by Evie Yoder Miller) we are thankful, praiseful. Yet, we yearn for them to be more than particular incidents, but a universal presence signified by a larger process of mercy for which we have no other language than “heaven come on earth”, G*D present, Neighb*rs present, and a plea, “Come!”.

and those who led the way, as well as those who followed, kept shouting, “God save him! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!

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fore and aft
the cry widens
we’ll get our own back

every where
energy expands
what matter constricted

teetering between energy & matter
substituting sound for light

we use
what’s available
continuing beyond current limits

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This is the position of belovedness—hearing, “Hosanna”, from those who have gone before as the past is returned to wholeness and hearing, “Hosanna”, from those next seven generations down the way whose path is clearer as they build on this moment.

It is this picture of being a fulcrum point that attracts us to hear and experience the vision of the prophets. This is what it means to straighten crooked paths and prepare a healthier way.

The same dual perspective is found in ὡσαννά (ōsanna, Hosanna). It can be heard in Psalm 118:26 as coming from the Temple/G*D to individuals coming to offer their thanks for one deliverance or another. It can be heard here coming from individuals to one seen as arriving in the “name of the Lord” to deliver from current occupation.

Whether from an individual or “heavenly” perspective the word itself can come from an individual to mean, “Save (us/me)! or from a blessing place or person, “Hail!/Welcome!”. “Hosanna” is both a boisterous praise for a past healed and a deep prayer that a better future will arrive. This is a common place for readers to find themselves and an opportunity to willingly dive into the middle of complexity.

If the colt image can find precedence in Zechariah 9:9–10, the imagery of palms/plant waving comes from a time much more within then-living memory, 1 Maccabees 13:47–52.

Sabin-2₉₉, writes:

By using language that would remind his readers of both Zechariah’s peace-loving king and of Simon Maccabeus, Mark offers a complex picture of Jesus. Both scriptural passages converge in showing someone who took action to restore the Temple to its original state as a place of worship. Yet there is a tension between the two. As Mark develops his portrait of Jesus’ relationship to the Temple, he also continues to show this tension.

Many of the people spread their cloaks on the road, while some strewed boughs which they had cut from the fields;

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a parade well begun
slows as people crowd around

though not a million-person march
the intensity is heightened

trees and fields are ransacked
sabbath best is offered

passion goes beyond tearing clothes
to commitment of whole garments

to place a cloak is to place a bet
Jesus will come into our kingdom

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Cloaks (ta himatia), like garments and clothing in general, are very significant throughout Mark’s Gospel. As we have seen over and over, their meaning comes from the one who wears them. They express someone’s identity and are a symbol of the person. In the Bible, as in so many cultures still today, clothing is a proper symbol, just as someone’s name is a proper word. ~LaVerdiere₁₄₇

Cultural motifs do not travel well. A gesture in one land can mean something quite the opposite in another. A “thumbs-up” sign can mean everything is alright in one place and be the equivalent of a middle-finger expression of disgust at all you are. Clothes on the ground to be walked over by a colt is one of those signs that is best not given too much attention. In many African settings honor is given by cleaning the way, not littering it.

Even biblically this carries a different weight if we look at when Jehu became king (2 Kings 9:13). Jehu is honored and goes on to rule through violence and eventually die. This is different than the suffer, be put to death, and resurrection Jesus sees. Jesus has given no sign of coming under a sign of peace (a dove of belovedness) and doing a bait-and-switch into being a hanging judge.

Alfred Marshall’s literal translation of the second part of this verse is: “and others wisps of twigs, cutting out of the fields”. Wright₁₄₇ reminds us that Mark “doesn’t say the people waved palm branches; the word for what they cut from the fields could just as easily mean corn or straw, or leafy branches cut from trees.” The focus is more on the fields than it is what is gleaned from them.

There is a secondary meaning of the action we have come to associate with palm branches and that is the treading of twigs and other plant material into the equivalent of mattresses. The crowd is literally smoothing and softening the way.

Then they brought the foal to Jesus, and, when they had laid their cloaks on it, he seated himself on it.

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having gone one mile out
to gather a basic resource
there is no reason not to
come an extra mile back
and add value

of course afterward
we will boast
how high he sat
regally perched atop
our humble cloak

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The versification here seems to have been caught up in Mark’s breathless style as the first line (7a) would make a fine end to the plan Jesus laid out to have a symbolic vehicle of peace (contrasted with a mighty war horse) on which to enter and restore a place fallen from its heritage as a “city of peace (harmony/wholeness/health/safety)”.

7b then leads us to the next round of symbols—garments, clothes that represent people’s lives being laid down in service, suffering.

In all of this, Jesus begins the process but soon disappears from it. Of more importance than himself at this point are the symbols used.

With Bartimaeus following and symbols beginning to pile up in a theater of the absurd, whatever value a Messianic Secret might have had, it is now past.

The first to offer a sign of their life in service are the two disciples who fetched the unridden colt. Something in their adventure shifted their attention. There is another shift here from Baptizer John saying one more powerful than he would come and these disciples saying, with their clothes, that one more powerful than they had come. Somewhere in Mark’s relating Jesus’ journey there is a commitment to do more than mysteriously follow.

This action by two disciples, that will get picked up by the still affirmative crowd, asks Mark’s readers about their own turning point. What sign will commit them to also enter Jerusalem as an anti-king, a restorer of hope in whatever current Mad Max scene of gratuitous violence is still proceeding in unending flow.

After all the time of witnessing healings, feedings, calmings, teachings, and other high moments, there is something about participating that makes a difference. Whenever people go out two-by-two, a difference is made. Who is your current buddy in difference-making?