Theological Commentary: Click Here
The
triumphal entry signifies the last week of Jesus’ ministry before the
crucifixion. It is a bittersweet
story. It marks the point where Jesus’
ministry gets more desperate, more direct, and more pointed against the
religious leaders. This also means that
His teachings get easier to understand and inherently more challenging. It also indicates that we’ll see the flaws in
humanity more clearly. After all, we
start this week of Jesus’ life with a crowd shouting Jesus’ praise. We’ll end it with a crowd shouting for His
death.
Jesus goes
in for the kill when some religious leaders come to challenge Him. They want to know from where His power
comes. Jesus won’t tell them because
they refuse to acknowledge the truth in their hearts about John the
Baptizer. While this is an impressive twist
that Jesus does, I think the lesson in this story is that honesty is the best
policy. The religious leaders get
nowhere because their inability to be honest.
What if the
religious leaders had admitted that John was from heaven? That would have opened the door for Jesus to
ask some hard questions. Why didn’t they
believe if they thought he was from heaven?
That question would have led to a good place of analysis and faith
eventually, though. It would have been a
hard question, but Jesus could have used it to lead the religious leaders to
truth.
What if the
religious leaders admitted that John’s power was human and not divine in origin? They would have had to face the crowd and
realize that their opinion was one in the minority. Again, Jesus could have used that opportunity
to show them the truth. Jesus could have
used that to open the door to discussion about why so many people disagree with
them.
Instead, the
religious leaders refuse to commit. Because
they refuse to commit, no fruit can be born in their life. They don’t come to truth. Their lives are left unchanged and they are
allowed to go on existing in their own fabrication of reality. Answering Jesus’ question would have been
harder than not answering, but it would have had a much greater opportunity to
end in truth rather than the lies they chose to believe.
This same
thread is woven throughout the rest of the chapter. The fig tree refuses to fruit. It is denying its purpose. Rather than grow fruit – a hard process that
costs something, the tree simply produces leaves. Because the fig tree is unwilling, like the
religious leaders who were unwilling to acknowledge truth, it is cursed.
Take the story of the two sons. One seems unwilling at first but is willing
in the end. That son is praised. The other son displays willingness on the
outside but has a heart of stone on the inside.
That son is rejected. We continue
to see that we must be willing in order to bear fruit and do God’s will.
Lastly,
there is the story about the tenants.
The tenants want to keep all the harvest to themselves. They don’t want to face the reality that the
owner of the land has the right to it – or at least some of it. They don’t even respect the son of the owner
of the land. They try to live in denial
of the truth. They try to live in a
world of their own making. Instead of
living at peace with the landowner and embracing a shared prosperity, they end
up being killed and replaced. The
religious leaders who refuse to take a stand – and in doing so refuse to give
Jesus an opportunity to lead them to a place of better truth – are about to be
replaced with disciples of Jesus who come willingly from the ranks of fishermen
and tax collectors.
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