As we walk through Holy Week I am going to try to parallel Jesus' walk through the last week of his life. Yesterday we experienced the triumphal entry into Jerusalem when the crowds welcomed him with songs of praise and by lining the street with rushes they had cut in the fields. Since it was late in the day, he went out to Bethany to spend the night - probably at the home of Lazarus.
The next morning, as he and the disciples are headed into Jerusalem, he sees a fig tree with leaves and since he is hungry he looks for ripe figs. Not finding any because it was too early in the season, Jesus shows the very human trait of impatience and he curses the tree. They head on into town to the temple where he turns over the tables of the money changers and merchants who are doing business in the outer courts.
This action upset everyone, and the officials there started looking for ways to arrest him. They wanted to kill him because they were afraid of him, but the crowds were mesmerized by his teaching and the officials were even more afraid of the people. The big deal here is that the temple officials were allowed freedom as long as they kept the Israelites "in line." They are really afraid that the crowds will get so riled up by Jesus that they will start a revolution. A general revolt would mean that the temple worship would be shut down and the temple itself destroyed. (That's exactly what happened 40 years later.)
After teaching all day in the temple, Jesus and his disciples headed back to Bethany for the night. It was not until the next day that the disciples noticed that the fig tree had withered and died.
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