Daily Liturgy and Scripture

Jesus's resurrection means everything. It means his lordship, and it means he sets the stage for what our own future will look like: a new heaven and earth, resurrected as he was.

Those watching the cross mocked Jesus, challenging him to save himself. Of course, salvation was exactly what he had in mind. Not his own, but theirs. This death would change things, and those who had been far from God would find themselves brought close, as God came close to them.

Failure is hard to live with sometimes. Peter is failing in this verse, right at the time when the chips are down. Jesus predicted that he would do so. What's interesting about that part of the story being found in the book of Mark is that many scholars believe Peter may have actually sat with Mark to create this Gospel. If that is true, then Peter is choosing to tell this part of his own story because it matters. Failure matters, not because it's something to get past quickly, but because failure has its own set of lessons.

The intention of the faithful disciples is not matched by their commitment once they get to the garden and Jesus needs them to stay awake. Judas, however, is having no trouble staying up late. If the unfaithful disciples had stayed as committed as the betrayer, what might they have seen? What was it that Jesus wanted them to watch for? Perhaps it was the people coming for him, but this was no surprise. Jesus knew what was coming. Perhaps he just wanted them to observe him in prayer, wrestling with the will of the Father. 

The Passover and Festival of Unleavened Bread marked the time when God was preparing Israel for their deliverance from Egypt long before the time of Jesus, and as Jesus is anointed for burial and his betrayer moves into place, God is preparing for delivery again. Only this time, it will not be Israel alone. The same God who was present with Moses and the children of Israel in Egypt is on the move for the whole world, in a grand plan of redemption.

Jesus foresees the destruction of the Temple, which occurs only a few decades after his life. But in place of that earthly Temple, the place the disciples admired, a new temple will come: himself. This temple cannot be torn down by people, but remains the center of our worship today.

Between the stories of the widow who gave all her money and the prophecy that the Temple would fall (which did happen), Jesus offers his disciples a very different priority for the things we see as valuable. While the Temple would have been a point of great pride for the people of that day, Jesus doesn’t get caught up in that. He rather turns his attention to a person who gives sacrificially, because she understands what the Kingdom of God looks like more fully.

Money is so near and dear to us that we place too much importance on it at times. It was no different in Jesus's time. The money question posed by the religious leaders showed that money was at the top of their list of concerns, but Jesus flips their question on them. Give the money to the powers of this world, but give your love to God and those who bear God's image. 

It seems that Jesus is refusing to answer the question about "by whose authority" he works, but it appears that he might actually tell them. Though he doesn't say it directly, he comes back with a parable about a master sending a son to wicked tenants. The son is there under the authority of the master, and the tenants respond violently. Not only does this establish Jesus' authority, but it also establishes the intentions of those who have challenged him.

A lot of symbolism is happening in these passages. Jesus riding on a donkey is a parody of the Roman victory parades, where the victors rode through the town on giant war horses. The withering of the fig tree (which wasn’t producing fruit anyway) was symbolic of God removing authority from those who had been producing no spiritual fruit, only using their position to oppress others. It was the coming together of Jesus disarming the traditional powers, and the end result would be a humble king in power.