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I’m reading The Last Week by Marcus J. Borg and John Dominic Crossan. It deals with what the Gospels really teach about Jesus’ final days in Jerusalem. I am mulling about the following today:

Mark’s gospel often contains pairs of incidents that are intended to be interpreted in light of one another. These incidents “frame that which Jesus is trying to communicate.

One pair of incidents is Jesus “cursing the fig tree and the “cleansing of the temple when he threw all the moneylenders out.

Beginning frame: When Jesus was going to Jerusalem he was hungry, and when he saw the fig tree and it did not have any fruit on it, he pronounced a curse on it so that it would never bear figs again. Ending frame: Upon leaving Jerusalem, Peter points out that the fig tree he has cursed has withered.

Reading these verses one may puzzle over this type of reaction from Jesus, that is, if you want to take the story realistically rather than symbolically. Jesus knew, as did all the people during this time, that it was not the season for this tree to produce fruit. Therefore, it was symbolic, not a recounting of events.

What the verses about the fig tree, upon entering and leaving Jerusalem, do is “frame the story about the cleansing of the temple. The ‘framing fig tree story’ warns us that the ‘framed temple story’ is not being cleansed, but symbolically destroyed and that, in both cases, the problem is a lack of the “fruit that Jesus expected to be present.

The threat is clear: if God’s temple is used as a place where worship is substituted for justice, God will destroy that temple, since it has become a haven for perpetrators of injustice and a den for robbers. Therefore, if we do not do justice, our display of worship is rejected.

Do you do justice?

Kindle:-6

You will also find Borg's and Crossan's new book "The First Christmas" equally fascinating. It fully supports what I learned at the Vancouver School of Theology last summer. I took a course from The Rev. Dr. Rabbi R. Daum, on the topic of midrash. This book shows in great detail just how the birth story is not historical in nature but midrashic and thus just how important the advent of Jesus was.

Doing justice is one of the things that I am constantly striving for in the only ways that I can. It is a great conccern in my life and faith.

Shalom

Ted:-6

Ted;1150760 wrote: Kindle:-6

You will also find Borg's and Crossan's new book "The First Christmas" equally fascinating. It fully supports what I learned at the Vancouver School of Theology last summer. I took a course from The Rev. Dr. Rabbi R. Daum, on the topic of midrash. This book shows in great detail just how the birth story is not historical in nature but midrashic and thus just how important the advent of Jesus was.

Doing justice is one of the things that I am constantly striving for in the only ways that I can. It is a great conccern in my life and faith.

Shalom

Ted:-6


Thanks for the info on their new book. I'm really excited about what I'm reading in this book. I feel new doors have been opened for me.

There are three of us who are reading this. We meet every Tuesday afternoon to discuss what we've read, what we think, and how we can include what we've learned in our lives.

Kindle:-6

I have that book as well. I read it over a year ago and think I will reread it during Holy Week, day by day. Yes it does open doors.

Shalom

Ted:-6