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And they come again to Jerusalem: and as he was walking in the temple, there come to him the chief priests, and the scribes, and the elders, And say unto him, “By what authority doest thou these things? and who gave thee this authority to do these things?” (Mark 11:27–28)

James Tissot, The Accursed Fig Tree. Artokoloro/Alamy stock photo.

The Gospels agree that Jesus spent the first few days of Holy Week in the temple, where his actions and teachings continued to stoke opposition among the Jerusalem leadership (see Luke 19:47‒48). Nevertheless, while there is marked divergence on the sequence of events between Mark and the other Synoptics, the story of the cursing of the fig tree in Mark and Matthew provides a common theme for Monday, with the symbolism of this peculiar miracle helping to explain why Mark seems to have moved Jesus’s actions in the temple to the day after the triumphal entry and shifted some of his teachings to the next day. On one hand, by framing the temple incident with the tree’s cursing and its withering, Mark creates a tightly designed structure that emphasizes that because the Jerusalem leadership of Jesus’s day was fruitless—not practicing the justice, mercy, and holiness the Lord required—the temple would soon be destroyed. On the other hand, by placing Jesus’s condemnation of the chief priests and elders immediately after the cursing of the fig tree, Matthew, along with Luke, highlights the failure of Jerusalem’s leadership. John’s account differs substantially from the Synoptics, but it too places Jesus in the temple, where he prophesies of the coming hour that will see him accomplish his mission.

Historically Monday and Tuesday have been relatively empty days in terms of liturgical observance, with fewer formal traditions associated with the events of those days. Both, however, continue the kingly phase that began with the triumphal entry on Palm Sunday, demonstrating Jesus’s acting with authority as the True King of Israel, yet allusions to earthly kingship are but a type for his victory over sin and death and his heavenly reign. As President Hinckley testified, “Whenever the cold hand of death strikes, there shines through the gloom and the darkness of that hour the triumphant figure of the Lord Jesus Christ, He, the Son of God, who by his matchless and eternal power overcame death. He is the Redeemer of the world. He gave His life for each of us. He took it up again and became the firstfruits of them that slept. He, as King of Kings, stands triumphant above all other kings.”[1]

Using Monday to emphasize the importance of accepting and honoring Christ is the way that we can best bring forth proper fruit, thereby keeping ourselves, our families, our homes, and our temples holy as we prepare ourselves to receive his salvation.

Text: Mark 11:12–26

The cursing of the fig tree Monday and its withering the next morning frame Mark’s account of Jesus’s actions in the temple. This structure was deliberate, leading Mark to place the temple incident here rather than immediately following the triumphal entry. The framing also provides the key to interpreting the incident, giving it a different meaning in Mark than it had in Matthew’s and Luke’s versions

Mark

¹²And on the morrow, when they were come from Bethany, he was hungry: ¹³And seeing a fig tree afar off having leaves, he came, if haply he might find any thing thereon: and when he came to it, he found nothing but leaves; for the time of figs was not yet. ¹⁴And Jesus answered and said unto it, “No man eat fruit of thee hereafter for ever.” And his disciples heard it.

¹⁵And they come to Jerusalem: and Jesus went into the temple, and began to cast out them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves; ¹⁶And would not suffer that any man should carry any vessel through the temple. ¹⁷And he taught, saying unto them, “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called of all nations the house of prayer?’ but ye have made it a den of thieves.” ¹⁸And the scribes and chief priests heard it, and sought how they might destroy him: for they feared him, because all the people was astonished at his doctrine. ¹⁹And when even was come, he went out of the city.

²⁰And in the morning, as they passed by, they saw the fig tree dried up from the roots. ²¹And Peter calling to remembrance saith unto him, “Master, behold, the fig tree which thou cursedst is withered away.” ²²And Jesus answering saith unto them, “Have faith in God. ²³For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith. ²⁴Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them. ²⁵“And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses. ²⁶[But if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses.]”

The Cursing of the Fig Tree and the Temple Incident in Mark

Interpretation and Application

The incident with the fig tree (Mark 11:12–14, 20‒26; parallel Matt 21:18–22) is initially one of the more perplexing incidents in Jesus’s ministry. First, Jesus seems to act out of character, apparently angry with the tree for not providing him something to eat when he is hungry, even though it was springtime and too early to expect fruit.[2] Second, it is the only example of a “destructive” miracle in the Gospels, all other known miracles having served to heal, provide, rescue, and comfort.[3] Instead, the incident is best seen as another prophetic act, or, as Julie Smith terms it, an “enacted parable,” meant to teach a lesson. Latter-day Saints are well familiar with the olive tree serving as a representation of the House of Israel (see 1 Nephi 10:12‒14; Jacob 5:1‒77; also Rom 11:1‒24). Similarly, figs and the fig tree serve as symbols for Israel among the Old Testament prophets, particularly when God’s people were not fruitful (Jer 8:13; 24:1‒10; Hos 9:10, 16‒17; Mic 7:1‒6). The fig tree, which would have been in early leaf by Passover, could give the impression from a distance that it should have fruit, but such an appearance was deceiving. God expects his people to bring forth fruit, but, as he said through Micah, “there is no first-ripe fig [Hebrew, bikkûrāh; KJV, “first ripe fruit”] for which I hunger” (Mic 7:1).[4] Reading on another level, as God’s people, we never know when our own “harvest time” may be and so must be prepared at any time to be called upon for reckoning.

In the Matthean parallel of the story of the fig tree, as soon as Jesus cursed the tree it withered “immediately” (Matt 21:19; Greek, parachrēma). Mark, however, delays the destruction of the tree, or at least the disciples’ seeing the results of the curse, until the next morning (11:20), which would be on Tuesday in our working chronology. The curse and its fulfillment then serve as frames for the only episode that Mark places between them—namely, Jesus’s casting out of the merchants and moneychangers from the temple. The technical term for this kind of framing is intercalation, a literary device common in Mark’s Gospel.[5] While an intercalation is sometimes defined as the division of a story by the insertion of an unrelated episode, the framing elements often help interpret the central element. The symbolism of the cursing and withering of the fig tree thus gives the temple incident a completely different meaning in Mark, leading us to revisit the event that we had already considered on Palm Sunday. The traditional name for this episode, the “cleansing of the temple,” works well in Matthew and Luke: coming right after the triumphal entry, Jesus, as the rightful king, has the authority to expel the merchants and moneychangers whose activities were defiling the Lord’s house. Framed by the fig tree’s symbolism in Mark, however, the incident is primarily an enacted sign or prophetic act, whereby the overturning of the tables becomes a type of casting down of the temple stones in Jesus’s subsequent prophecy about the destruction of the temple (see Mark 13:2).[6]

In other words, because the priestly authorities were acting like usurpers or insurrectionists—another meaning of the word lē_istai, traditionally translated as “thieves,” which we have rendered as “bandits”—they had corrupted the worship taking place under their direction in the temple.[7] Because of the sanctity that Latter-day Saints attach to our own temples, cleansing a temple of unrighteousness is an appealing image to us, but in Mark the imagery is different: like the fig tree that did not bring forth fruit when the Lord looked for it, within forty years the temple and Jerusalem would be destroyed by the Romans. Just as John the Baptist called upon sinners to bring forth “fruits meet for repentance” (Matt 3:8), our lives, too, should produce the fruits by which we should be known (Matt 3:8; 7:16‒20). If we are not sincere in our worship, allow ourselves to be corrupted by the things of this world, or, worse yet, ever find ourselves exercising unrighteous dominion (see Doctrine and Covenants 121:35‒40), our outward religious acts will be rejected.

Jesus’s teaching immediately following the disciples’ coming upon the withered fig tree, however, provides a positive alternative for believers. The greatest “fruit” required is belief, and Jesus promises that if they have faith, they can do seemingly impossible things (Mark 11:22‒24; parallel Matt 21:21‒22). Given the setting, the mountain “pulled up and cast into the sea” could be either the Temple Mount, which will soon be overthrown, or the Mount of Olives where the fig tree itself was cursed, which, according to Zechariah, would be split in two at the last day (Zech 14:4). Because many prophetic words and actions can have multiple applications, both are possible, but Jesus’s subsequent admonition regarding prayer makes the former particularly significant in this context. While Mark alone among the Synoptics stressed that the temple was to be “a house of prayer for all nations” (11:17; emphasis added), Jesus seems to be suggesting that even when the fig tree is withered and the temple is destroyed, those who have faith can still pray efficaciously. If such prayer is accompanied by mercy, then forgiveness will come even when the place where ritual atonement had been performed no longer stands.[8]

Texts: Luke 19:47−48; 21:37–38; Mark 11:27–12:12

Two short notices in Luke establish Jesus’s pattern of teaching daily in the temple and returning each night to Bethany, where he presumably stayed with friends like the family of Lazarus. The earliest versions of Jesus’s temple teaching are found in Mark, the first two episodes of which are given here. John also has Jesus teaching in the temple, but as is typical for that Gospel, Jesus’s teaching is much more direct about his mission and his relationship with the Father.

Luke

⁴⁷And he taught daily in the temple. But the chief priests and the scribes and the chief of the people sought to destroy him, ⁴⁸And could not find what they might do: for all the people were very attentive to hear him.

³⁷And in the day time he was teaching in the temple; and at night he went out, and abode in the mount that is called the mount of Olives. ³⁸And all the people came early in the morning to him in the temple, for to hear him.

Mark

²⁷And they come again to Jerusalem: and as he was walking in the temple, there come to him the chief priests, and the scribes, and the elders, ²⁸And say unto him, “By what authority doest thou these things? and who gave thee this authority to do these things?” ²⁹“And Jesus answered and said unto them, I will also ask of you one question, and answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I do these things. ³⁰The baptism of John, was it from heaven, or of men? answer me.” ³¹And they reasoned with themselves, saying, “If we shall say, ‘From heaven;’ he will say, Why then did ye not believe him? ³²But if we shall say, ‘Of men;’ they feared the people: for all men counted John, that he was a prophet indeed.” ³³And they answered and said unto Jesus, “We cannot tell.” And Jesus answering saith unto them, “Neither do I tell you by what authority I do these things.”

¹And he began to speak unto them by parables. “A certain man planted a vineyard, and set an hedge about it, and digged a place for the winefat, and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen, and went into a far country. ²And at the season he sent to the husbandmen a servant, that he might receive from the husbandmen of the fruit of the vineyard. ³And they caught him, and beat him, and sent him away empty. ⁴And again he sent unto them another servant; and at him they cast stones, and wounded him in the head, and sent him away shamefully handled. ⁵And again he sent another; and him they killed, and many others; beating some, and killing some. ⁶Having yet therefore one son, his well-beloved, he sent him also last unto them, saying, ‘They will reverence my son.’ ⁷But those husbandmen said among themselves, ‘This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and the inheritance shall be ours.’ ⁸And they took him, and killed him, and cast him out of the vineyard. ⁹“What shall therefore the lord of the vineyard do? he will come and destroy the husbandmen, and will give the vineyard unto others. ¹⁰And have ye not read this scripture; ‘The stone which the builders rejected is become the head of the corner: ¹¹This was the Lord’s doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes?’”

¹²And they sought to lay hold on him, but feared the people: for they knew that he had spoken the parable against them: and they left him, and went their way.

Preparations for Passover in First-Century Jerusalem

Background

The law of Moses established three great pilgrimage festivals each year that required all Israelites to travel to Jerusalem who were able: Passover, or the Feast of Unleavened Bread, starting on Nisan 15 in the spring; the Feast of Weeks or “Pentecost,” fifty days later; and the Feast of Tabernacles in the autumn (Exod 23:24–27; 34:18–23; Deut 16:16). Of these, Passover was the most popular and was celebrated with great energy and zeal during the late Second Temple period. Commemorating the miraculous deliverance of the children of Israel from bondage in Egypt, and especially the “passing over” of their firstborn children by the angel of death (Exod 12:1–13:22), preparations began on Nisan 10, four days before the eve of Passover, when each family selected a goat or, most often, a lamb. Then, on Nisan 14, the head of household brought his family’s unblemished yearling to be sacrificed at the temple. The family then ate their sacrifice that evening as Passover began on Nisan 15 at nightfall.

The temple, its courts, and the Sacred Precinct at the time of Jesus. Adapted and used by permission of Stephen Hales Creative and with thanks to Andrew Livingston.

Passover had particular meaning for Jews at a time their homeland was under occupation and many were scattered throughout the Near East and the Mediterranean. The Jewish population in the entire Roman Empire was six to eight million, with perhaps as many as two million Jews living in the Holy Land itself. [9] Jews throughout the empire strove to make the pilgrimage to Jerusalem every spring for Passover. Thus, along with tens of thousands of their fellow Jews who were able to make the pilgrimage, Jesus and his disciples arrived in Jerusalem about a week before Passover. Preparations were extensive. Families needed to save money, arrange for travel, find lodging within a few miles from Jerusalem, deep clean their place of lodging to remove all yeast, and complete the purification rituals before ascending to the temple complex to purchase an unblemished yearling. Jesus and his disciples would have made these arrangements in advance; in addition to the nights spent in Bethany before Passover began, they might have had social connections with the owner of the guestroom where the Last Supper was held, as well as perhaps with the keeper of the garden complex to Gethsemane, where they may have intended to camp in order to be closer to the city during the festival itself.[10]

Although ancient literary sources, particularly Josephus, give Jerusalem a surprisingly large population, most scholars estimate that Jerusalem at the time of Jesus had a population of between 30,000 and 50,000, swelling to anywhere between 80,000 and 125,000 during Passover, though it could have been higher.[11] The presence of such enormous crowds is why the priests, and especially the chief priests, were nervous and watchful for agitators and rebels. Thus, when Jesus cleansed the temple and subsequently contended with various Jerusalem authorities, it was not in front of a few hundred pilgrims, as shown in most Jesus films. Instead, the temple complex of 144,000 square meters, or about forty acres, could be filled with tens of thousands of people during its busiest hours. As a result, thousands were likely within the immediate vicinity of Jesus as he confronted the Sadducean chief priests, the scribal experts of the law, and the elders of Jerusalem.

Jesus’s Authority Questioned and the Parable of the Vineyard and the Wicked Tenants

Interpretation and Application

Luke’s description of Jesus’s pattern during the early part of his last week describes how Jesus over the course of two or more days taught in the courts of the temple, where his teaching was well received by the crowds of worshippers but further fueled the opposition of the Jerusalem authorities (Luke 19:27‒48; 21:37‒38). These teachings fall into two broad subject areas: God’s rejection of unbelieving Israel under its unrighteous leaders (Mark 11:27‒33; 12:1‒12; parallels Matt 21:23‒22:14; Luke 20:1‒19) and attempts to catch Jesus in his words (Mark 12:13‒37; parallels Matt 22:15‒23:36; Luke 20:20‒47). While many Gospel harmonies, attempting to reconcile Matthew and Luke with the sequence of events in Mark, place all these teachings on Tuesday, Matthew has them begin immediately after the cursing of the fig tree. Because the rejection of unbelieving Israel and its leaders overlaps with the symbolism of the withering of the fruitless fig tree, we will discuss this first group of teachings here in our chapter treating Monday.

Both days’ teachings took place in a Jerusalem and temple that were teeming with pilgrims who had come for the Passover festival. These crowds were the audience for the verbal sparring between the Jerusalem authorities and Jesus. Mark, followed by Luke, describes these leaders specifically as being the chief priests, who would have included the current high priest, earlier holders of that position, and perhaps the heads of the leading priestly families; the scribal experts on the law, including important Pharisees; and the elders of the people, who represented the lay nobility. These were the main groups that made up the Sanhedrin, the council that not only served as the supreme Jewish law court but also the chief civil body under the Roman occupation. Significantly, these are the very three groups that Jesus mentioned in his first passion prediction as the ones who would reject him (see Mark 8:31).[12] They begin by trying to land the first blow, demanding that Jesus give them the authority by which he was doing “these things,” no doubt referring to the triumphal entry and, particularly, his cleansing of the temple, an act that attacked their own authority in the temple. Jesus easily parries, asking instead a question about the authority of John the Baptist, whom they had rejected but, like Jesus, had been popular with the people.

After answering their question with a question of his own, Jesus goes on the offensive in the form of a parable (Mark 12:1–12; parallels Matt 21:33–46; Luke 20:9–19). The parable describes a vineyard, which in Old Testament prophecy represented, like fig or olive trees, the house of Israel (see Ps 80:8–11; Isa 5:1–7; 27:2–6; Jer 2:21; 12:10; Ezek 19:10–14; Hos 10:1). Some of its details—surrounding the vineyard with a protective wall or hedge, digging a wine trough, and building a watchtower—linked it particularly with the song of the Lord’s vineyard in Isaiah 5. In Jesus’s parable, the vineyard is leased out to tenant farmers who refuse to give the required portion of the vineyard’s produce to the owner of the vineyard when he sends servants to collect it. After a series of servants are mistreated and even killed, the owner sends his son, who in Mark is his one, “well-beloved son” (Greek, agapēton). This is the very term used on two other occasions by the Father of Jesus, at his baptism and at the Transfiguration (Mark 1:11; 9:7). Hence, the owner was God, the son is Jesus, and the previous servants were the prophets whom the Lord had sent to Israel. This makes the tenants, who, importantly, do not own the vineyard but are only responsible for caring for it, the leaders of Israel throughout her history, up to and including the very Jerusalem leadership now opposing Jesus. One important change that Jesus makes in the parabolic precedent from Isaiah is that there the vineyard brought forth wild, or worthless, fruit (Isa 5:2); here the fruit is presumably good, but the tenants refuse to yield it to its true owner.[13] This provides an important control on our interpretation of the cursed fig tree, which helps avoid an anti-Semitic application: it is not all Israel—or, in this case, the Jewish people at the time of Jesus—that are not bringing forth fruit, but rather their leadership and the institutions that they were wrongly controlling.

The parable describes a vineyard, which in Old Testament prophecy represented the house of Israel. Tama66/Pixabay.

Both Mark and Matthew have Jesus end his parable with a reference to Psalm 118, creating a connection with the triumphal entry during which the crowds acclaimed Jesus with a line from that very psalm. Whereas the cry of those who accepted Jesus was “Save now,” the line that Jesus quotes here challenges his opponents’ rejection of him: “The stone which the builders rejected, this has become the cornerstone” (Ps 118:22). Matthew further highlights the condemnation of those who reject Jesus by framing the parable of the vineyard with two others: the parable of the two sons (Matt 21:28–32) and the parable of the wedding banquet (Matt 22:1–10). In the first parable, a man asks one of his sons to work in the vineyard. At first the son refuses but later changes his mind and does his father’s bidding, while another son promises to do what his father has asked but does not follow through. Jesus directly identifies the second, faithless son with the chief priests and elders, noting that tax collectors and prostitutes will enter heaven ahead of them (Matt 21:31). In the second, those whom a king invites to attend a wedding feast of his son spurn the invitation, leading the king to literally bring people off the street to take their place. While this parable is often seen to anticipate Gentiles taking the places of faithless Israel, in its original context it applies just as well to the failure of the leadership and the invitation of commoners to take their place.[14]

Text: John 12:20–36

John also has Jesus teaching in the temple, but as is typical for that Gospel, Jesus’s teaching is much more direct about his mission and his relationship with the Father. As is common in many of the discourses of Jesus in John, Jesus’s words are in semi-poetic form, signaling the difference between his divine speech and that of other characters in the Gospel.[15]

John

²⁰And there were certain Greeks among them that came up to worship at the feast: ²¹The same came therefore to Philip, which was of Bethsaida of Galilee, and desired him, saying, “Sir, we would see Jesus.” ²²Philip cometh and telleth Andrew: and again Andrew and Philip tell Jesus.

²³And Jesus answered them, saying, “The hour is come, that the Son of man should be glorified. ²⁴Verily, verily, I say unto you,

Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die,

it abideth alone:

but if it die,

it bringeth forth much fruit.

²⁵ He that loveth his life

shall lose it;

and he that hateth his life in this world

shall keep it unto life eternal.

²⁶ If any man serve me,

let him follow me;

and where I am,

there shall also my servant be:

if any man serve me,

him will my Father honour.

²⁷Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour: but for this cause came I unto this hour. ²⁸Father, glorify thy name.” Then came there a voice from heaven, saying,

“I have both glorified it,

and will glorify it again.”

²⁹The people therefore, that stood by, and heard it, said that it thundered: others said, “An angel spake to him.”

³⁰Jesus answered and said, “This voice came not because of me, but for your sakes.

³¹ Now is the judgment of this world:

now shall the prince of this world be cast out.

³² And I, if I be lifted up from the earth,

will draw all men unto me.”

³³This he said, signifying what death he should die. ³⁴The people answered him, “We have heard out of the law that Christ abideth for ever: and how sayest thou, The Son of man must be lifted up? who is this Son of man?” ³⁵Then

Jesus said unto them,

Yet a little while is the light with you.

Walk while ye have the light,

lest darkness come upon you:

for he that walketh in darkness

knoweth not whither he goeth.

³⁶ While ye have light,

believe in the light,

that ye may be the children of light.”

These things spake Jesus, and departed, and did hide himself from them.

The Johannine Passion Prediction

Interpretation and Application

Unlike Jesus in the Synoptics, who only makes ambiguous statements about his mission until the passion predictions that he delivered on the road to Jerusalem, John’s Jesus is direct about his divine identity and salvific work throughout his ministry,[16] most notably in a previous visit to Jerusalem when he declared that he had power to lay down his life and power to take it up again (John 10:17‒18). In addition to such earlier statements in John, Jesus makes one of his clearest predictions of his coming suffering and death while in the temple at some point after his triumphal entry. This prediction occurs when some visiting Greeks who have come to Jerusalem for the festival ask Philip to bring them to Jesus.[17] Philip and his friend Andrew relay this request to Jesus. Both Philip and Andrew were Galileans with Greek names who came from the Hellenized city of Bethsaida and presumably spoke some Greek, and their bringing the Greek visitors to Jesus fulfilled the worried claim of leading Pharisees at the triumphal entry, “Look, the world has gone after him!” (John 12:19; emphasis added). Thus, this encounter with the visiting Greeks represents that Jesus came to save all, both Jew and Gentile.

James Tissot, The Voice from on High. Artokoloro/Alamy stock photo.

Now that his final week has begun, Jesus declares, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified” (John 12:23; emphasis added). Earlier in John, Jesus had stated that his hour—referring to his suffering and death—had not yet come (John 2:4; 7:30; 8:20), but now it has, bringing about Jesus’s glorification, which consists of his crucifixion, death, resurrection, and ascension back to his Father. As a result, the second half of the Gospel of John is often called “The Book of Glory,”[18] a term that resonates with Latter-day Saints given that the Lord has stated, “For behold, this is my work and my glory, to bring to pass the immorality and eternal life of man” (Moses 1:39). Jesus responds to the interest of the Greek worshippers with a parable, the only real parable in this Gospel, which describes how a seed must “die” by falling into the earth before it can bring forth more fruit (John 12:24). The initial application of this image to those who gain eternal life by being willing to lose their lives parallels the corrective teaching that followed the first passion prediction in the Synoptics (Mark 8:35; parallels Matt 16:25; Luke 9:24), but also expands upon it, promising that whoever will serve Jesus will be with him and be honored by the Father (John 12:25‒26).

However, before Jesus gives the deeper, ultimate application of the parable, he expresses apprehension over his coming suffering in words that anticipate the beginning of the agony that he will experience in Gethsemane (John 12:27; compare Mark 14:32‒36; parallels Matt 26:36‒39; Luke 22:39‒42). Just as he will drink the cup then, here he at once expresses willingness to go forward with the events of this week, saying, “Yet for this I came to this hour. Father, glorify your name” (John 12:27‒28, authors’ translation). This is immediately followed by the confirming voice of God from heaven confirming that he has glorified Jesus and promising to glorify him again. [1/4 or 1/3 page image: 3.4 James Tissot, The Voice from on High] Proclaiming that his suffering, death, and resurrection will overthrow the power of Satan, Jesus then makes clear that the dying seed that brings forth new life is in fact him, saying, “And when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all to myself” (John 12:32; emphasis added). Lifted up upon the cross, he thus draws all, both Jew and Greek, to himself.[19]

Interestingly, Isaiah 52:13 in the Septuagint, or the Greek translation of the Old Testament, says that the Suffering Servant figure that serves as a powerful type for Christ will be both “lifted up” (Greek, hypsōthēsetai) and “glorified” (doxasthēsetai). Twice before in John, Jesus spoke of the Son of Man being lifted up, first to Nicodemus, when he compared himself to the brazen serpent that Moses lifted up in the wilderness (John 3:14), and later to a group of the Jews who had found fault in him (8:28). Perhaps most significantly to Latter-day Saint readers, these words are repeated by the Risen Lord in Bountiful: “And my Father sent me that I might be lifted up upon the cross; and after that I had been lifted up upon the cross, that I might draw all men unto me, that as I have been lifted up by men even so should men be lifted up by the Father, to stand before me, to be judged of their works, whether they be good or whether they be evil” (3 Nephi 27:14).

Celebrating Holy, or Great, Monday in the Christian Tradition

The fourth-century pilgrim Egeria reports prayers and services at the original Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem on the Monday of Holy Week that started at the ninth hour, or three o’clock in the afternoon, and lasted for four hours. These consisted of the singing of hymns, reading of passages “appropriate to the day and place,” and praying.[20] In the modern era, commemorations and activities are largely confined to worship services on what is called “Holy Monday” in the Catholic tradition and “Great Monday” in Eastern Orthodox churches. In Eastern Orthodox Christianity, the service is called the Bridegroom Service, which comprises various readings and hymns relevant to the events associated with this day, such as the ones discussed in this chapter. In addition to the story of the cursing of the fig tree, the liturgy of the Monday service also emphasizes the story of Joseph the Patriarch, who served as a prototype of Christ and was sold to foreigners by his brothers and imprisoned on false charges.[21] Those interested in better understanding such a Monday service could find and watch the roughly one hundred-minute Greek Orthodox Bridegroom Service on an online platform such as YouTube.[22]

Suggestions for Latter-day Saints

Although there are not many specific Christian traditions for Monday for Latter-day Saint families to draw upon, they can start by continuing to stress the royal aspects of the first half of Holy Week—for instance, by singing “Come, O Thou King of Kings” (Hymns, no. 59), and, if there are young children in the home, singing songs of praise such as “Beautiful Savior” (Children’s Songbook, 62‒63). A meaningful family devotional can be structured around reading about and discussing the episodes discussed in this chapter. Without demonizing those living at the time of Jesus, after reading the story of the fig tree, we can consider whether our lives are bringing forth proper fruit (see Matt 7:16-20; John 15:2, 5‒6). This leads easily into a discussion of following the example of the Savior, using the image of Jesus being “lifted up” in the Johannine passion prediction to shift to what the Risen Lord said about holding him up as the light that we shine to the world by following him (3 Nephi 18:16‒24). If families revisit the cleansing of the temple by reading the account in Mark, they can discuss the importance of the temple to them and sing songs such as “We Love Thy House, O God” (Hymns, no. 247) or “I Love to See the Temple” (Children’s Songbook, 95). As for most days of Holy Week, the art of Tissot provides representations of many of the events discussed here, and Carl Bloch and others have rendered versions of Jesus cleansing or teaching in the temple (see Appendix D: Celebrating Holy Week—A Resource Guide for Latter-day Saints). Drawing upon Christian traditions, children might enjoy making a treat that uses figs in the recipe, such as the fig pudding eaten by some in England on Fig Sunday. They could enjoy this treat while watching a movie about Joseph in Egypt, whose story is featured in the Orthodox celebration of this day, such as Joseph, King of Dreams, discussing afterward how Joseph served as a type of Christ.

Marking the Monday of Holy Week

Reflecting on Jesus’s actions and teachings in the temple during the early part of his last week not only prepares us to celebrate his triumph over sin and death, it also points our minds forward to his glorious return and future reign and encourages us to be faithful so that we can be numbered among his people at that day. Elder Neil L. Andersen, a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles since 2009, has declared, “We rejoice with Christians all over the world in His glorious Resurrection and in our own promised resurrection. May we prepare for His coming by rehearsing these glorious events over and over in our own minds and with those we love. . . . I testify that He lives. ‘Come, O thou King of Kings.’”[23] §

For Further Reading

Borg and Crossan. The Last Week, 31–54.

Brown. The Death of the Messiah, 1482–91.

Huntsman. God So Loved the World, 17–26.

———. The Miracles of Jesus, 36–37.

Lane, Jennifer. “Hostility toward Jesus: Prelude to the Passion.” In Celebrating Easter, edited by Thomas A. Wayment and Keith J. Wilson, 137–55. Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 2007.

Levine. Entering the Passion, 45–64.

Smith. The Gospel according to Mark, 611–42.

Notes

[1] Gordon B. Hinckley, “This Glorious Easter Morn,” Ensign, May 1996, 67; emphasis added.

[2] Although there have been well-intentioned efforts to explain why Jesus might have expected fruit to be on the tree out of season (see, for example, James E. Talmage, Jesus the Christ, 491–92, 503, which was in turn based upon the wishful speculations of nineteenth-century authors of lives of Christ), his expectation otherwise seems to have been unreasonable.

[3] Huntsman, God So Loved the World, 18; Miracles of Jesus, 36‒37.

[4] France, Gospel of Mark, 439‒41; Smith, Gospel according to Mark, 613‒14.

[5] France, Gospel of Mark, 18‒20; Borg and Crossan, Last Week, 32–34.

[6] Huntsman, God So Loved the World, 20‒21; Borg and Crossan, Last Week, 204–6; Levine, Entering the Passion, 45‒60; Smith, Gospel according to Mark, 621–24.

[7] Borg and Crossan, Last Week, 39–49; Levine, Entering the Passion of Jesus, 56–58.

[8] France, Gospel of Mark, 447‒50; Smith, Gospel according to Mark, 618‒21. Worship being accepted anywhere had, in fact, been predicted by Jesus in John 4:20‒24.

[9] Scot McKnight, “Jewish Missionary Activity: The Evidence of Demographics and Synagogues,” in Jewish Proselytism, ed. Amy J. Levine and Richard I. Pervo (Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1997), 11; Salo W. Baron, “Population,” in Encyclopedia Judaica, vol. 13, ed. Cecil Roth (Jerusalem: Keter, 1971), 866–903; Wolfgang Reinhardt, “The Population Size of Jerusalem and the Numerical Growth of the Jerusalem Church,” in The Book of Acts in Its Palestinian Setting, ed. Richard Bauckham (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1995), 237–65.

[10] For an overview of Passover at the time of Jesus with primary sources, see Daniel Falk, “Festivals and Holy Days,” in Eerdmans Dictionary of Early Judaism, ed. John J. Collins and Daniel C. Harlow (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2010), 636–45; Joseph Tabory, “Towards a History of the Paschal Meal,” in Passover and Easter: Origins and History to Modern Times, ed. Paul F. Bradshaw and Lawrence A. Hoffman (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1999), 62–80.

[11] Literary references often make ancient population figures much higher than archaeological evidence appears to support. Josephus is notoriously unreliable, apparently inflating figures in the Holy Land in the city of Jerusalem at the time of the Jewish revolt against Rome in AD 66‒72 (e.g., War, 6.9.3 [§424]; Ag. Ap., 1.22 [§197]). Representative of modern, archaeologically based estimates include Magen Broshi, “Estimating the Population of Ancient Jerusalem,” Biblical Archaeology Review 4, no. 2 (1978): 13–14, who estimates approximately 38,500 inhabitants at the time of Jesus and up to 80,000 before the city’s destruction in AD 70, and Hillel Geva, “Jerusalem’s Population in Antiquity: A Minimalist View,” Tel Aviv 41, no. 2 (2013): 144‒48, who places it particularly low, with 20,000 inhabitants. On the other hand, Reinhardt, “The Population Size of Jerusalem,” 263–65, still suggests a base population for the city between 60,000 to 120,000 and takes Josephus’s enormous pilgrimage numbers seriously.

[12] France, Gospel of Mark, 335, 451.

[13] France, Gospel of Mark, 456–64; Smith, Gospel according to Mark, 631–37.

[14] Nolland, Gospel of Matthew, 861–64, 885–92.

[15] Brown, Gospel according to John, cxxxii‒cxxxv; Huntsman, “The Gospel of John,” 314.

[16] Brown, Death of the Messiah, 1482‒84; Huntsman, “The Gospel of John,” 312‒15.

[17] While some have suggested that the “Greeks” referred to here were, in fact, Greek-speaking Jews (Greek, hellēnistai) from the Diaspora, John uses the term hellēnes, making it most likely that these were in fact Greek God-fearers who worshipped or honored the God of Israel without actually becoming proselytes. See Brown, Gospel according to John, 466; Keener, Gospel of John, 871‒72; J. Ramsey Michaels, The Gospel of John, The New International Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2010), 684‒85.

[18] Brown, Gospel according to John, 470, 541‒42; Huntsman, “Gospel of John,” 311.

[19] Keener, Gospel of John, 880‒82; Michaels, Gospel of John, 697‒701; Huntsman, God So Loved the World, 25.

[20] Itinerarium Egeriae 32.1‒2 = McGowan and Bradshaw, Pilgrimage of Egeria, 169‒70.

[21] See the explanation given in “Holy Monday: The Service of the Bridegroom Begins,” Greek Herald, April 13, 2020.

[22] See the English services on YouTube, Greek Orthodox Church, “Holy Monday Bridegroom Service,” YouTube video, 1:42:50, April 4, 2012, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etZYJxdiTwo, or stgeorgesouthgate, “Holy Monday Evening Bridegroom Service.mp4,” YouTube video, 1:49:09, July 31, 2011, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxumQEPWrbM. For a portion of the Roman Catholic service, see St Alphonsus Catholic Church, “Roman Catholic Mass: for the Monday of Holy Week: 4-6-2020,” YouTube video, 16:13, streamed live on April 6, 2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAF7V39lNDg.

[23] Neil L. Andersen, “Thy Kingdom Come,” Ensign, May 2015, 122.