Three Misunderstood Acts of Jesus
If you grew up learning stories about Jesus in Sunday school, you probably remember the image of an angry Jesus flipping over tables and making a scene in the temple. And most of us know about the “triumphal entry” — when Jesus entered Jerusalem on a donkey and people put their clothes and palm branches under him, days before his death. You may even know about Jesus cursing a fig tree when it didn’t have any fruit for him to eat. For years, I heard those stories but didn’t understand what they meant.
Sometimes the stories get told as if Jesus just happened to ride on a donkey, got so “hangry” he took it out on the nearest tree, and lost his temper when he happened upon bad things at the temple. One lady told me she was so upset at Jesus she didn’t know if she could trust him because he cursed an innocent tree. Noted unbeliever Bertrand Russel cited this incident in his book, Why I’m Not a Christian, charging Jesus with unwise and immoral “vindictive fury.” T.W. Manson called it “a tale of miraculous power wasted in the service of ill-temper.”
Sometimes the stories get told as if Jesus just happened to ride on a donkey, got so “hangry” he took it out on the nearest tree, and lost his temper when he happened upon bad things at the temple.
But is that really what’s going on here? When the temple cleansing gets framed as a spur-of-the-moment, out-of-control tantrum by Jesus the loose cannon, people even use it to justify their abusive, bullying behavior or to condemn commercialism. It’s a misread.
These sign acts were intentional, not impulsive. With two public displays and one private object lesson, Jesus acts out a message he will teach throughout the week: the Messiah has come to save, but judgment is coming soon to Jerusalem and to all who reject the Lord’s Anointed One. Like the Lord’s Supper later, these acts were designed to convey a message, fitting a divine itinerary for Jesus’ last week.
Notice that he pre-arranged for the colt and pre-inspected the temple the night before he cleansed it. Mark makes sure we know figs were out of season, so Jesus had more in mind for this lesson than just food.
These three acts fit together. The destination of the triumphal entry isn’t just Jerusalem, it’s the temple (Mark 11:11). The temple activities were no surprise — he inspected the temple that evening, then returned the next day and acted out his judgment. The temple scene is bracketed by the beginning and end of the fig tree narrative (another “Markan sandwich” — like Mark 5:21-43). If we separate these acts, we can miss the point.
Like the prophets, Jesus conveys his message in words AND actions. These acts continue the long tradition of prophets dramatizing their message with visible statements of judgment. Jews in Jerusalem were familiar with sign acts, like Jeremiah smashing a jar in Jerusalem’s gate, Isaiah walking through the city naked, or Ezekiel lying bound while acting out a mini siege on Jerusalem.
These sign acts were intentional, not impulsive.
“The King has Come”
Throughout the book, Mark highlighted how Jesus kept his identity at least partially under wraps until the right time came. Well, the time has come. As he enters Jerusalem riding on a donkey, with people laying their garments down beneath him as they would for God’s Anointed One (2 Kgs. 9:6,13), he makes a public demonstration. The meaning? The rightful king has entered his city.
With this act, his confrontation with the Jewish authorities goes into overdrive. The next day, he’ll bring his onslaught to the heart of their power, the temple.
The Lord’s anger is real, but it wasn’t out of control.
He enters as Zechariah predicted — humbly, on a beast of peace rather than a warhorse, and bringing with him salvation and righteous judgment (Zech. 9:9). Jesus is no naive victim haplessly riding to his doom. He knows what’s coming, so much so that he can oversee the commandeering of his ride and set everything to a divine itinerary. They shout “Hosanna,” which means, “Save us now!” It’s not a statement of praise, but a call for deliverance (see the same word in 2 Sam. 14:4 and 2 Kings 6:26). And they use a standard pilgrim’s proclamation, but perhaps with more meaning than even they realize (Ps. 118:25-26). The one who comes in the name of the Lord WILL save.
“Judgment is Coming, Too”
The Lord’s anger is real, but it wasn’t out of control. This isn’t the Lord’s first time in the temple, and it isn’t his typical way of walking through a room — flipping over tables to get people’s attention. Yet it’s not unusual for Jesus to confront evil — he has no fear of confrontation. It’s an important aspect of Christ’s righteous character.
He is a warrior, a defender of the poor, a king upholding justice, as the prophets foretold (Is. 11:1,4). He judges the actions in the temple, the Jewish leadership, and the city and nation God called.
He quotes Isaiah 56, which is all about foreigners and outcasts finding their way to the Lord. He fights for people’s opportunity to know God through what Israel and the temple were meant to be. Isaiah talked about “foreigners who join themselves to the Lord, to minister to him, to love the name of the Lord,” saying, “‘these I will bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer; their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.’ The Lord God, who gathers the outcasts of Israel, declares, ‘I will gather yet others to him besides those already gathered’” (Isaiah 56:6-8).
He is a warrior, a defender of the poor, a king upholding justice, as the prophets foretold.
This was God’s vision of Israel and the temple. The other passage Jesus smashes together with this makes for an even more jarring condemnation when read in context. Jeremiah gave a famous temple sermon (Jer. 7) that ripped from Jerusalem their false confidence that having God’s temple would protect them. They should have borne fruit, they should have shown the nations the true God and offered them a way to know him and worship him. Paul’s words to the Jews should challenge us today: “you are sure that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness … you then who teach others, do you not teach yourself? … ‘The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you’” (Rom. 2:17-24).
In these three acts, we see 1) a declaration that the rightful, humble Savior King has entered his city, 2) a symbolic act of judgment on a fruitless people (the fig tree), and 3) a symbolic judgment on the temple and city. It’s just one more way the Bible declares that Jesus is the true King, Judge, and Savior.