Mocking the Good

Gospel: Mark 11: 27-33

Jesus went about healing people from all their infirmities.  He liberated people from the demons that oppress and hold them bound.  He nourished people at table.  In today's Gospel portion we find Jesus challenging the injustices of the Temple system that exploits the poor for profit.  He calls out the hypocrisy of the religious leaders and wealthy of his day who speak of law and order, but oppress the poor and marginalized.

Throughout the Gospels we find Jesus' opponents objecting to the good he does.  In today's portion we find them asking on what authority he does such things.  Neither Jesus nor anyone else needs permission to do good for other people. Permission is not needed to defend the weak and powerless against those who oppress them.  It is truth and goodness that provide all the warrant and authority one needs to heal, liberate, nourish, and challenge the systems of oppression in our world.

In our own times we find the oppressor and hypocrite seeking to appropriate Jesus for their own ends.  They claim his authority in their oppression of the poor, in creating more poor and marginalized people through war, in neglecting and exploiting the immigrant, migrant, and refugee.  Here again truth and goodness will be the light that shows us the way to follow the Lord Jesus in the Gospels, the light that will repel the darkness of evil in our world today and always. 

Fig Tree and Temple

Gospel: Mark 11: 11-26

The fig tree exists in order to produce figs so that other beings may be nourished by its fruit.  When a fruit tree no longer produces fruit, a farmer does not waste space in his orchard by keeping it.  The tree is cut down and its wood used for fuel to provide warmth or fire for cooking.  It is the life cycle of every tree that at some point it will cease to bear fruit and eventually be used for firewood, and its place in the orchard will be taken over by another new tree that will bear fruit.

The same pattern exists in organized religion, as today's Gospel portion alludes.  The temple was no longer nourishing people.  It became an end in itself to make money and look pretty, as many houses of worship in our time do.  Yet, they produce no nourishment for people's bodies or souls.  And so they close and their space is used for other purposes, and people will seek and find nourishment elsewhere for the life of the spirit.  

So, we need not be surprised at the decline of religion and the plethora of closed houses of worship.  When their only purpose is to raise money so that the clergy can live the lifestyle of comfort to which they have grown accustomed, when they no longer nourish and meet the spiritual needs of the people, then it is time for their removal from the orchard and their replacement by those who will provide that nourishment.  It is the way of all things.

I Want to See

Gospel: Mark 10: 46-52 

Jesus is making his way toward Jerusalem where he will face arrest, trial, torture, and execution.  His final stop along the way is the city of Jericho, where a blind man calls out to him for help.  People try to prevent the encounter, as in so many other instances, but Jesus insists on meeting him.  The blind man, named Bartimaeus comes forward, and Jesus asks him, What do you want me to do for you?  Though it seems obvious, Bartimaeus replies, I want to see.

The question may seem obvious, but Jesus is asking him - and us - Do you really want to see what is to come?  My own disciples do not want to see it.  I have been trying to tell them what is coming: my arrest, trial, torture, and execution.  They would rather argue about who is more important among them than this reality to come.  So, I ask you again: what do you want me to do for you?  Do you really want to see these events of the passion?

To his credit, Bartimaeus picks up his things and follows the Lord onward to Jerusalem.  In his first days of having eyesight he will see the drama of redemption.  When we have our spiritual blindness removed from us, this same fundamental kerygma of our faith should be the first thing we see:  the reality that I am a sinner, the reality that Jesus has provided a way for me out of that predicament, and that it is my role as a disciple, like Bartimaeus, to gather my things and follow the Lord on his way.