Mark 11 · The Lantern

The Triumphal Entry

And when they drew near to Jerusalem, to Bethphage and Bethany near the Mount of Olives, He sends two of His disciples

(ubi sup.) Bethany again means the house of obedience, because by teaching many before His Passion, he made for Himself a house of obedience; and it is said to be placed on the mount of Olives, because He cherishes His Church with the unction of spiritual gifts, and with the light of piety and knowledge.

(Cat. in Marc. Oxon.) Not indeed that He was compelled by necessity to ride on a colt from the mount of Olives to Jerusalem, for He had gone over Judæa and all Galilee on foot, but this action of His is typical. It goes on: And many spread their garments in the way: that is, under the feet of the colt; and others cut down branches off the trees, and strawed them in the way.

The disciples of Christ are called two by two, and sent two by two, since charity implies more than one, as it is written, Woe to him that is alone. (Eccl.

and says to them, “Go into the village before you, and immediately, entering into it, you will find a colt tied upon which no person has yet sat. Untie it and lead it.

And we will cite the prophetic utterances of another prophet, Zephaniah, to the effect that He was foretold expressly as to sit upon the foal of an ass and to enter Jerusalem. The words are these: "Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass."

"Untie the donkey and bring it to me." He began with a manger and finished with a donkey, in Bethlehem with a manger, in Jerusalem with a donkey.

Now consider how many things the Lord foretold to His disciples, that they should find a colt; wherefore it goes on, And as soon as ye be entered into it, ye shall find a colt tied, whereon never man sat, loose him, and bring him; and that they should be impeded in taking it, wherefore there follows, And if any man say unto you, Why do ye this?

And if anyone says to you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ say that ‘The Lord has need of it,’ and immediately He sends it back here.”

And they departed and found a colt tied at a door outside by the street, and they untied it.

And the prophecy, "He shall be the expectation of the nations," signified that there would be some of all nations who should look for Him to come again. And this indeed you can see for yourselves, and be convinced of by fact.

And going, they found the colt tied outside the gate at the crossroads, and they untied it. The colt is rightly found outside the gate at the crossroads. The gate, indeed, is He who says: I am the gate for the sheep. Through me, if anyone enters he will be saved, and he will go in and out and find pasture.

But they found the colt tied by the door without, because the Gentile people were bound by the chain of their sins before the door of faith, that is, without the Church. Or, in a place where two roads meet, that is, in the freedom of will, hesitating between life and death.

And some of those having stood there were saying to them, “What are you doing, untying the colt?”

And they spoke to them even as Jesus had commanded, and they allowed them.

And they lead the colt to Jesus, and they cast their cloaks upon it, and He sat on it.

The master of humility is Christ who humbled himself and became obedient even to death, even the death of the cross. Thus he does not lose his divinity when he teaches us humility.… What great thing was it to the king of the ages to become the king of humanity?

It goes on: And they brought the colt to Jesus, and cast their garments on him; and he sat upon him. The colt, however, was not necessary to Him, but He sent for it to show that He would transfer Himself to the Gentiles.

Or else, they put upon it their garments, that is, they bring to them the first robe of immortality by the Sacrament of Baptism. And Jesus sat upon it, that is, began to reign in them, so that sin should not reign in their wanton flesh, but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.

And many spread their cloaks on the road, and others branches, cutting them down from the fields.

And those going before and those following were crying out, “Hosanna! Blessed is the One coming in the name of the Lord!

Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David! Hosanna in the highest!”

And He entered into Jerusalem, into the temple, and having looked around on all things, the hour already being late evening, He went out to Bethany with the Twelve.

Jesus Curses the Fig Tree

And on the next day, when they were exiting from Bethany, He was hungry.

It may perhaps be said, `We find Him giving way to weeping, to hunger and thirst: must we not suppose Him liable to all the other affections of human nature?' But if we do not understand the mystery of His tears, hunger, and thirst, let us remember that He Who wept also raised the dead to life: that He did not weep for the death of Lazarus, but rejoiced; that He Who thirsted, g…

Again, if we have understood the sackcloth, how understand we the fasting? Wished Christ to eat, when He sought fruit on the tree, and if He had found, would He have eaten? Wished Christ to drink, when He said to the woman of Samaria, "Give Me to drink"? when He said on the Cross, "I thirst"? For what hungered, for what thirsted Christ, but our good works?

But let us also examine the account of the fig tree, for here something seemingly strange and harsh appears. First, Jesus was hungry early in the morning; second, He demands fruit when the season for figs had not yet come; and furthermore, He punishes an insensible tree. For in what He says and does here, there was a special providence.

And having seen from afar a fig tree having leaves, He went, if perhaps He will find anything on it. And having come to it, He found nothing except leaves; for it was not the season of figs.

(The Docetae maintain) that God is the primal (Being), as it were a seed of a fig-tree, which is altogether very diminutive in size, but infinite in power. (This seed constitutes, according to the Docetae,) a lowly magnitude, incalculable in multitude, (and) labouring under no deficiency as regards generation.

Some who witnessed Christ's miracles did not understand what they meant, and how they spoke to those who knew they had special meaning. They wondered only at the miracles themselves. Others both marvelled at the miracles, and attained some preliminary understanding of them. For this we must come to the school of Christ himself.

(ubi sup.) Just in the same way as He speaks parables, so also His deeds are parables; therefore He comes hungry to seek fruit off the fig tree, and though He knew the time of figs was not yet, He condemns it to perpetual barrenness, that He might show that the Jewish people could not be saved through the leaves, that is, the words of righteousness which it had, without fruit,…

And answering He said to it, “No more to the age would anyone eat fruit from you.” And His disciples were listening.

Jesus Cleanses the Temple

And they come to Jerusalem. And having entered into the temple, He began to cast out those selling and those buying in the temple, and He overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those selling the doves.

And He was not permitting that anyone may carry a vessel through the temple.

And He was teaching and was saying to them, “Has it not been written that ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? But you yourselves have made it ‘a den of robbers.’”

And the chief priests and the scribes heard it, and they were seeking how they may destroy Him; for they were afraid of Him, for all the crowd was astonished at His teaching.

And when evening came, they were going out of the city.

The Withered Fig Tree

And passing by in the morning, they saw the fig tree dried up from the roots.

(non occ.) The wonder of the disciples was the consequence of imperfect faith, for this was no great thing for God to do; since then they did not clearly know His power, their ignorance made them break out into wonder; and therefore it is added, And Jesus answering saith unto them, Have faith in God. For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, &c.

(ubi sup.) Further, the fig tree was dried up from the roots to show that the nation was impious not only for a time and in part, and was to be smitten for ever, not merely to be afflicted by the attacks of nations from without and then to be freed, as had often been done; or else it was dried up from the roots, to show that it was stripped not only of the external favour of ma…

The greatness of the miracle appears in the drying up so juicy and green a tree. But though Matthew says that the fig tree was at once dried up, and that the disciples on seeing it wondered, there is no reason for perplexity, though Mark now says, that the disciples saw the fig tree dried up on the morrow; for what Matthew says must be understood to mean that they did not see i…

And having remembered, Peter says to Him, “Rabbi, look, the fig tree that You cursed has been dried up.”

And answering, Jesus says to them, “Have faith from God.

For amen I say to you that whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken away and be cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says takes place, it will be done for him.

This Gnostic, to speak compendiously, makes up for the absence of the apostles, by the rectitude of his life, the accuracy of his knowledge, by benefiting his relations, by "removing the mountains" of his neighbours, and putting away the irregularities of their soul. Although each of us is his own vineyard and labourer.

While we are praying, there should be no hesitation that would intervene or break down the confidence of our petition by any shadow of despair. We know that by pouring forth our prayer we are obtaining already what we are asking for. We have no doubt that our prayers have effectually reached God.

Christ then who is the mountain, which grew from the stone, cut out without hands, is taken up and cast into the sea, when the Apostles with justice say, Let us turn ourselves to other nations, since ye judged yourselves unworthy of hearing the word of God. (Acts 13:46)

Because of this I say to you, all things, as much as you ask praying, believe that you receive, and it will be to you.

And when you stand praying, forgive if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in the heavens may forgive you your trespasses.”

He has clearly joined herewith and added the law, and has bound us by a certain condition anti engagement, that we should ask that our debts be forgiven us in such a manner as we ourselves forgive our debtors, knowing that that which we seek for our sins cannot be obtained unless we ourselves have acted in a similar way in respect of our debtors.

(ubi sup.) But we must observe that there is a difference in those who pray; he who has perfect faith, which worketh by love, can by his prayer or even his command remove spiritual mountains, as Paul did with Elymas the sorcerer.

Mark has, as he is wont, expressed seven verses of the Lord's prayer in one prayer. But what can he, whose sins are all forgiven, require more, save that he may persevere in what has been granted unto him.

[But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father who is in the heavens forgive your trespasses.]

Jesus’ Authority Challenged

And they come again to Jerusalem. And when He is walking in the temple, the chief priests and the scribes and the elders come to Him,

and they were saying to Him, “By what authority are You doing these things? Or who gave You this authority that You may do these things?”

And Jesus said to them, “I will ask you one question; and answer Me, and I will tell you by what authority I do these things.

The baptism of John — was it from heaven or from men? Answer Me.”

And they were reasoning with themselves, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ He will say, ‘Why then did you not believe in him?’

But shall we say, ‘From men’?” — they were afraid of the crowd, for all were holding John truly to be a prophet.

And answering Jesus they say, “We do not know.” And Jesus says to them, “Neither do I tell you by what authority I do these things.”