Mark 11 Devotional

The King Looks for Fruit

“Then Jesus began to teach them, and He declared, “Is it not written: ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? But you have made it ‘a den of robbers.’””Mark 11:17 (BSB)

Jesus rides into Jerusalem on a colt no one has ever sat on, and the crowds spread cloaks and branches on the road and shout blessing on the coming kingdom of David (11:7-10). Zechariah had pictured Zion's king arriving humbly on a colt (Zechariah 9:9). The king's first stop is the temple. He looks around at everything, and leaves for the night (11:11).

The next day he returns, overturns the tables, and drives out the buyers and sellers. God's house was meant to be a place where every nation could pray, and it had become a hideout for robbers (11:15-17). On either side of that scene stands a fig tree, full of leaves but bare of fruit, which withers from its roots (11:13-14, 11:20). The king is not impressed by leaves. He comes looking for the real thing, and he clears the way for people to meet God. So his word to his disciples is to have faith in God, and to forgive whatever they hold against anyone when they pray (11:22-25).

To think about: Where might your faith have plenty of leaves but little fruit, and what would honest prayer about that look like?