DAY 67

AT THE END OF THE DAY IT IS ABOUT...

Deuteronomy 4, 5, & 6 and Mark 11:1-18

We have between the Old Testament lesson and the Gospel today an interesting contrast. Try and imagine where and when this Old Testament reading is taking place, and then contrast it to Jesus’ entry in Jerusalem.

Let’s try. Moses has the nation of Israel on the verge of entering the Promised Land. They have already had success in defeating those opposing them, so I imagine there is some confidence. Moses himself knows that he cannot enter and his successor is named. They are poised to Go and Be God’s People.

The key will be in keeping the Law. Let me just circle back on this point. They are not keeping the Law to earn God’s favor – He has already chosen them. They are keeping the Law to live in a manner that sets them apart thereby revealing to the world Almighty God.

The Greatest Law is found in Deuteronomy 6:4-9: “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”

Fast forward some 1,400+ years. The Temple is in operation. Some of God’s people are following the Law. In fact this is what defined the Pharisees. They believed if they followed the law to the letter, that God would return and re-establish the kingdom – they too are looking for the Messiah. They are so serious that they have literally bound the law on their hands and foreheads in what is called a phylactery (that is the picture today).

Jesus enters weeping over Jerusalem, and not just quietly; the Greek language indicates loudly (cf. Luke 19:41) because of how far short God’s people have come. The fig tree is the symbol of these fruit barren people of God.

The question might be, “What should he have found?” Not that I am asking us here to judge others, but rather I am asking that we project this question into our lives. At the end of the day what should he find in us?

Look again closely at what is called the Shema. In it we read that not only are we to fully love God, but that all that is commanded should “be on our hearts”. Giving your heart to God isn’t some sentimental notion. It is more aligned with people who have been, say for example, married for 50 years – there is intimacy and commitment and yes passion. That is what God is looking for.

Jesus finds the antithesis of this in Jerusalem and it breaks his heart to the point of weeping. Today I don’t want us to come away thinking that being people who are trying to live for God is “all on us”. God’s grace is plentiful. Yet just in the same way we need to nurture our relationships with other humans (if you want the 50 year marriage) we also must nurture our relationship with God. At the end of the day it is really about trying to love God, totally.

Finally what about those phylacteries? There is nothing wrong with wearing a wedding ring as long as there is more to it, just as if there is nothing wrong with wearing a phylactery so long as there is more to it!