IV. APPLICATION OF THE WHOLE. 1. Think for a moment of the awful doom of this withered fig tree. It is the doom of every hypocrite and of every false professor. The first blessing pronounced on man was fruitfulness; one of the severest curses is barrenness. The leaf of the merely nominal Christian will soon wither; it will soon decay and die. ‘here is no root, and so even the leaf of profession will not last long ; ho faith, and so no fruitfulness; no principle, and so no practical godliness. The sparks of his own kindling make but a flickering light at best; and that light, bad as it is, soon goes out altogether in utter darkness. “ The wicked is driven away in his wickedness, but the righteous hath hope in his death.” 2, As it fared with the Jews, so will it fare with every individual who abuses God’s mercies by continued unfruitful- ness. God’s ancient people has been unchurched, and, if we may so say, unpeopled ; and if this was done in a green tree, what shall not be done inadry? ‘The seven Churches of Asia had been unfaithful, and the candlestick was removed out of its place. So with the African Churches—Alexandria, Hippo, and Carthage. 3. God looks for fruit, and claims it as his due, The more fruitful you are, the more is he glorified. “ Herein,” said the Saviour, “is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit;” the more, also, is your own soul benefited and blessed. Often, when men become unfruitful, and prove false to their vows, neglecting God’s ordinances, and abusing his mercies, he gives them over to judicial blindness of mind, hardness of heart, searedness of con- science, or to strong delusion, or to a famine not of bread but of hearing the Word of the Lord: Sickness, or age, or poverty, or removal of their habitation, deprives them of the once possessed, but little esteemed and much abused, mercies. So with Ephraim ; he is “joined to his idols: let him alone.” 4, During our walks in summer or early autumn we used to see a tree withered and decayed; its leaves were gone, its bark peeled off, and its branches quite bare. Near to it on every side were trees green and leafy, healthy and vigorous, beautiful and flourishing. How ghastly looked that naked skeleton tree beside them! We often said as we passed it by— What a true type of a barren professor, “twice dead, plucked up by the roots”! 6. From this miracle eur Lord took occasion to speak of the wonders which faith works, and to urge the necessity of faith to the success of prayer.—J. J. G.
Vers. 27—83. Parallel passages: Matt. xxi. 28—32; Luke xx. 1—8.—Ohris#’s authority questioned, 1, CAUSE OF CHRIST’S AUTHORITY BEING CALLED IN QUESTION. The ostensible cause was the events of the preceding day ; the real cause Satan’s oppo- sition to the work of Christ. On the day before he had displayed his zeal for the sanctity of God’s house and the purity of its worship. He is now called to account
152 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MARK. [on. x1 1—33,
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because of the extraordinary efforts he had made to put a stop to the public profanation of the house of God, and because of the no less extraordinary authority which he had exercised. Such appears to be the right reference of the radra in the question, though along with the purging of the temple may be included the miracles of healing that had been performed on the blind and lame who, as St. Matthew informs us, had resorted to him in the temple. Others, with less probability, refer the word to his teaching; for “he taught daily in the temple,” as we read in St. Luke. All these, together with our Lord’s triumphal entry, had sorely displeased and greatly discomfited the Jewish rulers, who now proceeded to call his authority in question, But the prime mover of' this cavilling opposition was Satan, He was pursuing his usual tactics. Good is often done in an informal way, or by voluntary agencies, or by very humble instru- mentalities ; and Satan, when the fact of the good done is undeniable, stirs up men to impugn the authority or assail the commission of those Christian workers by whom the good is done, thus endeavouring to raise a false issue and stay its progresa.
Il. Grezp oF GAM VERSUS GODLINESss. The Church has its counterfeits as well as the world; there is no class altogether free from false disguises. Some, perhaps many, of those unholy traffickers who were desecrating the temple so that a second cleansing of it within the short period of three years had become a necessity, fancied they were doing God service and accommodating his worshippers; while their own sordid and selfish interests—their own love of gain and usurious greed—were their real and actuating motives. Was it strange that our Lord was roused to indignation, and resorted to the most active measures to expel from the sacred precincts those dealers in sheep and oxen, with their droves of cattle, those dove-sellers and money-changers, who, under the pretext of supplying the requisites for sacrifices to such as came from a distance, and the temple half-shekels to foreign Jews for their larger coins or coins with heathenish images and inscriptions, had their heart set on driving a profitable trade in this matter of the sacrifices, and their eye fixed on the «éAdvfos, or twelfth of & shekel, as the agio of exchange; while the noisy bargainings, unseemly wranglinga, and general hubbub made the house of God resemble one of those caves where robbers quarrelled over their ill-got gains ?
II. Ovn Lorp’s ANSWER TO THE QUESTION ABOUT AUTHORITY. The twofold ques- tion about our Lord’s authority and its source was put by a deputation from the Sanhedrim—a deputation representative of the three chief sections of that body: namely, chief priests or heads of the twenty-four classes; scribes, the theologians or authorized interpreters of Scripture; and the elders or heads of the principal families, The question of this formidable deputation called forth a counter-question on the of our Lord; nor was there any evasion in this. By asking them whether John’s baptism was of heavenly or human origin, he effectually answered their question, and put them into a dilemma from which there was no escaping. If they admitted John’s mission to have been from God, the matter was settled at once and decisively ; for John had testified most positively and repeatedly to the Divine mission and consequent Divine authority of Jesus, saying, “ Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sim of the world;” and declaring that he would “ baptize with the Holy Ghost.” The alternative of John’s mission being derived from a human source was what they dared not face, for it would bring them into collision with the crowd, and they were teo cowardly for that.