MONDAY: JESUS, THE TEMPLE AND GUERILLA THEATER

Suggested Reading: Isaiah 56.1-8; Jeremiah 7.1-11; Mark 11.12-20

Jesus often practiced performance art, or, as Ched Myers calls it “political street theater.” We may not be familiar with performance art – also called “Guerilla Theater.” It was something the prophets frequently employed as a way of stirring the imagination and helping people see things differently. Amos Wilder suggests Christianity itself is a kind of Guerilla Theater.

He writes, “Early Christianity was more like Guerilla Theater than social revolution … What no over force could do, it did by spiritual subversion at the level of social imagination,” (Amos Wilder, Theopoetic, p 28). Rather than say everything, Jesus knew he could act out things that would speak far louder than words, and stir hearts and minds in ways nothing else could. He did this by practicing the art of street theater.

We need to keep this top of mind as we consider Monday of Holy Week.

After Jesus went to Jerusalem on Sunday (read about that here), he left and spent the night in a small town named Bethany. The following morning he and his disciples made their way back to Jerusalem. On his way he was hungry and saw “in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to find out if it had any fruit. When he reached it, he found nothing but leaves, because it was not the season for figs. Then he said to the tree, ‘May no one ever eat fruit from you again’” (Mark 11.13,14).

Of course, this whole thing is a bit odd, but just wait because it gets weirder.

Then Jesus and his disciples went on to Jerusalem and walked into the Temple. It was then Jesus drove out those who were buying and selling, flipping over tables and preventing people from carrying merchandise through the temple. He then said, “Is it not written: ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations’? But you have made it ‘a den of robbers.’” (Mark 11.17). Then, just like that, Jesus left Jerusalem and went back to Bethany. The following morning the disciples were astonished, because the fig tree Jesus cursed had withered to its roots.

Certainly, this is a bizarre story. So let’s take it apart piece by piece and then try and put it back together.

First, the fig tree. Why did Jesus expect fruit when it was not the season for figs? Figs typically ripen in June, and this would have been far too early. However, there is one detail about this tree: it was “in leaf.” Which means the fig tree would have kept its leaves through the winter, and trees that keep their leaves often keep their fruit. When Jesus saw this tree in the distance it made sense he thought it would have fruit.

But that’s not all. This is after all, Guerrilla Theater.

When Jesus went into the Temple he would have been one of thousands gathered in the massive area of the Temple Mount (an area of roughly 35 acres). Many who were there would have traveled a long way, and it was common for them to purchase animals in the Temple are for sacrifice. This was the buying and selling that was going on that Jesus disrupted. It’s easy to think Jesus caused a massive scene that threatened to shut down the temple, but this was not the case.

By not allowing people who had travelled a long way to buy animals for sacrifices and kicking over the tables of money changers and quoting the prophets his message was clear: this thing is not working the way it was supposed to. This was an act of political street theater. And why would he do such a thing? Because many who were in places of power and influence in the Temple turned the Temple into a center of corruption and power instead of a center of sacrificial worship. This is what angered Jesus – not the buying of animals.

He was heartbroken at those who used the guise of religion to create in-groups and out-groups, at those who used their position to gain wealth while making others poor in the process. His act in the Temple was his way of showing the evil of corruption and judging it.

Which brings us back to the fig tree.

Remember, the story about the fig tree begins with Jesus cursing it, then Jesus goes to the Temple and then the story about the fig tree finishes with it being withered. It’s Mark’s way of getting us to see that both stories are connected. Just as Jesus went looking for fruit on the fig tree, which looked good at a distance, so it was with the Temple.

It was to be a house of prayer for all the nations – a place that bore the fruit of God’s work in the world. But just as the fig tree had not fruit, neither did the corrupt Temple leadership. This is what Jesus communicated; this is what he acted out.

Which leads us to a question for us here and now: Do we only look good from a distance? What would we find upon closer inspection? Let’s not forget the Church is the only group of people who exists for the benefit of its non-members. If they came looking what would they find?