11:1 As we know, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John tell the story of the same account from their different perspectives. We studied the following verses in Matthew 21.
11:2 What we can gather from this verse is that Jesus was informed and certain of the plan, of His life's mission. He knew what to do and when, specifically. We can observe that God has an intricate plan for each tiny detail of our lives, individually, and for humanity as well.
11:3 When we develop our faith in God, we realize that His intention is to provide the best quality of life for us possible. We learn to trust Him when He guides us. God works with His children who have accepted Him and we can understand that these 2 disciples are being sent to an informed, faithful person of God. Jesus informs them that they will not have trouble procuring the colt because the colt's owner is prepared for this event to take place.
11:4 The situation proves to be precisely as Jesus explained it would be. When we work with God, at developing our faith and relationship with Him, as well with ourselves, we understand that His guidance is faultless. Everything He leads us through is purposeful and instructive.
11:5-6 Everything goes smoothly. Sometimes we find ourselves in a position where we think we will fail or the task seems difficult or contradictory to what other people would prefer us to do -- but when you create a plan with God, He reduces the barriers and we pass over them easily.
11:7 Active Representation: It's important to highlight that these men were working in the name of God. We have to be workers -- and that does not mean we have to be rigidly religious or force rules on other people. To be a worker of God means to actively represent the qualities He is made of: compassion and kindness.
Remember Mark 9:40, where Jesus teaches that those who do the same work as us and with us. Diversity is beautiful, God has allowed it and Has offered His love and blessings to the entire, diversified world. We must learn from His example: we must also offer our love and support to the entire, diversified world. Our identification card is not our religion, it is our heart... our soul, the way we express our spirit and who we are.
11:8 God's mission is a joint-effort. God wishes to work with us to accomplish love and kindness. 1 Corinthians 3:9, we are fellow workers of God. God is so generous to share with us the opportunity to bring love and foster kindness and friendship in the world. This verse is symbolic for our blessed opportunity to help clear a path for all that God stands for to succeed in the world.
In this verse, people took what was in their possession and offered it to the great task of helping Jesus, who represents kindness and wisdom, travel throughout.
11:9-10 They show their faith and their happiness in God. We should stay close and observant with out own faith as it feeds to us an indescribable light and courage.
11:11 When they arrive, it's late so Jesus focuses His teaching on the disciples who are with Him (and have the unique opportunity to learn from Him at any hour and all times) This is a unique opportunity we have as well.
11:12 Jesus' hunger is not for mere food, it's for teaching the word of God. Jesus' "hunger" metaphor is going to lead Him to teaching the disciples a great message. Let's continue:
11:13-14 In these verses we get a glimpse into the Parable of the Fig Tree, which Jesus instructed us to learn in Matthew 24:32.
Jesus is alluding to a deeper message, one which began in Jeremiah 24:
- 24:1 God was teaching Jeremiah about good and evil. There are two baskets of figs.
- 24:2-3 One basket of figs was representative of good people and the other basket was representative of bad people.
- 24:5-7 God explains through metaphor to Jeremiah: The good figs (good people) will always be loved and protected by God.
- 24:8-10 God explains through metaphor to Jeremiah: The bad figs (evil people) will always be lost and in turmoil because of their rejection of what God stands for. (Remember that we choose how and if we are blessed by being kind people... our compassion leads us to happiness and selfishness/greed lead to frustration and turmoil).
Jesus rejected this tree before it was even time to harvest, let's explore the metaphor: God knows the true nature of your soul at all times, even better than you even understand yourself. Jesus was quite intelligent, a manifestation of all that God is and so we know that He knew when the proper season for harvesting fruit was... He brought the disciples to this tree prematurely to teach the lesson that at all times, God knows who is a good fig and who is a bad fig. Jesus knew that this particular tree would produce bitter, or bad, figs and therefore He commanded that no one take from the tree.
Remember that the metaphor of tree and fruit is a metaphor of humans. We each are a tree which produces good or bad (fruit) in the world. God does not want a student or innocent person learning from a bad, corrupted person. By rejecting this tree, Jesus is rejecting the bad examples, bad influences, deceptive teachers of the world for corrupting people and leading them into greed and hatred.
Harvest is representative of the time of God's coming when we does "inventory" so to speak, of the fruits we produced. Were we kind? Were we fair? These are sweet, good fruits.
Jesus came to this tree before the harvest (Jesus came to Earth before God' return) and He came to instruct us (the trees) to produce good fruits... He did not come yet to organize and separate the good from bad (it's not harvest yet). Jesus came to lead the bad to good and to give the good hope and instruction to continue being good to prepare them for the harvest.
God knows the true nature of our souls indeed, and yet He gives us this opportunity on Earth to grow and change and evolve and become good or better than how we began. So, while God rejects evil and bad, He allows us the complete freedom to BE and DO whatever we want so they WE define ourselves.
Jesus rejects this tree because He wants to warn us: bad figs (bad people) will try to corrupt or scare us but we must not eat their fruit. We must reject them. We must be observant and must think for ourselves to find wisdom and hold onto truth and goodness.
11:15-16 This is so relevant to today's world. Jesus enters a place of worship and finds that the leaders are using religion to control and charge students. Jesus is infuriated, and justifiably so. Remember Mark 10:35, Jesus came to serve not to be served, and so why do certain humans think they are worthy of being served?
God wants us to keep our spirituality clear and pure, empty and unpolluted by money and politics. God does not work to control anybody -- He allows complete freedom and gives love and kindness. Of course humans require some kind of society to uphold social norms and organization but should not use religion for our own benefit as a social system of control/power as so many do.
Jesus is loving, kind, compassionate, wise... and filled with passion for His beliefs. You can be both filled with passion and peaceful simultaneously. God needs courageous, passionate students and teachers of His word.
Jesus sees children of God being taken advantage of and it ignites His passion for them. We must speak against evil when we see it and defend and bring good to situations that do not have it. There is a peaceful, purposeful way to defend equality, kindness and compassion: We speak boldly, bravely, and with surety.
11:17 An establishment build in the name of God is for praying and teaching truth. It is not a place of judgement, control or commerce.
11:18 The leaders of these religious establishments were angered because the people who were previously under their complete control, were finding faith and truth in Jesus instead. They were losing money and their greed led them to despise and work against Jesus and the word of God.
11:19 Jesus completed the business of teaching and uncovering truth. He always accomplishes His mission. We should also remain productive. Do what we have to do and move onto our next task... never linger idly.
11:20 We return to the Parable of the Fig tree. The Fig tree that was rejected by Jesus has withered and dried up from the roots. When God rejects something from His multiverse, from the Earth... from existence, it is wiped from existence from it's very root. Nothing stays behind to regrow. This metaphor teaches us that when God identifies and organizes the bad from the good, the bad will be gone forever without any chance to return.
11:21 The disciples are amazing... teaching look!, they say. God is amazing: What He does is so quick, so complete and so focused in love and on protecting it.
11:22 "Have faith in God"... have faith in God because with God, through your faith, everything is possible and you are so loved and protected while you accomplish the impossible. Have faith in God, Jesus tells us, because from this metaphor we see that He will take care of us... He will pull the evil out from the root and it had no chance against us when we stand with God.
11:23 This is a beautiful metaphor: mountains in the Bible are often representative of nations. Jesus wants us to know that with God, an individual can even change the world. With complete trust in God, your faith allows His presence in your life... He waits to be invited by you. He does for you only what you believe He can do... likewise He does for you ALL that you believe he can do. With compassion and good intention, you and God truly can change the your world... the world.
It might sound grand and impossible but history has showed us how much a compassionate person can accomplish. God is ready and eager to help you through and with all things... put your hand in His.
11:24 This verse is so beautiful: "Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them."
It's so reassuring to have God as your best friend, your love, your guide, your parent... to wake up every morning trusting Him, to go to bed every night having walked with Him throughout your day. We humans are an impatient and anxious kind, we constantly worry and desire... it's a blessed relief to know that our Brilliant, Perfect Entity is working diligently to deliver happiness to our lives. He hears our prayers before we speak or think them, He knows our heart without our explanation, He sees our complete path and so He knows how to lead us. If we can develop our faith and our trust, He will lead us through this journey because we have given Him our love (and therefore our permission for His presence in our lives). He loves you. He loves you so intensely, so selflessly that it brings Him indescribable joy to bring joy to you.
We can trust that God will answer our prayers not just because He is True and Honest and Fair but also because He wants to answer our prayers. He wants to make you strong, wise and brave and together with Him your prayers will be answered... just as you answer His wishes when you are compassionate with His fellow children.
11:25 We really do have the power to determine our relationship with God. He gives us what we give to others. We define what forgiveness is... by showing Him our definition of forgiveness. We define what compassion is... by showing Him our definition of compassion.
God says to us: live and think the way you believe a soul should live and think. He analyzes our interpretation of life and thought and returns it to us with initiative. If we, individually, decide that compassion is boundless... God's compassion for us is boundless as well.
He's going to be as attentive with us as we are with others.
11:26 It's a two-way lesson. If we neglect others, our actions reveal to God that we believe in a neglectful life. If we never give to others our friendship, compassion, support... God will never give us friendship, compassion or support... why? Not as a punishment but instead because our actions told Him that is what we believe is fair and right. He let's us define our world.
11:27 Trouble arrives. Remember that with God, you get through all adversity. Adversity is reality -- there will always be a person there to challenge your beliefs but with God they have no control over you.
11:28 These men want Jesus gone so that they can resume their deceptive reign over these people. They ask Jesus: Who gave you the authority to be here? Now, let's take a minute to wonder: Why on Earth would anyone NEED permission to be kind and honest? God allows us to analyze these men for ourselves and we can easily see that they are greedy and without logic.
11:29 Jesus never boasts. Jesus knows that whatever answer He gives, these men will not believe or accept Him. He also knows that He is a humble soul and He wants people to listen to Him because their hearts are kind and not out of forced reverence. Jesus has wise instruction from God (which you can also have) and so He knows how to deal with these men.
11:30 He asks them: Was John the Baptist from God or Men.
11:31 These wicked men know that if they answer "From Heaven" they will admit that Jesus' permission to be there teaching is from God (which was the message of John the Baptist).
11:32 These wicked men also know that if they answer "From men" the multitude of people around them will erupt in vehement anger because John the Baptist was wholeheartedly accepted as prophet by them. These wicked men want the people back on their side (under their control) so they cannot afford to anger them.
11:33 They tried to escape the question by saying they did not know (but they sure did know! They were only focused on their own gain.)
And Jesus, quite wonderfully, responds to them this way: He owes them no answer. They would not be honest and straightforward... He gives nothing to them who use, abuse, and deceive many. He gives them no answer because this confrontation has revealed they they know Who He is but choose to reject Him. Jesus does not waste time with selfish games. They know who He is, He does not need to tell them.
