A crowd shouts hosanna to a king who will be dead within the week, not understanding what kind of king he actually is. A leafy fig tree is cursed for looking fruitful while being empty — and it doesn’t visibly die until two whole scenes later, after a temple has been turned upside down in between. And when the very men who run that temple demand to know what gives him the right to do any of it, one question from him is enough to leave them too afraid to answer their own.
A study in Mark 11 · Arthur Baldwin · StandUp4Jesus.Org · 18 min read
Hosanna: Blessed Is He That Cometh
“And when they came nigh to Jerusalem, unto Bethphage and Bethany, at the mount of Olives, he sendeth forth two of his disciples, And saith unto them, Go your way into the village over against you: and as soon as ye be entered into it, ye shall find a colt tied, whereon never man sat; loose him, and bring him. And if any man say unto you, Why do ye this? say ye that the Lord hath need of him; and straightway he will send him hither.”
Mark 11:1-3
“Purposing to ride into Jerusalem, Jesus had sent two of His disciples to bring to Him an ass and its colt. … Jesus chose for His use the colt on which never man had sat. The disciples, with glad enthusiasm, spread their garments on the beast, and seated their Master upon it.”
Ellen G. White · The Desire of Ages, p. 569
For three years He had walked everywhere He went. This one ride, on a borrowed animal that had never carried anyone before, is the closest Jesus ever comes in His earthly life to entering a city like a king.
“And they brought the colt to Jesus, and cast their garments on him; and he sat upon him. And many spread their garments in the way: and others cut down branches off the trees, and strawed them in the way. And they that went before, and they that followed, cried, saying, Hosanna; Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord: Blessed be the kingdom of our father David, that cometh in the name of the Lord: Hosanna in the highest.”
Mark 11:7-10
“The dumb whose tongues He had loosed shouted the loudest hosannas. The cripples whom He had healed bounded with joy, and were the most active in breaking the palm branches and waving them before the Saviour. Widows and orphans were exalting the name of Jesus for His works of mercy to them.”
Ellen G. White · The Desire of Ages, p. 572
The loudest voices in that crowd belong to people this same Man had already rebuilt from nothing. Their hosannas are not a theory about who He might be. They are a report on what He has already done for them, personally, before this parade ever started.
“And Jesus entered into Jerusalem, and into the temple: and when he had looked round about upon all things, and now the eventide was come, he went out unto Bethany with the twelve.”
Mark 11:11
Mark alone ends the day on this quiet, almost anticlimactic note — no cleansing yet, no confrontation, just a long, silent look around a room, and then a walk back out of the city as the sun goes down. Whatever Jesus saw in that look, He kept to Himself for one more night.
He Found Nothing But Leaves
“And on the morrow, when they were come from Bethany, he was hungry: And seeing a fig tree afar off having leaves, he came, if haply he might find any thing thereon: and when he came to it, he found nothing but leaves; for the time of figs was not yet. And Jesus answered and said unto it, No man eat fruit of thee hereafter for ever. And his disciples heard it.”
Mark 11:12-14
Only Mark tells this story in two separate installments, with an entire scene wedged in between them. The disciples hear the curse spoken. They do not see it take effect — not yet. Whatever this tree becomes, it will have to wait its turn behind something far more urgent.
The House Of Prayer For All Nations
“And they come to Jerusalem: and Jesus went into the temple, and began to cast out them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves; And would not suffer that any man should carry any vessel through the temple.”
Mark 11:15-16
“The outer court of the temple was like a vast cattle yard. With the cries of the animals and the sharp chinking of coin was mingled the sound of angry altercation between traffickers, and among them were heard the voices of men in sacred office.”
Ellen G. White · The Desire of Ages, p. 589
Mark’s own detail — that Jesus would not even let a vessel be carried through the courts as a shortcut — is absent from every other Gospel’s account of this scene. The outer court had become a public thoroughfare as well as a marketplace, and Jesus corrects both abuses in the same motion.
“And he taught, saying unto them, Is it not written, My house shall be called of all nations the house of prayer? but ye have made it a den of thieves.”
Mark 11:17
“Christ spoke with a power that swayed the people like a mighty tempest … His voice sounded like a trumpet through the temple. The displeasure of His countenance seemed like consuming fire.”
Ellen G. White · The Desire of Ages, p. 590
Mark alone preserves the full force of the quotation — “of all nations.” The court being desecrated by merchants was specifically the Court of the Gentiles, the one place in the whole temple complex where a non-Jew was permitted to come and pray. The noise and commerce hadn’t just cluttered a courtyard; they had crowded out the one welcome the temple was supposed to extend to the rest of the world.
“And the scribes and chief priests heard it, and sought how they might destroy him: for they feared him, because all the people was astonished at his doctrine. And when even was come, he went out of the city.”
Mark 11:18-19
“One whom they could not intimidate was in command. Jesus had taken His position as guardian of the temple. Never before had He assumed such kingly authority.”
Ellen G. White · The Desire of Ages, p. 593
Have Faith In God
A full day has passed since the curse was spoken — a day that held an entire temple cleansing inside it. Now, finally, Mark returns to the tree.
“And in the morning, as they passed by, they saw the fig tree dried up from the roots. And Peter calling to remembrance saith unto him, Master, behold, the fig tree which thou cursedst is withered away.”
Mark 11:20-21
Peter’s own surprise is the point. A tree that had displayed every outward sign of vitality — full leaf, no visible damage — had already died from the roots the moment the curse was spoken. The withering the disciples can now see only caught up, a day late, to a verdict that was already final.
“And Jesus answering saith unto them, Have faith in God. For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith. Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them. And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.”
Mark 11:22-25
A withered tree becomes, without warning, a lesson about forgiveness. The connection is not as strange as it first seems: an unforgiving heart is its own kind of tree in full leaf and no fruit, outwardly intact and inwardly already dead, and Jesus has just spent a full day demonstrating, on a fig tree of all things, exactly how quickly that condition becomes permanent.
By What Authority Doest Thou These Things
This site’s own study of Matthew 21 already told what happens once the priests, scribes, and elders finally confront Jesus directly about what he’s done to their temple.
“And they come again to Jerusalem: and as he was walking in the temple, there come to him the chief priests, and the scribes, and the elders, And say unto him, By what authority doest thou these things? and who gave thee this authority to do these things? And Jesus answered and said unto them, I will also ask of you one question, and answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I do these things. The baptism of John, was it from heaven, or of men? answer me.”
Mark 11:27-30
“With intense interest the multitude awaited the decision. They knew that the priests had professed to accept the ministry of John, and they expected them to acknowledge without a question that he was sent from God.”
Ellen G. White · The Desire of Ages, p. 594
“And they reasoned with themselves, saying, If we shall say, From heaven; he will say, Why then did ye not believe him? But if we shall say, Of men; they feared the people: for all men counted John, that he was a prophet indeed. And they answered and said unto Jesus, We cannot tell. And Jesus answering saith unto them, Neither do I tell you by what authority I do these things.”
Mark 11:31-33
Men who came looking for a trap leave having built one for themselves and stepped into it. A chapter that opened with a crowd shouting the truest thing anyone had said about Jesus all week closes with the men who should have known that truth best, standing in their own temple, unable to say a single honest word about it.
