DYNAMIS!
A publication of St. George Orthodox Christian Cathedral
Wichita, KS

St. Mark 11:11-23    (2/5)     For Tuesday of the 37th Week after Pentecost (Tues, 32nd Week)

 

Do Not Delay: St. Mark 11:11-23, especially vs. 11: “And Jesus went into Jerusalem, and into the Temple.  So when He had looked around at all things, as the hour was already late, He went out to Bethany with the Twelve.”  We live in the flow of time, events bear us along.  Inexorably, we leave situations that once seemed permanent to confront new demands and circumstances.  The onward sweep infuses urgency into today’s decisions and actions.  Always there are pressures not to delay, but to accomplish, achieve, settle, arrange, decide, fix, or forget.  From childhood, we learn that delay compounds difficulties.  Homework must not be put off.  The exam is tomorrow.  As adults we learn that relationships cannot be neglected or else we collect bitterness and isolation.  Dust and disorder can quickly overwhelm us.  The flux of life forces us to ask: “What must be addressed first?  What can be delayed?  What is most important?  Which task, focus, or effort must be abandoned so that we may attend to another?”

Today’s reading speaks to this flow of time, to choices, as well as to the cost of delaying.  In the opening line quoted above, notice the phrase, “as the hour was already late.”  It has, at least, a double meaning: it was late on that particular day; the hour of the day called for a place of rest, for the night was at hand.  But more important, the hour of the Lord Jesus’ time on earth was growing late; soon would be His last night in Jerusalem among His own.

In addition, “it was late” in another sense: in going into the Temple, He “looked around at all things,” and, as He did, He knew that the historic end of Israel’s tradition of worship was very near.  “Late now being the hour” (the literal word order of the text), the Lord knew that siege would soon come upon Jerusalem with the destruction of the Temple.  These truths needed to be conveyed to His disciples.  Of great importance, also, was the impending judgment of God on the wayward People of God and their priests.  Delay was out of the question.

“Late now being the hour,” the Lord came upon a fig tree.  There, for the sake of His disciples, the Lord Jesus demonstrated the Divine “hunger” for God’s people to repent and bear fruit or wither.  There was abundant evidence that the majority of the Jews were not going to accept their true Messiah.  He came to His own, but it was “not the season” (Mk. 11:13).  They would not bear fruit for Him, and neither man nor God would find much fruit of the Spirit within the community of the Old Covenant.  Ancient Israel was set to reject the Messiah, and the Temple would be destroyed.  All this the Lord saw as He looked at the barren fig tree.

A deep urgency filled the Lord.  “Late now being the hour.”  In warning and judgment, He went into the Temple and drove out the moneychangers.  The two passages concerning the fig tree (Mk. 11:13 & Mk. 11:20-21)), with the intervening account of the cleansing of the Temple, must be read within the context of the Lord’s knowledge that the end of the Old Covenant and the inauguration of the New were certain and soon.  And to us He says, Do not delay with God!

The present demands of this life and world press for action.  At the same time, God’s Word calls us to face His claim on hearts now, to seek Him now, to cleanse our lives now, to “ ... bear fruits worthy of repentance” (Lk. 3:8).  Do not delay with excuses to God. Choose to have “a good defense before the dread Judgment Seat of Christ.”  Do not claim to be Orthodox, point to your regular contributions, nor speak of helping the needy.  Listen to St. Seraphim of Sarov: “All that is not done for Christ’s sake, even though it be good, brings neither reward in the future life nor the grace of God in this.”  Do not delay; serve and obey Christ now!

O Lord, grant us the grace of a right faith in Thee, that without delay we may apply our hearts to acquire the grace of Thy Spirit and thereby to receive the blessings of the future age.

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