THE FOUR GOSPELS’ HOLY CITY MATRIX (Part 2b)
Continued from St. Mark – Part 2a
Christ as Christianity (continued)
In chapter 11 Jesus enters Jerusalem, the city of peace, unto Bethphage (“house of figs; house of unripe figs” [Metaphysical Bible Dictionary]) and Bethany (house of figs; …place of crossings; place where crossings are made; place of fords” [Metaphysical Bible Dictionary]}, at the mount of Olives.
“Jesus enters Jerusalem. ‘Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord,’ the people shout. But, from the spiritual point of view, their thought is as fruitless and sterile as a barren fig tree. It is like the commercialism that pollutes the temple. The real house of God, ‘called of all nations the house of prayer,’ is the Christly body of mankind. The temple must therefore be cleansed of its material greed and corruption. So Jesus rides into Jerusalem upon a colt and then cleans out the Temple of the moneychangers. First the Christ is recognized to fulfill Bible prophecy and then the Christ drives out the materially minded from the Christian body.”[1]
Jesus first cursed the fig tree and the following morning they passed by the same fig tree “dried up from the roots.” Peter brought the tree to the remembrance of the Master. Jesus replied, “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. But if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses.” (Mark 11:20-25)
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