Passover begins on Wednesday, April 1st. Easter is just four days later on the 5th. Passover closes out on either the 8th or 9th depending on how you celebrate it and in what tradition you observe Passover. For Christians this is Holy Week leading up to Easter. Either way you slice it, there’s a lot going on this week.
Why is that important? Other than the solemness of the events during the week, it’s not. I was thinking about what I have going on for this week and what Jesus might have had going on after having ridden into the city. I was wondering if He was tired after the trip and just wanted to relax or if He had “too much going on” to relax? So, I looked it up. Here’s one account in scripture.
12On the next day, when they had left Bethany, He became hungry.
13Seeing at a distance a fig tree in leaf, He went to see if perhaps He would find anything on it; and when He came to it, He found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs.
14He said to it, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again!” And His disciples were listening.
15Then they came to Jerusalem. And He entered the temple and began to drive out those who were buying and selling in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who were selling doves;
16and He would not permit anyone to carry merchandise through the temple.
17And He began to teach and say to them, “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? But you have made it a robbers’ den.”
18The chief priests and the scribes heard this, and began seeking how to destroy Him; for they were afraid of Him, for the whole crowd was astonished at His teaching.
19When evening came, they would go out of the city.
Mark 11:12–19 (NASB95)
That’s a pretty full day. No rest for the weary, I guess. I learned something by looking this up too.
I’d always been confused by the fig tree cursing. One commentator suggested this was symbolic of Israel’s lack of spiritual fruitfulness at Jesus’ coming. The problem I have with that interpretation is that the scripture notes, “[F]or it was not the season for figs.” How can it be the fig tree’s fault if it wasn’t time for the tree to have any fruit on it? The explanation made sense until I read that part of the scripture. I’m still not sure.
The one thing I am sure about is that Jesus knew what was coming and He kept up a busy schedule anyway. No sitting back and resting before the big event. He kept going about what needed to be done giving His all until the very last. It adds a level of sadness I didn’t have before knowing He was just run ragged before the end. It’s just one more thing to be impressed with about Jesus’ life. God bless and Godspeed.