The following excerpt comes from today?s reading in 40 Days to the Cross: Reflections from Great Thinkers (currently on sale during Lent).
Confession: Psalm 32:6?7
Therefore let all the faithful pray to you
at the time for finding you.
Surely at the flood of many waters they will not reach him.
You are my hiding place;
from trouble you preserve me.
With cries of deliverance you surround me. Selah
Reading: Mark 11:12?19
And on the next day as they were departing from Bethany, he was hungry. And when he saw from a distance a fig tree that had leaves, he went to see if perhaps he would find anything on it. And when he came up to it he found nothing except leaves, because it was not the season for figs. And he responded and said to it, ?Let no one eat fruit from you any more forever!? And his disciples heard it.
And they came to Jerusalem. And he entered into the temple courts and began to drive out those who were selling and those who were buying in the temple courts, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the chairs of those who were selling doves. And he did not permit anyone to carry objects through the temple courts. And he began to teach and was saying to them, ?Is it not written, ?My house will be called a house of prayer for all the nations,? but you have made it a cave of robbers!? And the chief priests and the scribes heard it, and began considering how they could destroy him. For they were afraid of him because the whole crowd was astounded by his teaching. And when evening came they went out of the city.
Reflection
We see in the beginning of this passage one of the many proofs that our Lord Jesus Christ was really man. We read that ?he was hungry? (Mark 11:12). He had a nature and bodily constitution, like our own in all things, sin only excepted. He could weep and rejoice and suffer pain. He could be weary and need rest. He could be thirsty and need drink. He could be hungry and need food.
Expressions like this should teach us the condescension of Christ. How wonderful they are when we reflect upon them! He who is the eternal God?He who made the world and all that it contains?He from whose hand the fruits of the earth, the fish of the sea, the fowls of the air, the beasts of the field, all had their beginning?He, even He was pleased to suffer hunger when He came into the world to save sinners.
?J.C. Ryle
Expository Thoughts on Mark
Response
The book of Hebrews tells us that we do not have a great high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses. How is it an encouragement to know that Jesus experienced weakness and temptation just as we do?
