Holy or “Fig” Tuesday and Holy or “Spy” Wednesday

This is Part 2 of a 4-part series on Passion Week.

Passion Week: Holy or “Fig” Tuesday

The Cursed Fig Tree

Location: Bethany to Jerusalem

As Jesus heads to Jerusalem with his disciples, he spies a fig tree. Hungry, he searches for fruit but finds none. He curses it, and it withers.

The withered tree points to Isaiah 5. There God says he planted Israel as a choice vine in a well-tended vineyard. But when he looked for fruit, he found nothing good. Therefore, he would destroy the vine.

Teaching

Location: Jerusalem

Jesus tells the parable of the wicked tenants. The master plants a vineyard and leases his land to tenants, But when he sends servants to collect the fruit, the tenants beat and mistreat his servants. He sends his son, but the tenants kill him. So the master will put the tenants to death and give the vineyard to others.

Like the lesson of the fig true, God is looking for good fruit but is finding only bad. Therefore, the land will be taken from those now in it and given to others. And the land was given to others for almost two millennia.

Teaching

Location: Bethany

Jesus’s words puzzled them: “You know that after two days the Passover is coming, and the Son of Man will be delivered up to be crucified” (Matthew 26:2).

He had just been teaching about the kingdom of heaven and the final judgment. His disciples believed he was the Messiah—the anointed king who would rule forever. Surely, he meant something symbolic, as when he said they all must take up their cross and follow him. But now Jesus is talking about being crucified!?

Among his followers, perhaps only two glimpsed the reality: Mary of Bethany and Judas Iscariot.

Mary of Bethany Honors Jesus

That night, Mary’s family held a banquet in honor of Jesus. Not long before, he had raised her brother Lazarus to life after he had been dead for four days. Jesus, Lazarus, and the other men reclined at the low table, leaning on one arm, feet stretched out behind them. Mary’s sister Martha served the meal.

Customarily to honor a guest, a host anointed the guest’s head with olive oil and provided a servant to wash the guest’s feet with water and a towel. The Jews considered touching someone’s feet to be degrading, so the lowliest servant was assigned the job.

To Mary, olive oil, water, a towel, and the lowest servant did not honor this guest enough.

Mary approached Jesus with a creamy white alabaster flask in her hand. It contained a pound of ointment perfumed with nard, an expensive oil. She broke the flask’s long, thin neck and the spicy, earthy fragrance permeated the house. She poured the scented oil first on his head—just like a priest would anoint a king at his coronation.

Then she poured the remaining nard on his feet and wiped them with her hair. She honored Jesus in every way she could and showed herself a servant to Jesus.

Judas Iscariot Plots to Betray Jesus

But Judas Iscariot indignantly demanded why such an expensive ointment hadn’t been sold so the money could be given to the poor. But his indignation had a hidden meaning, for he was in charge of the moneybag and often helped himself to its contents.

Jesus rebuked him:

Leave her alone. Why do you trouble her? She has done a beautiful thing to me. For you always have the poor with you, and whenever you want, you can do good for them. But you will not always have me. She has done what she could; she has anointed my body beforehand for burial.

Mark 14:6,8

Angry, Judas Iscariot departed to seek the Jewish leaders.

Little Details

Tuesday of Passion Week is known as “Fig Tuesday” because it is the day that Jesus cursed the fig tree.

Jesus often stayed in Bethany with Lazarus, Martha, and Mary. The dinner referred to here was in “Bethany in the house of Simon the leper” (Matthew 26:4). Since this Simon lived in a house, he may be a former leper.

The NIV reads, “Mary therefore took a pound of expensive ointment” (John 12:3). The word translated pound is litra and refers to the Roman pound, which was about 11.5 ounces.

Read

• Matthew 21:18-21, 33-44
• John: 12:2–8

Passion Week: Holy or “Spy” Wednesday

Judas Iscariot Plots to Betray Jesus

Location: Jerusalem

Tradition says that Judas met the Jewish leaders on Wednesday. He asked how much they would pay him to deliver Jesus to them. They were delighted. After all, they had already decided that the only way to stop the huge crowds from following Jesus was to kill both him and Lazarus.

And stop him they must. For they feared that if Jesus led an insurrection, the Romans would take away the Jewish leaders’ political power. It was also the only way they could get back all the followers they had lost to Jesus. Jesus, they reasoned, could not be the Messiah. He taught there was a resurrection, contradicting the Sadducees. And he belittled the Pharisees’ many rules as mere traditions of men. No, the real Messiah would be submissive to them. The crowds were foolish and should be listening to them. Jesus must be stopped.

Quiet

Otherwise, Wednesday seems quiet, with the Gospels not identifying anything Jesus does that day. Was he preparing for what was to come?

Read

• Matthew 26:14-16

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In This Series

1. Here’s What Happened During the Remarkable Passion Week: Palm Sunday and Holy Monday
2. Holy or “Fig” Tuesday and Holy or “Spy” Wednesday
3. Holy or “Maundy” Thursday and Good or “Passion” Friday
4. Holy or “Black” Saturday and Resurrection or “Easter” Sunday

Related Post

• An Easter Poem

Books You Might Like

• Easter Enigma: Are the Resurrection Accounts in Conflict? by John Wenham
• The Biblical Theology Study Bible, ed. D.A. Carson
• Discovering Jesus in the Old Testament, by Jean E. Jones, Pam Farrel, and Karla Dornacher
• Discovering Good News in John, by Jean E. Jones, Pam Farrel, and Karla Dornacher