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The day before Tuesday, in this most meaningful of weeks, was a two’s day. What the Bible tells of the activity of this day centers on a tree and a temple, and at the heart of the matter with both was their two-faced truth. I’ve often written about the shocking curse Jesus gave to the fig tree they “happened upon” as they started for Jerusalem the morning after parade day. I’ve written equally about His temple tirade (that understood rightly encompasses a quiet, deliberate visit the day before to take full stock of how God’s house of prayer had been corrupted). What I see uniquely this year is the single sentence that centered on the two-faced ones Jesus was most at odds with during His public ministry. The religious “leaders” who closely resembled the tree that gave the appearance of fruit and the temple that had come to stand a bit too proudly and loudly for something it was never intended to be.

Then the chief priests and the scribes heard it and started looking for a way to destroy Him.
Mark 11:18a

Two-faced. An adjective describing a person, place or thing. Deceitful or hypocritical—its dictionary definition. The sandal that surely fits the aforementioned “leaders,” does it not? I’m currently reading a book (Smoke on the Mountain by Joy Davidman) whose author says this about a hypocrite:

You can usually tell when a hypocrite has been sinning; he denounces that sin in public—and in somebody else. The mere halfhearted sinner may try to wriggle out of his guilt by some verbal quibble; he hasn’t really lied to his wife about how he spent the week end, he just hasn’t told her all the truth. But the real, thoroughgoing, incarnate lie of a Pharisee covers his guilt by trumpeting loudly about his virtue; he comes forward boldly and denounces her for lying to Mrs. Jones about that horrid new hat.

Sound anything like the ones with whom Jesus found himself most at odds? Sound anything like me? The latter is a question I should be quick to accept and engage honestly, lest I think myself to be fundamentally different than the Pharisee (the declaration in Luke 18:11 comes immediately to mind).

What must the disciples have thought about the bold curse of a fig tree mere moments after finishing breakfast and starting out on their way to Jerusalem? And what must the temple goers have thought about the thrashing about of the Man who sat lowly, riding on a small donkey just the day before? Yet, this is how God’s anger responds to deliberate deception—the plain and simple murder of truth. It was a really bad day for the two-faced. It was a profoundly meaningful day for those who turn their eyes upon the only one face of their precious Savior.