Fig Tree Sandwich

Let’s start by clarifying definitions of “curse.” A curse can be foul language expressing anger. When I was in high school, the student handbook had a list of curse words. It listed all the obscene words you’d expect. Jesus didn’t use such words.

Mark tells us exactly what Jesus said: “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” It’s not obscene. It’s a malediction.

Jesus spoke against the fig tree. Peter calls it a curse because Jesus pronounced the doom of the unfruitful tree. By speaking, Jesus made it happen.

Sometimes words make things happen. A few years ago, Kenn & Wilma were married. At the wedding, I said, “I take you Wilma to be my wife.”

And Kenn repeated, “I take you Wilma to be my wife.” When I said it, it didn’t change anything. When Kenn said it, it changed everything.

Same thing at the end of the ceremony. I declared, “You are now ‘man and wife.” Before that they were not married. After that, they were married. The words changed things. Same thing with Jesus’ words here. It changed the fig tree.

In the first chapter of Genesis, the Bible describes how God spoke the universe into existence. God said, “Let there be light” and light appeared. God said, “Let the water teem with living creatures” and it was so. It’s the same thing here. Jesus spoke and by the next morning, the tree had withered.

The way that Mark tells this story makes it clear that Jesus’ powerful words at the fig tree w/o figs is not just a Jesus having a grumpy fit. Jesus’ interaction with the fig tree is a parable acting out God’s judgement on the temple in Jerusalem. How do we know these events are connected?

Mark uses his sandwich technique. He brackets Jesus’ actions in the temple courts with the account of the unfruitful fig tree. It’s not accidental. Mark gives us a fig tree sandwich to unpack.

This trip to the temple comes the day after the triumphal entry. Perhaps you recall how, after the impromptu parade up to Jerusalem, Jesus wandered around the temple, looking at everything. Since it’s late in the day he heads back to Bethany with the 12.

The next day, after pronouncing doom on the unfruitful tree, Jesus heads back to the temple. Mark’s sandwich technique suggests that there is something unfruitful about the temple. Like the unfruitful tree, the temple is all leaves but no fruit.

Mark’s description of Jesus driving out those who are buying and selling in the temple courts introduces a theme of God’s judgement on the temple and the activities there. This week, if you’re reading through Mark’s gospel with the daily readings, you’ll see how the theme of God’s judgement on the temple continues in ch. 12 with the parable of the vineyard.

The teachers of the law and the elders are offended by Jesus’ parable, so they send groups of people to ask Jesus awkward questions. They want to trap him in his words. They’re looking for an excuse to arrest him.

Jesus’ judgement on the temple culminates in Jesus’ warnings that the temple will be destroyed. Read all about it in the daily readings this week as we work our way through Mark’s gospel.

What is Jesus’ concern with the temple?

It’s inadequate to represent God’s glory and reign over all creation. Solomon admits as much when he dedicates the first temple so many years ago. The temple might be one of the wonders of the ancient world, yet Solomon asks the question:

But will God really dwell on earth? The heavens, even the highest heaven, cannot contain you. How much less this temple I have built! 1 Kings 8:27 (NIV)

The goal of the temple – and God’s call on his chosen people – is to be a light to the world, an invitation to all nations. The temple can’t contain God, but it can give a taste of God’s glory and grace. The temple and God’s people can invite all nations to draw close to God, to taste and see God is good.

But now, God himself has come into his world. God the Son is walking and talking with people from all nations. The temple is about to be replaced.

Jesus made quite a scene, interrupting temple business:

Jesus entered the temple courts and began driving out those who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves, and would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts. Mark 11:15–16 (NIV)

It’s a disruption at the beginning of the busiest season of the year. The Passover is just a week away. The offerings at the temple are a sign and promise that God will fulfill his covenant promises.

Animal sacrifices at the temple, prescribed in the OT – check out OT books of Leviticus and Deuteronomy – are a reminder that God punishes sin. Breaking God’s righteous commands leads to death. In the temple, sheep, goats, and doves are slaughtered to atone for human disobedience.

By halting temple business, even briefly, Jesus shows that it will soon stop forever. The perfect sacrifice has come!

Every part of the temple: from the sacrifice of perfect animals to the careful arrangement of the altar outside the holy place. Even the ark of the covenant with its mercy seat is designed to indicate how the sacrifice of a lamb without blemish atones for sin and opens the way to God. Now, Jesus, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world has come!

Think for a minute: how amazing God’s love and mercy is!

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. John 3:16–17 (NIV)

He cares about his world; he cares about his people. Jesus has come, so God’s judgement will pass over his covenant people.

Mark is about to reveal how Jesus will atone for human sin. Jesus mentioned his suffering and death several times already, most recently in Mark 10:

The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. Mark 10:45 (NIV)

We’ll take time on Good Friday to gather for worship and remember how Jesus died on the cross, the perfect substitute, offering himself as a ransom to pay for human sin.

Jesus’ death on the cross pays the ransom. Jesus’ buys our freedom from slavery to sin. He ransoms us from being trapped in the kingdom of darkness and ushers us into God’s kingdom.

Isn’t that exactly what we need when we recognize that disobedience against God doesn’t bear fruit?

Like a fig tree in leaf but without the edible buds that will eventually mature into ripe figs, a person who is alive and active but without fruit of faith and obedience is not what God is looking for.

That’s the significance of the phrase that Jesus quotes from the OT prophet Jeremiah. The comment that “my house will be called a house of prayer for all nations” is supposed to evoke the rest of the passage in your memory.

Yeah, haven’t memorized it either. I looked it up. Jeremiah’s message from the Lordis stern:

Will you steal and murder, commit adultery and perjury, burn incense to Baal and follow other gods you have not known, and then come and stand before me in this house, which bears my Name, and say, “We are safe”—safe to do all these detestable things? Has this house, which bears my Name, become a den of robbers to you? But I have been watching! declares the Lord. Jeremiah 7:9–11 (NIV)

In Jeremiah’s day, the temptation among religious folks was to indulge in sinful actions because the temple is a guarantee of God’s approval and protection from harm. No integrity!

Jesus calls out similar slimy behaviour in Mark 12:

As he taught, Jesus said, “Watch out for the teachers of the law. They like to walk around in flowing robes and be greeted with respect in the marketplaces, and have the most important seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at banquets. They devour widows’ houses and for a show make lengthy prayers. These men will be punished most severely.” Mark 12:38–40 (NIV)

The withered fig tree is a warning. God does not put up with sinful behaviour. He calls people to account for their actions.

It’s a reminder to us as well. There are times when we become casual about our behaviour or language. I’ll speak for myself: I don’t always exercise good self-control.

It’s tempting to give in to sin, knowing God forgives when we ask. It’s true God forgives but it’s backwards thinking. God’s forgiveness shouldn’t make us careless about sin. True repentance makes us aware of how offensive and damaging sin is. True repentance makes us eager to turn from wrong and work hard to do what is right.

Just as Jesus pronounced doom on the unfruitful fig tree and Jesus pronounced doom on the unfruitful temple, the judge of all the earth warns of the doom to befall people whose lives are not fruitful.  In the NT letter to the Ephesians, God’s word highlights the contrast b/t lives that are unfruitful and those that are fruitful:

Among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people. Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving. …

For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord. Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them.

Ephesians 5:3–4, 8–11 (NIV)

In the kingdom of God, it is not enough to be alive, we’re called to show that God has made us alive by bearing fruit: goodness, righteousness, and truth.

This is not false goodness or self-righteousness, but the real deal. A good person who treats others with kindness and compassion. A righteous person who acts with integrity. A person who stands with the truth, even when it’s not popular.  That’s the fruit Jesus is looking for.