The Cursing and the Cleansing

The Cursing and the Cleansing

Mark 11:12-19

     Things are not always what they seem to be. I will give you some examples.

Did you know a firefly is not a fly at all but it is actually a beetle?

Or that a horn toad is not a toad, but is a lizard?

How about a shooting star? It is not a star but a meteorite.

Did you know that French fries have absolutely nothing to do with the French?

Or that a bald eagle is not bald, but has a flat head with white feathers?

My favorite one is: have you ever been hit in the funny bone and found out that it is not funny?

     Things are not always what they seem to be and most of the time it is not important. But when a Christian is not what they seem to be it is a tragedy. It is called hypocrisy. It sends a poor message to the world that Christ is not who He says He is, because we don’t represent Him well. It makes people question His character and the validity of our faith. and it is something God takes very seriously. As Christians we are not going to be judged by the sin in our life, that was forgiven at the cross, but we will be judged by the way we represent Christ to the world.

     And that is what we are going to see In our passage this morning. We are going to see the judgment of God on the Jewish leaders for the way they represented God to the people. We are going to see the tragedy of hypocrisy, and what empty religion looks like. And what we learn from this story is Christ is the Judge of the fruitfulness of our life.

 (Mark 11:12-19)

  12      On the next day, when they had left Bethany, He became hungry.

  13      Seeing 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.

  14      He said to it, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again!” And His disciples were listening.

  15      Then 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;

  16      and He would not permit anyone to carry merchandise through the temple.

  17      And 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.”

  18      The 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.

  19      When evening came, they would go out of the city. (pray)

    In our passage this morning we learn the evidence of a true relationship with God is measured by the spiritual fruit we produce in our life. And it is an inescapable fact. Jesus said, “you will know a tree by the fruit that it bears. A good tree cannot produce bad fruit and a bad tree cannot produce good fruit.” And we must understand that being a good tree means having a sincere heart that is growing in a relationship with God.

     Last week we began the final week of the life of Christ. Jesus came ridding into Jerusalem as the King of peace, and this is what we call the triumphal entry. The people lined the streets and they shouted Hosanna; Hosanna God save us. But as Christ entered the city the celebration ended, and all of the fanfare went away. It was very anticlimactic as He came to the temple, and no one was there to greet their Messiah. The temple was empty and that was symbolic of the nation and their relationship with God. The question is: is that symbolic of your relationship with God?

     What we learn from this passage is Christ is the Judge of the fruitfulness of our life. The first thing I want you to see in this story is the cursing of the tree, in Vs 12-14. Here Jesus curses a fig tree because it does not produce fruit.

     This is symbolic of the spiritual condition of the nation. It was barren. It was unfruitful. It was unproductive. It was full of leaves and looked good from the outside, but it was spiritually empty on the inside, and this story should cause us to shutter, because this is how God sees religion that does not produce fruit. It is cursed by Christ. I want to encourage you today to strive to be spiritually fruitful. I want to encourage you to make every effort to become who God wants you to be.

     Vs. 12 begins with the phrase, “On the next day, when they had left Bethany.” This is Monday morning. If you remember Jesus and His disciples left Jerusalem on the night before. After they inspected the temple, it was late, and they traveled the two miles back outside the city to Bethany. Where they probably stayed in the home of Mary and Martha. If you are unfamiliar with Mary and Martha, you can read about them in John’s gospel. And now they wake up on Monday, Matthew tells us it was early morning, and they begin to travel back to Jerusalem.

     And we read  “He became hungry.” Here we get a glimpse at the humanity of Christ. Remember He was fully man yet fully God. There were times He hungered, He thirst, He wept. John 1:14 says, “The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.” Jesus took on the physical limitations of man, and experienced the needs we experience yet without sin, and at this point He was hungry.

     Vs 13 says, “seeing at a distance a fig tree in leaf.” There was something about this tree that caught His eye. Matthew tells us the tree was close to the road, and we know they are traveling back to Jerusalem. A fig tree will grow up to twenty feet high and is as wide as it is tall. And it offers more than just fruit but is a place of shade for those who are traveling.

     But Jesus sees this tree in a distance, and it catches His attention because He is hungry. The tree looks good. It looks healthy and vibrant and productive. It looks lush and inviting, yet not everything is as it appears. The same thing is true about everything in life. Not all that glitters in life is gold. Some people make a good first impression and then after you get to know them you find out they are not who you thought they were. And that is what we see in this story.

     After Jesus sees this tree, He goes to inspect it. Vs. 13 says, “He went to see if perhaps, He would find anything on it.” Last week we talked about the omniscience of Christ, when He sent His disciples to go and retrieve the colt He would ride into Jerusalem. We talked about how He could see things no man can see and knew things no man could know. This week we are seeing more of the humanity of Christ. He doesn’t always exercise His omniscience but instead chooses to operate in His humanity. It doesn’t make Him any less divine.

     When Jesus arrives at the tree and inspects it, He doesn’t find anything on it, and His disappointment turns to judgment. This was all predicted in Jeremiah 8:13 when God said,, “I will surely snatch them away, declares the Lord: There will be no grapes on the vine and no fig on the fig tree, and the leaf will wither: And what I have given them will pass away.” Just like this fig tree that did not produce fruit, Israel was God’s chosen people. They were blessed beyond measure, but they never lived up to their potential. The question is will you? Will you live up to the potential God has for your life?

      In the final clause of Vs. 13 we read, “It was not the season for figs.” And then we begin to question this Judgment. I mean from a human standpoint; it doesn’t seem fair to curse a tree for not having fruit out of season. But understand Jesus knows more about this tree than we ever will.

     We know this story takes place in April the month of Nisan for the Jews, during the Passover. By this time a healthy fig tree would begin to produce green buds on the vine. They would not be ripe figs until June, but you could eat them, they just would not taste very good. So, the cursing of this fig tree is for it’s false pretense of leaves and not for it’s lack of fruit. It was false advertising, and it was a symbol of spiritual hypocrisy. It is an example of people who claim to be something they are not or failing to do what they promise to do.

     In the forest there are huge trees that tower above all the other trees. They appear to be the very picture of strength and maturity. But loggers won’t touch them. Why? You would think they would produce twice as much lumber as a smaller tree. But they are hollow inside, and they are rotten. They are the homes of racoons and squirrels, and they blow right over in a storm. So, even though they look like they are the biggest strongest trees in the forest they are weak because they are hollow. That is the essence of hypocrisy. It is to appear to be something on the outside that your not, and that is the picture of this fig tree in our story.

     In Vs. 14 Jesus condemns and curses the fig tree. This is a powerful object lesson for us, a living parable. How different this is from the Jesus we saw in Galilee? Who brought the good news and extended grace and forgiveness to everyone? But Jerusalem represents the religious establishment of the day. Jerusalem is where the temple is. Jerusalem is where the Torah is. Jerusalem is where the spiritual leaders of the nation are, and while Christ was full of grace to the harlot and the tax collector, He had no tolerance for the religious hypocrite.

     The message is clear, and the Bible says, “To whom much is given much is required.” What do you think Christ requires of us here at Faith Baptist Church? I can tell you based on this passage He is expecting us to grow and mature as Christians. To do more at this church than just develop programs but develop maturity.

     Jesus said in John 15: 5-6, “I am the vine, and you are the branches, he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and is dries up, and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned.”

     So, what does God expect from us?  He expects the same thing from us, He expected from the nation of Israel so long ago, He expects us to receive and believe in His Son as the Messiah. To remain connected to Him and bearing fruit.

     Christ is the Judge of the fruitfulness of our life. The next thing I want you to see in this passage is the Cleansing of the Temple, Vs 15-19. Here Jesus enters into the temple, ejects the money changers and experiences an explosion of anger from the chief Priests.

     Vs. 15 says, “Then they came to Jerusalem, and He entered the temple.” Again, this is Monday morning and they have gone back to Jerusalem, from Bethany. But what is interesting is this describes Jesus acting alone in this action at the temple. It says,” He entered the temple.” He did not go in with His disciples. So, the cleansing of the temple was His purpose for going there and He does this alone.

     The temple refers to the whole temple complex with all of it’s courts and buildings. But the cleansing takes place in the largest part of the temple in the court of the Gentiles. It was here that thousands of worshippers would have been gathered to celebrate the Passover.

     The first temple was built by Solomon the son of David and it was such an incredible sight that when the queen of Sheba came to see it she said, “I was not even told the half of what I would see.’ Years later in 586 B.C, the Babylonians came under Nebuchadnezzar, and they plundered the temple, and the Chaldeans came back and destroyed whatever was left.

     50 years later a remnant of Hebrews would return and begin to rebuild the temple. The temple was the centerpiece of all of life and worship for the nation of Israel. It was the sacrifices took place. It was where the Torah, the Word of God was kept. It was the place where the people of God worshipped.

     So, Jesus was shocked by what He saw. The temple had become a marketplace and not a worship place. What began as a service for traveling Jews by providing them with sheep and ox to buy for a sacrifice had gotten out of hand and became the Jewish New York stock exchange. And it was all under the authority of the Chief Priests. They were cheating and extorting the worshippers of God to make money.

     As soon as Jesus sees this, He becomes angry and has to do something about it. He walks in and He takes action. And by doing this He is not just challenging their authority He is taking control of it. Remember this is the same Jesus that was patient with the prostitutes and long suffered with the tax collectors He was gentile with the Lepers, but He has no tolerance for the religious leaders.

     This was a crowd of people who were no longer worshipping God, but they were buying and selling goods.  Warren Wiersbe says, “Mere outward reformation does not last unless the heart is changed and what began a service to the traveling Jews had become a business that had no place in the house of God.”

     Imagine this for a minute. Imagine all of the stalls, imagine all the animals. Imagine all of the tables and the noise and smell. They had made the house of God a cluttered mess. And the worse part about it, they did it in the court of the Gentiles. The place where the Jews should have been a witness to their neighbors.

     Vs. 16 gives us information not included in Matthew and Luke. We are told, “He would not permit anyone to carry merchandise through the temple.” So apparently, the merchants were using the court of the Gentiles for a thoroughfare. Instead of walking around the temple to take their sacrifice where it needed to go, they were just taking a short cut through the Gentiles who were in the only area they were allowed to worship. This was disrespectful and irreverent to Christ, and He stopped it.

     Next, Jesus begins to teach them what the purpose the house of the Lord was to be used for. He quotes Isaiah 56:7 and says, “My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations, but you have made it a robbers Den.” What Jesus is saying is; this is not your house, this is my house.  This is a place that is to be sanctified and holy, set apart for the purpose of God. This is the place where man meets God in repentance and prayer.

     Mark is the only one to include the phrase ‘to the nations.” In Vs. 17. And that would make perfect sense seeing that Mark is writing to a Gentile audience and he is continuing to give us these evangelistic overtones.

     Vs. 18 says, “The Chief Priests and the scribes heard this.” You better believe they heard this because it was intended for them to hear it. And it made them angry. What this does is unite them against Him. They now have a common enemy. They begin to form an unholy allegiance for the purpose of destroying Him.

     What is amazing is; Instead of examining their own behavior and their hearts like David did in Psalm 139 when he said, “Search me and know me o God.’ No there is no self-examination here only evil unbelief. There is no greater evil than religious people with an unregenerated heart. They will stop at nothing to get what they want. They will always refuse to get in line and follow Christ.

     In Vs. 18 we are given two explanations for why they want to destroy Him. I want you to notice the use of the word “for” here twice. For indicates reason. ‘For they were afraid of Him, for the whole crowd was astonished at His teaching.’ They wanted to kill Him because they were afraid of Him. And because they were jealous of Him. They wanted to kill Him because they were not able to teach the people the truth the way Jesus did, and they were losing their power and control.

     Finally, I want you to look at Verse 19 it says, ‘When evening came, they would go out of the city.’ What a day? If you remember this all began in the morning with the cursing of the fig tree? This whole day was battle against spiritual hypocrisy. I wonder where the men and women are today who are willing to stand up for what they believe in? I wonder where our zeal is for the Lord.

          Christ is the Judge of the fruitfulness of our life. Therefore, we should strive to live a productive life as Christians. In 1 Corinthians nine the Apostle Paul says, “don’t you know that everyone who runs in the race, runs for the prize?” In other words, run like you want to win. Run like it matters. Live for God with all your heart. Don’t do this thing in vain. Give God your best, worship Him. And seek to grow and become who He is calling you to be. I want to encourage you today to strive to produce spiritual fruit in your life and make every effort to become who God wants you to be.