Fruitless Faith

Bible Passage: Mark 11:12-19

INTRO

“Soma Church exists to love the body of Christ and equip them to do the work of ministry here, near and far, all for the glory of God.”

How many of you would be frustrated if your most prized possession no longer filled its intended purpose?

Your dream car was chronically in need of repair. Your custom golf clubs broke off a head every time you chipped up to the green. Your heirloom dutch oven no longer retains heat when baking. Your computer no longer holds a charge. Your grandmothers sewing machine she gave you tangles with each pass through fabric.

You can fill in your own blank but the reality of this is that if and when this happens it is deeply frustrating.

Now, imagine for a moment that we pivot from your most prized possession to your most cherished relationship. And in this scenario, you are still deeply in love with this person and nothing will ever change that.

But the other person not only does not love you anymore but cannot even remember what you look like or sound like. If you were to run into one another at the store they would walk on by completely oblivious.

What I am describing to you is the reality of our savior Jesus.

And specifically in his relationship to the people that he set apart as his chosen people.

They don’t know Him (for who He really is). They don’t hear Him (His word that saves sinners) and they hate Him (they hang Him on a cross).

Today, Jesus is going to show us both by allegory and by His actions just how far the jews had gotten from their God and how God feels about that.

BODY

Before we jump straight into the story lets look at how we left Jesus last week in Mark 11:11

Mark 11:11 ESV

And he entered Jerusalem and went into the temple. And when he had looked around at everything, as it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the twelve.

After entering the city of Jerusalem, Jesus walks into the temple, the place that physically represents the presence of God being in the midst of humans and just looks.

We touched briefly about what might have been running through His mind last week but I also think that Jesus was observing.

Watching how people interacted in the temple, what the worship of YAWEH was like at this very moment. Maybe also planning how He wants to handle these crucial days leading up to His death. All of this will be important in just a few moments.

After a few moments of this, it was late so Jesus goes to where He is staying for the night.

Mark 11:12–14 ESV

On the following day, when they came from Bethany, he was hungry. And seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to see if he could find anything on it. When he came to it, he found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. And he said to it, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” And his disciples heard it.

The next day, Jesus and the disciples are headed back to Jerusalem and Jesus’ human belly was hungry.

So he sees a fig tree

Show Fig Tree Photos

These trees were very common throughout this region and was likely just one they saw on the side of the road.

Now, this was the passover time which means that it is about April and fig trees don’t have fully ripe fruit until the fall season which is why Mark says it was not the season for figs.

But the tree had leaves and if a fig tree had leaves it is safe to assume that it should at least have unripe edible fruit to eat.

But this tree had none. All the signs point to it having something of value but when you get up close you find nothing.

So in frustration, Jesus curses the tree and in Mark 11:20-21 we see that the tree has responded to the divine words of Jesus.

Mark 11:20–21 ESV

As they passed by in the morning, they saw the fig tree withered away to its roots. And Peter remembered and said to him, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree that you cursed has withered.”

Now, I don’t know about you but if that was our story for the day and we all closed up our Bibles, took communion and left, I would wonder what in the world that was.

Jesus gets hungry, finds a fig tree that has no fruit, curses it and then moves on. That sounds more like a fever dream than a story full of divine revelation.

But Jesus is being incredibly intentional with his words and actions… He is giving His disciples a picture for their minds to help them make sense of what is happening with the jewish people and to show why Jesus would go on to do what He was about to do later that day.

This fig tree represents the jewish people/religion. They give the appearance of being healthy but when you get up close there is nothing of any substance. They bear no fruit at all.

There worship is stale and self righteous. Their entire religious system has become about accolades, clout and showmanship. They are completely missing the heart of God.

Jesus says this about them in Matthew 23:27-28

Matthew 23:27–28 ESV

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness. So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

The curse that Jesus says to the fig tree is revealing how the heart of God feels about the people He has chosen for himself.

The fig tree is the representation of the judgement of God and then Jesus demonstrates it when He gets back to Jerusalem.

Mark 11:15–19 ESV

And they came to Jerusalem. And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold and those who bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. And he would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple. And he was teaching them and saying 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 den of robbers.” And the chief priests and the scribes heard it and were seeking a way to destroy him, for they feared him, because all the crowd was astonished at his teaching. And when evening came they went out of the city.

Walking back into the city, Jesus sees the corrupt expression of Judaism before His very eyes.

This was passover time so people were making pilgrimage from all over to celebrate and make sacrifice.

When you came to the temple there were different places within the temple that different people were allowed to go to.

Show Temple Photo

Jesus was doing this in the court of the gentiles because the buying and selling that was happening was people purchasing animals for sacrifices.

But often people were selling their animals to vendors and then the vendors were marking up these animals to be sold at a high premium.

You could exchange money in the temple of you were from far away but the exchange rate was always to the detriment of the outsider.

And the fact that this was happening in the court of the gentiles enraged Jesus because the jewish people were putting a price tag on the nations having access to pure worship of God.

They had forgotten that God had chosen them as the least of the nations to be a blessing to all the nations.

They had no concern with a pure worship of God or leading others to honor and worship YAWEH. They just wanted their money and then to look holy and righteous.

So Jesus drives them out in righteous anger and reminds them that His house is a house of prayer (a place to meet with God) and they have made it a den of robbers.

BODY

So what do we do with all of this?

It can be easy to read a story like this and think to ourselves man the Jews really missed it. And that is not untrue because they absolutely did.

But how often do we do the same? How often do we exchange pure worship of God for something less? How often do our churches make something other than meeting with the presence of God and helping others do the same the main thing?

We can sometimes fall into the trap of believing that our leaves cover our lack of fruit. We can even hide away from experiencing deep Christian community because of people get too close. They'll see how bankrupt we really are.

So as we close this morning, I think we should all ask ourselves this question both as individuals and as of Church body: What would Jesus find if he got close enough?

Would he see a group of people who are sold out for the mission and purposes of God? Would he see a group of people who desperately desire to honor and worship him with a pure and right spirit?

Or what he see a people who look amazing, talk the part and walk the walk, but their hearts are far from him? Would he see a church that gives the appearance of godliness but when the nations come, God is nowhere to be found?

This week, the focus of our prayer should be on the health Of our own souls.

We should focus all of our spiritual energy on meeting with God, enjoying his presence and seeking to take that to others.

We should be praying, asking God for a pure heart and a pure church that loves what he loves and hates what he hates

PRAY