Sermon Tone Analysis

Our Path So Far

’s Woes.

That was just one part of a greater picture leading to the death of Christ.

Today we are going to look at the other pieces that led into his death, you see, when Jesus entered Jerusalem He was on the warpath.

(Figs and prophecy)

Rustling up trouble

Jesus and the fig tree

Mark 11:12-

The fig tree was not in season for fruit, yet Jesus cursed it.

This wasn’t a mistake or a Jesus who was hungry and mad.

This was a metaphor.

It was insight that was made clear by the events that came after it!

The fig tree

Mark 11:27-

A big question about spiritual authority.

Mark 12:1-

Instead of finding fruit, all the master’s servants and son found was death and selfishness.

Sound familiar?

The tree.

It ended up dying from the roots because of the curse.

Mark 13:1-

When Christ died, the temple veil was torn.

Shortly after the death of Christ the temple was destroyed once and for all by Rome.

It wasn’t Rome that destroyed the way that used to be, it was Christ.

Christ changed the way we approach God and receive salvation.

Through His death he rescued salvation from the hands of death and religious ideas that were stingy in whom and when they gave it.

Christ changed it all.

He cursed the fig tree and told His Disciples how everything changed.

What does this mean for us?

Christ is the only way

Not Holiness Theology

Not a denomination

Not being good

Not sacrifice

We should also take great caution in how we approach distributing the grace of God and make sure (as we mentioned in the woes) that we are not slamming the door in the faces of those trying to come God like the moneychangers in the temple did.

Jesus doesn’t like it when something that is designed to bear fruit, doesn’t.

Challenge

Have you found yourself trying to define how people can come to God?

Are we bearing the kind of fruit that God designed us to?

Or are we trying to look nice, like we should have fruit, but don’t really?

Do we act as if Christ is the ONLY way?

Or do we act as if there is extra that needs to be accomplished?

What false mountain do we need to command to jump into the sea?

He didn’t waste any time

When the fig tree is understood as a metaphorical symbol, the reasons for including it become clearer, even if unanswered questions remain.

Mark’s explanation of the barrenness of the fig tree alerts readers that there is more to be considered than simply Jesus’ annoyance.

This is not about a literal fig tree at all.

Jesus’ curse of the tree is boldly stated: May no one ever eat fruit [karpon] from you again (see Stein 2008, 513 n. 6).

The choice of fruit instead of “figs” may invoke “the biblical motif of fruitfulness or fruitlessness as a symbol of spiritual health or disease” (Marcus 2009, 782).

This appears to be an acted parable (see Hooker 1991, 262), or a prophetic-representative action.

It is significant in itself; and it illuminates the next event, the clearing of the temple.

The importance of the temple can scarcely be exaggerated.

This was the national shrine for the Jewish people, the central place of worship and of continual sacrifice, and the destination of pilgrims.

The defilement of the temple in 164 B.C. under Antiochus IV Epiphanes led to the Maccabean Revolt.

The restoration of temple service, after the cleansing and rededication of the temple was celebrated in Jerusalem as Hanukkah.

The temple was Israel’s central treasury, a major part of the economic existence of Jerusalem.

It generated great commercial activity, providing animals for sacrifice and massive building projects.

Herod the Great knew its political worth.

He attempted to win the support of his Jewish subjects through a massive rebuilding program, begun in 20 B.C. and completed only in A.D. 63, just before its destruction by the Romans in A.D. 70.

This suggests that the problem is more than temple corruption.

It is better to picture this as a prophetic-representative action, symbolizing and anticipating the destruction of the temple, which Jesus explicitly prophesies in Mark 13.

This is an outright rejection of the way things used to be for Israel.

Jesus is fortelling what will happen to the religious ways of the day.

Jesus set a new president.

Jesus’ comment about the mountain and faith has to do with the temple and the new way to God.

This third visit to Jerusalem and the temple has a series of opponents of Jesus coming to question him.

First, the temple authorities (the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders) issue a hostile challenge to Jesus to prove his right to carry out his prophetic act and to speak as he is doing.

They are in charge of their temple, and Jesus has usurped their authority (11:27–33).

Then Jesus gives the parable of the vineyard, which they rightly perceive is directed at them (12:1–12).

Next, the Pharisees and the Herodians (see 3:6) arrive to entrap him on loyalty to God or Caesar (12:13–17), followed quickly by the Sadducees with a riddle intended to show the absurdity of resurrection belief (12:18–27).

This brings the parade of hostile debaters to an end.

The tone of the encounter with a single teacher of the law concerning the great commandments (12:28–34) is entirely different.

It serves as a summation of the message Jesus is bringing about the Law and the temple system.

Mark signals the importance of this short story by concluding: from then on no one dared ask him any questions

Jesus responds by stating that he will answer their question if they first answer his: John’s baptism—was it from heaven …?—a circumlocution for God (see Matthew’s “kingdom of heaven” = Mark’s “kingdom of God”) “or was it of human origin?

Answer me” (NRSV).

Jesus has employed this technique in debate before (see especially 10:3), and somewhat surprisingly, they do not challenge this display of Jesus’ authority but recognize the conundrum he has set for them.

Either answer will be problematic.

Their refusal to heed John will be seen as refusal to obey God, including his preparation of the way for the One who would come after him (1:2–9) and hence his witness to Jesus.

But if they dismiss John as merely a self-appointed and misguided irrelevance, the people will be furious because everyone held that John really was a prophet and therefore from God.

Mark has already confirmed the widespread influence of John in Jerusalem and Judea (see 1:4–5).

■ 33 They take the only way out: they admit they don’t know.

Their strategy backfires, however, because Jesus then refuses to confirm to them his authority: Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.

But the problem is worse than that.

These religious leaders are the ones who should know, yet they admit that they know neither John nor Jesus.

The Sadducees, who were the chief priests, are confronted with their lack of piety combined with ignorance in 12:24: they “know neither the scriptures nor the power of God” (NRSV).