Mark 11 12-19

I made the executive decision to skip over the Triumphal entry Jesus makes in Mark 11, verses 1-11. The reason is that we have already gone over that text this year; it is the story we read each year on Palm Sunday. So rather than going over something we’ve gone over relatively recently, I hope its okay with everyone that we go onto some new material. I am perfectly willing to give you copies of my sermon from Palm Sunday this year if you need that. If not, and we’re ok to move forward, let’s do that.

Today again we see illuminated before us the difference between God and man; how we have taken what was intended for greatness and we have reduced it to the mundane and irrelevant. We do this with so much of what God gives us; look at the way people take the gift communication. We take the gift that God gives us to relate to other humans and we use it to trash them, we use it to gossip, to deceive, we use the gift to puff up ourselves and bring down others. And that’s just the simple gift of communication, the cognitive ability to speak and to understand the speech of others. Everything bad in the world happens when humans take something good God has given us and twist it into something it was not intended to be. Sexual relations; God gave them for husbands and wives to cement the bond between them and for children; our society has taken sex and twisted it into all sorts of previously unimaginable deviations. God gives us the earth, a good thing, and we pollute it; cover the ground with tar, fill the air with burning fumes. God gave Adam and Eve paradise, and they chose to exalt themselves, and were forced out of the garden into the rest of the world.

Today’s passage is a glimpse of God giving something to the Jews, and how they twisted it. They took a gift of God, and twisted it so they could control it, be in charge of it. Let’s take a look at Mark 11:12ff. Please stand.

The next day as they were leaving Bethany, Jesus was hungry. Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to find out if it had any fruit. When he reached it, he found nothing but leaves, because it was not the season for figs. Then he said to the tree, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” And his disciples heard him say it.

On reaching Jerusalem, Jesus entered the Temple area 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. And as he taught them, he said, “Is it not written: My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations’? But you have made it ‘a den of robbers’.”

The chief priests and teachers of the law heard this and began looking for a way to kill him, for they feared him, because the whole crowd was amazed at his teaching. When evening came, they went out of the city.

In the morning, as they went along, they saw the fig tree withered from the roots. Peter remembered and said to Jesus, “Rabbi look! The fig tree you cursed has withered!”

Let’s pray.

So we’ve traveled with Jesus through His ministry in Israel. We’ve seen Jesus baptized, we’ve seen Him heal many folks, do teachings. We’ve seen Him do wondrous things beyond healings, like walk on water and create food on two occasions. We’ve really been watching Jesus prepare for His week in Jerusalem. We’ve seen him argue with the Pharisees about what God truly desires for us, our lives, rather than the following of lots of man-made rules. We’ve seen Him chatting with Elijah and Moses as He was transfigured. We’ve been given the inside track on Jesus ministry; His passions and His corrections of people. He has demonstrated love and grace throughout. He has shown Himself to be for people and for God, rather than for rules and for rulers. He has shown Himself to be more than human; He is extra-ordinary. He traveled through Israel and Judah and ended up, in the passage we skipped over, in Jerusalem. Jerusalem is the number one city in Israel. It was the largest city in Israel. It was also where the Temple was located, the only place in the world where sacrifices could be made to God. Jerusalem was where the Romans made their headquarters as well. It would be like Washington D.C. and New York City rolled into one place. If you could make it in Jerusalem, you could make it anywhere.

Jesus enters Jerusalem at a time when there were a lot of folks not regularly in Jerusalem. It was almost time for the Passover feast, where the people remembered the faithfulness of God in making them a people unto Himself rather than a slave race in Egypt. It is about time to celebrate their freedom won by God when the angel of death “passed over” the houses of the Jews who had smeared lamb’s blood over the entrance, but who did not pass over the Egyptians, who all lost their first born sons. It was this event which caused Pharaoh to release the Jews from bondage. He later rethought that decision, but it was the event of the release that God brought about that the Jews were celebrating that week when Jesus entered Jerusalem. It was a high point in the history of the people of Israel. It would be comparable to us celebrating the 4^th of July. It was that sort of event. Foundational, plus God. Jesus has come into the city, and the world will never be the same.

This cursing of a fig tree is an odd thing to our ears; at least it is to mine. Some commentators think the fig tree is an image of the Pharisees rule of rules, and cite several verses in the OT as evidence. Jeremiah 8:13 in a passage on sin and punishment says “I will take away their harvest, declares the Lord. There will be no grapes on the vine. There will be no figs on the tree and their leaves will wither. What I have given them will be taken from them.” Additional verses to see are Hosea 9:10 and Joel 1:7. Perhaps the best way to look at the fig tree is that it is as devoid of fruit as the rules of the Pharisees. The tree is fruitless, and so are the Pharisees. You’ll remember that Jesus has been telling the Pharisees that their religiousity is no good. Here is an illustration that the early church readers should have read into the text. Other scholars say that the fig tree is one of the symbols of Israel as a whole; that it should respond to Jesus words, or it will be destroyed like the fig tree was. And we know that in AD 70 the Romans put down the Jewish bid for independence and took down Jerusalem. The symbolism of the fig tree is probably a little of both of those things and maybe something that really has been lost to history. If I were to guess, I would say the symbolism refers more specifically to the fruitlessness of the Pharisees and the religion they were forcing upon the Jewish people. Clearly the entire Jewish nation was not fruitless; most of the early church converts were Jewish, as was Jesus Himself. So it seems to me the symbolism would point toward another condemnation of the Pharisees.

This is what seems to anger the Temple higher ups so much that Jesus will have to be killed. The other actions of Jesus throughout His time of ministry angered them and the Pharisees had been talking about how and when to kill Jesus, but this is likely the event that pushed them over the edge and made killing Jesus a necessity.

Let me set the context a little for you. Jerusalem is swollen with people who have come to celebrate the Passover. They come from near and from far. Many people come from outside of Israel to make their pilgrimage to Jerusalem. About a year ago we did a sermon series on the Psalms of the Ascent that the pilgrims would sing as they journeyed toward Jerusalem. In any situation, they would carry with them money from their homelands, which could not be used to pay their Temple tax. Even people inside Israel could get financially taken because the Temple tax was paid with drachmas, and the official coin of the Roman lands was the denarius. Because the Temple tax had to be paid, and because it had to be paid in drachmas, the money changers really had a great racket going. People had to pay, and had to use their services. It was a situation ripe for exploitation.

Even worse, the people coming from all over Israel and beyond had to offer sacrifices at the Temple. They were supposed to bring their best animals for sacrifice. It came to be over time that the priests took on the job of approving whether a certain animal was up to the Temple standard. Then different merchants figured it would be easier for people traveling to purchase an animal at the Temple, one pre-approved by the priests as acceptable. It would have been pretty awful to bring an animal hundreds of miles just to have it rejected by the priests. So it was safer to purchase an animal, even though the prices were really bad, from the local merchants. You can see how the merchants would be in cahoots with the priests, a little money changes hands and the priest approves the animal for sacrifice, and pretty soon the Temple turns from a place of worship of the living God into a place where there is money to be made off the people traveling in from other nations and places. What is holy changes and becomes common place, or worse, commercialized. God’s presence made the Temple holy, and people changed it to make it a business enterprise. They took the worship of Almighty God and made it so that people had to pay a certain amount before worship could actually take place. This is, of course, the complete opposite of what was intended by God.

You may have noticed that Jesus forbade people to carry goods through the Temple. Where the Temple was placed the outer courtyard was convenient to use as a thoroughfare. The Temple had truly become a place of commerce, not worship. Common people were allowed into the outer courtyard, the one used as a thoroughfare, but there was a wall separating the Temple away from all but the Jews. In fact, there was a sign on the wall that said, paraphrased, “The non-Jew who enters past this point is responsible for his own death.” How odd for a Temple that had been intended by God to be a house of prayer for all nations. The Jews knew the Temple was to be a place of prayer, but only for themselves. But Gentiles were excluded, those unable to pay the tax were excluded, those who brought a sacrifice could be turned away because the sacrifice wasn’t purchased from the right vendor. The Pharisees and chief priests took a sacred space and made it for sale. It was for the special people, the wealthy, the blessed by God.

The Temple was intended to be a place of worship for all people, not just those who could afford it, not just those who knew about God’s presence there. The Jews knew the Temple was intended to be a place of prayer, but they had forgotten it was for all people. The Jews had been blessed in order to be a blessing, but too often they hoarded their knowledge and love of God away from other peoples. Too often we do the same. Our culture has been inoculated against real faith in Christ. Many people believe in a parody version of Christianity given out by people who are against faith, against God, against Christ. It is our duty and honor to be a light unto the people, inviting all people to know God. That doesn’t mean that all people will accept Christ. I would hope many will, but our job is to make sure all know they are welcome to be here. This temple, this house of worship is open for all peoples, and it is my desire that this place be a house of prayer for all kinds of people. May we never stand in the way of anyone coming to Christ.

In the morning, as they went along, they saw the fig tree withered from the roots. Peter remembered and said to Jesus, “Rabbi look! The fig tree you cursed has withered!”

The priests and teachers of the law have their hypocrisy shown to them in a very public way. Their full wallets could not take out the sting of truth that poured out of Jesus mouth over them and the crowd listening to Jesus. The crowd knew Jesus was right. The crowd knew that their religion was for sale; that the amounts they had to pay to worship were exorbitant. Not only exorbitant, but wrong. There is no way they should have had to pay to pray. Worship of God became a commodity, and the Temple priests should have been embarrassed and ashamed. But instead, they sought, like King David, to compound their error by attempting to cover it up with a murder. Several days later they would be given an opportunity to make that murder happen. Several days after this encounter Jesus will be captured, put on trial, killed because of their embarrassment and anger. But the reality is that if anyone has the right to be embarrassed or angry, it is God. He has the right to be embarrassed by our sinful actions, our sinful thoughts which throw His goodness and kindness into sharp relief. God has the right to be angry with us, who ignore His rules for living, who ignore Him except in times of trouble, who ignore the troubles of our fellow humans because of inconvenience.

Jesus is going to stand up for us though. He is not angry, although He rightfully could have been. Instead, He loves us. And even though the fig tree withered, symbolically meaning that the whole of the Pharisaical way of religion was doomed, Jesus still loved them. Jesus was willing to die for the people who killed Him. In fact, in many ways, it is our disobedience that made Jesus’ sacrifice necessary. It is our sin that Jesus died for, it is your sin. This is the gift of God that I will never twist or distort. Jesus died for you, out of His great love for you. The sacrifice on the cross can bring you into communion with the Father. There is no financial cost to this gift. You can receive it and walk away. There is no need to purchase anything. Moreover, our priest is Jesus Himself. It is Christ who leads us to God, no earthly person should get in the way. The fruit of Christ is evident in our lives, Christ’s death was fruitful. The rules of the Pharisees weren’t. Christ offers us a relationship with God, a personal relationship. He doesn’t give us rules to break to keep us away from God, but instead takes our rule breaking on Himself and washes us clean.

That is what Jesus went to do in Jerusalem. It was to do away with the fruitless, frustrating religion that Judaism had become and replace it with Himself. He became the vine, and we are the branches, producing more disciples, raising disciples, teaching people to love God. That’s the fruit, and it is what the Jews were failing to do well. Don’t let the same be said of us, of you.

Let’s pray.