THE BARREN FIG TREE, AND...
Mark 11:12-22

INTRO:
Tonight’s lesson is from the book of Mark chapter 11. I will begin to read with verse 12.
I am not going to read all of the subject matter for tonight. Just this much: Mark 11:12-17 – “12. Now the next day, when they had come out from Bethany, He was hungry. 13. And seeing from afar a fig tree having leaves, He went to see if perhaps He would find something on it. And when He came to it, He found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. 14. In response Jesus said to it, "Let no one eat fruit from you ever again.'' And His disciples heard it. 15. So they came to Jerusalem. And Jesus went into the temple and began to drive out those who bought and sold in the temple, and overturned the tables of the moneychangers and the seats of those who sold doves. 16. And He would not allow anyone to carry wares through the temple. 17. Then He taught, saying to them, "Is it not written, 'My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations'? But you have made it a 'den of thieves.' ''”

The incident which I have read has been considered by many one of those “most difficult” passages in the gospel records. Critics of the Bible and Jesus have seen this event as being so unreasonable of the Lord. They say: “Why curse an inanimate, harmless object like a fig tree?” Others flounder in their search for some reasonable explanation of this strange behavior of the Lord. As you read various books describing this period of time you will find numerous “possible” explanations. It seems to me, however, that the explanation is fairly simple.

It is my conviction and contention that what we have here is a dramatic object lesson on the part of the Lord. It was not all that unusual for prophets in the Old Testament to use “real life object lessons” to convey their messages. If you’ve read the book of Ezekiel, you will notice particularly that Ezekiel used many real life object lessons to convey messages quietly and silently to those who would read, to those who would watch.
What we have here is the Lord teaching a lesson to His disciples about the temple which symbolized Judaism.

I. I would like you to carefully follow through with me a brief statement of the events as they are listed here in scripture.
A. Jesus had entered Jerusalem and in Mark 11:11 we see that after entering Jerusalem He went into the temple and looked round about it “on all things”.
B. The next morning He came to this fig tree seeking figs and found none.
C. That same morning He cursed this fig tree for its bareness.
D. Later in the day He came to the temple, went into the temple into which He had gone in the night before and began to (as we describe it) cleanse the temple.
E. On the following day the little band of Jesus and His disciples came to the fig tree again and they noticed it was dried up.
F. I believe that the two events: the cursing of the fig tree and the cleansing of the temple are related. Let’s look at some of the details.
II. The barren fig tree:
A. Early in the morning Jesus and the band of apostles set out to go from Bethany to Jerusalem.
1. It’s not a long trip, but if you consider the fact that they’re walking it would be a trip of some distance and some time.
2. I read from scholars that the custom of that time was that the first meal of the day which we call breakfast would be eaten fairly late in the morning.
Just a brief aside here. When I was a young person on the farm there were chores that needed to be done before breakfast so we did not eat until about 9:00 in the morning. Some countries have customs like that as well. For example in Mexico people eat quite late compared to what we are used to, having breakfast about 10:00 am. Different meal schedules are not so unusual in other cultures and in the culture and the time of Jesus it was not unusual.
3. They were not milking cows, but they had probably not eaten breakfast and they began to be hungry on the little journey down to Jerusalem.
4. We see in the text that Jesus was hungry. We must remember the humanity of Christ. It’s hard sometimes to envision that Jesus could get hungry, that He could be thirsty, that He could be weary. In His humanity He experienced all of these things.
5. We could speculate perhaps He might not have had breakfast on that day. He came to this fig tree thinking that perhaps there’s going to be fruit on the tree and there was none.
B. Mark records for us that the time of figs “is not yet”. In other words, usually you would find no figs on a fig tree this early in the spring. This is the Passover season—very early in the spring. That fact helps us to understand something of the situation.
1. Brother J.W. McGarvey in his commentary on Matthew and Mark notes that in that part of the world there were two varieties of figs. One variety ripened in May and June and another in August. Here we are over in the earlier part of the year—the springtime. The time when figs are not to be expected, but Jesus came to this tree and there were leaves on it. What we understand from this situation is that the fruit, the figs, would actually begin to develop on the tree before the leaves began to come out. Seeing this tree fully leafed when it wasn’t time, one would expect that there would be fruit on the tree.
2. It was not an unreasonable expectation that there should be fruit, but when Jesus came to the tree which was probably grown in a very advantageous place and circumstance, protected, when Jesus came to the tree, fully-leafed, expecting fruit there was none.
C. Then something interesting occurs in Mark 11:14 – “In response Jesus said to it, "Let no one eat fruit from you ever again.'' And His disciples heard it.” He cursed, as Peter would use the expression, that tree and the disciples heard it. When they heard it, I wonder what they thought.
1. There was no reason to think that in this early part of the spring that there would be fruit on that tree because of the season, but yet there was a reason to expect fruit on this tree because of the appearance of the tree. There were leaves on it. It was fully leafed out.
2. Again this is one of those instances where you need to take a look at the surrounding text and not reach a conclusion too quickly. Hold on to this thought and let’s continue.
III. What Mark does, if you’ve been following along in scripture, what Mark does is take us immediately into the temple.
A. What Jesus did on the road from Bethany to Jerusalem was a picture of what He was going to do in the temple.
1. The Jewish temple represented Judaism with all its forms, its rituals, its feasts.
2. The temple and Judaism represented, or should have represented hope and security for the people of that time, that world, but all there was about the temple was its architectural beauty and its promise.
3. There was, you see, no performance. There was no substance. If we go back to that fig tree for just a minute - what can we say about that tree in connection with what is now happening in Jerusalem? We can say there was beauty, but there was no substance. There was promise because a tree with all those leaves would have promised fruit, but there was no performance.
4. Listen carefully. Scripture tells us that there was condemnation for the absence of what should have been. Here’s Jesus at the temple. Here is the architectural beauty of the temple. Here are all the things that Judaism should have promised, but no substance and no performance.
IV. What did Jesus find in the temple?
A. Jesus went into the temple and began to cast out them that sold and bought in the temple, overthrew the tables of the money changers and the seats of them that sold doves. What did He find?
1. He found merchandise being sold. He found commerce in a place where it should not have been. You can find this same thing in some places today. In Japan there are many beautiful Buddhist shrines with gorgeous landscapes and beautiful structures. Often though what you will find when you arrive at what is shown on the map as the entrance to the shrine and the temple is nothing but a street full of arcades, a lengthy street for the sale of all kinds of things. If you persevere and walk along the street you will arrive at a kind of open court yard area which is just before the Buddhist temple and shrine.
2. Commerce—you see all these arcades along the way were selling all kinds of things for the support of the Buddhist temple.
3. That is not the only place in the world you can see that either. In England you can see the market district on the way to some of the cathedrals. You can not help when you see these things, but to think of the situation in the court of the Gentiles of the temple in Jesus’ day.
B. We come back to the situation. Here they are selling various animals and birds and there are money changers.
1. We realize that this tradition probably began as a convenience for travelers because Jews from all over the world would come for the three very important feasts.
2. They would need to come to offer sacrifice and pay the temple tax in order to enter the area, but they it would be very difficult for them to bring along the animals needed for sacrifice.
3. By the way, the money they were using was either Roman or Greek and it was not acceptable for the temple tax.
4. Here they were. What are they going to do? We’ll make it convenient for you. We’ll just sell you the things you need and the money changers are over there. You can bring your Roman and Greek money and we’ll give you temple shekels so you can pay your tax. What began as a convenience became a great abuse of the temple.
5. Jesus’ assessment of the situation in verse 17 was this: “you have made it a den of thieves”. With that sort of condemnation from our Lord, I wonder about the honesty of this sort of commerce. Admittedly the people doing the selling and money changing had a captive clientele. The visitors would need the shekels and the animals for sacrifice so I suspect that the convenience factor drove the price up.
6. Then in the background were Annas and Caiaphas and the high priestly family. If you are wondering who was profiting from all the sale of these items and the high prices that were being asked for them. I would suspect those in charge of the use of the temple, Caiaphas and Annas and their family might very well have been lining their pockets. This is a situation full of temptation for less then honest dealings.
7. In verse 16 Mark notes: “He would not allow anyone to carry wares through the temple.” When I first read that I wondered what in the world is going on here. Then I read and researched further and discovered what was happening. It was not that people were bearing things into the temple, but this had become a shortcut between streets. I don’t want to walk all the way around the wall of the outer court. I can go in this door. Walk straight across and go out that door to get to my destination.
8. When I put all these thoughts together, I was thinking about our parking lot which has become a shortcut from the houses behind us to Maple Ave. People use the parking lot here sometimes by asking permission sometimes not. These things do not cause harm, but the parking lot has become a convenience.
9. Much the same way the temple had become a place of convenience. That was not the purpose of the temple. That’s what Jesus is doing here. He overthrew the money changers tables. He drove out the animals and overturned the seats of the people selling doves, and then He would not let anybody use the temple for a shortcut.
C. All that to say what should have been a place of great promise was not a place of great performance. My Father’s house is a house of prayer.
1. Jesus says in verse 16 “Is it not written, 'My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations'?” He quotes from Isaiah 56:7. Let’s take a look at that part of Isaiah. 56:1-7 – “1. Thus says the Lord: "Keep justice, and do righteousness, for My salvation is about to come, and My righteousness to be revealed. 2. Blessed is the man who does this, and the son of man who lays hold on it; who keeps from defiling the Sabbath, and keeps his hand from doing any evil.'' 3. Do not let the son of the foreigner who has joined himself to the Lord speak, saying, "The Lord has utterly separated me from His people''; nor let the eunuch say, "Here I am, a dry tree.'' 4. For thus says the Lord: "To the eunuchs who keep My Sabbaths, and choose what pleases Me, and hold fast My covenant, 5. even to them I will give in My house and within My walls a place and a name better than that of sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off. 6. "Also the sons of the foreigner who join themselves to the Lord, to serve Him, and to love the name of the Lord, to be His servants everyone who keeps from defiling the Sabbath, and holds fast My covenant 7. even them I will bring to My holy mountain, and make them joyful in My house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on My altar; for My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations.''”
2. What He is saying is that the purpose that God has assigned to this place has been lost—lost for years. It’s just a place of commerce, of convenience. All the formality was there. All the forms, the feasts and such were there, but that’s all. There wasn’t any substance.
3. Judaism was not bearing fruit. That’s the bottom line. Jesus in John 15:8 says: “By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples” I strongly suspect the only people gaining were Annas, Caiaphas and the high priestly families. I also suspect that the reason they were wealthy was at least in part that they were soaking the people. We see this today all over the religious world. The leaders have beautiful places to live and work, great cars, good food and much of what the world has to offer. Even those that put on a show of not owning anything in this world - live in luxury.
4. This place, a place that represented all that was honorable, right and good, was performing in the most dishonorable kind of way. There was no substance.
V. We come now to the return trip to Bethany.
A. They go in the evening and the next morning they come to that fig tree and it is dried up from the roots. Verse 21 says: “Peter, remembering, said to Him, "Rabbi, look! The fig tree which You cursed has withered away.''” Peter remembered the day before as I’m sure all of the apostles had, but it was astounding to him for as the verse before says; “dried up from the roots”. It was dead, dead, dead.
1. If we cut a limb off a tree, yes its life’s source is gone, but it takes days, days for all the leaves to wither, turn brown and begin to fall away if they fall away at all, having been cut off from the tree.
2. Then it’s weeks and weeks before the limb would be what we would call dried enough to use for a fire. Peter says look Lord, the tree that you cursed is dead.
B. If you have your Bibles open I want you to look at Mark 11:22. Here is the response of Jesus: “Have faith in God.” That’s all He said.
1. That’s all He really needed to say because over time all of this will come to mind as the object lesson which I suggested to you.
2. What Jesus is saying, based on what’s happening to the tree and what He’s done the day before in the temple, is that the reason for the emptiness and the deadness of Judaism—is faithlessness.
i. You can have rituals.
ii. You can have feasts.
iii. You can have formality.
iv. You can have traditions.
v. You can recite confessions of faith and yet, be faithless.
3. The rituals and the feasts and the formalities and the traditions and the recitations are just that. In the absence of faith that’s all that they are. They are just rituals and feasts and formalities and traditions and recitations. They are of man, have no substance and they offer no promise.
C. Have faith in God. The great lesson at least for me is this very thing can happen in the church of our Lord Jesus Christ.
1. It has happened before in Revelation 3:1- “And to the angel of the church in Sardis write, 'These things says He who has the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars: "I know your works, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead.”
2. I want you to picture a congregation of God’s people.
i. They come together on the Lord’s Day.
ii. They go to Sunday School, bible class.
iii. They go to worship.
iv. They go through the motions.
3. How many of them have forgotten that in singing those songs we are teaching one another. They are not just songs that we sing for enjoyment.
4. How many of us have forgotten—let me put it another way—how many of us remember that when we eat the unleavened bread and drink the fruit of the vine, we eat that which represents the body and the blood of Jesus Christ?
i. How sobering the feast should be.
ii. We pass the emblems quickly.
iii. We pinch off our bread and pop it in our mouths and we go back to thinking about whatever it was we were thinking about.
iv. Are we thinking about the Lord?
v. Are we thinking about what He has done for us?
vi. Are we praying silently to the Lord in a spirit of thanksgiving as we sit there?
5. I’m not aggravated and I’m not accusing because I have the same problem that others do. When we drink that little bit of grape juice, should we not be seeing the blood of Jesus as it flows down His forehead unto His face or as it flows down His torn back, as it ebbs from His hands and His feet and from the spear thrust into His side?
6. How sobering. The Lord’s Supper is not a celebration of joy. It is a remembrance that I am just a sinner who caused my Lord Jesus Christ, the sinless son of God, to suffer the cross of Calvary.
i. I caused it. We are the cause of it.
ii. Do we remember that?
iii. Do we think about that?
D. Have faith in God or you’ll die as a church. Our prayers that we give on the Lord’s Day, again I’m not angry or upset I’m just trying to bring to mind that we can get in the same situation that the Jewish temple represented in the time of Christ.
1. We often for the contribution say correctly, “separate and apart from the Lord’s Supper”, for it is separate. It’s not the Lord’s Supper.
2. Then we go on to pray in a way to make it seem like it is just something that church leaders said should be done at this time to collect our money.
3. I understand that may be what it seems to be, but that’s not what it is.
i. When I put my contribution into the collection plate on the Lord’s Day, I am putting some of me into that collection plate.
ii. That money represents time, effort, labor.
iii. It’s not just a mechanical act. It is something we should be doing with thought and purpose. We have purposed in our hearts to do this.
4. I know that sometimes we rush though this and we want to be done in an hour. Unfortunately there are no commercial breaks so we can get up and move around a little bit, maybe have a snack out of the refrigerator. I recognize that this is not like a television program. There are no commercial breaks. We don’t have that time to just yawn and stretch although some of us do yawn and stretch a bit.
E. If we find ourselves looking at the clock, thinking of what else we need to do today, thinking about how long things are going, we need to stop and remember; This is worship to the Lord. It’s not for me. It’s to the Lord. I am just a participant. He is the audience and I wonder what is it that He sees when we worship. Thou hast a name that thou livest, and are dead.

CONCLUSION:
The Lord in this context goes on to teach a very important lesson about prayer and the necessity of faith and prayer.

Folks, we need to remember that withered fig tree. We need to remember it.
Oh, I ... I know it seems He’s just passing along and curses the tree, but that withered fig tree has a great message to the church of our Lord in this time in which we live.

It is a testimony against religion that offers much and delivers little. It is a testimony against discipleship that offers much promise but has very little performance.

Just a withered fig tree, oh no, no, no, that tree needs to be remembered; it is written in scripture for the purpose of our remembering it and the context in which it occurs.

We are going to be led in the invitation song which has been selected. As we are led in that song we will be remembering that there may those in the assembly that need to take the opportunity of a song such as this to come before the assembly to make known their needs in public.

The need perhaps for prayer, perhaps sin has crept into our lives and we need the prayers of the assembly, our brothers and sisters in Christ.

This is the time to make that need known.

Maybe there are those in the assembly who need to be baptized into Christ, cleansed by the blood of Christ. What a wonderful time in this quite place among people who care about us and love us to make that need known and tonight be baptized into Christ.

What is your need? If we can assist, we invite you to come while we stand and while we sing.

Invitation song: ???

Reference sermon: Cecil A. Hutson 04 May 2008