Consider these questions as you dwell in Mark 11:12-19:

1. How does the story of Jesus cursing the fig tree tie in with his actions in the temple? What message is Jesus trying to convey through these events?

2. In what ways does Jesus' evaluation of the temple reveal the spiritual condition of the religious practices at that time? How does this relate to the concept of bearing good fruit?

3. Why is it significant for believers today to focus on worshiping God in spirit and truth, rather than getting caught up in external rituals and practices? How can this understanding impact our approach to worship and faith?

Transcript:

Our passage today, because it happens during the period of Passion Week, is relatively familiar for us. We're not sure what to do with a lot of it, but we know the story, and we are probably familiar with Mark's quick telling of it because it's just easy to remember. It's a quick hit of it. But these events happen in other Gospels. Now, we usually read through the text, and we don't want to do too much interpretation in light of what is coming after, because if we're reading it for the first time, we don't know what is coming. But as we read this, the story of the cursing of the fig tree doesn't make much sense unless we know what Jesus is doing later on in this passage as he cleanses the temple. And so, we're going to take a look at these two stories, and we're going to tie them together. So, as we can see here, Jesus is walking, he's heading towards Jerusalem. Remember, they're coming from Bethany, but they are going towards Jerusalem. That's important. What is Jerusalem? It is the center of religious life and activity for the Hebrew people, for the Jews. Well, that's where they are heading.

Well, Jesus is hungry. He wants to be fed, but he sees this tree, and it's full of leaves. It seems as though it has life. But when he gets there, there is no food on it. He cannot get a fig. Now, he then curses at it. He says, May no one ever eat fruit from you again. Again, why? We don't know as we're reading this, but we see that this is imagery that Jesus is using. It seems off for us like he's just capricious and upset about the fig trees, but really what he is doing is foreshadowing what is to come. So, Jesus is going to the temple, and he gets there. Now, it seems like it is alive. If the temple was a tree, it would be full of leaves. But when he gets there, what does he find? He finds that it's not bearing good fruit. He sees that the money changers are taking advantage of people, and they're really not going inside the temple. As we understand from studying different things, specifically, we were in the Book of Hebrews on Sunday morning, just the average person could not go into the temple.

So, when the Gospels here say that Jesus went into the temple, it's into the temple, outer court, which is particularly where the Gentiles were even allowed to go. Well, they get there, and Jesus decides to shake things out quite a bit, doesn't He? He doesn't allow people to carry things through, and He starts to teach them. And notice what He is saying here, Is it not written? My house should be called a house of prayer for all the nations, but you have made it a den of robbers. In other words, you have taken the house of God, and you've distorted it for what you want. And so Jesus, in his cursing of the fig tree, and I alluded to it here as I started talking about this part of the story, is doing what he is doing here. As I said, the temple looks like it is alive. There are people everywhere. But when you get there, the fruit is not good. Good. And so Jesus is saying that something is going to happen in the future. Now, we're going to see this when we get to Mark 13, when Jesus predicts the destruction of the temple and the destruction of Jerusalem.

But Jesus has this in view. This is difficult for us because we don't read this in that way because we have forgotten about the destruction of the temple. It doesn't make much sense to us. The temple doesn't have the meaning to us as Christians because Christ has fulfilled all the stuff that happened there. But for the people who would have been reading this originally, they would have had this sense that the temple has been abandoned here. And that Jesus, when he talks about destroying it, is setting them up to understand that there is something somewhere else. Essentially, they are going to get their fruit. They're going to be fed spiritually somewhere else. And he is where that is going to happen. And so, as we think about this passage, it's good for us to understand what is being taught here. The rituals and stuff that were going on in the temple, they were not of God. They were of God initially. They were to point to Jesus, but they had been distorted. And so, something is going to happen. And we're going to see that, like I said, in Mark 13, where the temple was destroyed.

But those rituals, those things, they were going to pass away. What matters is Jesus. And so for us, as we think about these things, yes, the things that we do when we worship God, the things that we do, they are important. But it is more important that we worship God in spirit and in truth, and that we come together as a people of God. And we don't focus on the external things, but instead, we are focused on God's word. And that's why we read, as we did yesterday, big chunks of text at a time. Now, that was probably a little too big, but we read significant parts of scripture to understand them, to apply them. Our worship is simple. We're not making a big deal out of it, but instead, we are trusting in what God has given. We know the fruit that we have in Christ, and so, we trust that He provides it through His word and through His Spirit. And so, may we trust those things, and may we look for those things, and may we desire to be faithful in all of those things.