Faith in Action

Today’s reading:  Mark 11

The setting for today’s scripture is Jerusalem and surrounding towns (Bethphage and Bethany) about five days before Jesus’ arrest and crucifixion.  Mark 11 begins with the account of Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem.  According to verse 11 Jesus entered the city to the praises of many people, then made his way to the temple courts and took notice of what was going on.  Since it was late, he continued on about 1.5 miles to the east to stay in Bethany with his disciples for the night.

 

Do you ever get home from a long day at work to find a mess that needs to be cleaned up, misbehaving children that need to be set straight, or an issue that needs to be resolved?  Do you ever think to yourself, “I can’t handle this right now, I’m going to bed and will deal with it in the morning”?  I sure have.  I find that things seldom look as hopeless in the light of the morning as they look in the dark of night.  And, I almost always have more patience to deal with them in the morning than I do at night when I’m tired.

I think that might be what happened here.  Because Jesus was fully human and fully God, the Bible tells us he experienced all the same emotions we do.  Knowing the horror he was going to experience at the hands of the same people who were praising him as he entered the city may have disgusted him.  The betrayal of a close friend, much less the anticipation of the physical pain and agony that awaited him, were also probably weighing heavy on his heart and mind.  Rather than busting into the temple and driving out the money-changers right away, he may have decided to just to head to Bethany for the night and deal with the situation in the morning.

The next morning as Jesus was headed from Bethany back to the temple, do you notice how he sneaks in a little object lesson for his disciples?  Mark 11:12 tells us Jesus was hungry and went to see if the nearby fig tree had any fruit he could eat.  Fig trees normally produce fruit two times per year, one in the early spring when the leaves fill out and the other in the fall.  It was springtime and the tree looked promising because it was full of leaves, but when Jesus took a closer look he realized it had no fruit.  He said to it, “may no one eat fruit from you ever again” (Mark 11:14).  I don’t think Jesus cursed the tree because he was hangry (slang for being irritable as a result of hunger) like I would have done.  He did this to teach the disciples a lesson.  Until I studied this passage more closely this week, I always thought the story about the fig tree was a little was random.  I never connected the dots between it and Jesus cleansing the temple.  Now I know.  Not only are these stories linked, but the fig tree encounter only happened so Jesus’ disciples could better understand Jesus’ disdain for the commerce taking in place in God’s house.

 

After leaving the fig tree, Jesus and his disciples went to the temple to deal with the mess they had walked away from the night before.  What they found was religious leaders who had found a way to make money off those who were upholding Mosaic Law by selling them the animals they needed for making sacrifices in the temple.  In fact many scholars believe the religious leaders’ practices were so egregious they could have been considered extortion.  Like the fig tree, the temple looked promising because it was full of “religious” people acting in way that appeared to be holy.  Unfortunately, their hearts were far from God and their actions were completely void of reverence for anyone but themselves.  Jesus cursed the practices of the merchants and drove them out of the temple.

When Jesus and his disciples left the temple and headed back to Bethany, they came upon the fig tree that had withered away in the short time they were gone.  Jesus’ message to his disciples was clear – the Kingdom of Heaven has no use for “religion” without substance.  Anyone who claims to have faith without putting it to work in their life is like the fruitless fig tree and religious leaders in this story – dead, useless to God.

 

Do you know anyone who wants to be useless?  I don’t.  Most everyone I know desires to live each day with some kind of purpose and meaning.  Genuine faith in God gives our lives potential for great purpose and meaning if we put our faith to work for the kingdom of God.