Sermons

Sorrento fig tree story

Jesus looked for figs and didn't find any, so he cursed the tree.

Weird story “doesn't seem worthy of Jesus – a petulance to it”

Then moving mountains – which the Word of Faith folks misunderstand.

Maybe challenged and intrigued by what it all really means.

Mark 11:12-25

It's a Mark sandwich – where he interrupts a story with another one to make a point. Figs – temple – Figs. With literary sandwiches, the meat is the point.

Key is the Temple is no longer needed now Jesus has come.

Was the place of God's presence on earth.

Designed – large outer courts where anyone J or G could go to find out about God, inner court for J, then temple – holy place for daily sacrifices and most holy place for annual day of atonement sacrifice – separated by a huge curtain.

Problem Jesus finds is that the outer courts have been taken over by religious marketplace, changing money and selling sacrificial animals. Less Alpha Course more Religious Shopping Mall

MLJ commented that every institution tends to become it opposite – hard to find God among the hustle and bustle of animal selling and money changing.

Back to the story.

Figs – Marmite fruit – love ‘em or hate.

The leaves appear in spring – large and good looking. In sping, when Jesus looked there should also be breba fruit – tiny knobs of figs on last years growth as a precursor to the full on figs on the new growth by Autumn.

That explains “finding nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs” – he should have found some breba fruit – small and edible though not very good.

The fig tree looked good on the outside, but was not bearing even early fruit.

Enacted parable for the middle of the Mark Sandwich – what looked good on the outside but wasn't bearing any fruit?

Figs first appear in Gen 3 – when Adam and Eve sinned they felt fear, guilt and shame and were aware of their nakedness. They tried to cover their privates with fig leaves. Nice looking pants, but still carrying the shame. Even more ironic – the sap from fig leaves and stems on the skin when exposed to sunlight causes what is now known as lime disease – itchy rash! The first manmade pants were itchy and failed to cover their shame.

Keep digging in about figs in the Old Testament and you find three passages where God looks for fruit on fig trees as a metaphor for looking for Spiritual fruitfulness.

Micah 7:1-2 Woe is me! For I have become as when the summer fruit has been gathered, as when the grapes have been gleaned: there is no cluster to eat, no first-ripe fig that my soul desires. The godly has perished from the earth, and there is no one upright among mankind; they all lie in wait for blood, and each hunts the other with a net.

Jeremiah 8:13 When I would gather them, declares the Lord, there are no grapes on the vine, nor figs on the fig tree; seven the leaves are withered, and what I gave them has passed away from them.

Hosea 9:10-11Like grapes in the wilderness, I found Israel. Like the first fruit on the fig tree in its first season, I saw your fathers. But they came to Baal-peor and consecrated themselves to the thing of shame, and became detestable like the thing they loved.

Those three passages all talk of the early fruit – that Jesus actually found missing.

So Jesus curses the tree – never bear fruit again. You are obsolete.

Then we go to the meat of the sandwich. The Temple. Jesus goes in to the place which should be bearing spiritual fruit and find pigeon sellers and money changers.

Mal 3:1-2 partially fulfilled -And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts. 2 But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears?

Jesus himself quotes Isa 56 – the passage about nations coming to God. He is standing in the court of the Gentiles, the bit of the temple the nations are allowed to come to to find the Lord, but can't because it is full of people ripping off Jewish worshippers.

It's like going to Lidl for a pint of milk and coming out with a wetsuit and a chainsaw.

The temple looks good on the outside – plenty of fig leaves, but not even the little early spiritual fruit being borne.

During the Jesus Revolution in America in the 1960s Chuck Smiths church had just had new carpets fitted and the hippies that were finding Jesus were coming off the beach with dirty feet and the elders were worried about the new carpet. Chuck Smith sat outside with a bowl and towel and washed their feet as they came in.

The Quiet Revival where there is an uptick in Bible purchasing among the young and people gradually wandering into church is going to be messy. I've had the chance to see a drug dealer healed and a “streetwise gangster” delivered and given Bibles and shared the gospel to druggies and dealers. There small signs of the early fruit beginning to bud. Are you ready for the mess if God blows on it even more? It'll be like David Blacklock's muddy potatoes dream – where we will have a great harvest of muddy potatoes that need cleaning, but will bear fruit.

Back to the passage – lots of drama – a cursed fig tree representing the temple that looks good but no fruit. A temple in chaos with Jesus kicking people out and overturning tables of those profiteering. And the religious leaders are annoyed – just like Chuck Smith's elders. Ours are the opposite by the way – they want the mess – Proverbs says where there's an ox in the stall there's mess!

Next day – they walk past the now withered fig tree and Peter points it out. Jesus' response seems off topic – a lesson about faith and prayer and moving mountains. It's easily misunderstood if you take that piece of bread away from the rest of the sandwich!

Fig Tree is dead – and the Temple is dead – or pretty soon will be.

What then? Jesus calls for trust in God, faith. Faith to move ”this” mountain. The Temple was built on the mountain, and known then as the Temple Mount.

This isn't a verse to be lifted out of context as any mountain. It is this mountain The old way is about to go. Jesus is calling for faith and prayerfully response.

In John 2 he says destroy this temple and3 daters later it will be raised up.

The temple as the place of God' presence is obsolete. – the religious hypocrisy, the ripping people off, the lack of justice have killed its utility.

The place of God's presence on earth is Jesus.

The temple with its court for everyone, then the inner counts, the holy place and the curtain separating the Most Holy place – the presence of God is to beno more. When Jesus died the temple curtain was torn in to – access open!

The mountain – the temple is to be thrown in the sea – judgement.

A new way to come to God, not through a priest – through Jesus. He calls for faith – trust Jesus.

Adam and Eve tried a fig leaf to cover their shame – God made them garments of skin – the first sacrifice. The final sacrifice, Jesus takes away our dirt, shame, guilt and fear permanently when we come to him in prayer. That's the faith that moves this mountain.

Jesus was calling them then to not doubt and believe that it would come to pass. We are standing the other side of the cross and can see it indeed has come to pass!

• Come to Jesus
• Muddy potato today that needs cleaning by Jesus
• Are you bearing fruit – even early fruit. John the Baptist grumpily told his converts to bear fruit in keeping with repentance. We stand the other side of the cross and Pentecost, knowing that trusting Jesus and being filled with the Spirit will ensure we grow fruit, fruit of the Spirit – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.