Word of Salvation – Vol.39 No.9 – March 1994

 

The Withered Fig Tree and Following Jesus

 

Sermon by: Rev W J Bosker on Mark 11:12-14, 20-25

Readings: Mark 11:1-25; Luke 13:6-9

Singing:

337; 25:2,3,4; 378:1,2,5; 398; 528; 525

 

Dear congregation, brothers and sisters in the Lord Jesus Christ,

What is your impression of the Lord Jesus Christ when He was on earth?  What image of Him do you have in your mind’s eye?

If you imagine Christ as one who was meek and mild, gentle and compassionate, then how do you react to our text?

The crowds were excited at the prospect of Jesus becoming their king!

But then we have this strange event of Jesus cursing a fig tree.

On the same day He causes an uproar in the temple when He uncharacteristically turns violent, overturning tables and benches!

What has taken hold of Jesus?  Has power gone to His head?

Have you also considered this?

Jesus’ miracles are usually helpful, healing and positive.  But here we have the only miracle of destruction during our Lord’s ministry on earth.

This incident has confused many followers of Jesus.  I know it has even put people off side, saying they don’t want a bar of Jesus if He’s like that.

So what sort of thoughts are going through your mind?

Have you come to a conclusion about Jesus?

Who is this man?  That is Mark’s question from the outset.

Are you willing to hear more?

To make sense of this text we really have to understand what was going on in the life and times of Jesus.

For three years Jesus had been preaching and teaching in Israel.  He called people to repent of their sins and worship the true God of heaven and earth.

Jesus proclaimed the year of the Lord’s favour and declared that the kingdom of God was at hand.  His miracles testified that He was God’s appointed Messiah, the One who came from God to deliver His people.

The setting of the text is during the conclusion of Christ’s earthly ministry.

The events of this passage take place in the week before our Lord was crucified like a common criminal on the cross of Calvary.

The activities of Christ’s last week are focussed in and around Jerusalem, the city of God which houses the temple, the centre of Jewish worship.

The season is Spring.  It is the first month of the Jewish calendar with the Passover commencing at sundown the following Thursday.

The triumphal entry took place on Palm Sunday, so the fig tree was cursed on the Monday.

The OT describes God’s people in various ways.  Two fairly common descriptions are the grape vine and the fig tree.

Both are fruit bearing plants, one giving choice grapes and the other tasty, sweet figs.

Both plants symbolise God’s people as bearing fruit for the Lord.

Israel’s history had been a sorry saga as far as bearing fruit for the Lord was concerned.

Speaking years earlier of Jerusalem’s unfaithfulness and Israel’s forthcoming judgement, God said through Jeremiah:

“There will be no grapes on the vine.  There will be no figs on the tree, and their leaves will wither” (Jer.8:13).

Through Micah the LORD says this about Israel:

“What misery is mine!  I am like one who gathers summer fruit at the gleaning of the vineyard; there is no cluster of grapes to eat, none of the early figs that I crave.  The godly have been swept from the land; not one upright man remains” (Micah 7:1,2a).

God wants a fruitful people.  He is like the orchardist walking past his fruit trees to see how well they are bearing fruit and how ripe the fruit is.  God looks forward to a harvest of beautiful, pleasant tasting fruit.

Jesus’ parable of the man who had a fig-tree planted in his vineyard is a wonderful combination of OT Jewish symbolism.

Let’s read that parable now because it is a window into our text:

Read Luke 13:6-9

For three years Jesus had been tending His Father’s vineyard and fig-tree.  Jesus had watered it with His teaching, fertilised it with His miracles – and what was there to show for it?

Sunday’s triumphal procession looked good!  Plenty of excitement, enthusiasm and emotion.  Was it a hopeful sign of Israel bearing fruit?

Monday morning sees Jesus walking with His disciples from Bethany where they spent the night, into Jerusalem.

What will happen to Jesus today?

Israel looked promising, just like a fig-tree covered in leaves.

The leaves hide the fact that the tree is not bearing fruit.  So the beauty of the temple and its ceremonies hide the fact that Israel is not bearing the fruit of righteousness demanded by God.

Just look at Israel’s worship!

God’s house of prayer is a street-market bazaar full of rip-off merchants!

The fig tree looks good from a distance.  But it is barren and without fruit.

After three years of tender nurturing and watering, the day of reckoning has come.

The fig tree is a parable of Israel, God’s people.  Jesus didn’t swear at the fig tree.  Curse here means the opposite to blessing.  It represents God’s judgement confirming Israel’s unfruitfulness.  The nation was being judged for her response to God’s anointed Saviour.

The tree is ready for the chop.  God will plant something new in its place.

That’s why this passage speaks of the spiritual fruit of faith, prayer and the necessity of a forgiving spirit (vss.22-25).

You will only be ready to forgive others after you have personally experienced God’s forgiveness, (which is often a shorthand for salvation, peace with God and a right relationship with Him).

It was this faith that Jesus was looking for in Israel.

Luke tells us that when Christ entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday the crowd was jubilant, but the Lord Jesus had tears in His eyes.

He wept over Jerusalem and said:

“If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace – but now it is hidden from your eyes” (19:41,42).  Jesus knew that within days the shouts would change from “Hosanna!  Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” (Mk.11:9),  to:

“Crucify him!” (15:13,14).

When Jesus cursed the barren fig-tree He wasn’t mumbling under His breath.

Mark makes the point that the disciples heard Him say it (v14).  He records Peter as saying to Jesus the next day:

“Rabbi, look!  The fig-tree you cursed has withered!” (v21).

As certain as that tree withered, so certain was Jerusalem’s destruction some years later.  The fig-tree of Israel was to be cut down and uprooted.

Do not forget the grace of God in this text!

Israel does not deserve to have God’s Deliverer-King come in her midst.  Yet Jesus still comes!  Even though they will crucify Him, He comes to those who reject Him.

God’s judgement is poured out on His Son.  The penalty for Israel’s disobedience and ours was carried by Christ and nailed to the cross.  The innocent One offering up His perfect life for the guilty.

God’s grace is incredible!  It’s opposite to what we expect and deserve.

In this context we see the importance of v22 where Jesus uses this miracle to lead His disciples to look away from themselves and trust in God.

In the last week before His death Jesus calls His disciples to have a continuing faith in God.  A faith that is exercised and practised.  (cf Bartimaeus Mark 10:46-52, preceding context).

• A sign of true faith is prayer (vss.23-25). Having a constant confidence in God who can do anything, even throwing a mountain into the sea!
• True faith knows the power of God (vss.23,24) so that we can have a heart and life which clings to the God of grace, resting with certainty in His goodness.
• True faith knows the forgiveness of God for all my sins so that I can readily forgive others who sin against me (vs.25).

This is not what we do by nature.  It is a work of God in us, filling us with the Spirit of Christ, who controls our minds and teaches us what to pray for because the Spirit acts consistently with God’s Word and His will.

God pursues His desire for fruit among His people.  A new vineyard and a new fig tree is planted as the NT Church.

The Spirit of Christ is the Spirit of Pentecost, which coincides with the harvest and ingathering

God looks for fruit.  He’s determined to be a successful Gardener!  (John 15:1-8)

So what!  What can we learn from this part of Scripture?

1.  Jesus is not simply meek and mild.

The cursing of the fig-tree should shatter any stereo-type image you might have of Jesus.  He is the God-Man you cannot ignore.

In John’s version of the temple clearing incident, he notes that the disciples remembered how the OT spoke of Jesus saying:

“Zeal for your house will consume me” (John 2:17).

Ps.2:12 says:

“Kiss the Son, lest He be angry and you be destroyed in your way, for His wrath can flare up in a moment.  Blessed are all who take refuge in Him.”

God has installed His king in Zion (Ps.2:6).  Every knee will bow, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord (Phil.2:10,11).

Repent or perish!  (Luke 13:5) The message is still the same.

2.  We deserve to have the curse of God pronounced upon us because by nature we do not produce the fruit of faith that God is looking for.

Let us be eternally thankful that Jesus continued toward the cross enduring the rejection of man and God.

The curse of God for your unfruitfulness fell upon Christ.  He suffered for you and earned a righteousness you could not otherwise achieve.  You have received God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense, and that spells G.R.A.C.E.

3.  Jesus is still looking for fruit.

We can go through the motions of what a believer should look like.  We can fool each other when we look like a tree full of leaves.  Our worship may have the form of godliness, but perhaps it’s more like a temple bazaar.

Jesus looks through the leaves.  You cannot fool Him.

This text has shown that Jesus is looking for faith in His people.

Christ delights in those who look away from themselves and trust in God.  A sign of true faith is prayer, having the confidence that God can do anything.

Knowing His power and grace displayed in Christ so that you can rest with certainty in God’s goodness.

True faith knows the forgiveness of God for all your sins so that you can readily forgive anyone who sins against you.

It is in the light of Christ’s teaching here and the outpouring of His Holy Spirit that the fruit of the Spirit is described by Paul as “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Gal.5:22, 23a).

So when Jesus looks at the tree of your life may He see a healthy, fruit-bearing tree.

A living faith producing fruit for God.  Fruit that is a sweet taste in God’s mouth.  Such fruit and faith glorifies God your Saviour!

AMEN