Mark 11:12-25 | The Lesson of the Fig Tree
Last week, we saw from Mark 11:1-11 the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem. I wonder if you remember a little interesting thing in verse 11. After the worshipful coronation, that triumphal entry, Jesus “went into the temple. And when he had looked around at everything, as it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the twelve.” Kind of weird, huh? Didn’t do anything. Just looked around. Why did he do that? Well, here’s the rest of the story. Let’s pick it up in verse 12.
Jesus Curses the Fig Tree
12 On the following day, when they came from Bethany, he was hungry. 13 And seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to see if he could find anything on it. When he came to it, he found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. 14 And he said to it, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” And his disciples heard it.
Jesus Cleanses the Temple
15 And they came to Jerusalem. And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold and those who bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. 16 And he would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple. 17 And he was teaching them and saying to them, “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? But you have made it a den of robbers.” 18 And the chief priests and the scribes heard it and were seeking a way to destroy him, for they feared him, because all the crowd was astonished at his teaching. 19 And when evening came they went out of the city.
The Lesson from the Withered Fig Tree
20 As they passed by in the morning, they saw the fig tree withered away to its roots. 21 And Peter remembered and said to him, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree that you cursed has withered.” 22 And Jesus answered them, “Have faith in God. 23 Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him. 24 Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. 25 And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.”
Introduction
Every year, we take a trip to Kansas City to visit our best friends. They have a bowl of pears on the coffee table in the living room. And if you look closely, they all have teeth marks. A few years ago, our youngest son hungry for pears went to the bowl every time he saw it, picked one up, and bit in. They looked so good to him. He can now tell you, though, that no matter how good they look, they’re fake. Every one of them. But they look real. And he didn’t know until he bit in and found no taste.
That’s what Jesus saw when he entered the temple. It looked good. It looked alive. But it wasn’t, at least not alive to God. It was like the fig tree—full of leaf but without fruit. Like the fake pears for my son, this passage is a lesson in how to spot the real thing. In this case, it’s true worship. And since we’re already talking about food, this passage comes at us like f a sandwich in three parts: fig tree/temple/fig tree.
So let’s look at each part, and notice how to spot the real thing—how to spot true worship of God.
True worship bears fruit for God (vv. 12-14)
True worship promotes life with God (vv. 15-19)
True worship has faith in God (vv. 20-25)
True Worship Bears Fruit For God (vv. 12-14)
These first couple of verses serve as the opening illustration into the main point later on. So we need to understand what Jesus was doing.
Jesus was hungry. He saw a fig tree in leaf, but when he got to it, he saw no figs. So he cursed it, saying, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.”
If you think this is a bit odd, you’re not alone. Some scholars had real trouble with it. Why did Jesus take out his anger on the poor fig tree? Why curse it? Commentator William Barclay said this story “does not seem worthy of Jesus. There seems to be a petulance in it.” New Testament scholar T. W. Manson said, “It is a tale of miraculous power wasted in the service of ill-temper.” Bertrand Russell, the philosopher who wrote an essay called “Why I Am Not A Christian,” used this narrative as one reason he didn’t believe. He said it shows Jesus as a furious man unable to control his anger, not worthy of the supposed “Son of God.”
Add in the fact that Mark said it wasn’t the time for figs, and it does seem a bit out of character, doesn’t it? In fact, it’s the only time in the Gospels where Jesus uses miraculous power for wounding rather than healing. What’s going on? Was it a divine overreaction? Was Jesus hangry? The fact is, he didn’t really harm the tree at all. All he did was state a truth about it.
There are two kinds of fruit that a fig tree bears. As the leaves came in, the tree would grow little nubs. Pre-figs, as it were. You could eat these, and travelers often did. And, of course, later on, it would grow ripe figs. So it wasn’t the season for figs, but the leaves indicated it was the season for these little nubs. But the tree didn’t even have that.
Jesus saw what everyone would have seen upon close inspection: this tree was dead. It looked okay from a distance. But it wasn’t doing what it was supposed to do. By cursing the tree, Jesus simply stated the obvious. It’s a dead tree, no matter how full the leaves are.
Throughout the Old Testament, the fig tree held spiritual value as a symbol for Israel, serving as a metaphor for their standing with God. And like Adam and Eve after the fall, this fig tree, though full in leaf, was useful only to cover nakedness. The temple in Jerusalem was much the same. What appeared full of life was actually lifeless. Jesus wants his disciples to see this. Why? It is possible to be outwardly religious and inwardly dead. But we need reality with Jesus, not the appearance of reality with him. We need the real thing. We need intimacy. We need fruit. We need life.
So why did Jesus go the the temple with his disciples, look around, and leave only to go back the next day? Because there was this hypocritical fig tree in Bethany that was going to serve as an object lesson about the hypocritical temple in Jerusalem.
True worship bears fruit, and the temple, though it looked good from afar, didn’t, which leads to our next point.
True Worship Promotes Life With God (vv. 15-19)
The fig tree illustration is important because what he says to the tree becomes true the next day. It withers. No one eats from it again. It proves once again that Jesus is God. That matters because as he goes into the temple, it’s not just another man going there. God has come. It’s the fulfillment of the prophecy of Malachi 3:1-2. “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. But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears?”
Who can endure? Who can stand? That’s the question. When God comes inside the hollow religious heart of Israel, what happens?
Now, this story is really interesting from a historical perspective. So much is packed in here. You can do a whole study of the meaning of Israel as the fig tree and the purpose of the temple. We don’t have time to do all that. But let’s take this out of the merely historical realm because this applies to us too.
We can look at the temple and see the hypocrisy. We have the advantage of hindsight. We know what the temple leaders were really like. We know what the religious authorities did to Jesus and his followers. We can see that this elaborate buying and selling and money-changing operation is a scam to make money off poor worshipers who only want to meet with God—much like the prosperity gospel preachers of our day. And though we can see that clearly now, it wasn’t so easy to see in Jesus’ day. Hollow religion is actually hard to spot, especially when the focus is turned on ourselves. We have an amazing capacity for self-deception and self-justification.
Andy Gullahorn is a Nashville songwriter. About ten years ago, he released a song called “I Haven’t Either.” It starts off lighthearted, but the point it makes is profound.
Have you ever been so selfish
that you let your baby cry
While you finished up a video game?
I haven’t either
That’s pretty bad
But have you ever stretched the truth
telling stories to your friends
So they’d be a little bit more amazed?
I haven’t either
I’d never do that
But there are some people out there
Who aren’t completely sincere
What they show in the daylight
Is not exactly what’s inside
It’s a form of protection
From being rejected
But you and I can be so glad
We are not like that
What happens when Jesus shows up to people like that? He shows us that we are like that. But he doesn’t only reveal what’s there; he does something about it. He cleans things out. He drives out what shouldn’t be there. He overturns what doesn’t belong. He blocks more harm from getting in. He brings God’s glory in.
When Jesus went back to the temple that day, he went on a mission. He was done looking. It was time to act. The temple was the center of life and worship. It was where the sacrifices were made to grant purification and forgiveness. Where sinners met with God. Where God dwelt on earth. It was the place to worship. It’s deadness is not a problem Jesus could ignore. He had to confront it. God’s glory was at stake. Sinners couldn’t get close to God.
The British pastor Martyn Lloyd-Jones said, “every institution tends to become it’s opposite.” The temple became a place where it was hard to find God. This can happen inside a church too. When a church becomes a place where it’s hard to find God, it becomes something other than what God intends. That’s why Jesus says in verse 17, “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? But you have made it a den of robbers.” Where was it written that it should be a house of prayer? Isaiah 56:7. What’s going on in Isaiah 56? Isaiah 56 is about the nations coming to God. It’s about God’s heart for all people—the Jews and the Gentiles. The temple had four main sections. Jesus stood in the outer court of the temple, the only place Gentiles could go to find God. The leaders should have been there to help but their heart wasn’t in it. They made it a den of robbers by establishing costly buying and selling and money-changing procedures for the sacrifices. They made a profit on the worship of God. The place that was meant for finding freedom in God became a place where it was hard to find God. Who can worship God in a Wal-Mart?
How did the temple get to this point? It didn’t happen all at once. Nothing like this ever does. It happens one compromise at a time. We don’t have to set up elaborate trading floors with international exchange rates. We just have to fail to welcome people, fail to make it easy to find Jesus. We just have to let our preferences set the agenda, let our feelings rule our interactions, let God’s word about loving one another for Jesus’ sake become mild suggestions rather than holy commands.
There’s a great example of this from the 1960s. Chuck Smith was a pastor of a little church in Costa Mesa, California. God did something powerful. He started to call a lot of young people to himself. They started coming to church. But they came straight from the beach, without shoes and without shirts. They didn’t know any better.
The church had just installed new carpet and new pews. On the beach, there were oil deposits. When they were stepped on, they stuck to the bottom of their feet. These new God-seekers walked into the church building with oil on their feet and it got all over the carpet.
One day, Chuck Smith showed up to find a sign hanging on the door. “Shirts and shoes please.” He took it down, and after church met with the church leaders. They decided, together, that they would rip up the carpet and the pews before they would again hinder one of these young beach kids from worshiping God. That’s the heart of Jesus.
Do you know what happened to that little church? God brought revival. He poured out his Spirit. They chose not to put up a barrier and God brought the people. What if they had kept that sign up? It wasn’t a big thing, right? Is it too much to ask of people to wear shoes to church? Well, no, but it’s also not necessary. Show me the verse about shoes!
We have two options: we can make rules to exclude or remove barriers to include. If God’s church is a house of prayer—a house of worship—then everyone is welcome. Everyone has a chance to meet Jesus. This is something Jesus is willing to fight for, and ultimately, die for. This act of cleansing the temple cost Jesus. Look at verse 18. “The chief priests and the scribes heard it and were seeking a way to destroy him.”
Jesus cared so much about removing barriers to worship that he lost his life over it. How much do we care? The test of true worship is not merely how we’re feeling about God. It’s about how open we are to God, and how open we’re making things for others. The test of true worship doesn’t reside in showy religiosity but in God-glorifying life. And just as it cost Jesus, it might cost us. We will have to lay down some of our preferences. We will have to open our hearts to those not like us. We will have to let Jesus rule in our church. But we know the kind of good King he is, don’t we? Give me one reason not to do church his way.
Let me propose something for us here at Refuge. How about we make a commitment this morning, united together, to never establish any barrier that would keep others from Christ? Yes, there are certain biblical commands and requirements we must obey. Those aren’t up for discussion. But those usually aren’t our biggest problem. If people leave the church because the Bible makes it hard for them to worship God, that’s between them and God. But if they leave the church because we make it hard for them to worship God, that’s between God and us. Do we realize what God has done in Jesus Christ? How free we are? How open the kingdom is? That’s why he returns to the fig tree, which is our next point.
True Worship Has Faith in God (vv. 20-25)
The fig tree represented the temple, especially her leaders. They were hypocrites. As a result, the temple was dead and worthless. It withered. The Old Testament said this would happen (Isaiah 34:4, Joel 1:7-12, Amos 4:9). So when they passed by the fig tree again and it had withered away to its roots. Peter pointed it out, and Jesus responded in a really interesting way. Look again, beginning with verse 22. “Have faith in God. Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.”
What? This is not the kind of response I expect. It doesn’t even seem to make sense, does it? Why is he talking about faith and prayer and moving mountains and forgiving? How does it have any relation to the fig tree and to the temple?
Here’s the point. We have a hunger for true worship, and if we go to a dead temple looking for spiritual fruit, we’re going to be disappointed and left hungry. We need another way—another tree from which to eat. How are we going to get that?
Jesus’ answer is to have faith in God. For what? Look at verse 23. “Whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him.” Here’s another object lesson, like the fig tree. Cresting the Mount of Olives in Bethany, they saw a citadel built by Herod the Great for refuge in case of war. He had actually removed a hill in order to build it. If Herod could move a hill to establish a place of refuge, could God not move a mountain?
But what is this mountain? Notice Jesus doesn’t say “a” mountain. He says “this” mountain. What mountain is that? The mountain of dead worship they saw in the temple. How can Jesus move the mountain of dead worship in the temple? Well, in Mark 13, Jesus said not one stone of the temple will be left on another. In John 2, Jesus said, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up” (John 2:19). The temple was 46 years in the making. How could Jesus raise it up again in three days?
The temple was an amazing place. But it wasn’t God’s final solution for communion with him. In the temple, there was no direct access to God for everyone. There were four layers, each one a step closer to God. The Gentiles could enter the outer court. The Jews could enter the next level. But only the priests could go inside the Holy Place. Only the High Priest inside the Most Holy Place, and that was only once a year, on the day of Atonement. And there was a curtain separating the Holy Place from the Most Holy Place, representing the distance between the Holy God and sinful man. The temple was amazing. It was a gift. It was where God dwelt on Earth with man. But it wasn’t his final resting place. He had something better.
The fig tree symbolizes the deadness of Israel’s worship. We have a hunger for true worship, but a dead tree doesn’t bear fruit. So God gave us Jesus. We need another tree from which to eat. Jesus is the Tree of Life we need. His leaves never whither and his fruit never fades for those who need it.
Jesus becomes the very center of our life and worship. He is the meeting place. He is the worship center. He is the sacrifice to grant forgiveness. He is where sinful men and women meet with the Holy God. Jesus was there in Jerusalem for that very purpose. And he doesn’t need a fancy temple. All he needs is a cross.
As Jesus’ body was torn on the cross, the temple curtain was also torn, as Matthew tells us “from top to bottom” (Matthew 27:51), meaning, God tore it. Here’s why that’s so significant. Jesus replaced the temple as the object of faith in God. When Jesus died, the temple died too. The temple was defiled, but Jesus can’t be defiled. With Jesus as our access point to God, we can be sure it will never be compromised. Jesus can’t be ruined. He remains pure no matter what we bring to him. And from his purity, he makes us clean. Restoring true worship cost nothing less than the life of Jesus.
Why did God do that? Because you and I have a great need to be near to God. And, believe it or not, he actually wants to be near to us. C.S. Lewis said, “We were made not primarily that we may love God…but that God may love us.” That’s what worship is: getting close enough to God to let him love you. He doesn’t care about how you come to him. He cares only that you come. And in Jesus, it could not be easier. He is available to us all, right now, and every moment from now until we stand before him in heaven. The only thing keeping some us from him right now is our prideful religiosity, our false conception of ourselves, our self-righteousness. But we can give that up. Why settle for anything less when we can have real righteousness?
How can we get that? Jesus tells us right here. Verse 24, “Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.” This isn’t a promise to grant our every wish. Jesus isn’t putting himself in a genie’s bottle. He’s doing something much better. It’s an offer to find total cleansing before God, in him alone. This is Jesus’ offer to come into your dead religious heart and drive out what doesn’t belong.
Maybe you’ve made your heart a den of robbers. Who of us hasn’t? But that doesn’t have to keep him from coming in and changing your story. He won’t reject an open heart. We need only look to the cross to find that truth. By his death that day on the cross, Jesus brought a robber to heaven. He can bring you too, no matter how far you are from true worship right now. He showed us the kind of forgiving heart God has. God loves to bring sinners to himself. The only question remaining is simple: do you want to come?
Showy religion is so boring. But true worship of God in Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit is life giving. Christianity is not about dreary outward appearances but fruit bearing life the makes us rejoice and brings glory to God. That’s what Jesus wants for his disciples. That’s what he wants for you. So ask him for it, and he will give it!
Conclusion
I’m not saying this is easy. I’m just showing you what’s available. It will take some heart-searching for us to get to Jesus. That’s why I’m thankful for a song like Andy Gullhorn’s “I Haven’t Either.” C.S. Lewis talked about how fairy stories (and in this case songs) have a way of getting past our “watchful dragons”—those dragons prevent truths from getting through to our heart. But stories and songs trick them and go around—kind of like Jesus’ stories and lessons. Gullahorn’s song ends like this, showing just how foolish our self-deception is.
Have you been so full of doubt that you
just can’t pray to God
Because you wonder if He even exists?
I haven’t either
Have you ever felt compelled to get a weight off of your chest
But can’t follow through because you are ashamed?
I’ve heard that you can tell the ones who truly open up
Their lives are marked with freedom and with peace
I don’t have either
No I haven’t either
Maybe you came here this morning and didn’t even know you had this mountain of religiosity blocking your worship. And now Jesus has shown up. Maybe he’s cleaning some of us out right now.
That can sound scary, but it’s really a wonderful thing. Jesus doesn’t love hollow religiosity. But he does love sinners. God loves to revive his people. And you don’t even have to deserve it. When you come to God, you don’t get everything you deserve. You get everything Jesus deserves. You get his life of obedience. You get his atoning death. You get his resurrection life.
All you need is honesty and openness to admit that your Christianity has been a show, and ask him for the real thing. He will come to you not with cursing but with blessing. Your sin isn’t too big for him. He’s bigger than your sin.
And when he saves you, he cleanses you, and sends his Spirit to live inside you. And you know what that makes you? A temple fit for true worship.
Let’s pray.
