Pastor Jonah Sage preached from Mark 11:12-25 in our “Journey Into The Night” series. He said that The strong arm of the Lord and the blood of an innocent lamb is all you need. Lector: Lisa Tant
Pastor Jonah Sage preached from Mark 11:12-25 in our “Journey Into The Night” series. He said that The strong arm of the Lord and the blood of an innocent lamb is all you need.
Lector: Lisa Tant
Before Easter, we saw the unexpected nature of our King as he arrives to the capitol.
Hailed as the heir of David, Son of God, Messiah, yet riding on a small donkey.
We reflected on the imagery, seeing beyond the words to what God was revealing.
Jesus is majestic and meek, mighty and weak.
His victory, as we just celebrated, would come not through violence, but suffering.
We have to consider not just what is being said, but what is being shown, because places, images, have powerful symbolic meaning.
Why does your childhood home mean so much, both good and bad?
Why do we give rings at weddings? Untreatable, never ending circle. Covenant.
Why do we cheer so loud at baptisms?
Symbols, images, mean something beyond words.
And in these stories, we are shown why we needed Jesus and what his death means for us.
The next morning as they were leaving Bethany, Jesus was hungry.
-Mark 11:12
King's get hungry too. Isn't this a wonderful detail? Next time you feel hungry just be encouraged that you're just like Jesus. He wants breakfast, just like we do.
He noticed a fig tree in full leaf a little way off, so he went over to see if he could find any figs.
-Mark 11:13
Fig trees have two kinds of figs. Tiny ones come early. Super sweet. Sign of life and health.
Perfect little travel snacks. Just a little something sweet for breakfast.
Later, in season, the large figs we're more familiar with would grow.
But it wasn't time for those figs yet...and when Jesus finds this fig tree, looking for those sweet little somethings, he finds instead a barren tree.
It looks good, pay close attention now, but there's no fruit.
It looks good, but has no fruit.
Jesus said to the tree, "May no one ever eat your fruit again!" And the disciples heard him say it.
-Mark 11:14
Without those early little fruits, this tree must have been diseased.
It looked good, was in full leaf, but the lack of fruit showed something was wrong.
Now if this is the only story we had here, you might think Jesus was a maniac.
If you read the Bible too literally, you'd think he's taking out some of his frustrations against a tree.
But a fig tree was more than a tree.
Scholar William Telford wrote a whole book on these 3 verses.
Listen to what he says:
The fig tree, in Jewish thinking, is "an emblem of peace and prosperity: hope for the future."
-William R. Telford, The Barren Temple and the Withered Tree: A Redaction-Critical Analysis of the Fig-Tree Pericope in Mark's Gospel
The fig tree meant something. Peace. Prosperity. Hope.
In Jesus day, does anyone know where Jewish people traveled, usually once a year, to find peace, prosperity, and hope?
Jerusalem. The Temple. The house of God
A place meant to be in full leaf, with ripe fruit, nourishing the weary people of God.
So look what happens next:
When they arrived back in Jerusalem, Jesus entered the Temple...
Fig tree with no fruit directly to the Temple...
A tree, which was to be the source of peace, prosperity, and hope, is diseased and lifeless.
Jesus goes from here to the Temple...DO YOU SEE THE CONNECTION?
Jesus indictment to the fig tree is Jesus' indictment to the temple.
And he'll show us now what that means
Jesus entered the Temple and began to drive out the people buying and selling animals for sacrifices. He knocked over the tables of the money changers and the chairs of those selling doves, 16 and he stopped everyone from using the Temple as a marketplace. 17 He said to them, “The Scriptures declare, ‘My Temple will be called a house of prayer for all nations,’ but you have turned it into a den of thieves.”
-Mark 11:15-17
From afar, the Temple looked beautiful. Later, we'll see the disciples say so
With it's shining walls, huge crowds, and the bustle of religious activity, it must have looked so holy, so serious. It might have looked like a fig tree in full leaf.
But when Jesus gets closer...isn't it interesting how crowds responded to him outside the city compared to how THE PRIESTS IN THE TEMPLE respond to him?
When the leading priests and teachers of religious law heard what Jesus had done, they began plotting how to kill him.
-Mark 11:18
The hurting, hungry crowds hail him as a king. The priests meant to prepare the way for him plot to kill him.
The temple was a fig tree in full leaf...but it was diseased at the root.
The indictment Jesus announces over the fig tree is the indictment he declares in the temple.
Make no mistake, this is a direct condemnation of the temple system.
This is not a violent act of Jesus, either. It's a prophetic one.
He stopped the economic activity, but notice no crowds rush in to burn it down
No one is hurt. His followers don't storm the temple.
No riots. No fires. No clubs and pitchforks.
Jesus is not trying to destroy the temple here, HE'S DISPLAYING ITS FAILURE.
And if I had to guess, the moment Jesus leaves everyone just picked up where they left off.
So...why did Jesus have to come?
Because the place of peace, prosperity, and hope for the world was corrupted.
Were these people uniquely bad? No. They were just people.
This was an incredible economic opportunity.
Travelers have to come to the temple to get right with God.
These people, desperate to earn their way into God's favor, had to make a sacrifice
So...buy two doves get the third half off!
Supply and demand economics at work.
And it distorted something meant to bring life and turned into a charade.
Dig just a little deeper:
the whole temple was built on the premise that we cannot OBEY our way home, we must be saved by grace.
The whole reason they're there is to celebrate Passover—the annual feast reminding themselves God SAVES BY GRACE
Was it the sacrifices that brought Israel out of Egypt?
Was it their hard work? Was it their diligent spiritual disciplines?
NO! It was the STRONG ARM OF THE LORD and the blood of an innocent lamb.
The temple was meant to be the one place in all the world where it was crystal clear we are saved by the love of God alone.
And yet...it became a place of rigid rule keeping. Endless lists of regulations.
And economic opportunity for those clever enough to capitalize.
It become the center of the obey-to-be-loved game.
And Jesus is saying it's a fig tree with no fruit.
To put it plainly, Jesus is saying you can't obey your way into his kingdom.
Jesus is dropping a bomb right in the heart of man-made rules and regulations.
It's an indictment into the heart of the religion of his day.
This is diseased. It will. Not. Work.
And you know this, don't you?
I've seen three things happen to people who commit their lives to rugged obedience in hopes of earning God's favor.
Obedience is not a bad word, you know, we just have to keep it in the right context
Telling my son "don't run into the street" is a word of love, and obedience leads to life.
I don't tell him "if you run into the street I WON'T LOVE YOU!"
But so many of us have bought in to the obey-to-be-loved game.
Some of us are wound so tight, so anxious and aggressive, that we're nearly impossible to be around.
Everything has to be perfect. Always. Because everything is at stake!
They become self-righteous, hard, and cold.
We have to win the obey-to-be-loved game, so work hard! Obey hard!
They do not believe the strong arm of the Lord and the blood of an innocent lamb are all we need.
Others become so convinced they're awful they simply stop trying.
The game is too overwhelming they simply stop. playing.
They can't stop sinning. They can't quit the thing.
No matter how tightly they grip their lives...they just can't do it. So they give up.
And then there's the rest of us stuck in the middle.
We know how awful we are...but we think we could do it if we tried a little harder.
But we're tired and busy, so it's too hard to try harder...
So we stay in this perpetual state of mild guilt and anxiety.
And Jesus is saying IT'S BROKEN. THIS WHOLE THING IS BROKEN.
It must be put to death. It must pass away so something new can come.
The Strong Arm of the Lord and the blood of an innocent lamb must make a way for something new.
If this is why Jesus had to come...what does it mean for me and you?
It means the obedience game is over. It was never meant to be that way anyway.
It means Jesus has taken decisive action to set you free from the burden of perfection.
See, the temple, and every other attempt people have made at religion, says "if you want to be loved, here's what you have to do."
Have you felt that? Do this and live.
This is how our economy is built. Buy this if you want to be loved.
This is what's missing in your life! All your problems could be solved through these low monthly installments.
This is what every religion says: do this if you want to be loved.
do this if you want to be safe. Do this if you want to be saved.
But I want you to imagine for a moment your child coming up to you.
If you don't have children, imagine a little one, 3 or 4, that you care a great deal about, walking up to you and saying, "what must I do for you to love me?"
The story of the Bible is God showing us, telling us, and bleeding for us to say "I LOVE YOU ALREADY!"
The strong arm of the Lord and the blood of an innocent lamb is all you need.
It's done. It's over. Or, as Jesus will soon cry from the cross, "it is finished."
Temple worship is finished. Coming to God with an offering is finished.
Working to prove, to be loved, to earn or achieve for God...it. Is. Finished.
And when you know you're loved already, you'll learn to live from that place.
When you live from love, you live free. Freer than we can possibly believe.
The old temple system had to die, just like our old ways of striving for love must die
You are loved already
You belong already
This is what Jesus words to the Fig Tree and his actions in the temple say to us.
So be free. Be loved. Follow Jesus, the lamb of God.
His death means you are forgiven and loved. His resurrection means you are free.
The strong arm of the Lord and the blood of an innocent lamb is all you need.
Let's pray.