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Mark 11:12–25 (ESV)
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. 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. 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.”
Have you ever had a time where you were confused or a time where you couldn’t quite figure out what was going on? When I was in Jr. High and high school the subject of math always had that effect on me as I struggled to understand the subject. This passage had a similar effect on me for many years because I simply couldn't figure out the context of what was taking place and struggled to understand why Jesus was picking on a tree and his avoidance of talking about what happened to the tree when Peter pointed out the withered tree to Jesus.
But I have to tell you that this passage is amazing and convicting as Jesus uses this situation to teach us something incredible about fruitful life in the kingdom of God. The tree becomes a living parable that illustrates a spiritual truth. The tree is meant to teach us a spiritual truth about the life and vitality of the Temple in Jerusalem. The tree, even though it’s not yet the season for figs, should at least have these little knops called paggim which are edible. But the tree is bare.
The bareness of the tree is meant to represent the condition of the Temple in Jerusalem. The Temple, like the tree, isn’t producing any fruit. In fact, it’s doing the opposite, it’s preventing fruit from growing. The Temple at this time is being built by Heard, king of Judea and there are four main parts to the temple. The first and largest part was the outer court, an open-air area called the Court of the Gentiles, which was supposed to be a place for non-Jewish people (Gentiles) to come and worship. In fact, it’s the only space available for Gentiles to worship the Lord. But here, it’s become a market place and the Gentiles have no space available to them for worship.
N.T. Wright, in his commentary on Mark, puts it best when he said, “The Temple had been intended to symbolize God’s dwelling with Israel for the SAKE OF THE WORLD; [but] the way Jesus’ contemporaries had organized things, [the Temple] had come to symbolize NOT God’s welcome to the nations, but God’s exclusion of them.”
The Court of the Gentiles was supposed to be a place of worship, but it’s become a place of greed and segregation which is why Jesus takes action to drive out the money-changers and merchants.
Then the scene shifts back to the withered fig tree. Peter recognizes the tree as the one Jesus has cursed but Jesus, rather than acknowledge what’s happened to the tree, speaks about faith, prayer, and forgiveness. What Jesus is doing in this teaching moment is shifting the focus away from total dependence on the Temple, to total dependence, total faith, in Himself. When we center our lives on Jesus, there is a shift that takes place in our prayer lives. We move away from being centered on our own wants and desires to being centered on what God would have for us. That’s actually how we need to understand verse 24 when Jesus says, “whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.” When we pray with this focus on Jesus, we’re placing our very lives and futures in God’s hands, trusting that He will produce amazing fruit in and through our lives at just the right time.
The first step for us is nothing short of surrendering our lives to Jesus and becoming totally dependent on Him. That’s the way to become faith-filled and fruitful, bearing much fruit in the kingdom of God.
God bless you and know that you are constantly in my prayers!
Scott
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