What Fig Leaves Won't Cover

Photo by Vincent Erhart on Unsplash

Do certain passages in the Bible make you scratch your head? The temptation is to go, "Well, I'm just going to chalk that up to divine mystery and move on." The other temptation is to ask different questions than the text wants you to ask. We could look at a passage like this and spend more time wondering why this happens in a different order than Mark has it. It's fine to ask those questions, but only as long as we are asking what this text wants us to ask: "Why is this here?" 

So that is the question that we are going to ask today! As we dive into Holy Week this week, we are going to be looking at some of the little details on our way down the road to the cross. Since we have taken in the forest on our past journeys through Holy Week, I thought we would look at the trees, in this case, literally. Jesus makes important points about the Christian life, often using imagery of plants to help us see the point clearly if we take the time to see it. So today, we are going to look at our main point of this passage: Religious actions are no substitute for real faith in Christ.

Religious actions are no substitute for real faith in Christ.

Let's take a moment to remind ourselves where we are. We are coming up on the last week of Jesus' ministry before the cross, so Jesus has been teaching, healing, and fulfilling prophecy for the last three years. On this day, we celebrate the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, fulfilling the prophecy we read out of Zechariah a few moments ago. 

That day must have been quite a scene, one of those once in a lifetime sort of experiences you remember forever. I remember fondly those times in my late childhood when my dad and I would go to Ligonier conferences. It was three days of some of the best preaching you could hear (this was before the podcast was everywhere, so this was quite a privilege). But what I remember at those conferences, something I still look forward to whenever I have the chance to go is the singing. When you are surrounded by thousands of people who are *singing,* having just heard one of the best sermons you'll hear that year, it's an experience. Here in Jerusalem, it would have been my experience times a thousand. The pilgrim coming to Jerusalem would have been special enough on its own. Here you are in the holiest nation in the world, coming to the holiest place in the world, the Temple, the place where you could encounter God, during the holiest point in the year, the Passover, the remembrance when God Himself delivered your people out of Egypt, surrounded by the holiest people in that nation, it must have been incredible all on its own. 

On top of all of that, here comes the Teacher. The one who has been healing, raising the dead, and providing food for the masses, is riding on a donkey into the Holy City. Their hands must have shook as they took down the palm branches, as their throats sang out, "Save Now!" It's the Son of David, the Christ, the Messiah come to take His throne! It is the culmination of the world! The final act! If there was ever a time for the Messiah to come, it is now. 

But then. According to Mark's account (most likely Matthew is condensing the story to save space) Jesus walks up to a fig tree in full leaf (a sign that there is fruit on it), finds nothing and curses the fig tree. Then, Jesus walks into the Temple and throws everything going on in there down. He calls it a den of thieves and walks out. The next day, the disciples come across this fig tree Jesus cursed and finds it withered to the root. 

What should the disciples have asked at this point? They should have asked "Why? What are you trying to tell us here?" But what do they ask? "How did you do that?!" (Keener, 505). By taking a second to think about it, this is a stupid question. What have they spent the last three years looking at? Honestly, of all the things that Jesus has done, this is down near the least impressive. Jesus has raised dead people, like, multiple times! Have they forgotten the widow's son, Jarius' daughter, and even Lazarus (and that one was dead for four days, which is completely dead, not even mostly dead)? What about calming the storm, multiplying bread, and walking on water? Surely withering a fig tree is not beyond the Son of God. 

Now Jesus does answer their question, but let's pause and ask the question they should have asked. Why does He do this? Mark's account of this points more glaringly at the temple. Mark inserts the story of the Temple in the middle drawing us to conclude that this is a statement about the Temple. Some point to the idea that Jesus is perhaps making an allusion to Micah 7:1, as that prophet laments about the state of the country. God has just announced judgement for the sins of the nation in the prior chapter, and Micah laments that "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." Why? Verse 2, "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." Here, indeed, there is no ripe fruit. The fig tree puts out its fruit first and *then* the leaves. But this one is all show. And, devastatingly, so is the Temple. As we will see in a few days, there are indeed the very "holiest" of people lying in wait for Jesus' blood. Its a sham, and Jesus knows it. 

And here, Jesus shows it. He points to the holiest nation with all of its pageantry at its holiest time in its holiest place and says it is all just show and will be judged. Rightly understood, that is devastating. Have you ever had something that you thought was pretty good that you produced only to have it torn down by someone whose opinion actually matters? Whether it is a work assignment or a creative project, that can really sting. But this has eternal implications what Jesus is saying here. 

It should have us look at ourselves for a minute. What do we think Jesus is impressed with in our lives? What are you proud of in your life? What boosts your confidence? Or put negatively, what terrifies you? Your job? Your church title? Your kids? Your grades? Your payscale? Your relationship status? Your knowledge of the Bible? Your church attendance? Your kid's church attendance? 

All fig leaves. Now, don't get me wrong those things can be significant, but they aren't saving. They aren't the fruit, the heart, that Jesus is looking for. You can have everything I just said and lack what is most important: faith in Him. That should terrify. Everything can look great from a distance, but on closer inspection have nothing to eat, nothing to sustain. 

Now, how do I know that faith is the key to this? Because this is what Jesus goes on to talk about. The disciples ask the wrong question in that it was the wrong "how" question. The first question should have been why, and the second question should have been this "how" question, "how do we avoid the same fate as the fig? How can we possibly do the work God has called us to do when even the holiest place, in the holiest city, at the holiest time can't do it?" 

Jesus points to the instrument that could do far more than wither a fig tree. Why, this instrument can move mountains! But how? It isn't anything to do with "the power of faith" or the power of positive thinking. The people who crucified Jesus had faith. It just wasn't faith in the right thing. Their faith was in mad up laws, customs, and the physical structure of the Temple. As such, that faith was powerless to help, and powerful to kill. It was pulling away from the real power source: Jesus Himself. 

So how does this faith connect with Christ? Jesus tells us through prayer. It is a position of utter dependance. You don't move that mountain. You ask God to move it for you. He makes a rather stark claim that anything we ask in prayer will be granted to us if we don't doubt. Is Jesus giving us a blank check to get whatever we want? No. To think that way doesn't understand prayer. Prayer isn't wish list time, and we should be reminded of that every time we say, "In Jesus' name." That isn't some sort of magic stamp to get your prayer mailed to heaven. It is saying, "I have license from Jesus Himself to say this. I am praying a prayer that Jesus would pray for me." Whoa. Well, no wonder that has power! How much more confidently would we pray knowing that. 

So how do you know what to pray? Well, Jesus has told you. The Lord's prayer is a good place to start. He did say that when you pray, pray like this. Go into the Psalms. Those are divinely inspired prayers. Look to the promises of Scripture. What has God promised you? He told you that if you are weary and heavy laden and come to Him, He will give you rest. He told you that if you come to Him, He won't cast you out. He's told you that the suffers of this present time aren't worth comparing for the glory He has prepared for you. He has promised to heal all of your diseases and wipe away all your tears. So pray for that. He's promised! Is it immediately answered all the time? No, but faith looks beyond even vast stretches of trying times. It only sees Christ! It looks beyond religious pageantry. It looks beyond grand buildings and week-long ceremonies. It looks beyond pain. It looks beyond cancer. It looks beyond the death of children. It strains its face forward to Christ even though the reigns of the joy and pain tear on the bits in your mouth to look at anything else. Sin will make it hurt to look to Christ. It knows just how to tug on your mouth. 

But remember who you are looking at! Jesus will hold your face! Come to Him! Ask and do not doubt, and mountains will move. He's promised. It will happen. It fact, Jesus is probably alluding to Zechariah to make his point (Keener, 505). Zechariah prophesied to the recently returned Jewish exiles from Babylon to rebuild their Temple 500 years before this moment here with Jesus. They started but gave up. There was much to overcome. But hear what God tells the governor of Israel at the time, Zerubbabel, Jesus Great times 8 Grandfather in Zech. 4:6 "Then he said to me, “This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel: Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the LORD of hosts. Who are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you shall become a plain. And he shall bring forward the top stone amid shouts of ‘Grace, grace to it!’” They could probably see Mount Olivet and the Dead Sea from where they were standing making the visual powerful (Keener, 505).    

So what's our takeaway? 
That same Spirit is at work in you. God has called you to a work. The things you are proud of won't get you there. Be grateful to God for those things, but don't trust those things above Him. See those things for what they are. They are leaves. Joy and color, but let them point to the substance of it all: faith in Christ. This is a week where many of us reexamine our lives. We hear once again of Christ on the cross, buried, and raised into glory. Do you believe it? Are you putting all of your hopes and fears at His feet? Do you trust that God will make possible what He has promised? Have you laid aside all that would keep you back from trusting Him, anything that might turn your face away from Him? 

Now, maybe you are sitting here and saying, "I think I'm the barren fig tree. All leaves and no fruit. Is my only fate withering?" Oh, my friend, there is another fig tree. It too was barren for three years according to Luke 13. The owner of the tree told his groundskeeper that for three years this tree has been barren. Cut it down and make room for something more productive. But the groundskeeper said, "Let me fertilize this tree this one last year, and let's see what happens. If fruit, let's keep it, and if not, we'll cut it down." We never find out what happened to that tree in Jesus' parable. Your life will show the end of the story. If you have been wandering and are hearing the sound of my voice, Jesus is giving your tree some more fertilizer. If you have been fruitless, surrender to Jesus' work, abide in Christ, as we will see on Thursday, and you will see Him move mountains.