[Music] Amen. If you’ll turn with me in your Bibles please to Mark 11, beginning at verse one.
Now when they drew near to Jerusalem, to Bethany and Bethany at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two of his disciples and said to them, ‘Go into the village in front of you, and immediately as you enter it, you will find a Colt tied on which no one has ever sat. Untie it and bring it. If anyone says to you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ say, ‘The Lord has need of it and will send it back here immediately.”
And they went away and found a cult tied at a door outside in the street, and they untied it. And some of those standing there said to them, ‘What are you doing, untying the colt?’ They told them what Jesus had said, and they let them go.
And they brought the Colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks on it, and he sat on it. And many spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that they had cut from the fields. And those who went before and those who followed were shouting, ‘Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the coming Kingdom of Our Father David! Hosanna in the highest!’
And he entered Jerusalem and went into the temple. When he had looked around at everything, as it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the twelve.
On the following day, when they came from Bethany, he was hungry. 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. And he said to it, ‘May no one ever eat fruit from you again.’ And his disciples heard it.
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. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. He would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple.
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?’
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.
When evening came, they went out of the city. As they passed by in the morning, they saw the fig tree withered away to its roots. And Peter remembered and said to him, ‘Rabbi, look! The fig tree that you cursed has withered.’
And Jesus answered them, ‘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.’
This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Let us pray.
Almighty God, we praise you and honor you. We thank you for coming into our hearts, into our lives. We thank you for your entrance into your city, coming and appearing as the glory of the Lord shining. We ask that you open our hearts to hear your word, to hear what you have to say, that you fill us, that you change us, and that you help us to respond as you call us to do. We pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.
So today we celebrate Palm Sunday, our remembrance of Jesus’s triumphant entry into Jerusalem, an occasion that was prophesied long ago by the prophet Zechariah, who wrote, ‘Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O Daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you, righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.’
We also commemorate Jesus’s social coronation by the swollen Passover crowd crying, ‘Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the coming Kingdom of Our Father David! Hosanna in the highest!’
This event set in final motion Jesus’s sacrificial death and atoning work upon the cross, his resurrection on the third day, and his triumph over sin and death. Praise the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!
But since this Palm Sunday story should already be familiar to most of us, I will not be focusing on his entrance today. While we know how busy this coming Holy Week is for Christians—we have Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Easter Vigil, and Resurrection Sunday, which many Christians celebrate—all of these unique worship services serve as a memorial and a reminder about different important events in Jesus’s passion.
We often forget or miss how extra busy this week was for Jesus himself. Here’s a trivia question for you: How many chapters within the four gospels discuss Jesus’s last week of life? Any guesses? Eight? It’s a few more than that.
In Matthew, 7 out of 28 chapters—25%. In Mark, 5 out of 16—31%. In Luke, 5 out of 24—20%. And in John, 8 out of 21—38%. All told, across the gospels, 28% deal with the last week of Jesus’s life, not including the Resurrection story and all that comes after.
Actually, it’s really only dealing with his last six days because there was no activity recorded on the Sabbath. A lot went on for Jesus during that week, especially Sunday through Wednesday. Jesus said and did a lot during his final week of earthly life, but we do not usually hear about it within its proper and historical contexts. The gospel writers recorded Jesus’s strongest and most forceful teachings during that week, such as his clearing of the money changers, his combative dialogues with the Jewish religious elite, and of course, the Olivet discourse prophesying the destruction of Jerusalem and the ultimate day of judgment.
Yet we either cherry-pick much of Jesus’s recorded teaching from during the week, or we gloss over it and ignore the things that we do not like or understand. I want to challenge all of us this week by encouraging each of us to read one chapter a day from the gospel of Matthew, chapter 21 today through chapter 27 next Saturday, as preparation for our time of worship next week.
I want us to meditate on the things that he taught during that week, all the while knowing that these were going to be Jesus’s last recorded words, his final valediction. But today we will consider one of Jesus’s more strange and difficult teachings to accept: the sign of the fig tree.
On the following day, when they came from Bethany, he was hungry. 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. And he said to it, ‘May no one ever eat fruit from you again.’ And his disciples heard it.
What in the world is going on here? That does not sound like the normal Jesus we know and love, does it? It absolutely does not sound like the Jesus which the world and cultural Christianity find acceptable to promote. You know the Jesus who is always and only about love, who never judged or condemned anyone, who was always tolerant and accepting of everyone and everything—the Jesus who never said a harsh, unkind, or mean word to or about anyone.
But that’s not the Jesus of sacred scripture. The idea of Jesus cursing a fig tree simply because it did not have fruit for him to eat when he was hungry does not easily match up with how we think about the Jesus that taught and preached in Galilee.
So again, what in the world is going on here? Why does Jesus get mad and act so harshly and in such a drastic way? Was Jesus being unreasonable or irrational, looking for figs when he knew they were out of season? So let’s try and discern what’s going on in the story.
On the following day, which would be the Monday of Holy Week, when they came from Bethany—now Bethany was a town on the other side of the Mount of Olives, about a Sabbath’s day walk from the temple, which is three-quarters of a mile. Bethany is also the town where Lazarus, Mary, and Martha lived, and whom we assume Jesus was staying with during the festival according to John 12.
Since thinking about the average person’s average walking speed is about three miles an hour, walking three-quarters of a mile should ordinarily take most of us about 15 minutes. But if we consider the downs and the ups which define the Kidron Valley—the area between the Mount of Olives and Jerusalem—along with these other traffic factors that would have been going on, we reasonably assume that this was at least a 20 to 30 minute walk for Jesus and his disciples, and Jesus was hungry.
Now that I have walked the same general route myself last May, I can easily imagine Jesus being both hungry and thirsty midway through this journey, even with a good breakfast. It is a very warm and strenuous hike, even today, but none of that excuses or justifies Jesus for acting angry.
So then, really, what is going on? 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. Clearly, Mark assumes that we know something about agriculture and the growth cycle of fig trees.
See, the most common varieties of figs grown in Israel actually have two growth seasons each year. The first batch ripens around June, while the second batch ripens around September, neither of which are ever near the time of Passover. However, when just before fig trees begin to produce their fruit, they grow these large wide leaves, which also makes them excellent shade trees.
So then we can understand the story simply as Jesus saw a fig tree—he saw a fig tree with leaves, a sign that figs are or should be growing on it. Since Jesus did not find any figs, he cursed the tree for false advertising because it was not fulfilling its intended and natural function or purpose: by growing figs.
See, Jesus did not act unjustly, nor did he act in an unrighteous manner. Jesus condemned the tree because he judged it and found it wanting. Its leaves suggested figs but did not deliver them. The tree did not meet Jesus’s expectation. The fig tree, in that moment, was being a fake because a fig tree without figs can hardly be said to be a fig tree, can it?
The fig tree, in that moment, was being hypocritical. It wore a mask of fruitfulness when it was empty and fruitless. Thus, Jesus condemned the tree for its falsity and its failure, pronouncing judgment against it. Jesus was not acting unreasonable or being unfair to the fig tree despite it not being in season because the tree was presenting itself as if it should bear fruit.
One thing that Jesus always condemned was hypocrisy. In that moment, that particular fig tree—a tree that was used often as a symbol for Israel’s peace and prosperity—represented the Jewish people, their religion, and their spiritual hypocrisy. Because they put on a great show of faith through all of their grand religious rites and rules and practices, they bore all of the signs to suggest that they were bearing good fruit for the Lord, but generally speaking, they were lacking the internal and consequential spiritual fruit.
Yet what Jesus said and did here is not really all that strange when we look at him in light of the Old Testament prophets. Prophets did not just speak God’s word to the people; many times, they also did symbolic things. They performed specific unique actions to visibly demonstrate and proclaim God’s holy word. Some famous examples would be when Jeremiah went down to the potter’s house, Hosea’s marriage to Gomer, or Ezekiel when he was lying upon his side.
You see, those sorts of things are what are often meant by signs, as in the signs and wonders that people are always asking for, because they are pointing us towards something greater than themselves.
So Jesus, after examining the fig tree, finding it empty and cursing it, he and his disciples continued their way up into Jerusalem. They next went into the temple, where Jesus drove out the money changers and the other merchants who were extorting and exploiting the Jewish pilgrims and defiling the outer courts of the Lord’s Temple.
But meanwhile, through all of this, Jesus continued to teach the people. He taught everyone who would listen to him and heed his words, and this was sorely upsetting to the chief priests and other religious leaders because he made them feel afraid while all the ordinary people were astonished and impressed by Jesus.
Then, after all the excitement had died down, after this busy and angry day, when evening came, they went out of the city. As they passed by in the morning, they saw the fig tree withered away to its roots. Peter remembered and said to him, ‘Rabbi, look! The fig tree that you cursed has withered.’
The next morning, we’re talking Tuesday of Holy Week, they discovered the consequence of Jesus’s curse. The fig tree had withered and died. The creator of the universe had withdrawn his grace and his favor and providence, causing this fruitless tree to dry up and become a worthless husk—a clear sign of judgment and the wrath of God, a judgment against the Jews’ hypocrisy and a judgment against their lack of faith.
This was also an affirmation and validation of Jesus’s word and his divine authority. Although this sign of the fig tree might seem to be unnecessarily harsh to us, it is not unique, nor is it out of character for Jesus. This same interpretation cannot be considered to be radical, extreme, or unfair because the same message is repeated clearly in the other gospels and in many of Jesus’s other parables and signs given during this week.
The two points of context we must remember when we consider these stories from Jesus’s last week are: first, the Jews of Jesus’s time were looking for their Messiah to come; they were looking for the Lord to appear and set everything right for them again.
Second, God’s chosen elect people, as a people holy to the Lord possessing God’s law as a kingdom of priests, they should never have been out of season for spiritual fruit. Understanding this, we then recognize the same or similar theme within Jesus’ parable about the ten virgins, where only the five who kept their lamps lit and ready for the bridegroom to appear were welcomed in, while the others were condemned to the darkness.
Or the parable of the tenants in the vineyard, who beat and murdered the messengers and son of the property owner, and still did not inherit or take over his property. Or in the story of the faithful and wise servant who was prepared for his master’s arrival even at the unexpected hour and was gladly praised and rewarded.
We also see it in Jesus’s condemnation of the scribes and Pharisees as he calls them whitewashed tombs, clean and perfect and beautiful on the outside but inside filled with corruption, hypocrisy, death, and lawlessness.
So whether read alone or taken together with these others, the message of the fig tree is clear: be ready, be real, and do what you are meant to do. We must bear the fruit which our God and King expects us to bear, and we must be bearing it when he expects us to bear it, which is all the time.
However, this message was not only intended for the Jews worshiping in the Jerusalem Temple; it’s also pointed directly towards us as Christians. Just as the fig tree immediately withered and was dead by the next morning because of Jesus’s curse, the Jewish religion withered, and all the glories of the temple facade collapsed into total ruin in 70 AD. Their just judgment came swiftly because they were the ethnic people of God.
So should we think that the judgment that we may do or should come more slowly? Perhaps, having this fig tree in mind, the Apostle Peter reminds us, ‘For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God, and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God?’
Are we bearing fruit for Jesus Christ in his kingdom as we ought? Do we still fear his judgment and condemnation because we, above all others, are without excuse and should be judged the most severely, even as we expect his mercy and grace?
These stories, parables, and signs that speak of judgment against the Jews are also reminders and warnings for us. Because now, as then, Jesus has expectations of his people—very high expectations. The highest!
During the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, ‘Every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. And every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.’
A tree which stubbornly refuses to bear fruit must necessarily be considered diseased because it fails to produce good fruit. So while Jesus was talking specifically about his prophets, his pastors, and his leaders, he was also talking about the whole of his elect people.
If we truly belong to Christ, then we will certainly bear good fruit. But if we bear bad fruit, or if we bear no fruit at all, then we cannot rightly claim to belong to him.
American Christianity and Christians in America alike need to take note of this warning because first-century second temple Judaism showed all the signs of being thriving and vibrant expressions of religious faith—just like we do, if we’re willing to admit it.
Back then, people studied their Scripture and engaged in vigorous theological debates, leading to rival schools of interpretation: the Sadducees, Pharisees, and finally the way of Jesus Christ and Christians.
Compare that to modern denominationalism. Are Baptists and Presbyterians really so different in that sense? The Jewish people, they were religious because it was a social and cultural requirement. Visibly obeying the purity laws, regularly attending Temple and synagogue service was all part of their Jewish identity, intentionally separating themselves from other peoples and cultures, namely the Romans, who were viewed as the enemy.
Compare that to our modern social virtue signaling with the different religious displays by individuals of pro-religion, like Christians, Jews, and Muslims; anti-religion, the atheists or secularists; or non-obvious religion, Republican, Democrat, XYZ activists, or sexuality-based identities, or our cancel culture mindset.
Our division into red and blue states, citizen versus alien, migrant, or Ohio State and Michigan fans—religion in those days provided the foundation for their legal system, both for the Romans and the Jews. But political expediency and the quest for individual power and influence easily overrode personal ethics and morality, resulting in a disparate environment of ‘not for me, but for thee,’ but based upon a person’s social position or personal power.
Can we compare that to our present world? Yes! There are just too many examples for me to choose from. And I could say that first-century Israel was less of a Jewish nation and more of a nation comprised of Jews.
Compare that to the U.S., which has never been a Christian nation; it was founded as a nation of Christians and is now a nation that proudly includes many other anti-Christian religions. It’s safe to say that during the first century, there were many people who participated in all the outward forms of Jewish religion because it was what was expected of them—being ethnic Jews—not because of their sincerity of faith.
Compare that to our present day, where many people still participate in all the outward forms of religion or irreligion because that is what is expected of them socially, and not because of any sincerity of faith.
However, then as now, there always remains a faithful remnant of true believers—God’s elect, the wheat which has grown up among the tares. Therefore, we may still have hope for the future! God always preserves his church, and when we look at ourselves with such a perspective, it is not difficult to recognize how similar we actually are to them, further demonstrating that people do not change.
We cannot and will not change apart from the divine intervention of the Holy Spirit in our regeneration. So if Jesus’s judgment upon the fig tree symbolizes his judgment upon the Jewish people for their lack of faith and their failure to bring forth the good fruit that he expected of them, and their whole way of life was destroyed—how much more does it symbolize the church, the little c church, and might it lead us to wonder what form our judgment will appear as?
Now Jesus certainly could have spoken a word and caused that fig tree to immediately bring forth fruit instead of cursing it. Just as Jesus could say a word and cause his people to always be faithful, obedient, and loving—that’s never been God’s plan or purpose.
He wants us to respond out of our love for him and bear good fruit according to our new regenerate nature. Perhaps this will give us a different understanding and better appreciation for Paul’s admonition to Timothy to be ready in season and out—not only limiting it to preaching or defending the gospel with our words, but expanding it to also include our deeds done out of faith.
Yes, while Paul describes the fruit of the Spirit as being love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control, these are each internal fruit and internal benefits given for us, for our enjoyment and our use for Christ in his kingdom.
To transform these gifts into the fruit that he is expecting from us, the honest question for us is not: Do we have these fruits of the spirit? But instead, it is: What are we doing with them, and how are we loving others in the name of Christ by using them?
This is where the missional rubber truly meets the road. What are we doing with them, and how are we loving others through them? How are you doing?
Our recent cereal collection was one example. Thank you to everyone who brought some in! Another example was eating at Chipotle because it was our preschool’s fundraiser night; again, thank you to everyone who participated.
We also support a lot of different missions and charities as a congregation. But what and how are you doing these sorts of things yourself and as part of your family? Yes, we need and we get to do a lot of these things corporately as part of the Capital C church within the little c church. But we are also supposed to be doing them ourselves as individuals.
And while giving is a part of doing, giving is not doing, and there are very few of us who cannot be doing more.
So do we display the broad and wide leaves of our personal piety but lack true spiritual fruit? I will challenge all of us to examine our own fruit because, when Jesus comes up to our tree expecting to find our fruit, we do not want to disappoint him and be found lacking.
Is our yield as bountiful as it could be and should be, or is our crop withering and dying? What more can each of us do, and what more can we do as a church?
If you need or want help finding or generating ideas, please come see me, and I will help or get you connected with someone else who can. But I cannot answer these questions about you; we must each act as we are convicted by the Holy Spirit.
But we all can and should be helping one another with this, because that is part of the purpose for us congregating together as a church. As the author of Hebrews tells us, ‘And let us consider how to stir one another up to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the day drawing near.’
So remember the sign and lesson of the fig tree. Bearing good fruit is just one way—just one way—in which we get to bring God glory. A way in which we give God glory, a way in which he enjoys us, and we may enjoy him.
So bear the good fruit which comes from our faith in Jesus Christ because you do not want to be found wanting on the day of his appearing. Always be ready, because the fruit of Jesus Christ is always in season.
Hosanna in the highest! Amen.