House cleaning, harvest and moving mountains...

Mark 11:7-26 from the daily reading in the One Year Bible

 They brought the colt to Jesus and put their coats on it; and He sat on it. ⁸ And many spread their coats in the road, and others spread leafy branches which they had cut from the fields. ⁹ Those who went in front and those who followed were shouting:

“Hosanna!
Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord;
¹⁰ Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David;
Hosanna in the highest!”

¹¹ Jesus entered Jerusalem and came into the temple; and after looking around at everything, He left for Bethany with the twelve, since it was already late.

¹² On the next day, when they had left Bethany, He became hungry. ¹³ Seeing at a distance a fig tree in leaf, He went to see if perhaps He would find anything on it; and when He came to it, He found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. ¹⁴ He said to it, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again!” And His disciples were listening.

¹⁵ Then they came to Jerusalem. And He entered the temple and began to drive out those who were buying and selling in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who were selling doves; ¹⁶ and He would not permit anyone to carry merchandise through the temple. ¹⁷ And He began to teach and say 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 robbers’ den.” ¹⁸ The chief priests and the scribes heard this, and began seeking how to destroy Him; for they were afraid of Him, for the whole crowd was astonished at His teaching.

¹⁹ When evening came, they would go out of the city. ²⁰ As they were passing by in the morning, they saw the fig tree withered from the roots up. ²¹ Being reminded, Peter said to Him, “Rabbi, look, the fig tree which You cursed has withered.” ²² And Jesus answered saying to them, “Have faith in God. ²³ Truly I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says is going to happen, it will be granted him. ²⁴ Therefore I say to you, all things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them, and they will be granted you. ²⁵ Whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father who is in heaven will also forgive you your transgressions. ²⁶But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father who is in heaven forgive your transgressions.”

Whenever I read the account of the Triumphal entry, I can’t help but to think how quickly the tide of human opinion can turn. Just one week after shouting praises to Jesus as He entered Jerusalem many of this same people would be shouting taunts and mockery of Him as He was taken out of the city to be crucified. It may not have happened so quickly in our culture and society, but public opinion has turned against Jesus in our time. We have gone from a time when God, the Bible and Jesus were integral in most facets of everyday life. If you watch old western movies even the “bad guys” respected the church, the Bible and the man of God. Today more often both in entertainment, the media and in life itself all of those are seen in a poor light, treated with indifference at best, with disrespect or disdain at worst. The political climate in our country is another indicator of how much our society has changed, from a time when all politicians would invoke God and prayer for our nation, to the present time when it is viewed by many as a negative for a political candidate to express faith in God. There is more acceptance and more tolerance for sexual indiscretions, drug usage and illegal activities than there is for faith in God, the Bible and Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.

In today’s text we also see Jesus come into the temple and cast out the money changers and those who were selling within the temple, saying:  “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? But you have made it a robbers’ den.”     Many today will look at this simply as another example of Jesus disdain for the religious establishment in His day. They will point to this account and say that Jesus would do much the same in many churches today, rebuking the priority placed on the business side of the church, the effort to sell and make money as opposed to focusing on ministry, worship and prayer. Certainly it is true in much of the western church that there is far too much focus on finances. There is nothing wrong with a successful ministry also being financially successful, but when material becomes a priority over ministry I am sure the Lord is not pleased.

Before we judge others though, we should also seek the personal application this has for each of us. 1 Corinthians 6:15-20 says:   Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ… the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him. ¹⁸ Flee immorality. Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body. ¹⁹ Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? ²⁰ For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.   Our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit. If we a joined to Christ then He may also need to come into us and  overturn some things we have established. He may have to drive out some of the things of the world, some of the material things we esteem more than we esteem Him. John the Baptist once said of Jesus: "He must increase, but I must decrease.” (John 3:30) For Christ to increase in our lives we can either work at crucifying our flesh, putting to death the things in our lives which hinder the increase of Christ or we can allow Jesus to come in, to invite Him in, to fill us with Himself, driving out all that is not of Him. If Christ will increase, we will decrease. The psalmist says: Delight yourself in the Lord; And He will give you the desires of your heart. (Psalm 37:4) Rather than be critical of the church, we should be certain that we have allowed Christ to reign in us.

The final thing we see in today’s text is Jesus cursing of the fig tree and His comments regarding the power of prayer and the importance of forgiveness. There is something interesting about the fig tree. The text says: when He came to it, He found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. ¹⁴ He said to it, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again!” And His disciples were listening.     Even though it was not the season for figs, Jesus cursed the fig tree. In Jesus presence there is always a harvest season. In Matthew 9:37-38 Jesus says: “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; ³⁸ therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.” Unlike the natural harvest there is no off season with the spiritual harvest of souls for the kingdom of heaven. Wherever Christ is and wherever the Holy Spirit is present there is opportunity for harvest. In 2 Timothy 4:2, Paul encourages Timothy to:   preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.

Even at this point near the end of Jesus ministry on earth, the disciples are surprised at the result of Jesus cursing the fig tree. The text says:     “Rabbi, look, the fig tree which You cursed has withered.” ²² And Jesus answered saying to them, “Have faith in God. ²³ Truly I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says is going to happen, it will be granted him. ²⁴ Therefore I say to you, all things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them, and they will be granted you.     What tremendous power and authority we have in prayer, through faith in Christ. But who of us has moved mountains?  Whether literal or spiritual we struggle with the authority we should have in prayer. Perhaps it has something to do with the condition Jesus adds. He says: Whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father who is in heaven will also forgive you your transgressions. ²⁶But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father who is in heaven forgive your transgressions.”

There is some irony in that, Jesus says: But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father who is in heaven forgive your transgressions.”   Yet if we have not first received the forgiveness of God we cannot rightly forgive others. Remember what Jesus says are the greatest and second commandment: you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ ³¹ The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ (Mark 12:30-31) In the same way that we are called to love others with the same love that we have received from God, so too are we to forgive them as we have been forgiven. If we have not received the forgiveness of God in our own lives we cannot rightly forgive others. In Matthew 7:1-2, Jesus says: “Do not judge so that you will not be judged. ² For in the way you judge, you will be judged; and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you.  If we do not see ourselves as forgiven by God, if we judge ourselves as unworthy and unforgivable, we will judge others the same way.

If we want to move the mountains in our lives and the lives of those we pray with and for. We need to forgive. We need first to receive the forgiveness of God, the complete and unconditional love and forgiveness of God for ourselves. Then we need to love and forgive others as He has forgiven us.

Heavenly Father, Lord Jesus Christ; precious Holy Spirit, I praise You and rejoice at Your coming and entering into my life today. My opinion will not change with the tide of public opinion, I will choose to praise You each day. I invite You, Lord Jesus and Holy Spirit, to come in and fill me, to drive out anything that is in me that does not glorify You. I thank You heavenly Father, that through the cross of Christ, You have forgiven me. Holy Spirit empower me and enable me to love and forgive others with the same love and forgiveness I have been given, so that I can move mountains and reap harvests for the kingdom as I walk in the presence of Christ, my Lord and Savior.    Amen.