Rock Solid Faith

 

Mark 11:11-26

¹¹ And Jesus entered Jerusalem and came into the temple area; 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 from 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 And He said to it, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again!” And His disciples were listening.

Jesus Drives Money Changers from the Temple

¹⁵ Then they *came to Jerusalem. And He entered the temple area and began to drive out those who were selling and buying on the temple grounds, and He overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who were selling doves; ¹⁶ and He would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple grounds. ¹⁷ And He began to teach and say to them, “Is it not written: ‘My house will 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 this, and they began seeking how to put Him to death; for they were afraid of Him, because all the crowd was astonished at His teaching.

¹⁹ And whenever evening came, they would leave the city.

²⁰ As they were passing by in the morning, they saw the fig tree withered from the roots up. ²¹ And being reminded, Peter said to Him, “Rabbi, look, the fig tree that You cursed has withered.” ²² And Jesus answered and *said to 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 is going to happen, it will be granted to 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 to you. ²⁵ And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father who is in heaven will also forgive you for your offenses. ²⁶ But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father who is in heaven forgive your offenses.”

A fig tree sandwich! Verses 11 and 12, 20-26 sandwich in the cleansing of the temple.  Is there a connection? Jesus condemns the fig tree for not bearing fruit, but it was not the season for figs, so what was the problem? As Jesus explains, faith in God, even in the most impossible situations is what matters...in season or out of season. We cannot let the clutter of the practical disrupt God's rhythm. Yes, the people who came to the temple to offer sacrifice needed to exchange their coins to buy what was necessary, but Jesus shows them that the temple was not the place to do that; it was God's house for worship, not commerce. "All things for which you pray and ask for shall be granted"...Forgive others and you will be forgiven.  There is a different order of goods and bads in the kingdom of heaven; it's up to us to tune into it through prayer and meditation on the words and actions of Jesus.  They may not make sense on the worldly level, but make eminent sense on the spiritual level. God's ways are not our ways and rock solid faith is needed to see it that way.

Bro. Rene