Why Does Jesus Curse a Fig Tree?

Introduction: The Fig Tree Curser and Temple Cleanser

Good morning! [If you’re a new or returning visitor, my name is Devon Rossman, Lead Pastor here at FRC. I’m glad that you can be here to worship with us this morning!] This morning, we’ll be continuing our sermon series through the life of Jesus Christ, as God has recorded in the Bible for us, in the book of Mark. So far in this series, we’ve seen major events from the first three years or so of Jesus’s public ministry. And along the way, in light of his teaching and his powerful miracles, we’ve seen how people speculated that Jesus must be someone important. But in our text last week, we – of course – saw that Jesus is king. He’s the great king God had made promises about hundreds of years earlier – the king who would bring restoration and salvation to God’s people. Jesus himself embraced his royal identity as he rode past each fig tree and over many palm branches into the city of kings – the city of Jerusalem – on the back of a donkey.

But as Jesus entered Jerusalem, we were left with a bit of a cliffhanger. Because Jesus immediately went to the temple to inspect it. We weren’t told what he saw there. And Jesus didn’t take immediate action on what he saw, because it was too late in the day. He went to Bethany, a nearby village, to spend the night. But now in our text, a new day has come. And King Jesus returns to the temple to deal with the issues he saw the night before.

So if you have a Bible nearby, please turn with me to Mark, Chapter 11. I’ll be starting at verse 12 of Mark Chapter 11. But before I read our text, let’s ask God to make our time in his word fruitful. Let’s pray:

[Pray and Read Text]

A Faithless Temple and a Fruitless Fig Tree

I don’t think that many of us realize this. But the temple complex in Jerusalem was one of the most impressive religious structures in the ancient world. In terms of area, it was actually the largest temple complex in the whole Roman Empire. The most holy places, where the priests went, were a relatively small part of the temple space. But around those most-sacred spaces, there were large courtyards where devout Jews could enter for religious activities. And then around the outer perimeter of the temple area, there was an even bigger courtyard space where non-Jews could come in around the temple area, too. And so the total area was massive. It covered about 35 acres – about the size of 26 football fields.

I know that many people make a big deal about Morbark, not far away from our church in Mt Pleasant, MI here – they have a large manufacturing space that’s more than a million square feet. It’s the biggest industrial building in our area. And yet the temple complex was 10 acres bigger.

And in addition to the size of the structure, historians note that the primary temple building itself was covered in solid gold. And so it was a breath-taking structure, blindingly radiant in the sunlight. Certainly by having this great temple built for the God of heaven, many Jews probably imagined that God must be very impressed. He must be quite pleased to have such a fine-looking temple.

And yet as Jesus comes to the temple, he makes it clear that God is not pleased. Yes, the temple is beautiful. Yes, people are busy with activity around the temple spaces. They perhaps have the appearance of being very diligent – very devout. And yet as Jesus examines the temple, he notices a glaring issue. By and large, the Jews aren’t actually honoring & worshipping God.

And it’s plain in our text, Jesus is offended. Jesus is provoked by this superficial religious activity that fails to produce reverent fruit toward God. And so as we work through the text, we’ll examine two key ideas that appear are brought up here. First, we’ll examine the ways that fruitless religion is offensive to Jesus. This first point will be a bit longer. And then second, more briefly, we’ll examine how fruitful religion is evidenced by faith and forgiveness.

Fruitless Religion Is Offensive to Jesus

So let’s start with that first point – let’s examine how fruitless religion is offensive to Jesus.

One of the things you maybe noticed about our text as we read through it, is that it’s structured a bit like a sandwich. And what I mean by that is in the first part of our text, Jesus interacts with a fig tree. Then in the middle part of our text, Jesus is at the temple. And the closing part of our text comes back to the fig tree.

And it’s helpful to understand, this sandwich structure of events that we see in the text – it’s actually very intentional. Because in those days, when people around the Ancient Mediterranean region wanted to emphasize a main point, they often placed their big idea in the middle of a sandwich like this. They would begin and end with two similar events, that would introduce or illustrate their point. (Kind of like the two slices of bread). But then the meat in the middle of the sandwich is where you would find the main take home message.

And that’s what we see, here. The fig tree interactions give us a picture of how Jesus will respond to the fruitless religion of the Jews. So look again at Jesus’s first encounter with the fig tree, here. In verse 12, we’re told that on the following day – the day after Jesus had inspected the temple – he and his disciples came from Bethany, and Jesus was hungry. [Verse 13] “And seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to see if he could find anything on it. [But then we’re told] when he came to it, he found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs.”

Now, at first, the text might almost make it seem like Jesus was a big ignorant. Because he was looking for figs when it wasn’t the official fig season. But actually, what Jesus did makes sense. Because most of the fig varieties that grew around Jerusalem in those days were biferous figs. Biferous meaning that they would actually bear two crops – one early crop of figs on the old wood from the previous year, and then a larger, main crop of figs on new wood later in the fall. And you could generally tell when the early crop of figs was growing. Because the early fruit would grow at the same time that the leaves appeared, sometime in spring.

And so as Jesus is around Jerusalem, here in the spring – and as he sees that fig tree, fully covered in leaves, having the appearance of being a luscious, fruitful tree – Jesus comes up to look for the early fruit. That tree looked so good, so green – there should have been early figs. But as Jesus inspects the tree, there’s no fruit. Zero. The tree looked vigorous and productive from a distance, but it was all superficial.

And so in response, Jesus is harsh with this fig tree in a way that might surprise us. He essentially curses the tree. In verse 14, He speaks to it and says, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” The disciples hear him. And they’re probably confused. But from here they just shrug and continue on with Jesus into Jerusalem.

But as Jesus comes with his disciples into the city, we see that his displeasure in the temple is very similar to the displeasure he had toward the fig tree. In verse 15, Jesus enters the temple, and he begins to drive people out who are engaging in certain activities – people who seem to be missing the point of what the temple is for. We see vivid evidence that Jesus takes worship very seriously, and he’s put off by the way the Jews are failing to worship God rightly.

And based on the type of things Jesus confronts in the temple, we can see there were at least four different ways that the religious life of the Jews was going wrong. There are four issues that Jesus is clearly offended by, here.

First, we see that Jesus is offended when religion is commercialized. When Jesus enters the temple, we’re told in verse 15 that “he 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.”

You may remember I mentioned earlier, the outermost courtyard of the temple complex was called the court of the Gentiles. It was designed to be place where non-Jewish people could pay their respects to the LORD. And built into the outer wall of the temple complex, around this whole courtyard, there was a covered walkway, where the roof there was held up by columns. This covered walkway provided shelter from the sun and rain. And so over time, this became a desirable spot for merchants to set up shop.

Money-changers had a special opportunity at the temple because Roman coins had images of Roman Emperors, and some Greek coins had images of false gods. And Jews considered those coins to be idolatrous – not appropriate for paying the temple tax. So before the Jews could pay the temple tax, they often needed to exchange their Roman coins for other coins that were considered more pure. And the temple also provided a niche market for pigeon-sellers. Even though wealthy Jews could afford to bring sheep or larger livestock, there was a provision in the Jewish law, that people who were poor could sacrifice these pigeons instead. And so merchants would carry pigeons right in to the temple area, as a convenience product.

But when Jesus sees that this section of the temple has been turned into a marketplace – that holy things have been hijacked by people who want to generate cash for themselves – Jesus is disgusted. He was angry and disgusted about it the night before. But, of course, Jesus is a perfect example for us. He didn’t take action impulsively, out of sinful anger. But he considered his next steps overnight. And when he came to the temple, he came self-controlled and yet serious about purifying the temple for God’s dignity and honor. And so he flips tables and seats, and he drives the merchants out of the temple. Now, it’s important to point out – when Jesus does this, he’s operating within his rightful sphere of authority and influence. We shouldn’t think that Jesus is just tossing around tables as an ordinary Jew, who’s zealous about spiritual things. He’s not seizing authority from the priests and other temple leaders that isn’t rightfully his. But by enforcing the purity of the temple, Jesus is asserting that he has authority that’s even higher than the chief priests! He’s showing himself to be the Lord of the temple, the divine Son of God.

And that’s what makes the commercialization of religion all the more insulting to Jesus. People have defiled the temple by turning it into a money-house. It’s a form of idolatry. And Jesus says no more.

But there’s a second thing in our text that offends Jesus. He’s also offended by the casualization of religion – people treating holy things in an overly casual way. We see Jesus confronting that issue in verse 16. “And he would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple.” Now the main issue here isn’t really about the carrying things. The issue is actually about people traveling through the temple who weren’t there for worship. See, the temple complex at this point was built up on the eastern side of Jerusalem. And it had one entrance that went directly out of the city, down toward some villages. And because the temple was so large, people often didn’t want to walk around the temple area to a different entrance to the city. So people would use the temple entrance as a shortcut to get into the city. So the issue, here, is that people were treating the temple courts just as they would treat any other roadway. And their diminished regard for the temple space, was a reflection of their diminished reverence for God himself.

And so Jesus confronts the problem head-on. Brother, the way you’re living shows that you aren’t taking God seriously. Sister, you’re more focused on doing what’s convenient than you are about honoring the Lord as sacred and set apart. There’s nothing to be gained from being overly casual toward God. Now, the point here isn’t that we need to treat church buildings with superstitious reverence. Because God’s special presence doesn’t revolve around buildings anymore. Christ died, to cleanse us from sin, so that God’s Spirit would take up residence in us. You and I are supposed to be sacred spaces for God. Are you taking that seriously? Is the indwelling of God’s Spirit in Christians around you impacting the way you love and respect them? Jesus doesn’t want us to take these things casually or carelessly.

In our text, though, there’s a third issue that bothers Jesus. Jesus is offended when religion is communicated wrongly to outsiders. Because notice what he says in verse 17. Jesus teaches the people in the temple, and he says, “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations’? But you have made it a den of robbers.”

In other words, Jesus is speaking to people who were raised with the Old Testament Scriptures – he’s speaking to the Jews, here. And he’s challenging them – don’t you know what the temple is for? In Isaiah 56, verse 7, God declared his intent that the temple would be a house of prayer for all nations. A place not just for the Jews – but for the Gentile nations, too, to turn their attention to God, to pray to him, to worship him. And yet the Jews have veered away from true worship. And they’ve converted the temple courts into a den of robbers.

This “den of robbers” language is significant. Because Jesus is actually quoting from another prophet in the Old Testament, from Jeremiah 7, verse 11. See, a few centuries earlier, back in Jeremiah’s day, there was a generation of Jews who had a similar problem. They liked the temple. They seem to have enjoyed the spiritual feelings they had when they went there. But they had no real regard for God himself. And as they went about their personal lives, they were dishonest, abusive, greedy, and irreverent. In fact, that generation was so stubborn and wicked, that God sent foreign armies against them who destroyed the original city of Jerusalem and the original temple.

By Jesus’s day, everything had been rebuilt. It was Temple 2.0. And yet, now, the Jews in his own generation were going back to the same old mistakes of their forefathers. Instead of bringing real worship into the temple, they were just bringing their money bags to go shopping. They were bringing their own worldly-minded agendas, their own business plans. They were making the temple a den of robbers. And what’s worse, by their actions, the Jews were essentially communicating to the nations around them – this is how religion works. This is a fine way to interact with God.

Now, it’s important to point out, not all the Jews felt good about having a marketplace in the temple. In fact, many of the stricter Jewish scholars, some of the Pharisees – they also had some issues with market activities in the temple. But when it came down to it, even those Jews decided it perhaps wasn’t a big deal as long as the merchants stayed in the court of the Gentiles, and didn’t do business in the Jewish parts of the temple.

But, you see, Jesus was concerned about the whole temple. For two reasons. One, because it’s not just the Jewish part of the temple that was built for God. The whole thing is supposed to be a place for worshiping him. But then reason number two – why Jesus is concerned about the whole temple, is because he cares about the Gentile nations, and their inclusion in worship. Most of the Jews didn’t care two fish sticks about the Gentiles. They just cared for their own people. But, see, Jesus is different. He cares for those who are on the outside. He’s mindful of those who haven’t been raised with the Scriptures, who don’t come from a god-fearing family, who are being exposed to the Lord for the first time – he’s mindful of them. Just as we should be.

And so that’s another reason why he’s so upset when the Jews are distorting true religion in the eyes of their Gentile neighbors. Jesus wants to make sure the nations understand – the temple is a place of worship for them, too, no matter where they’re from, no matter their background. They, too, can and should call upon the true, living God of heaven. And they, too, will find mercy if they call to him. It’s a house of prayer for all nations! And Jesus is offended when that reality gets distorted.

More briefly, though, there’s a fourth issue we see at the temple. We see that religion was coordinated by corrupt men. Look with me in verse 18. We’re told that when the chief priests and the scribes heard about Jesus’s actions, “they were seeking a way to destroy him, for they feared him, because all the crowd was astonished at his teaching.”

I indicated this earlier – the chief priests were the primary temple leaders in those days. And these scribes with them were basically their consultants and lawyers. And you’d think that if these people really cared about the activities of worship, you’d think that these people would appreciate Jesus’s passion to defend God’s sacredness.

And yet the chief priests have no desire to consult with Jesus, or to carry on his work of spiritual renewal. They’re not even willing to just ignore him. All they want to do is destroy him. We’re not given the exact reason. But it would seem that these corrupt men disliked Jesus, because he made them look bad – he exposed the problems with their spiritual leadership. And so we see the awful state of religion in Jesus’s day, because of how the temple leaders respond to him. “Oh, this man Jesus – he’s telling us to make the temple all about God? Let’s kill him.”

It sounds like bizarre reaction. But think about when people point out flaws in your spiritual life. It can be tempting to respond a similar way. Right? With defensiveness, with anger. Our natural response maybe isn’t so different. It turns out that we don’t just need Jesus to clean out a temple building. But the bigger thing that needs to be cleaned up is our arrogance, our unwillingness to change, our refusal to admit when we’re wrong and needy for God. As corrupt people, we need Jesus to purify us and to set us right with heaven – just as he demonstrates, here in our text, by setting things right in the temple courts.

As evening comes, though, Jesus and his disciples head back out of the city, to Bethany, where they have a place to stay the night. And then the next morning, on their way back into the city, the disciples notice a tree. It’s the same fig tree that Jesus had just rebuked 24 hours earlier, but now it looks much different. Verse 20 says, “As they passed by in the morning, they saw the fig tree withered away to its roots.” Imagine how startling that would be. Just a day before, the tree was lush, covered in bright green leaves – healthy, glowing. But now the whole thing is twisted and shriveled and dead. And Jesus’s whole purpose with the fig tree, here, is to show us – this is what false, fruitless religion leads to. It leads to accursedness and death.

People are often tempted just to care about appearances – I want to look like I’m spiritual. I want to look like I’m praying. I want to say things that will show off to people that I’m wise in the faith. I want to go on exotic mission trips, I want to worship in a large, impressive church building, I want to do nice things that will make it look like I’m close to God. Living for appearances like this can take many different forms.

But Jesus is ultimately concerned about the true temple court of your heart. Religious play-acting is fruitless, it’s empty – it’s like a leafy tree with no figs. And this imagery is especially significant, here. Because in multiple parts of the Old Testament, the nation of the Jews was compared to a fig tree. But you can see how Jesus responds to fig trees that look alive, but are actually fake and unfruitful. They end up cursed – under divine judgment. (This is a foreshadowing of 70 AD, when just a few decades later, the Jews would be driven out of Jerusalem, and the temple would be destroyed. But more than this – it’s also a foreshadowing of judgment day, when the hearts of all mankind will be exposed).

And we need to seriously ask ourselves – am I just concerned about keeping up appearances? Am I only motivated to obey and enjoy God when there are other people around to see me, and to affirm me? For as long as you aren’t convinced of God’s worthiness to be trusted and treasured, your life will be fruitless – your future will be like the future of that fig tree.

Fruitful Religion Is Evidenced by Faith and Forgiveness

And yet in our text, we see that there’s another path. In verse 21, Peter speaks up, and he says to Jesus, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree that you cursed has withered.”

And in response, notice what Jesus does. He doesn’t really comment on the tree. But in the remaining verses of our text, what I think Jesus is doing – is he’s taking us directly to a spiritual application. He’s highlighting, for his disciples, what a fruitful tree is supposed to look like. And this brings us to my second main point – a much shorter point. That fruitful religion is evidenced by faith and forgiveness.

Jesus teaches on the importance of faith, starting in verse 22. He directly tells his disciples, “Have faith in God.” Don’t be like so many of the other Jews, who have so little respect for God’s importance, and watchfulness, and power. But have a high view of God. Trust in God, in all your trials, in all your seasons of success when you’re tempted to boast in yourself. Rely on him for your earthly life today, and for the eternal security of your soul. Have faith in God.

And Jesus specifically makes the point that this faith should have a big impact on how we pray. We should pray big prayers without making up our mind ahead of time that God can’t or won’t do what we’ve asked. And to make this point, Jesus says something rather astonishing, starting in verse 23. He says, “Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, “Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt, 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.” Jesus is reacting against the widespread unbelief of the Jews. And he’s insisting here – you should really trust that God can do big things. God can even do things that seem impossible – he can move mountains. He can overthrow empires. And even more gloriously, he can even overcome the corruption and unbelief of sinners, and he can save them. And so Jesus wants to encourage you: have faith in God.

As a quick sidenote, though, let me quickly explain what Jesus isn’t saying in this statement. Jesus isn’t saying that if you just believe enough, you’ll find a winning lottery ticket in your back pocket. And Jesus also isn’t saying that if you pray for something, and you don’t get it, then you must not have faith – or you must not have enough faith. Jesus’s point isn’t to give us a formula for how we can get our prayers answered a certain way. But his point is simply to encourage you and I, that we should legitimately believe in the one that we’re praying to! We really have a God in heaven who is willing and able to do amazing things. And as we call out in faith, for all that he has said is good and right, we should expect that we will see God at work. This is how God intends to work in our world – through the confident prayers of his people.

But in addition to this faith – and this prayerfulness – fruitful religion also produces forgiveness. We see this in verse 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.”

Now Jesus’s logic here may seem a little bit backwards to us. Because in many other parts of the Bible, the good news of Christianity is laid out something like this: God has sent Jesus Christ to die for your sins and to bring forgiveness to all who believe. Therefore, if you understand how much you’ve been forgiven of, then turn around and show that same forgiveness to others.

But in our text, Jesus comes at this from the opposite direction. And he says, “Forgive others, so that you may be forgiven.” Now, Jesus’s point isn’t that you need to earn forgiveness by forgiving other people. It might sound like that at first. But Jesus is simply insisting that forgiving others is a necessary fruit of salvation. If you aren’t forgiving other people – then chances are, there’s something about Christ that you’re not believing. If you aren’t forgiving other people, you can’t assume that you have forgiveness from God. Because those who know God – those who know the great mountain of sin that God has thrown into the sea, entirely because of his love and mercy – those who know gift of God’s forgiveness, through the suffering and death of Jesus Christ – they will forgive others. It doesn’t mean that it will be easy. It doesn’t mean that it won’t be costly. Certainly, God forgiving us came at the cost of his dearly beloved Son. But fruitful life, in relationship with God, will necessarily produce all kinds of good fruits, including the “good fig tree” fruit of forgiveness.

So ask yourself – as you sit here today, is there someone you’re still holding a grudge against? Is there someone who has wronged you, and to this moment, you haven’t been willing to let that go, and forgive that person? Friends, consider again that even when you were his enemies, Christ died for you. Before we said sorry, long before we took any sort of step toward regret or repentance, God came to us, holding out the generous offer of free forgiveness in the cross of Jesus Christ. And if God gave so freely to us, who are we to withhold from others?

God wants our religion to be real. He wants us to have a relationship with him of trust, and love, and true fruitfulness. And he’s confirmed his earnestness, by sending Jesus the King, to confront our sin, and to cleanse the temple of our hearts, and to call us to himself (as a fruitful fig tree).  Don’t say no. Have faith in God. Let’s pray: