14th June 2023

14th June 2023


Pray (ACts)


Read - Mark 11:12-21


Message Alan Burke 


The cursing of the fig tree to some seems shocking, sure this was a perfectly healthy tree after all we are told twice it was in leaf but this wasn’t a perfectly healthy tree and Jesus as a result cursed it. A fruit tree should bear fruit and in the cursing of the fig tree Jesus was giving the disciples an object lesson, teaching them the spiritual truth of how God’s people who were to be fruitful, who were to bear good fruit were in fact fruitless, everything might have looked alright from the distance, this tree after all was in leaf, covered in foliage and there was nothing, no fruit, not even the sign of fruit. Jesus here cursed the fig tree as a warning of what would happen if the people did not repent of their ways, of their fruitlessness. This is all taking place around the temple where there was much activity, much religious life but in reality there was death. While the pilgrims were coming to Jerusalem in their droves, ultimately everything that was going on was just just outward appearances, there was no fruit, it was all empty ritual. In effect it was a load of nonsense, all show but there was no death, there was a total absence of fruit. 


To give you an idea of the temple which was one of the wonders of the ancient world, there was what was known as the court of the Gentiles, the gentiles being those who are not Jews, and we here today are gentiles. At the temple complex there was an area that was reserved for Gentiles. It was set aside for Gentiles, it was as far as you could get as a gentile was this court, it was set aside for the gentiles to come to worship the living God who symbolically dwelt among his people in the temple. Jesus arrived and this place was heaving, not with gentiles worshiping the Lord, they were not welcome, even though God’s people were to reach out to the gentiles, to be a light to the nations they failed. Instead of worship this area was filled with everything needed to make the passover work, we have from historical sources at the time that there were about 250,000 lambs sacrificed during passover, think to the sheer amount of handlers that were needed to be there, the sheer organisation that would have involved in it all. 


At the side there were money changers, like crossing the border and you get to a shop and there is a sign up, we don’t accept Stirling, well those who needed to buy and animal for sacrifice had to go to the Bureau de change and you didn’t have an option, if you wanted to make a sacrifice, to observe the passover, you had to change your money, you had to buy the lamb or a pigeon and exchange rates were extraordinary and the animals were sold for a premium, if you were a trader you’d make a pound or two and the chief priests and the teachers of the law were taking a cut of every transaction. Jesus enters in a rage, he is angry at what he sees, he is proved to anger for a place that was supposed to be for the worship of God and it was nothing more than a market yard, the sounds and smells were not a fragrant offering to the Lord, and Jesus wouldn’t let them carry anything through, because this court acted like a shortcut to the temple. Jerusalem that day was a hive of activity, but there was no fruit, it is not activity that mattered or what matters to God it is Fruit. Here there was no fruit from the people, the cursing of the fig tree is an enacted parable that speaks of what Jesus found in the temple. 


There is something that we need to ask ourselves as the church today, because in many places there is lots of activity but there is no fruit and it is not activity that mattered or what matters to God it is Fruit. Are we just trying to keep plates spinning as a church or are we seeking fruit from it, are we seeking that what we do would be fruitful, that it would bear fruit for the Lord. If we want to bear fruit then what what we will look to as our rule and guide is the word of God, not the latest innovation in doing ‘church’ but God’s word and we must make a priority of worship above all things for everything else will flow out of that but if we can’t get this most basic part right then there will be no fruit, maybe lots of activity but no fruit.


Pray (acTS)


Sing


WSC
Q72 What is forbidden in the seventh commandment?
The seventh commandment forbiddeth all unchaste thoughts, words, and actions. (Matt. 15:19, Matt. 5:28, Eph. 5:3–4)
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