Fig Trees, Mountain Moving, and Jesus

This Sunday past, I tackled one of those passages in the Bible that seem to make little sense. In this passage, Jesus curses a fig tree because it's not bearing fruit. Then He heads to the temple, cleans the worship space of buyers and sellers, and basically curses it.

Why?

In each case it was because the purpose God gave for the item wasn't being carried out.

The tree had leaves. That meant it should have had fruit. But it didn't. It looked awesome, but looking good wasn't what being a fig tree was about. If you're a fig tree, you produce figs.

The temple - was for worship. That was the reason God chose Israel - to be "a light to the nations." Yet the Jews, though they had the temple, the priests, the sacrifices - it looked as though they were a people who were holy and productive for God - weren't.

They looked like they believed, but their lives showed no fruit, AND they were preventing the Gentiles from coming near to God. So Jesus cleaned house.

I'm a pastor. That means I'm supposed to care for the needs of the "sheep". I'm to protect them from harm, and make sure that they receive what they need to grow stronger. Every single sheep commands my attention and has my heart. So when they don't care about growing, or pretend they aren't God's - it bothers me a great deal.

To love someone means wanting the best for them. And the absolute best is Jesus.

When Peter saw the results of Jesus' cursing of the tree, he was shocked. But his question revealed that he wanted to know more about the how than the why. So Jesus blew away his light question with a heavy dose of doctrine "Have faith in God." Jesus then said that if you had that, trees were easy - you could even move mountains. His point was you had to begin - and stay - intimate with God - trusting Him with all your life.

I'm really determined that whatever time God allows me to have will be spent in a clear focus of making disciples. I do not want to have to explain to Jesus why the people He entrusted me with look "good" but aren't making any difference for the Kingdom of God.

Got Fruit?

I'm working in the orchard every day.

Grace!

David