Do You Bear Fruit?

Do you bear fruit? 

Mark 11:12-19 NRSV

April 3, 2023 

Holy Monday

To be able to share a moment in Christ’s journey to the cross with you this holy season, I am grateful. I’m Brandon Buchanan, the director of media ministries and a certified candidate for pastoral ministry in the United Methodist Church. 

Let’s pray. Gracious God, the hope of all in need, pour your Spirit upon us, that we may be instruments of your justice and compassion, a light to the nations, and a living promise of your new heaven and new earth. Amen. 

SCRIPTURE

Today we are reading from the Gospel of Mark, Chapter 11:12-25

12 On the following day, when they came from Bethany, he (Jesus) was hungry. 13 Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to see whether perhaps he would find anything on it. 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 heard it. 

15 Then they came to Jerusalem. And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who were selling and those who were buying in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves; 16 and he would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple. 17 He was teaching and saying, “Is it not written, 

‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? 

But you have made it a den of robbers.” 

18 And when the chief priests and the scribes heard it, they kept looking for a way to kill him; for they were afraid of him, because the whole crowd was spellbound by his teaching. 19 And when evening came, Jesus and his disciples went out of the city. 

20 In the morning as they passed by, they saw the fig tree withered away to its roots. 21 Then Peter remembered and said to him, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree that you cursed has withered.” 22 Jesus answered them, “Have faith in God. 23 Truly I tell you, if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ and if you do not doubt in your heart, but believe that what you say will come to pass, it will be done for you. 24 So I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. 

25 “Whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone; so that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses.”

The Word of God for the People of God. Thanks be to God. 

In the last few months, I have filled out my fair share of paperwork and had multiple meetings and conversations on this path to becoming a pastor in the United Methodist Church. One of the papers I had to submit answered three questions based on John Wesley’s Historic Questions. The last question for that essay was, “Have they fruit? Have any been truly convinced of sin and converted to God, and are believers edified by their service?”

Have they fruit? I spent nearly an entire day looking back over my life and all of the ministries I’ve been a part of. Do I have fruit I asked myself. Has anyone been truly convinced and converted to God? Are other believers edified by my service? When I answered in person, my response, was that I hope so. I hope that things planted fruited and not just shown leaves. 

In your story, has that question ever come up? How have you, a Christ follower, made a difference? How have you let God’s light shine on others? How have you taken care of our neighbors? 

During this week leading up to the death and resurrection of the ultimate hope-giver, I want you to take a moment. And Reflect. Breathe. And then ask yourself this question: Do I have fruit? 

Go back in time with me for a moment. Using your holy imagination and seeing Jesus and his disciples starting their morning walking toward Jerusalem. Breaking their fast from the night before, and remembering all that took place yesterday. the triumphal entry, Hosanna in the Highest! and the beginning of the Passover celebration where Jews from throughout the diaspora, those who lived all over, would make a pilgrimage for this high holy celebration in Jerusalem, this celebration of Freedom from when they were slaves in Egypt. You then notice, Jesus all of a sudden in his humanity, experiences hunger. St. Augustine noted his hunger and said: 

Did Christ really want physically to relish and consume fruit himself when he sought the fruit of this fig tree? And if he had found it there, would he then even have eaten it? Did he really want to drink water when he said to the woman of Samaria, “Give me a drink”? When he was on the cross saying “I thirst,” was this really all about his physical thirst? For what does Christ hunger more than our good works? For what does Christ thirst more than our faithful response?” 

Mark uses a literary technique where he sandwiches the story: the fig tree cursed, then to the temple, and then returns to the fig tree where we find the answer to why Jesus was prophetically and righteously angry. 

You see, the Fig tree, has historically been a representation of Israel and the temple. Jesus Curses it, because at this time of the season, although it wouldn’t have ripe figs, it would have had green seedlings that were typical on the fig trees during that season. Yet there was no food, no fruit. Only leaves: show not substance. 

At the temple We see Jesus call out the religious leaders and turn over tables. Again, it’s a major feast holiday and everyone came to town. With out-of-towners there comes the need to change money, in order to buy unblemished sacrifices. Because travelers came to the temple to offer sacrifices to God for forgiveness. They didn’t travel with their animal sacrifices and risk an unclean animal. And the only currency used at the temple to make that purchase was temple shekel, so money was exchanged. 

So why does Jesus turn over the table and halt the sacrifices? Why does he quotes Isaiah 56:7 and Jeremiah 7:11 when he said is it not written? ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? But you have made it a den of robbers.” 

I’d like to note that these quotes shouldn’t be seen as an objection to inflated pigeon prices or dishonest exchange rates. You see, the word for robbers does not mean cheats, but muggers or pirates, who use their “dens” not for robbing people, but for evading punishment. This was Jeremiah’s original complaint; the priests were relying on the supposed strength of the temple to protect them from the consequences of their faithlessness.

Jewish New Testament Scholar Amy-Jill Levine said, “The present-day comparison to what Jeremiah, and Jesus, condemned is easy to make: The church member sins during the workweek, either by doing what is wrong or by failing to do what is right. Then on Sunday morning this same individual, perhaps convinced of personal righteousness, heartily sings the hymns, happily shakes the hands of others, and generously puts a fifty-dollar bill in the collection plate. That makes the church a den of robbers—a cave of sinners. It becomes a safe place for those who are not truly repentant and who do not truly follow what Jesus asks. The church becomes a place of showboating, not of fishing for people.” 

Jesus interprets the tree’s destruction as an example of the dramatic power available to the believing community through prayer. It follows here precisely because the predicted destruction of the temple requires a reconsideration of the conditions for effective prayer. Before the temple was destroyed in 70AD, it was seen as the place to have effective prayers. Enemies were converted, struck down, and victories were granted. 

In the Disney classic, TRON, the computer programs would talk to their physical counterparts, the Users, and in order to communicate with them they would have to travel a great distance and come to this massive place that sent a beam directly to the user. This is what the temple was, it was a place for people to come and offer their sacrifices and prayers with a direct line to God. 

With Jesus’ turning of the tables, he prophesied the temple’s destruction and a need for something new. 

Jesus gives us two new means for effective prayers where we no longer have to come to the temple. The first is wholehearted faith in God. New Testament scholar, William Lane, commented that “When prayer is the source of faith’s power and the means of its strength, God’s sovereignty is its only restriction.” The second condition essential for effective prayer is forgiveness. 

Faith in God, prayer, and forgiveness are important parts of the concept for the new community that will replace the fallen temple said Mark commentator R. Alan Culpepper. 

Levine also said, “For the earliest followers of Jesus…the Temple was still their house of prayer. They worshiped Jesus as Lord, and they worshiped as well in what Jesus called “my Father’s house.” When the Temple was destroyed, they... continued to worship in their homes and in their synagogues.The Jewish followers of Jesus took comfort in the idea that Jesus’ body was for them a new temple. In the sacrifice of Jesus, and in eating the bread and drinking the wine, they could find the reconciliation that they had previously found in the Jerusalem Temple.

As a church, I have seen this place have fruit. 

Even This last week Pastor John said on Facebook that you’ll turn this place upside down to host a spiritual retreat for high schoolers. You go out of your way to welcome immigrants and give them opportunities. You feed the hungry, close to 300 free meals a week. You’re children’s ministry is inventive. You’re a safe place for recovering addicts to find community. Your music is inspirational. You give generously to Mission and ministry and volunteer around the world. You study the scriptures, share life together, and he said you both confess and live out the historic Christian faith. 

As a church you have fruit.

Maybe you might fully assess what you have done during the past year and what you will do in the future. Have you forgiven trespasses, or resisted temptation? Have you loved you neighbors as yourself? Have you, as Jesus mandates, loved your enemies? Have you shaken the hand of the person you do not like or who does not like you? Have you fully been reconciled not only to God but also to one another?

Now take another breath. Look inwardly, ask yourself once again. Do I have fruit? 

Let’s pray: 

Gracious Jesus, whose body became the new temple, who became our conduit for atonement, thank you. Thank for your sacrifice and resurrection. thank for teaching us about faith, hope and reconciliation. At this time We confess that we have sinned against you in thought word and deed, by what we have done and by what we have left undone. We have not loved you with our whole heart; we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. We truly and humbly repent. Have mercy on us that we may delight in your will and walk in your ways, to the glory of your name. Amen.