Mark 11:12–25
“On the following day, when they came from Bethany, He was hungry. And seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, He went to see if He could find anything on it. When He came to it, He found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. And He said to it, ‘May no one ever eat fruit from you again.’ And His disciples heard it.”
This passage is a grave warning for us. Suppose the Lord returns and, finding us not expecting Him, we are living in sin. Truly, He would say to us, “Get away from me, you workers of evil, for I never knew you.” No, we must always remain faithful to Him, we must always be bearing fruit for the Lord. For, “Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” Every tree that does not obey the commands of the Lord will be cast from Him to “where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth.” Bearing good fruit for the Lord can come in many forms, but the form it must always take is personal holiness. Everything else will follow from being holy and our Father is holy. Being separate from the world, refraining from living in the wickedness that so many do, is a great witness for Christ. When we are separate from the world, people begin to wonder what it is that makes us different, they begin to seek after our Lord. May we always be a good source of fruit for the Lord, for, as the Apostle Paul writes, “You, a wild olive shoot, were grafted in their place to share the richness of the olive tree, do not boast over the branches. If you do boast, remember it is not you that supports the root, but the root that supports you.” Christ is the root, but He also is the caretaker that grafted us onto the plant of the Israelites. For, speaking as a Gentile, we originally did not have the grace of God, it was bestowed completely upon the Nation of Israel, but, through Christ, we all can receive the forgiving grace of the Lord Almighty. May we always bear good fruit! May we always be living in holiness for the Lord, humbly serving our fellow man, and giving up our life for Adonai. Dedicate your life, dear Christian, to the Lord God Almighty, Creator of Heaven and Earth.
“And they came to Jerusalem. And He entered the Temple and began to drive out those who sold and those who bought in the Temples, and He overturned the tables of the moneychangers and the seats of those who sold pigeons, and He would not allow anyone to carry anything through the Temple. And He taught, and said to them, ‘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.’”
For anyone who says that Christ was solely loving and nonoffensive, nonaggressive, show them this passage. It is the first clearing of the Temple where He fashions a whip to beat the sinners using the Temple for their selfish purposes, and in the second clearing, He calls the Pharisees and all who sold there robbers! For the Pharisees would get a small cut of whatever profit the moneychangers and animal sellers would get, and they had an interest in keeping the business going. People were allowed to bring their own animals in for sacrifice, but if they did, the priests would reject them on the basis that they were not good enough, and tell them to buy something from the Temple sellers. It really was a racket, a monopoly of sinning directly in the face of God. The priests didn’t care, however, that they were hypocrites and sinners, they thought themselves to be quite clever in their moneymaking, and that was all they cared about. I’m sure there were some priests who refrained from the sins of their peers; as John Dalberg-Acton said, ‘Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.’ The devil used the priests to corrupt the Law of the Lord and turn the Israelites, however unknowingly, from God to their own desires.
Take note here of the righteous anger with which Christ clears the Temple. There is nothing wrong with being angry, as some lying church leaders would have you to believe, rather that your anger is directed in the correct place: against sin and unrighteousness. For our Lord Christ was violently opposed to sin, especially sin disrespecting His Father’s House, we must take His example and live it out in our own lives! Have the Lord clear your heart of sin, deny your flesh, and the devil, the ability to gain the victory over your soul, for the victory has already been won! Christ is the victor, He has broken the back of the devil, and “We are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.” For our bodies are the new Temple of the Lord, He lives in us, may He clear out the mothballs of sin, that hide in the deepest corners of our souls, and shine a great light throughout us, illuminating every sin to wipe it clear. He must completely overturn everything, as He did in the Temple, to finish the power of sin in our lives. He did not come in to the Temple and gently help people carry out their tables, admonishing them in a soft voice that they’ve been very bad boys and to not come into the Temple again, or at least until He left, no, He threw the tables, He overturned them with power, casting money everywhere, making a huge mess, and shouting about the hypocrisy that pervaded the place. So it must be with us! He must overturn our flesh, casting it far from us, and vehemently call out our sin so that we might turn from them and return His Temple to a house of prayer. Oh, that He would do this for every man, every woman, every sinner that desperately needs His Salvation! We all are desperately wicked, and only a violent overturning of our mentality, of our actions, will turn us from the ways of sin to the ways of the Lord Almighty, the King of kings and Lord of lords. Praise His mighty Name, for He has saved us from the gross sin that once pervaded our lives, so that we might be reconciled to the Father, that we can know Him and worship Him forevermore. Praise the Lord!
