The religious leaders of the Jews had been trying to kill
Jesus since 3:6, they’ve been plotting to destroy Him, and His arrival into
their city, onto their patch hasn’t helped calm them down any. Here, Jesus
contention with the Pharisees steps up another level, and as it does, we learn
something vitally important about the Kingdom of God, and about it’s King. We
learn that life in the Kingdom is about a relationship, not about religion.
About love, not about works. Tonight we’ll see Jesus condemn religion, and show
us two things that real faith in God is based on.
First of all, in verses 12-21, we see Jesus condemn
religion. What is religion? Religion is any system, or anything we do that we
think makes God approve of us. For the Jews it was animal sacrifices, which
were given to Moses to show him the need for a saviour, but by Jesus’ time had
been turned into something corrupt and sinful. For us it can be anything. Our
church attendance can be religious, if we feel like it makes Jesus love us
more. Our Bible reading can be religious if it makes us feel like Jesus
approves of us. Not committing sins that ‘they’ commit can make us religious,
if it makes us think we are better than whoever they are. Here, Jesus condemns
religion. Here, Jesus puts religion out of business. Let’s see how.
In verse 12, He’s hungry, He’s skipped breakfast to spend
more time in prayer, and He sees a fig tree with no fruit on it, and curses it.
How often have we opened the fridge at home and not found the food we were
looking for and wish we could curse the fridge?! Well here that’s what Jesus
does! But why? And why does Mark tell us about this? Well if you look at this
passage you’ll see that Mark puts Jesus visit to the temple in the middle of
the story about the cursing of the fig tree. Jesus is showing us what’s wrong
with religion by showing us what’s wrong with the fig tree. It had leaves but
no fruit. It looked good, but there was nothing worthwhile on it’s branches. We
can say exactly the same thing about religion. It looks good, but it’s dead.
The Temple in Jerusalem looked good, but there was nothing good there, no life
there. Our religion, whatever it may be, looks good, but there is no life
there. Jesus condemns religion as He curses the fig tree. Religion does not
produce life, and therefore it is worthless.
Then Jesus heads to the Temple. Remember it’s Passover, and
maybe as many as two million people have come to the city to take part in the
festival. These people had foreign money that needed changing, and needed to
buy animals to sacrifice. All this business took place at the Temple. It
started as a good service, people didn’t have to bring a lamb with them when
they travelled, they could buy one when they got there. People had to offer
Jewish money in the Temple, so they could buy some with their Syrian or
Egyptian money when they arrived. Except by Jesus time this had turned from a
religious help into a money making scheme for the priests. Animals were sold at
extortionate prices, money was exchanged at a 400% mark-up, meaning that if you
gave $2 you’d get 5c back. This is what Jesus confronts as He enters the
Temple. This is why there were money changes, and pigeon sellers and people
carrying things through the Temple. And Jesus stopped them all.
Imagine how powerful, how influential Jesus must have been
to shut all this down by Himself. To let all the animals loose, to stop all the
buying and selling, to stop anyone bringing anything through the Temple. I
would’ve loved to have seen it. And why was Jesus doing all this? Because of
what he says in verse 17: ‘is it not written by house shall be a house of
prayer for all nations, but you have made it a den of robbers. Jesus quotes
from Isaiah to remind His listeners of the real purpose of the Temple, which is
to meet with God. It’s a place for all people to come together and pray and
worship and thank God. This is how we can know whether or not what we’re doing
is from religion or from faith. Does your Bible reading bring you closer to
God, or just make you feel better about yourself? Does coming to church bring
you closer to God, or do you just come to stop feeling guilty? Are you
faithful, or religious?
Jesus shows us the religion is not only fruitless, but also
corrupt. Not only does it not produce good fruit, like joy, peace and patience,
but it produces bad fruit like pride and greed. So are you joyful and patient
or proud and greedy? That answer goes a long way to demonstrating whether
you’re faithful or religious.On the way back out of town that evening, they pass by the fig tree once more and Peter notices that it has withered. Just like the cursed Temple is finished so is the cursed fig tree. No fruit will ever come from the tree again, just like no fruit will ever come from the Temple again. The Temple was destroyed, never to be rebuilt, about forty years later in 70AD.
Why does Jesus do this? In Amos 4:9, God says this to His
people: ‘I struck you with blight and mildew, your many gardens and your
vineyards, your fig trees and your olive trees the Lord devoured, yet you did
no return to me, declares the Lord.’ Jesus does this so that His people might
return to Him, and how can we do that? Jesus shows us two things that real
faith is based on in verses 22-25, read them with me.
First of all, real faith is based on dependence. Jesus
doesn’t teach us here that prayer give us super powers, but that in a crisis,
and in fact every day, we rely on Jesus, not on religion. We turn to Jesus and
ask for help, we turn to Jesus and ask for guidance and wisdom and forgiveness.
Religion doesn’t do those things, Jesus does. He promises the disciples that
the Temple would be destroyed, but they have to wait 40 years for it. They have
to depend on Him. He makes promises to us that we have to wait for.
Do you depend on Jesus? Or on your religious works?
The Lord sums up His attack on religion in verse 25. Simply,
if we want to live in the Kingdom of forgiveness, we must forgive. If the
Temple was supposed to be a house of prayer for all nations, it would first
have to be a place of forgiveness. If you and I are going to be forgiven by
God, we’ll have to forgive others. Are you forgiving? Do you forgive? Or do you
hold grudges to make yourself feel better about life? Do you forgive? Or religiously hold up a standard that no one can maintain.
In Mark 11:12-26 Jesus attacks the Temple, and with it
attacks every form of religion that we care to mention. But let’s not feel smug
and think that we have it right. That’s the heart of the religion that Jesus
was attacking and condemning. Instead let’s examine ourselves, and ask God to
reveal our motives. Why do we do what we do? Why do we read the Bible? Why do
we go to church? Because we have faith in Jesus? Or because we are religious? And
let’s ask Jesus for help. Help not to be proud, but help to be dependent on
Him. We can’t get to God in any other way except through Jesus, and we come to
Jesus through faith, not religion.
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