Living with Christ in the Shadow of the Cross: Bearing Fruit (Mark 11:12-14, 20-26)

Living with Christ in the Shadow of the Cross
Bearing Fruit
Mark 11:12-14, 20-26

INTRODUCTION:
With farmers who grow vines, we all know that the vines have to be pruned back each year in order to cleanse them. A vine produces what some farmers call “sucker shoots”. If the farmer left those “sucker shoots” alone to grow, they would drain food and energy from the vine so that if it did produce fruit, the fruit would be small. Rachel and I had two apple trees in our yard in Kentucky. The retired preacher came over one time to prune the apple trees. I had no experience doing that.

Every vinedresser knows it is important to prune away these little sucker shoots to ensure plentiful fruit. The pruning process is basically a “cleansing” process.

God calls on us to produce fruit, to make us more like Him, more like Christ. In those areas where we are not producing fruit, Christ will prune so we can produce more fruit. If I am spending money on sinful behaviors, Christ wants to prune that sinful behavior so I can spend my money on righteous behaviors. If I am spending time on sinful behaviors. Christ wants to prune that sinful behavior so I can spend my time on righteous endeavors. If I am glorifying myself, Christ wants to prune that sinful behavior so my glory will go to the Father, not myself.

Before we look at our assigned topic for this particular study of “Living with Christ in the Shadow of the Cross,” I want to begin in Isaiah 5:1-7…

“Let me sing now for my well-beloved A song of my beloved concerning His vineyard. My well-beloved had a vineyard on a fertile hill. He dug it all around, removed its stones, And planted it with the choicest vine. And He built a tower in the middle of it And also hewed out a wine vat in it; Then He expected it to produce good grapes, But it produced only worthless ones.
“And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, Judge between Me and My vineyard. “What more was there to do for My vineyard that I have not done in it?
Why, when I expected it to produce good grapes did it produce worthless ones?
“So now let Me tell you what I am going to do to My vineyard: I will remove its hedge and it will be consumed; I will break down its wall and it will become trampled ground.
“I will lay it waste; It will not be pruned or hoed, But briars and thorns will come up.
I will also charge the clouds to rain no rain on it.”
For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel And the men of Judah His delightful plant. Thus He looked for justice, but behold, bloodshed; For righteousness, but behold, a cry of distress.”

The Assyrian invasion in the 700s, the time of Isaiah, was brought about, allowed, by God for the primary purpose of pruning Israel of their idolatry. Here, we see that their idolatry led them to engage in selfish, sinful behaviors. In verse 7, Isaiah makes a play on words. God looked for the “fruit” of “justice” (מִשְׁפָּט) but Israel produced “bloodshed” (מִשְׂפָּח). God looked for the “fruit” of “righteousness” (צְדָקָה), but Israel produced “distress” (צְעָקָה) - cries of distress brought about by oppression and persecution by the wealthy and wicked of the poor but holy ones. That’s why God was punishing Israel and why He would later destroy their temple by the Babylonians. A barren fig tree came to symbolize the disobedient nation of Israel in the OT: Jer. 8:13; 24:8; 29:17; Hosea 9:10; Joel 1:12; Micah 7:1.

Now, fast-forward 700 years from Isaiah and we have the last week of Jesus on earth. We are living with Christ in the shadow of the cross and asking what lessons can we learn. Our assigned text in this study is the cursing of the barren fig tree… This is probably Monday of that fateful week…

JESUS WAS HUNGRY - 11:12-14:
First, let’s not overlook this point and its obvious theological ramification. Jesus is God - in - the - flesh. He got hungry! Jesus experienced all the physical needs and urges we experience. That’s what makes His high priesthood so powerful and so relevant for us today. We do not have a priest who has not been touched by the feelings of our infirmities but was tempted in every way like we are - yet without sin (Heb. 4:15). Jesus was hungry.

Jesus had not eaten breakfast. He was very hungry. He saw a fig tree and expected to find some early figs. The leaves would appear first, afterward, the fruit. So, Jesus did something He had never done before - He miraculously cursed. He cursed the fig tree so that fruit would no longer grow on it. It had been deceptive and deception violates the truthful nature of God. The tree withered up.

You remember the parable of the sower from Mark 4… That parable is about producing fruit. The seed that symbolized “good and honest hearts,” produced fruit thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold! In yet another parable at the end of chapter 4 of Mark, Jesus says, “When the crop permits, the master immediately puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.” Certainly the concept of the “harvest” relates to the coming judgment. We will be judged based on whether we produce fruit.

THE MESSAGE OF THE FIG TREE - 11:20-22:
The next morning, which is Tuesday morning, Jesus and His apostles pass by that same spot and they all see that the fig tree was withered from the roots up.

I would suggest that the primary purpose of the cursed fig tree is that Jesus is indicating the fruitlessness of the nation of Israel. I believe this cursed fig tree is an object lesson to His disciples that a curse is coming over the nation of Israel as a whole and the city of Jerusalem and specifically the temple of the Jews. This object lesson anticipates the destruction of the temple in A. D. 70, specifically because Israel, as a whole, was fruitless. Jesus expected them to produce the fruit of “repentance and trust in the gospel” (1:15) and they refused to respond. In Matthew’s gospel, you remember, that Jesus said,

"But to what shall I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the market places, who call out to the other children, and say, ‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not mourn.’” (11:16-17). John behaved in one way and the Jews did not respond. Jesus behaved in a different way and the Jews did not respond. They simply refused to produce fruit.

Peter and the other disciples marvel that the fig tree withered so quickly at the curse by the Son of God. As Jesus had done in Matthew 17:20, He challenged His disciples’ quality of faith and what they would do with it. Mark 11:22 ought to be a passage that we have memorized and try to live our lives based on it: “Have faith in God.” Trust God. If we trust God, then we will produce the fruit that He expects. Mark uses the word “faith” five times. In Mark 4:40, Jesus rebuked His apostles in the storm on the sea of Galilee because they did not trust, either Him or the Father. In Mark 5:34, Jesus blesses the woman who touched His garment, because she trusted the power of Jesus to heal. In Mark 10:52, Jesus blessed the blind man because he trusted the power of Jesus to heal. This passage (11:22) is the last time Mark will use the word “faith.”

JESUS’ APPLICATION - 11:23-26:
Jesus promised His followers that if they had faith, even as small as a grain of mustard seed (in Matthew’s account), and did not doubt or hesitate, they could say to a mountain, “Be removed and be cast into the sea,” and it would be done. This whole saying is a proverb. Jesus does not have a specific mountain in mind nor a specific sea. Nor is he teaching the ability to levitate objects.

He just wants His followers to trust Him and live by that trust (cf. 2 Cor. 5:7). The first application of that faith is trust in prayer. Jesus continues: “All, whatever you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.” What a tremendous promise of prayer! Mark uses the verb “to believe” 14 times! In Mark 1:15, it is associated with repentance. In Mark 5:36, is is contrasted with fear. In Mark 9:23-24, it is contrasted with doubt.

The second application of faith in the life of the Christian, in this context, is forgiveness. Keep in mind Jesus is on the verge of His crucifixion. This is Tuesday; He’ll be crucified on Friday. And He’s telling His apostles they need to have a heart of forgiveness. Think about whom Jesus is going to have to forgive or be willing to forgive over the next few days:

Judas.
Jesus’ own apostles.
The Sanhedrin.
Specifically the high priest.
The soldiers who beat and abuse Jesus.
Pontius Pilate.
Peter.
The Jews who cry out for Jesus to be crucified.

Here He’s telling His apostles to be ready and prepared in their hearts to forgive. Think about whom the apostles are going to have to forgive over the next month or so! Some of those Jews crying out “Let Him be crucified!” will be asking to be baptized on the day of Pentecost. Do you think it was easy for the apostles to baptize those people?

Do you think it was easy for some of the apostles to forgive Peter for having denied Jesus? I could imagine there being a sort of “tit-for-tat” between Peter and some of the others. He accuses them of running away from Christ and expressing a less-than-ideal trust. They accuse him of denying Christ - “that’s even worse, Peter!” - and expressing a less-than-ideal trust in Christ. Just like Christians today questioning each others’ faith based on wearing a mask or not, taking the vaccine or not.

The fruit which Jesus challenges His apostles to produce, based on the object lesson of the barren fig tree, is living a life of prayer in trust, and forgiving those who sin against us. Jesus elaborates in verse 26 that if we don’t forgive, the Father will not forgive us. This verse is bracketed in my NASV, suggesting that the early manuscripts do not include this verse here, but it is included in other passages like Matthew 6:15 and 18:35. God is indeed a forgiving God but He is also a holy God, which means sin must be punished. We either repent of our sins or we get judged in our sins. There’s no spiritual alternative.

OUR APPLICATION:
The gift of prayer is one of the most loved and closely-held blessings available to Christians. Compare John 14:12-14 for Jesus’ promise about answering prayers. See also 1 Peter 3:12; James 1:6; 1 John 5:14-15.

If one does not have trust in God or trust in the Messiah, he or she will have no trust in prayer. For other passages dealing with faith, see 17:19-20; Luke 17:6; Rom. 4:20; 1 Cor. 13:2; Eph. 3:20; James 1:6.

We also note that fruitfulness is important in one’s walk with Christ. Jesus (and John) have emphasized producing fruit frequently: Matt hew 3:8, 10; 7:16-20; 12:33; 13:23. Jesus will give a further lesson on bearing fruit in John 15 where the people of the Messiah, the church, is pictured in terms (“vineyard”) reminiscent of the OT nation of Israel. In other words, God expects the same (basic) behaviors out of us that He did out of Israel. Trust and produce fruit.

If a school teacher is teaching her students how to factor a quadratic equation, she doesn’t just ask her students if they understand what she is saying. She evaluates them. She gives them ten questions or twenty to see if they really do understand what she was teaching. That is fruit. Let me ask you… Are you a stronger Christian this year than you were last year? What is the behavior that illustrates your answer? How do you know that you trust more? How do you know that you are a stronger Christian this year than last year?

Take home message: Jesus is looking for fruit.