Jesus' verdict on empty religion (Mark 11:21-21)

 On a Sunday morning you can be sure that John will be in his pew at the front of the church with his family—on a Monday evening he’ll be with his mistress.  When the offering plate is handed around John gives generously, he can afford to for he doesn’t reveal all his earnings to the tax man.  Over coffee he will happily talk about the finer points of the preacher’s sermon but during the week his conversation centres on course humour.  What are we to make of John’s ‘Christianity’—it looks like a show and seems to have no substance!  This morning we are going to see Jesus’ angry verdict on such empty religion.

I suppose most of us are not like John.  I hope that our ‘Christianity’ is not just for show—that we are in a living relationship with our loving Father.  Yet although our faith may be real perhaps there are areas of our lives where we no longer let our faith impact us.  Maybe we have given up seeking sexual purity and don’t worry anymore about the images we watch on the screen or the way we look at the opposite sex from the window of our cars.  Maybe we enjoy a bit of gossip and want to dig up the dirt on people.  Maybe instead of seeking to forgive others we just deal with our resentment by acting like they don’t exist.  In these areas of our lives our faith looks empty and so Jesus’ anger at empty religion has some relevance to us.

How much can you learn from a sandwich?

‘Not much!’  That’s what Caroline said when I asked here that question.  Actually we can learn a lot from a sandwich.  You may not have seen the sandwich in this story but it is there—and it is a key to understanding what these verses are about.

Jesus and the disciples are on their way back to Jerusalem from Bethany and Jesus was hungry (although the sandwich has nothing to do with what he is going to eat).  Seeing in the distance a fig-tree in leaf, he went to find out if it had any fruit.  When, he reached it, he found nothing but leaves, because it was not the season for figs.  Then he said to the tree, “May no-one ever eat from you again.”  And his disciples heard him saying this.         

Why would Mark record this strange incident in his Gospel?  The answer lies in the sandwich!  You see the sandwich is a literary device where we have one story surrounded by another.  So we read about the fig tree, followed by the cleansing of the temple, and then the fig tree again.  When Mark records a story with a sandwich structure he wants us to understand that the parts relate to each other.  The fig tree incident is designed to help us to see the significance of the temple cleansing.

In the Old Testament the fig tree was used at times as a picture of God’s people, Israel.[1]  Their spiritual life was focused on the temple in Jerusalem.  Yet Jesus finds that the religion of those people was empty.  Like that fig tree—whose leaves hid the fact that it had no fruit—the magnificence of the temple and its ceremonies hid the fact that Israel has not brought forth the fruit of righteousness demanded by God.[2]  The cursing of the fig tree is an acted parable, of the judgement awaiting the temple, because of the empty religion of the people.  What happens next in this passage is also shocking!

The anger of the king

Last week we saw Jesus arrive into Jerusalem on a colt—an action that pointed to the fact that here was God’s promised king.  It is interesting that Jesus is no longer keeping his messiahship quiet, as we have seen him do many times in Mark’s Gospel.  In the week before the cross he is openly revealing that God’s promised king has arrived.  As he does here! 

Listen to Malachi 3:1-2! ‘. . . Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple . . . But who can endure the day of his coming?  . . . For he will be like a refiner’s fire or a launderer’s soap.’  God’s king has arrived!  What sort of king is he?  One who burns with righteous anger at empty religious hypocrisy!

The outer court where Jesus acts was where Gentiles (non-Jews) were allowed come to pray.  The high priest had recently allowed the traders to set up their stalls there.  It was an act that showed a tragic lack of concern for the lost.  Imagine what it was like for a Gentile who had come to that place seeking to know more about God but finding himself surrounded by the noise of animals and bargaining.  Quoting from Isaiah Jesus taught them that ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations.’  The Gentiles (literally ‘the nations’) were meant to have a part in God’s plan all along, ‘they were meant to have a place to pray, but the only court they could enter was like a madhouse – in the court of the Gentiles you could hardly hear yourself think.’[3]

The religion of that place was full of corruption—Jesus called it a ‘den of robbers’.  Had the high priest allowed trade in the outer court for his own vested interests?  Were the traders themselves corrupt in their dealing—taking advantage of people’s desire to practice their religion?  I wonder what Jesus thinks of those televangelists who persuade people to send them money and then use those gifts to fund opulent lifestyles?

 This phrase ‘den of robbers’ comes from Jeremiah 7.  There the prophet warns a people who had a superstitious attitude towards the temple.  In Jeremiah’s day the people stole, murdered, and committed adultery, then went to the temple, thought of themselves as saved people, and left to do as they had been doing—empty religion!.  They thought that the presence of the temple in their city meant they were immune from judgement. 

Jesus declares ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations.  But you have made it “a den of robber”.  I wonder does Jesus see something similar to what was happening in Jeremiah’s day? Do the people think that they can do as they please as long as they have a superficial contact with the temple?  Do we think that if we pay lip-service to Christianity, perhaps attending church regularly, that the Lord’s spotlight is not on the rest of our lives?

The king comes to the temple and he is angry.  What makes King Jesus angry?  Empty godless religion!  The sort of religion that has no concern for the lost—how easy it is for churches to forget about those outside our community.  The sort of religion can sees nothing wrong with exploitation and dishonesty.  The sort of religion that allows someone act one way on a Sunday and then totally inconsistently the rest of the week.  

When the chief priests and teachers of the law heard what Jesus had been teaching they looking for a way to kill him.  This is the first of three predictions that we will see of Jesus’ death at during this week in Jerusalem.  It is a reminder of the place to which Jesus actions are taking him.

The end of the temple

In the morning, as they went along they saw the fig-tree withered from the roots.  Peter remembered and said to Jesus, “Rabbi, look!  The fig-tree you cursed has withered.”

That fig-tree looked good, it had plenty of leaves, but this concealed the fact that it had no fruit.  Just like the Temple, whose magnificence and ceremonies hid the fact that the people had not produced the fruit of righteousness that God demanded.  So like the fig tree the Temple would be destroyed—it was ruined when Jerusalem was overturned in A.D. 67.

The Temple’s purpose had actually ended with the coming of Jesus—we no longer go to a building to meet with God we go to him, and when we put our trust in him he takes up residence in our lives.  When applying this passage we need to be careful not to think that the Temple is the equivalent of our church buildings, our church buildings are merely the rain shelter in which we meet. 

 While the Temple was destroyed and no longer exists the problem associated with it, empty godless religion, still does.

Maybe you think that it is good enough just to be a church-goer!  That as long as you attend on Sunday you can do as you please on Monday.  That’s empty godless religion and we have seen what Jesus thinks of that!

Maybe you think that you can have Jesus as Saviour but not as Lord.  You think that you have his rescue from sin without enthroning him as your king.  We might call ourselves Christian but there is no fruit that says that our faith is real.  When we give all of our lives to him then he gives us his Spirit so all of our lives can be lived for him.

Maybe our faith is real but there are areas of our lives where we have shut him out.  While we may not be people of empty religion in these areas we look like people of empty religion.  Have we started thinking ‘what can I get away with and still call myself a Christian?’ rather that asking ‘how can I honour God in every circumstance?’?  Have we stopped striving to become more like Jesus?  Have we allowed ourselves to become stagnant?  If we are married do we seek honour God by loving our spouses as God’s Word command or have we settled for co-habitation?  Do we see our places of work as a place to be a witness or do we leave God at home?  Do we ever ask what impact our faith ought to have on how we spend our money?  There ought to be know area of our lives where we have shut God out!  Empty religion angers Jesus and he does not want to see even a trace of it in the lives of his beloved people.  I am sure that there are things of which all of us need to repent!

 

 

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[1] For example: Jer. 8:13, Hos. 9:10; Joel 1:7; Micah 7:1-6. In the book of Micah Israel is pictured as a fruitless fig tree because at that time there was not one righteous person living there (Micah 7:1-2). 

[2] Lane (1974), The Gospel of Mark, Eerdmans, p. 400

[3] Mark Meynell, Christchurch, Fullwood.