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The Gospel According to Mark part 24 “The lesson of the fig tree” Mark 11:12-26. We know this is Monday , by the words “the next day,” it is the Monday, following Palm Sunday. Mark tells us this event is happening just as they are departing the town of Bethany .
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The Gospel According to Mark part 24“The lesson of the fig tree”Mark 11:12-26
We know this is Monday, by the words “the next day,” it is the Monday, following Palm Sunday. Mark tells us this event is happening just as they are departing the town of Bethany.
Jesus came to the fig tree expecting to find something to eat, yet Mark says it was not the season for figs. Passover is around March or April, and the figs are not ready until May or June. Jesus was just too early.
From a distance Jesus could see it was a fig tree, from all outward indications it was a fig tree. But, upon closer inspection, it was only a corrupted version of a fig tree, not bearing the buds of a undefiled fig tree.
One day, we will come before Christ and He will examine our fruit. At that point there is no reversing what kind of fruit we had chosen to produce.
The tree that fails to live up to it’s purpose, given it by God, will be cursed. Are we living up to the purposes God has for each of us?
Quoting Isaiah, and Jeremiah, Jesus uses the authority of the Word of God, which they could not refute.
The Pharisees, like the fig tree were mere pretenders, not at all producing in their lives the fruit that they were created to produce. Outwardly, they look good, especially from a distance, all nice and white and pure, just like the fig tree looked good from afar.
Jesus was calling them out on their hypocrisy, and was doing it on their own turf.
The word “Xeraino” means to be dried up or “withered.” But, Mark goes even further to let us know that this fig tree is completely dead, it has been withered even to it’s root, which is the source of the trees life.
First, Jesus makes the proclamation that faith is to be placed in God, and no other, including ourselves. Second, Jesus uses an exaggeration, hyperbole. Casting the mountain in the sea would be an impossibility, but with God, all things are possible.
Why then do even those who have cultivated great faith, still not receive all they ask, as in the case of Paul for a healing? James 4:3)“You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.”
Those who have put into practice “living by faith within the will of God,” reveal through their fruit, that they are His. Jesus will extend His power to those who remain tapped into the pure source of life.
His long suffering and patience is not be miss-construed as a permissive nature. Sin, is that which causes separation from God, and that is seen in the withering of the root.
We are to be not only hearers of the Word, but doers of the Word.
A person may look like they believe, they may talk like they believe, but like the Pharisees, they may be no more than whitewashed tombs. But, the Lord knows us; not by our outside pretences, but by our inside, which manifests itself also on the outside.
Lulled into a false sense of security, people will wrongfully assume they know God, know His character, and understand His design for their lives.
The word “does” in Greek is “Poieo” it is an active verb, present tense, it means to “be doing.”
These people reasoned they had a relationship with Christ, regardless of the fact that they did it on their ownterms, and not the terms outlined within the scriptures.
