Monday - Cleansing

The week started on a Sunday, with Jesus coming into the city of Jerusalem at the head of a triumphant parade. Thousands of people cheered him and waved palm branches in the air. There was a mood of festivity and excitement. Why?

Because the crowd believed that Jesus was the long-awaited Messiah of Israel—a mighty man; a dynamic combination of prophet and politician who would kick out the Romans, reclaim the throne of David, and usher in a golden age where Israel would be the most powerful nation on earth.

After all, Jesus seemed to have all the credentials for doing this. They had seen his miracles. He had fed thousands of people. He had raised the dead. They had heard him teach. He had silenced the most learned rabbis of the land. he was undoubtedly a genius. Surely this man must be the Messiah they had been waiting for. That’s why they cried “Hosanna!” on that Palm Sunday. Hosanna means “Save us now!”

But that Sunday did not end the way the crowd expected it to. There was no campaign of conquest. No victory over the Romans. No coronation of a new King of the Jews. Sunday ended as so many other days had in Judea, with Pilate the governor very much in control.

Jesus spent the very briefest time in the Temple that Sunday afternoon, then turned around, went out of the city, and spent the night in the little village of Bethany which was located a couple of miles away, on the other side of the Mount of Olives. What a letdown! From that point on, you could almost sense the enthusiasm of the people for Jesus beginning to melt away. He had disappointed them. Have you ever been disappointed by Jesus? Has he not done all you wanted Him to do? We’re going to look at this subject more deeply on Palm Sunday.

Now Monday morning dawns, and Jesus and his little band of followers rise and head back to the city once more. This time, there is no triumphal procession; no cheering throngs. Just a subdued little group of friends on foot, walking the dusty road toward Jerusalem. But on their way there, something remarkable happened. Let’s hear Mark, as he tells the story.

MAR 11:12 = The next day as they were leaving Bethany, Jesus was hungry. 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 fruit from you again.” And his disciples heard him say it.

The first thing Jesus did on that fateful Monday was to curse a tree.

Fig trees have always been very common in Israel. In fact, in Bible times, they used to plant them by the roadside, because they believed that the dusty conditions made the figs grow better. Fig trees bear fruit two, or possibly three times a year—first in June, then in August, then again in December if the weather is good. New leaves appear on the tree just as the fruit comes in, and even a little after, so a tree with leaves on it implies that you’re going to find fruit on it also.

But this was Passover time—early in the spring, a couple of months before you’d expect to find the first crop of fruit on a fig tree. That’s what made this particular tree so unusual. It had leaves on it in March or early April. Maybe it was located in a sheltered area; maybe there was especially fertile soil around it. Whatever the reason, it was way ahead of schedule and it looked like it should have fruit on it.

But when Jesus got there—and notice, he had to go over to the tree and find out; he wasn’t omniscient in this case—he discovered that there was no fruit; only leaves. And that was disappointing, because he was hungry. He was probably looking forward to having some Fig Newtons for breakfast.

Then he does something that he never did any other time in his ministry. He curses the tree. This was the only negative, or destructive miracle that Jesus ever did. He said to the tree “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.”

Question: Why did he do that? Why didn’t he “heal” the tree, or make some figs miraculously grow on the tree? Why did he curse it? He cursed it because it was advertizing fruit, but only producing leaves. It was all promise, but no production.

And in that sense, it was similar to the nation Israel. The fig tree was often used in the OT as a symbol for Israel. Over in Hosea 9:10, God says “When I found Israel… it was like seeing the early fruit on the fig tree.” And in Jeremiah 24, God says that his people are like baskets of ripe figs.

Israel was like God’s fig tree. Alone among the nations, Israel was favored by God—given every opportunity for spiritual growth and blessing. God gave Israel the Law, and then the prophets. And now the Messiah, God’s own Son. God was carefully cultivating his fig tree because He wanted Israel to be fruitful—to be a source of spiritual nourishment and blessing for all the other nations of the world.

But the tragedy was that, for all of her privileges, for all of the spiritual advantages that she had received, for all of the care and cultivation that God had lavished upon her, the nation Israel was barren. She had a lot of spiritual leaves—a great show of holiness and piety—but no spiritual fruit.

Question: What about us today? Many of us have had the advantage of having grown up in the church. Many of us have had Christian parents. Many of us have been exposed to the Word of God since we were babies and have sat under the teaching of it for years. God has been tending us and cultivating us.

How fruitful are we? How much of a blessing are we to other people? Are people being nourished and helped spiritually by being around us? Or are we like the barren fig tree? A lot of leaves, but no fruit?

When you’ve been a Christian for a long time, it’s easy to make a show of being holy. You know how to talk, you know all the right things to say to make people believe that you are walking with the Lord. But really, your heart may be far from him.

You may be like the Pharisees who, for all their outward holiness, were like whitewashed sepulchres. Their hearts were far from God.

But when you are truly holy—when you are walking with the Lord and letting His Spirit control your life—you are fruitful for him. You bear the fruit of the Spirit and the Lord uses you to draw others to Himself.

The lesson of the fig tree is that, when it comes to holiness, you may be able to fool people but you can’t fool God.

Jesus and his disciples continued on into Jerusalem, and when they got to the Temple, Mark tells us what happened in v. 15…

On reaching Jerusalem, Jesus entered the temple area and began driving out those who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves, and would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts. And as he taught them, he said, “Is it not written: ”’ My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations’? But you have made it ‘a den of robbers.’”

The second thing Jesus did that Monday was to cleanse the Temple.

The Temple was a huge structure. It covered about 35 acres. It was divided into several large areas, or courts. The outermost court was called the Court of the Gentiles, because people of all nationalities were allowed to be there. This court was separated from the next outermost court by a low wall, about 30 inches high. Gentiles were not allowed beyond that wall, under penalty of death.

That low wall enclosed the Court of the Women, so named because Jewish women were permitted that far and no farther. Next you had the Court of Israel, which was only open to Jewish men, who brought their sacrifices there to give to the priests.

Then you had the court of the priests, which was right next to the Temple itself. That’s where the altar of sacrifice was located. Then there was the Temple proper, which was divided into two sections—the Holy Place, where only the priests on duty could go, and the Holy of Holies, where only the High Priest could go, and only once a year on the Day of Atonement.

So in the actual plan and layout of the Temple, you had this increasing limitation on who could approach God. But in the outermost court, the Court of the Gentiles, anyone was allowed. And it was in that court that the Jews had set up a kind of a religious bazaar.

There were stalls selling animals for people who wanted to offer sacrifices. Some of them sold doves, which Mark mentions in verse 15. Doves were about the only animals that could be afforded by the poor. Remember, Joseph and Mary offered two doves when they presented Jesus at the Temple.

There were other stalls for the changing of money. Jews and Gentile converts to Judaism came to the Temple from all over the world at Passover time. And they had to pay a temple tax, and bring an offering for the Temple treasury. But they couldn’t just pay in their own currency—they had to convert their money into a special Temple currency before they put it in the offering. And the exchange rates were naturally advantageous to the priests who were in charge. These were the moneychangers mentioned in v. 15.

The Temple was so large that it actually became a thoroughfare for people who wanted to get from the city of Jerusalem over to the Mount of Olives and beyond. You would have merchants carrying their wares through the Court of the Gentiles—using it as a sort of shortcut to get from one part of the city to the other. These are mentioned in v. 16.

So this was the situation that Jesus confronted in these verses. In a place that was supposed to be holy, he found nothing but uncleanness. So what did he do?

He took drastic action. He threw over the stalls and the tables. He stopped the merchants who were marching through. He cried out “You have made my Father’s house into a den of robbers instead of the house of prayer that it is supposed to be for people of all nations. You’ve turned this sanctuary into a supermarket—a carnival midway where money is all that matters.”

God’s people had made it well-nigh impossible for people of other nations to come and worship God. There was no holiness in the Temple. It was more like a flea circus, or a county fair, with vendors hawking their wares and bilking the tourists. Hardly conducive to making anyone want to worship the God of Israel.

Question: I wonder how this applies to you and me? The Bible says in 1 Cor. 6:19 that if I am a Christian, my body is a temple of the Holy Spirit. My life is the dwelling place of the living God.

How are the courts of my Temple? Are they clean or cluttered? Is my life filled with things that would prevent other people from seeing the Lord, from appreciating the Lord, from wanting to know the Lord?

Or put it another way. If we were to allow Jesus to walk freely through the corridors of your life today, would there be any tables that he would want to overturn? Any stalls that he wouldn’t be happy to see? Any traffic passing through your life that he would want to halt?

We need to understand that what happened in the Temple courts is related to what happened to the fig tree. The Jews made a great show of holiness without being really holy. And because of that, they were actually making it harder for the lost to come to God.

Our lives cannot be fruitful for God unless we are cleansed. And it may be today that we need to ask Jesus to cleanse us—to make us holy so that we can be fruitful for Him.

The Apostle John tells us in John 12, that after Jesus had cleansed the Temple, some Greeks—some Gentiles, some outsiders in other words—came up to Philip and said “Sir, we would like to see Jesus.”

Our lives are only going to attract people to the Lord Jesus Christ if we are clean; if we are holy.

1. Jesus cursed the tree

2. Jesus cleansed the Temple

3. Jesus challenged the Twelve

Mark 11:19ff…

When evening came, they went out of the city. 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!”

“Have faith in God,” Jesus answered. “I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.

It was Tuesday morning that the disciples noticed that the fig tree had withered and died. And it had died in a very unusual way. It had withered from the roots. Usually when plants wither, they die from the top down. The leaves and the upper branches wither first and the roots are usually the last to go. But this fig tree withered from the roots up. Why?

Because the fruit problem was really a root problem. The nation Israel had not rooted themselves in a living relationship with God; they had rooted themselves in religion; in the teaching of their rabbis and scribes and legal experts. They had rooted themselves in the traditions of men. That’s why they had no fruit. That’s why they were barren.

And we will be barren too, unless we root ourselves in a vibrant, living relationship with God. It’s so easy to lose sight of that! It’s so easy to become stale and lackluster in our faith. We become students of Christianity rather than seekers of God.

Our passion for Him slowly leaches away, and we find ourselves just going through the motions. Outside, everything looks fine. But inside, we’re hollow and empty.

But Jesus challenges us here to wake up spiritually. To seek after him with all your heart. And if you have that kind of relationship with God—then nothing is impossible.

The disciples were amazed when they saw the withered fig tree. “How did this fig tree wither so quickly?” They had never seen anything like it—a tree fully alive one day and dead the next. To them it was impossible.

But they should have remembered the words of Jesus the previous day. He had said to the tree “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” and when the Son of God says something, you can count on it. You can put your faith in His words—even when it seems impossible. Because nothing is impossible for God. And nothing is impossible for the one who believes in God. But we need to be holy—we need to be cleansed.

In some circles of the church, there is a lot of talk about faith. People talk about the power of just believing in God. If you just have enough faith, God will do whatever you want Him to do.

But where in that teaching is the emphasis on cleansing? I don’t hear a lot of these faith healers talking about the need for personal repentance and humble confession of sin. In their excitement about faith, they have forgotten the connection between faith and holiness.

In Isaiah 59:1–2 we read “Surely the arm of the Lord is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.

What is Isaiah saying? Is he saying that the people needed more faith? No, he is saying that they needed more cleansing. God wouldn’t answer their prayers because they were living in sin.

Personal holiness unleashes powerful faith. It is the cleansed believer that God hears.

If your life as a Christian is pretty drab and dull, and you’re not seeing a whole lot of results and fruit, maybe it is because you need to be cleansed. There may be some area of your life that is displeasing to God and that is causing the blockage.

And you are aware of it, because the Holy Spirit has pointed it out to you. That’s one of His jobs, you know.

Are you willing to do business with God in that area of your life tonight? Are you willing to confess it to Him?

1JO 1:9 = If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

That’s what holiness is… it is just being cleansed by Jesus. It’s not something we can do for ourselves—He has to do it for us. Will you ask Him to do that now?

Prayer