Truth #111 - God expects fruit from our statement of faith - Mark 11-12

Mark 11:12-15

On the following day, when they came from Bethany, he was hungry. And seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to see if he could find anything on it. When he came to it, he found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. And he said to it, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” And his disciples heard it.

And they came to Jerusalem. And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold and those who bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons.

In the above few verses we have the story of one of the most known acts of Jesus, done while He was on this earth: The cleansing of the Temple.   This is the only place in the recorded Gospel writings that Jesus uses force or aggression to convey either a message or a desired change.   In the Temple setting there were several sections.   One section was the "Gentile" section which allowed all visitors to the temple to come.  Gentiles where not allowed to go beyond this section, however, unless they had fully converted to Judaism.   It was in this place that business owners would set up their tables to sell those coming to worship for Passover the needed animals for sacrifice.   This was not a wrong business, since most would travel for long distances and would not be able to carry the needed sacrifice for the yearly offering.   The issue was not that they were selling animals or making money exchange for the different types of currency.  The issue is actually demonstrated by the story preceding the cleansing of the temple: The cursing of the fig tree.   The fig tree, like the Temple, on the outside had promised fruit, through its green leaves.  Where there was green leaves there should be green fruit.   The tree promised one thing and delivered another.   So, Jesus cursed it.  The Temple promised a place of worship, yet delivered another, a place of thieves and corruption.   It was not "where" they were doing business but "how" and "why" they were doing business.  They had lost the entire concept of providing a sacrifice to the Lord of Lords and God of the Universe.   Instead, these business owners were out to make a profit and had failed to realize that the Temple promised a place of peace, but was actually a profit center.   For this Jesus cursed the Temple.  This would eventually be used by the religious leaders of the day to bring charges against Jesus (in a few verses later they would ask Him by what authority He did these actions).   The truth is that Jesus wants us to produce fruit and wants others to see our fruit.  He DOES NOT want a false leaf with no fruit.   When we say we have some faith, we need to produce fruit in that faith.  If not, we are nothing more than this fig tree and nothing more than the Temple filled with money grabbing merchants.  The truth is, God is looking for the fruit in our lives faith in His Son would naturally produce.   When we don't see the fruit, the faith is suspect.