Christian teaching

We are back in Mark 11 today looking at how Jesus symbolically indicates that the temple in Jerusalem is to be destroyed. And we are especially interested in how this helps us to understand Jesus’ very important teaching on faith and prayer in Mark 11:22-25, which will be our focus next week.

Last time we saw that Jesus’ temple demonstration in Mark 11:15-19, which brought everything to a halt in the court of Gentiles, foreshadows that it all will stop soon because it will be judged and destroyed. This brings us to Jesus’ second symbolic indication that the temple will be destroyed –

The cursing of the fig tree

This is the last miracle recorded in Mark, and it is the only destructive miracle in all of the gospels.

“12On the following day, when they came from Bethany, he was hungry. 13And 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. 14And he said to it, ‘May no one ever eat fruit from you again.’ And his disciples heard it.”

Jesus is hungry and he sees a fig tree. So he goes to see if it has something to eat. But it doesn’t, so he curses it. But then Mark tells us that this was not the season for figs. So . . . what’s going on here? Is Jesus unnecessarily angry? Surely he knows when fig trees have fruit!

Two things help us to understand this story. First, Jesus was most likely looking for the early, immature fruit that, while not necessarily tasty, could be eaten. Fig trees first developed these in the Spring, which is the time frame of our story, and then they produced the leaves. And then the fruit matured in the Summer.

So the tree had leaves. This is emphasized in the story by mentioning it twice. It was advertising, as it were, that it had something to give, which would mature later into something really good. But it had nothing. It was a barren tree.

When Mark says, “it was not the season for figs” he most likely means for ripe figs, perhaps anticipating confusion by some readers (although causing confusion for others).

A second thing we need to understand this story is that in the Old Testament the fig tree was used as a symbol for Israel (e.g. Hosea 9:4). And the lack of fruit on a fig tree means a lack of obedience on the part of Israel and coming judgment. For instance, when Jeremiah uses the phrase, there are “no figs on the fig tree,” it indicates Israel’s disobedience and coming judgment (8:13). When Micah says that there was “no first-ripe fig that my soul desires,” he is saying that there were no longer any righteous ones in Israel (7:1). Jesus, himself, also equates a lack of fruit on a fig tree with a lack of repentance among the people of his day in Luke 13:6-9.

In this light, Jesus is symbolically looking for fruit from Israel, even immature fruit, some sign that there is obedience to God, some acceptance of his Messiah. But he finds none, and therefore judgment is coming. (This may well be symbolically enacting what had just taken place when Jesus entered Jerusalem and then went to the temple and looked around and left. They paid no attention to him or that their Messiah had come.) And, as we will see in just a minute, specifically the temple will be destroyed.

The result of Jesus’ words of judgment is quite amazing. “20As they passed by in the morning, they saw the fig tree withered away to its roots. 21And Peter remembered and said to him, ‘Rabbi, look! The fig tree that you cursed has withered.’” The tree is completely dead, “withered away to its roots.” And Peter and the rest are amazed.

So for those who are in the know, this is a picture of what is to come on Israel/the temple. As Jesus said when he moved from symbolic action to plain speech in Mark 13:2. Talking about the temple he said, “There will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.” And this is, exactly what happened 40 years later when the temple was destroyed.

The fig tree as the temple

Now perhaps you have noticed that in Matthew 21 things happen a little differently: First come the temple story, and then we have the fig tree story. But in Mark 11, as we have seen, the chronology is different:

1. Fig tree story pt. one
2. Temple story
3. Fig tree story pt. two

The temple story is put right in the middle of the fig tree story.

This was a common literary technique in the ancient world [intercalation]. Mark does this on a number of occasions. He rearranges things to make a point. [This reminds us that just as ancient biographers held the freedom to work with what their subjects said and to arrange their actions non-chronologically in presenting their portraits, so did the gospel writers.]

The idea is that we are to read these two stories in relation to one another. They interpret one another. In terms of Jesus’ temple demonstration, read in the light of the fig tree story, the idea is that Jesus found no fruit in the temple and so it will be judged (he is not trying to cleanse or reform it). In terms of the fig tree story, read in light of the temple demonstration, the tree is specifically connected to Israel’s temple. Mark is helping us out here; giving us a heads up.

The end of the old temple

So now we have two prophetic, symbolic pictures of the end of the Jerusalem temple:

• It will be destroyed, like the fig tree withered away to its roots
• It will cease to function, like when Jesus brought the sacrifices, temple tax and all activity to a halt in a section of the court of the Gentiles.

But this isn’t the end of the story, because –

Jesus is building a new temple

There are a number of indications of this in the New Testament. [Read typologically both 2 Samuel 7:12-13 and Zechariah 6:12-13 can be seen to indicate that the Messiah, David’s son will build a temple]

First of all, in Mark 14:58 some testified at his trial, “We heard him say, ‘I will destroy this temple that is made with hands, and in three days I will build another, not made with hands.’” Mark calls this false testimony because they are taking his words as a literal threat that Jesus would humanly destroy the Jerusalem temple. (See also Mark 15:29). But in this saying, he is talking about God destroying the temple, and then his own resurrection as the beginning of a new temple. “I will build another, not made with hands.”

This parallels John 2:19-20 where John tells his story of Jesus’ temple demonstration. In v. 19 Jesus says, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” In v. 20 John clarifies that, “He was speaking about the temple of his body,” that is, his body being raised from the dead. And as Paul so often says, we are a part of the body of Christ, which is this new temple (1 Corinthians 12:27).

Also, in Mark 12 Jesus tells the parable of the tenets, where he teaches that he will be rejected. But then he says, quoting Psalm 118:22, “the stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone/chief stone” – v. 10. What is this stone a part of? He is talking to the priests and is calling them builders. The implication is that this stone is a part of a new temple.

Psalm 118:22 is certainly taken this way by Paul and Peter. Ephesians 2:19-22 says, “19but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, 20built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, 21in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. 22In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.”

And 1 Peter 2:4-5 says, “4As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, 5you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” He goes on to quote Psalm 118:22 more fully.

Both of these passages refer to Psalm 118:22 and then use temple language, reflecting Jesus’ use of this text in Mark 12. Jesus is the chief stone in a new temple building.

And we are God’s temple, if we are joined to Jesus, the chief stone. As Paul asks the Corinthian church in 1 Corinthians 3:16, “Do you not know that you are God’s temple . . . ?” And as he states in 2 Corinthians 6:16, “we are the temple of the living God.”

And although the old temple failed, as Jesus’ new temple –

We are to be “a house of prayer”

This is the challenge for us today. We need to learn to live into this calling and identity. This is who we are and this is how we are to be as the church – a place where all can come and offer up acceptable and powerful worship and prayer to God. The old temple  is gone, but we have been made into a new one in Jesus.

And the fact that we are to be “a house of prayer” is one reason why Jesus goes on in Mark 11:22-25 to talk about faith and prayer, which we will look at next week. I would like to end today by reading this passage:

“22Have faith in God. 23Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him. 24Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. 25And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.”

I invite you to ponder this passage for next week.

William Higgins