Big, Fat, Juicy Figs for :18-22

Rev. Jeff Chapman ~ September 55,, 2010 ~ Faith Presbyterian Church

      

Last week we met Jesus as he entered the final week of his earthly life. That coming Friday he would be crucified. In preparation of that event, Jesus makes this grand entrance into Jerusalem on a Sunday. He rides through the adoring crowds on the back of a humble donkey.

But then on arriving in the city center, he goes straight to the Temple and turns over the tables of the money changers in an effort to show people that a whole new way of approaching God is about to be initiated, a way that has nothing to do with animal sacrifice and religious posturing, and everything to do with the grace and mercy of God poured out for all humanity through the cross.

It’s Monday morning as we pick up the story today. Jesus has just had a short night’s rest in a village just outside of the city. The palm branches from the day before still line the street into town. The temple courts are still in disarray from yesterday’s chaos. The people, including the disciples, are waking up perplexed by what it all means. And now very early in the morning, Jesus gets up and heads back into town to take his next steps toward the cross.

      

In the morning, when Jesus returned to the city, he was hungry. And seeing a fig tree by the side of thethe road, he went to it and found nothing at all on it but leaves. Then he said to it, ‘May no fruit ever come from you again!’ And the fig tree withered at once.

When the disciples saw it, they were amazed, saying, ‘How did the fig tree wither at once?’

Jesus answered them, ‘Truly I tell you, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only will you do what has been done to the fig trtree,ee, but even if you say to this mountain,mountain, “Be lifteliftedd up and thrown into the sea”, it will be done. Whatever you ask for in prayer with faith, you will receive.receive.’’ (Matthew 21:18-22, NRSV)

      

When you get hungry, when your next meal is long overdue, when your blood sugar runs low, when your empty belly starts to rumble and ache, are you much fun to be around? Let me put it this way, how many of you live with people who, the hungrier they get, the happier they get? (I notice my wife is not raising her hand – Me either.)

Did you know that there are only two commonly used words in the English language which end with the letters “gry”? Anybody know what they are? The first word is “hungry”. The other word is “angry.” Even in their spelling, these two words are intimately linked together.

I recently heard something interesting about African lions, these ferocious beasts who would normally attack without thinking twice. When such lions have just feasted on a kill and are lying around afterwards by the 2 watering hole with their bellies full, normally petrified antelopes and wildebeest can actually walk right up next to these big cats and take a drink. The lions, you see, get so fat and happy that they just don’t care.

I’ll be honest; I’m not much different. If you feed me, I’m happy. But when I get hungry, I tend to be a little bit irritable. I might even bite your head off at the watering hole. Anybody else here like that? Anybody here sitting next to somebody like that? You know what? Apparently even Jesus got a little testy when he was hungry.

Jesus, we’re told, is on his way back into town early one morning and because he hasn’t had breakfast, and maybe not even dinner the night before, he’s hungry. Really hungry.

Think about that for a minute. The Son of God, the one who was there at the genesis of the universe, the one through whom all things were created, was hungry. Don’t miss this very good news. Our Savior knows what it is like to be human. Our God in heaven knows what things are like for us in this world.

Anyway, on the way to town, hungry Jesus spots a fig tree on the side of the road. Nothing unusual about that. Fig trees were, and still are, a very common sight in Palestine. But this particular fig tree was full of leaves. And that was unusual, you see, because it was early April. And fig trees in that part of the world don’t bear their leaves until June. Imagine the peach tree in your backyard blossoming in December. That sort of thing just doesn’t happen.

So Jesus, naturally, heads straight for this unusual tree. And he did so with great anticipation because he knew, like everyone in those days knew, that whenever fig trees produce leaves, they also produce fruit. Even trees like this one that get their calendars all mixed up, produce leaves and figs at the same time. Which means that Jesus is about to have himself an unexpected and tasty breakfast. What a great treat for him!

Now tell me, what is the worst thing that can happen to you when you are really hungry? I’ll tell you. The absolute worst thing that can happen is you is you go to a place where you at last expect to find food and, instead, discover that all the food is gone.

Imagine the scene. You missed lunch that day. You come home famished. You go to the kitchen cupboard and pull out that box of Fig Newtons, the delightful fig pastry cookie from Nabisco that comes in original flavor, strawberry, and raspberry and in whole-grain and fat-free varieties. You pull out the box, your mouth is watering, you can almost taste the joy. But then, to your shock and dismay, you discover that somebody has eaten every last Newton and then put the empty container back on the shelf!1

You were already irritable. Now you’re just plain mad.

Jesus gets to this tree, a tree showing all the signs of being full of sweet, juicy figs, and finds that the tree, instead, is just all leaves and branches. He was already irritable. Now he’s just plain mad. “May no fruit ever come from you again!” Jesus curses. And immediately, the fig tree withers to death.2

      

1 This account is loosely based on actual events in my own home. The guilty shall remain nameless. 2 It’s interesting to note that this is one of only two punitive Jesus performs in the . The other was when he sent the demons into the pigs and they were driven off the cliff and into the sea. Maybe we should be grateful that in both instances Jesus does not direct the punishment directly at humans. Pigs drown and a tree withers, but no people are harmed. Only warned. Does this not show Jesus compassion and love and patience for us? 3

What a strange story. But maybe not all that surprising once we think about it. I mean, don’t we know by now that nothing gets under Jesus’ skin more than something which presents itself as one thing but then is really, on closer inspection, another thing.

The word for that is hypocrisy. And it occurs in people at least as much as it occurs in trees. One scholar calls it “showy fruitlessness.” 3 This is the man or woman who puts on an act of being one sort of person - maybe the sort of person who is righteous, and pious, and humble - but then who, beneath the surface, is actually none of those things at all. All smoke, no fire. All talk, no walk. And when Jesus came across these sorts of people – often they were the religious leaders of his day – they typically received from him a withering rebuke.

Now, some scholars think that Jesus’ cursing of the fig tree was an object lesson he set up to show his disciples that people who go around making a religious show of their lives but who don’t produce any real godly fruit along the way will, in the end, see their lives eventually wither away.

The thing is, while such an object lesson is a great reminder to us of what can happen, and while it would certainly be consistent with the rest of Jesus’ teaching, to say that’s what Jesus had in mind when he cursed the fig tree is really just speculation. The text doesn’t tell us why he did it. And so all that we can confidently say is that a hungry Jesus was irritated by this promising fig tree which did not ultimately produce the breakfast he thought it would produce.

Therefore, since we can’t confidently say much more about Jesus’ intentions in cursing the tree, our attention shifts to what happens next, the reaction of the disciples. And this is where things, I think, really get interesting.

You see, these guys have watched this whole scene unfold. And when the tree withers the very moment Jesus curses it, their jaws drop open. They cannot believe what just happened. They are astounded.

They shouldn’t have been. Right? By this time they have seen Jesus give sight to the blind, motion to the paralyzed, health to the sick, sanity to the possessed, even life to the dead. They’ve seen him change water into wine, feed thousands with one sack lunch, walk on top of a lake. And he’s done it all with words. He merely speaks and miracles happen. And now, these men who have been eyewitnesses to all of the miracles of can’t believe their eyes when, at his command, one little fig tree withers?

Whatever Jesus’ original intent in cursing the fig tree, his intention now clearly shifts to taking this teachable moment to review, with his closest followers, the basics.

“I tell you the truth,” Jesus says to them, “If you have faith and do not doubt, not only will you do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ it will be done to you.”

This is Jesus’ most basic message, one he hammers in over and over again. But also one which even his closest disciples, then and now, too often forget. God has come to earth in Christ to do amazing, supernatural, brilliant things in this world and in our lives.

3 Dale Bruner, Matthew: A Commentary, Volume 2, (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, c. 2004), p. 365. 4 Jesus did not come simply to do a few impressive tricks. Jesus did not come only to give us a new set of moral principles. Jesus did not only come to tell us, or show us, that God loves us. Jesus did not even come only to die for us and rise for us.

God, in Christ, came to earth, ultimately, to transform this whole world from the inside out. And – this is key – if we trust in Christ, if we persevere and have faith in Christ and do not doubt, we will find ourselves caught up in this transformation and, in time, experience a life more abundant and eternal than we ever thought possible!

You see, Christ has not just come to help you find a better job or a new girlfriend, and get you successfully through your knee surgery, and help you do well on your final exams. Sure, God may, in fact, help you with those things. I believe our Heavenly Father cares about the most minor details of our lives, just like I care about the most minor details of my children’s lives. Maybe God will even help us curse a fruitless fig tree or two along the way.

But ultimately – and this is Jesus’ point – God didn’t come to earth in Christ to just help spruce up the place a bit and run errands for us. God came to move mountains. God came to do the seemingly impossible. God came to remove obstacles and barriers we previously believed were permanently fixed, to open cages and cut through chains we thought would forever imprison us, to lead us safely across stretches of wilderness we once imagined were impassable.

God came to move mountains!

So think with me for a minute, what are some of the seemingly immovable mountains you see in your life and in this world?

Sin and pride deeply embedded in your heart. Addictive habits and patterns fully entrenched in your life. Guilt so strong you can’t shake it. Grief so bottomless you can’t escape it. Bitterness which has totally infested your soul. A relationship – a marriage, a friendship – which has completely corroded. An illness which is dragging you, or somebody you love, helplessly towards death. Disability and pain which the professionals tell you will never leave you. A job that just will not come your way.

And those are just the foothills. As we expand our view the peaks climb higher in the distance.

Billions of people without clean water to drink. Millions of people dying every year from absolutely preventable causes and diseases. Wars and violence which seem to have no end. Governments which fail again and again to lead well. Scores of people, many of them very close to us, who have completely closed their hearts to the salvation of God in Christ.

We stand – don’t we? - in the middle of a whole range of mountain-sized problems which can so easily overwhelm and engulf us. Because no matter how hard you try, nobody can move a mountain by himself, by herself.

This summer I was backpacking with my kids through Lassen National Park. One day we hiked past a very impressive volcano called Cindercone. Some of you, I’m sure, have seen it. Cindercone looks like a giant dump truck came by and, right in the middle of this wide open plain, dumped out this massive 750-foot pile of sand.

5 I remember sitting there looking at this massive mountain and thinking to myself, “I wonder how long it would take one man, with a shovel and a wheelbarrow, to move this pile. It would never happen. You’d work a thousand years and never come close to finishing.”

I think so many of the problems in our lives and in our world seem similarly unmovable. And yet, listen to what God has long said about such mountains. The prophet Isaiah, speaking for God long before Christ ever came, wrote these words in Isaiah 40:

A voice of one calling: “In the desert prepare the way of the LLord;ord; make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God. Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low;low; ththee rough ground shall become level, and the rugged places made a plain. And the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all huhumankindmankind together will see it. For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.” 444

I think maybe Jesus has Isaiah’s words in mind when he tells us we can move mountains. Jesus is telling us here, “Listen, I didn’t just come to make some minor adjustments. I came to turn things upside down. I came to put everything right again, to put the world back together the way it’s supposed to be. To release justice, everywhere. To bring wholeness. To restore relationships. To heal souls. And minds. And bodies! To help people become holy, and joyful, and vibrant with life.”

Whatever mountains we face today, in our own lives and in this world, Jesus came to level those mountains!

Now I know, many of us agree and say, “Yes, we know that’s why Jesus came.” We say it, but do we really believe it? Or are we, like the disciples, surprised even when God comes and does even some small in front of our eyes? I mean, if we believe Jesus can and will move mountains, we should expect it!

That’s why Jesus says here, “You’ve got to pray for it to happen. And pray without doubt. Have faith. Trust me in this. Expect mountains to move.”

Now understand something, having faith doesn’t mean you’ve got it all figured out. If you had it all figured out, knew everything, understood everything, had everything proved to you, where would be the need for faith? Faith actually means you don’t have it figured out, you don’t understand everything, but you trust God nonetheless.

Think about it this way. Imagine God tells me to step off a ledge but promises to catch me when I do. Well, the prayer of doubt, the prayer that never moves mountains, says, “I hear what you are saying, God. I know you want me to step off this ledge. But I have serious questions about your ability or willingness to catch me. And so, at least for the time being, I’m just going to stay put.”

The French word for “doubt” is the word “defiance.” That’s exactly the sort of doubt Jesus warns against here.

On the other hand, what Jesus wants is the prayer of faith, the sort of prayer that moves mountains by saying, “Lord, I don’t know how this is going to work. This ledge is pretty steep. And I don’t see how you will catch me. I’m not even sure where you are right now. But I trust you. And because I trust you, Lord, I will step off this ledge like you told me to. I believe that somehow you will not let me fall.”

4 Isaiah 40:3-5 (NIV). 6 Jesus is telling us, “You learn to pray like that, with that kind of faith and trust, and I’m telling you, you will see God move mountains.” Not always on your schedule, mind you. God doesn’t always move mountains when we want them moved, or how we want them moved, or even where we want them moved. But if we pray boldly in faith about the sorts of things we know are already in line with God’s will, we can trust that in God’s time mountains will move.

Martin Luther once wrote, “God desires of us nothing more ardently than that we ask many and great things of him, and he is displeased if we do not confidently ask and [plead].”

Now of course, God welcomes prayers about knee surgeries, and final exams, and dating relationships, and budget decisions. Hey, I’ve been known to pray for green lights and empty parking spaces when I’m running late for an important meeting. And from time to time, I’m convinced God gives them to me. Again, while God certainly isn’t our butler running around catering to our every whim, He is our Father. That means He’s interested in even the smallest details of our lives.

But if our prayers stop with those details, we miss so much. And what Jesus teaches us here is that God also wants to hear prayers like this.

Lord, change me completely from the inside out. Make me a totally new person. I want to love you above all else. I want to love everybody else as much as I love myself. I want to love myself. Help me be completely humble, and gentle, full of compassion, completely at peace.

Lord, set me free from this addiction. Once and for all, set me free.

Father, heal this relationship. I want the kind of marriage I have only dreamed about. I want to see that friendship restored. Help me empty out this bitterness and resentment.

Father, soften the hardest heart there is. Help him come to believe in you. Help her see all that you want to give her.

Lord, heal this body. I know what the doctors say, but remove this cancer. Reverse this decline. Bring back strength.

On a grander scale, Lord, use our church to transform this city. Use us to end hunger, to end homelessness, in all of Sacramento.

Father, use our church to help transform the community of Abaya. We pray for the day when every single Ethiopian child there has a safe home, and a full education, and clean water, and nutritious food, and big dreams, and a heart full of hope.

Lord, end this war. Transform this entire neighborhood. Raise up leaders. Protect these people. Lord, move this mountain!

Pray like this, Jesus says. And trust that God will answer your prayer. God will move that mountain. Again, maybe not on your time schedule. But in time God will, one day, bring justice everywhere. God will, one day, make bodies whole again. God will, one day, heal all relationships. God will, one day, transform the hearts of all who trust him.

7 As a church, let us never tire of reminding one another of this hope, of this truth. In fact, one of the most important things we do for one another is to keep looking at each other face to face, especially when the shadows from the imposing mountains around us seem especially looming, we keep looking at each other and telling one another, over and over again, “God will, one day, move this mountain.”

You know, some days I will not have enough faith to carry on. And on those days I will need to lean into your faith to carry me through. I will need you to say to my face, lovingly but unflinchingly, “Jeff, do not give up hope. Have faith. Do not doubt. Keep moving forward. Do what God has asked. God will be faithful. Trust Him. In time, God will move this mountain which today, I know, seems unmovable.” Some days I will need that from you. And other days, of course, you will need that from me.

Here’s my hope. When Jesus comes to take a close look at the prayers of this church, I don’t want him to just find a whole lot of impressive looking leaves and branches. What good is it if we pray all the right words at all the right times in all the right places? What good is it even if people stand from afar impressed at how well we pray?

No, when Jesus comes close to look at our prayers, I want him to find, in amongst the leaves, big, fat, juicy figs of faith. Figs that will satisfy his aching hunger to do amazing, wonderful, brilliant things in our lives and in our world around us.

I know that’s what Jesus is going to come looking for. My hope is that’s what he’ll find.

Amen.

      

The Next Step A resource for Life Groups and/or personal application

~ When you are really hungry, what is one food you crave which really satisfies?

~ Read again the story from Matthew 21:18-22. What initially sticks out at you from this unusual account?

~ Why do you think Jesus cursed the fig tree? Do you think he was trying to make some point (if so, what?), or do you think he was expecting juicy figs on the tree and didn’t find any?

~ Why were the disciples so astounded that Jesus withered the fig tree? These guys had already seen him do numerous miracles far more impressive than this. Why do they now question his ability to do this small miracle?

~ Jesus said, “If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask in prayer.” What do you think he means by this? Do you believe him?

~ When it comes to our faith, is doubt a good thing or a bad thing? Are there different kinds of doubt?

~ As Jeff described the different mountains that surround us in our lives and in our world, is there a particular mountain which came to mind, one which seems to be particularly immovable these days?

8 ~ What miracle do you really want to see God do in your life? In your family? In our church? In this world?

~ How could you learn to pray more faithfully and boldly in order to see God move mountains?

Further Scripture Readings for the Week:

MondayMonday: Isaiah 40 – God’s promise about mountains Tuesday: I John 5:1-15 – Confident faith WednesdayWednesday: Jeremiah 24:1-9 – Good & bad figs ThursdayThursday: James 1:1-18 – Do not doubt FridayFriday: I Corinthians 4:1-18 – Take heart! SaturdaySaturday: In preparation for tomorrow, you can read Matthew 21:23-46.