Jesus Was About His Father's Business... Why Are You Here?
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Jesus Was About His Father's Business... Why Are You Here?
Jesus Was About His Father's Business... Why Are You Here?
Most everything that Jeus did brought life. See John 3.17
17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
But, today, Jesus cleanses the temple and curses a fig tree. Matthew is clueing us in to the fact that something is up.
The temple, the center of Jewish worship, had become a den of thieves.
The nation of Israel itself, had lost its fruitfulness and was worthless by Jesus’ estimation.
The court of the Gentiles was to give the outisders and the outcasts an opportunity to learn from Israel about the true God. But it had become a religious marketplace and was turning many Gentiles away from God instead of to him. God intended it for mission, and the Jewish people were using it for marketing.
This was not the first time Jesus had cleansed the temple grounds, He had done it before in John 2.13-25,,, they had turned the court of the Gentiles into a place where foreign Jews could purchase sacrifices for their visit....a nd what had begun as a convenience had now turned into a lucrative business- with cheating and stealing from people at its core.
12 And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who sold and bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons.
13 He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you make it a den of robbers.”
Why did Jesus call the temple “a den of thieves”? Because the place where thieves hide is called a den. The religious leaders, and some of the people, were using the temple and the Jewish religion to cover up their sins.
House of prayer. See 1 Timothy 2.1-4
1 First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, 2 for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. 3 This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, 4 who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
14 And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them.
God wants people helped, not swindled
See Matthew 9.35
35 And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction.
See Matthew 11.4-5
4 And Jesus answered them, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: 5 the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them.
The next verse so contradicts what Jesus was all about.
15 But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying out in the temple, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” they were indignant,
Indignant.
16 and they said to him, “Do you hear what these are saying?” And Jesus said to them, “Yes; have you never read, “ ‘Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise’?”
Remember Luke 19.39-40
39 And some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples.” 40 He answered, “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.”
The fear of the Jews went like John 11.47-48
47 So the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered the council and said, “What are we to do? For this man performs many signs. 48 If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.”
17 And leaving them, he went out of the city to Bethany and lodged there.
Bethany- 2 miles to the east. Very small. The place of Lazarus, Mary and Martha. The place where Mary Magdalene washed his feet with an alabaster box of ointment. and tears. The place of real faith and following, of real praise and worship.
18 In the morning, as he was returning to the city, he became hungry.
15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.
For forty days and nights he was tempted by the devil with hunger…
But I think this trip back into Jerusalem reveals that the nearer he came to the Jewish religious center, the more hungry he got.
Could it be among the few and the faint- Bethany, Mary, martha, Lazarus, Mary Magdalene- he found his fullness.
Where Jesus is the only attraction, the crowds will be small.
19 And seeing a fig tree by the wayside, he went to it and found nothing on it but only leaves. And he said to it, “May no fruit ever come from you again!” And the fig tree withered at once.
And Jesus sees this fig tree. And it may surprise you that he curses a fig tree.
The same Master who could have gave new life and fruit to the tree- kills it. Jesus would not hold a fig tree morally responsible for being fruitless- would he.?
Remember, he just left Bethany. In Bethany were the people who praised him and prized him. They loved him.
As He was headed back into Jerusalem- where people were supposed to worship him- he was hungry and hurt. For no worship or fruit was found there.
This is the last week of Jesus’ public ministry to his people.
The fig tree symbolized the nation of Israel.
13 When I would gather them, declares the Lord, there are no grapes on the vine, nor figs on the fig tree; even the leaves are withered, and what I gave them has passed away from them.”
10 Like grapes in the wilderness, I found Israel. Like the first fruit on the fig tree in its first season, I saw your fathers. But they came to Baal-peor and consecrated themselves to the thing of shame, and became detestable like the thing they loved. 11 Ephraim’s glory shall fly away like a bird— no birth, no pregnancy, no conception! 12 Even if they bring up children, I will bereave them till none is left. Woe to them when I depart from them! 13 Ephraim, as I have seen, was like a young palm planted in a meadow; but Ephraim must lead his children out to slaughter. 14 Give them, O Lord— what will you give? Give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts. 15 Every evil of theirs is in Gilgal; there I began to hate them. Because of the wickedness of their deeds I will drive them out of my house. I will love them no more; all their princes are rebels. 16 Ephraim is stricken; their root is dried up; they shall bear no fruit. Even though they give birth, I will put their beloved children to death.
As this fig tree had leaves but no fruit, Israel had a show of religion but no real practical experience of faith that resulted in godly living, changed lives.
6 And he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. 7 And he said to the vinedresser, ‘Look, for three years now I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and I find none. Cut it down. Why should it use up the ground?’ 8 And he answered him, ‘Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and put on manure. 9 Then if it should bear fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.’ ”
God wants to produce fruit in the lives of His people. Fruit is the product of life. The presence of leaves usually indicates the presence of fruit, but this was not the case. In the Parable of the Fig Tree (Luke 13:6–9), the gardener was given more time to care for the tree; but now the time was up. This tree was taking up space and doing no good.
While we can make a personal application of this event, the main interpretation has to do with Israel. The time of judgment had come. The sentence was pronounced by the Judge, but it would not be executed for about forty years. Then Rome would come and destroy the city and temple and scatter the people.
Jesus used this event to teach His disciples a practical lesson about faith and prayer. The temple was supposed to be a “house of prayer,” and the nation was to be a believing people. But both of these essentials were missing. We too must beware of the peril of fruitlessness.
20 When the disciples saw it, they marveled, saying, “How did the fig tree wither at once?”
21 And Jesus answered them, “Truly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ it will happen.
22 And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith.”
Our Lives Reveal What Our Heart Hides
Our Lives Reveal What Our Heart Hides
Inward corruption and outward fruitlessness were evidences of their hypocrisy.
Why Did Jesus go back to Bethany? There he found faith- Lazarus. There he found healing- Mary Magdalene. There he found love- mary and martha.
At the temple he found nothing but deception. The outward actions revealed their inward motives.