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In the Middle of a Tree
***LIVESTREAM***
Good morning and happy Easter!
Today we celebrate our risen savior.
We remember how Jesus conquered death and was raised to new life.
For our time together today I want to talk about the days leading up to Jesus’ death and resurrection from a slightly different angle.
This will be like one of our deep dives into scripture where we link ideas, structures and thoughts throughout the bible to get a more specific idea about what is going on in scripture.
In fact, I want to focus on a story that isn’t normally even associated with Easter.
Today we are going to focus on a tree that Jesus encounters in Mark 11.
While you turn there, think about trees.
Think back to a time when you would play ‘hide and seek’ and you would try to hide in the biggest tree you could find.
You could hear the seeker coming so you scurried up this tree and tried to hide yourself amongst it’s leaves.
In that moment the tree gives you a sense of security, you will be hard to get.
It gives you a sense of protection, you will be hard to find.
In a playful way, during this game of ‘hide and seek’ the tree becomes a representation of salvation.
Scripture uses the imagery of trees frequently.
They are used to connect specific ideas, to show common themes, to help us understand certain themes and topics, and the list goes on.
The most well known trees in scripture are the tree of life and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
From there we could also go deeper and talk about roots (no pun intended), leaves, fruit, and so on.
We could easily spend months studying trees.
For today let’s take a quick look at a pattern that Genesis gives us for trees, then how Jesus uses the pattern as a prophetic image, and lastly we will look at how Jesus fits in to this pattern himself.
If you need a simple headline for your notes you could say this:
God uses tree imagery to illustrate truth vs fallacy.
In the beginning God creates humanity to rule on earth with Him.
Then He made the garden in Eden and sprung up trees, specifically beautiful fruit-bearing trees...
Then in verse 16 God told the man that he could eat from every tree in the garden except for the tree of knowledge.
Choosing that tree would lead to death.
We all know how this turns out, but the story paints us a picture of the choice we still get to make to this day.
God created us to rule with Him and we can either choose to do things His way, or we can choose the way that seems right to us but actually leads to death and destruction.
After Adam & Eve choose to do things their way instead of God’s way, something interesting happens.
Two things, actually.
First they covered their shame with God’s beautiful creation then hid from Him in a tree, but not just any tree...
Our English translations of scripture say “among the trees”, but the Hebrew words used here are “tāveḵ ʿēṣ” (taw’-vek ates) which means “middle tree”, singular.
In other words, they literally hid in the tree in the middle of the garden.
What tree is in the middle of the garden?
The tree of life and the tree of knowledge.
Which one did they hide in?
I don’t know.
In my opinion, this detail is left ambiguous on purpose for us to apply to our own lives.
When we mess up, which tree will we hide in?
Will we cover ourselves with the appearance of good like A&E and rely on our own understanding of what is right?
Or will we run to Christ and hide in God’s mercy and grace?
Isaiah paints this exact picture.
He says that God will come and, just like A&E heard His voice, He will cause his majestic voice to be heard.
When He does, will you be like A&E and rely on your own way and hide...
Or will you hide in God’s protection...
To put it simply, the pattern that shows up in Genesis in regard to trees is that God uses the imagery of trees to show us His truth which doesn’t always look good.
In fact, most of the time it is down right scary, which we will talk about later.
He also uses tree imagery to depict our own knowledge, or what looks good to us.
In contrast, obviously this will always look good to us.
When we see how our way isn’t good, we usually try to cover up the imperfections with fig leaves and make them look good, or we will just hide and make excuses.
Now let’s talk about Jesus’ use of this imagery.
If you need another headline for your notes you could say:
Jesus uses tree imagery to identify truth vs fallacy.
If you’ve turned to Mark 11, go ahead and look for verse 12. Jesus’ encounter with this fig tree happens right after His triumphant entry into Jerusalem.
Specifically, this encounter occurs right in the middle of His visit to the Temple.
This is not a coincidence.
We are going to look at a lot of scripture today, but bear with me.
My hope is that we will all be able to see this story from a different perspective because when we go beyond face value with scripture God opens up all sorts of amazing truths to us.
This story is about so much more than hungry Jesus.
He’s not hangry and doesn’t need a snickers.
It’s about more than just a fig tree.
It’s a prophetic act like the one He is about to do in the Temple.
Notice how Mark explicitly states that it wasn’t the time of year for fruit from this tree.
This is something that has always bothered me about this verse.
Why would Jesus expect fruit if it wasn’t even in season?
This is one of those moments in scripture that we have talked about before.
If it doesn’t make sense, it’s because you are supposed to dig deeper.
This is symbolic.
Jesus is basically saying that THIS tree disguises itself with leaves to look righteous, like A & E covered themselves with… FIG LEAVES!
THIS tree isn’t the one that produces perpetual fruit.
God’s tree produces a sort of perpetual fruit.
12 kinds, each month.
Flip to the last page of your bible and see.
But this tree, not that tree.
This temple was not that temple.
Why else would this encounter be in the middle of the temple story?
The next time we see Jesus speak is when He is quoting OT scripture.
He says...
Jesus is actually quoting from Jeremiah 7. In this scripture, Jeremiah is announcing the downfall of the corrupt Jerusalem leadership.
He said that they think they are wise because they have the word of the Lord, but they have twisted it and rejected God’s truth for lies.
Then he said...
There is another prophetic image from Micah 7 that helps explain what Jesus is doing here...
Jesus is using this fig tree and His encounter at the Temple as a prophetic illustration.
Not only is living under this tree not working, but all of the God seeking people have flat disappeared.
So it’s time to get rid of the false trees, the false Eden’s, and get the right tree in here.
The tree of life.
Even though we are talking about the use of tree imagery in scripture, you can use these same principles in your own life.
Throughout our lives we will often choose the wrong tree.
We will often do things our way and end up in a situation that looked good from the outside, but on the inside it has no life in it.
It was a false Eden.
Thankfully, Jesus wants us to be full of life and not dragged down by these false Edens.
If you are taking notes...
Jesus uses tree imagery to give us hope.
After they left the temple they walked by the fig tree again and Peter was apparently shocked and said, “Look!
The tree you cursed has withered and died!”
That is when Jesus responds with his famous words about faith.
Have faith in God and you can move mountains if you really believe it will happen.
Unfortunately, in my experience it if far more common for this scripture to be used out of context to perpetuate a “name it and claim it” mentality which usually ends up leaving most people feeling inadequate and hopeless.
The vast majority of people who I have ever heard quote this scripture follow it up with, “I just need more faith.
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