Mid-Lent 1
Mt
21:12-22
2/25/15
“A green thumb.” All of us know what the expression
means. It describes someone who is very
good at raising plants – someone who is able to make them thrive and produce
great flowers and fruit. In England they
use a similar expression – “green fingers.”
We all know what it means. What is interesting is that there is
disagreement about the source of this expression. Some say that it originated in England during
the reign of Henry I who is reported to have loved fresh peas and kept a group
of servants removing peas from the pods.
In doing so their fingers were stained greened. A more likely explanation is that it
originated in the fact that the clay pots used by gardeners became encrusted with
algae and this stained fingers green.
And it may be that while “green thumb” describes the same thing as
“green fingers,” it has a completely separate derivation. Those who raised tobacco would remove the
flowers from the plants so that the leaves would grow in size and weight. Colonial era farmers often did so using their
thumb which became green in the process.
We may not be sure how the
expression “green thumb” came to be, but we do know for sure what it
means. And we can say for sure that in
our text tonight, our Lord Jesus does not have one. Jesus encounters a fig tree that has no
fruit. In reaction to this, he causes
the fig tree immediately to wither and die.
At first glance, it’s a really odd event. But when we see its connection
with what Jesus has just done and said in the temple its meaning becomes
clear. And it is a word that we need to
hear during Lent.
The events of our text take place on
the day that Jesus entered into Jerusalem.
After riding into Jerusalem to the cheers of “Hosanna to the Son of
David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!,” we learn that Jesus
makes his way to the temple. There he
drives out all of those who are involved in buying and selling – the money
changers who exchanged money into the form used in the temple, as well as those
selling animals to be sacrificed. As he
did so, he said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of
prayer,’ but you make it a den of robbers.”
Now it’s not the buying and selling
of animals that is the problem. After all, the sacrifices had been commanded by
God as part of the Torah he gave to Israel.
If you are going to have animal sacrifices, you need animals that are
suitable for sacrificing. And if you are going to have people come from all
over Israel to sacrifice, they will need to be able to buy animals.
Instead, when Jesus uses the phrase
“den of robbers” he provides the clue we need to understand what is
happening. In the sixth century B.C. the
prophet Jeremiah had announced that the temple was going to be destroyed
because of Judah’s unfaithfulness. In
doing so, he described the temple as a “den of robbers.”
In both cases, people were going
through all of the motions of what they were “supposed to do.” But spiritually, their attitude was all wrong
– especially that of the religious leaders.
In Jesus’ day they were focused on what they did and their expectations
of how God should work, rather than looking in faith to the reign of God that
was present in Christ.
Those who had no illusions about
their own need were drawn to Jesus all during his ministry. And it was no different here in the precincts
of the temple itself. We learn in our
text that the blind and lame came to Jesus and he healed them. These wondrous deeds were accompanied by
the cry of children who said, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” as they echoed
Jesus’ entry into the city. But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the
wonderful things that Jesus did, and heard the children crying out in the
temple they were indignant. Their
reaction demonstrates what was wrong at the temple.
Jesus withdrew outside the city to
Bethany for the night. We learn that the next morning as he was returning to
the city, he became hungry. He saw a fig tree there along the road. He went to
it and found nothing on it but only leaves, at a time when it should have had
fruit. So he said to it, “May no fruit ever come from you again!” And the fig
tree withered at once.
It seems like a strange action. Yet the background for understanding it is
provided by the Old Testament and the events in the temple of the previous
day. The prophet Hosea described Israel as fruit on a fig tree, and Jeremiah and
Micah both compared Israel to a barren fig tree. When Jesus causes the barren fig tree to
whither, it is an action prophecy of judgment against Israel that has rejected
its true king and proven to be unfruitful. They are going through the motions
and doing what they are “supposed to do.”
But they are not looking in humble faith for what God is doing in Jesus
Christ.
Our text tonight is a warning to us.
It is easy for us just to go through the motions of being Christians. It is possible to be doing what we are
“supposed to do” – to go to church – and yet have this be disconnected from
what happens in our life the rest of the week.
It is possible to fence God off in that hour or two on Sunday morning while
we claim the rest of the time in the week for ourselves.
The need for self-examination and
repentance in our life never ceases. In
reality we are probably not capable of doing it at the same intensity all of
the time. And that is why the season of
Lent is a blessing in our lives and the life of the Church. For a period of time, we are called to focus
upon our lives and God’s Word. We are
called to examine ourselves and confess the sin that is present. We are called to repent and turn in faith to
Christ who provides forgiveness and strength to turn away from sin.
In our text tonight we see Jesus in
the temple during Holy Week. This
combination of place and time provides the assurance that in repentance and
faith we find the forgiveness of our Lord.
The temple was of course the place where the sacrifices commanded by God
took place – sacrifices that would find their fulfillment in the death of Jesus
Christ that was about to take place on Friday of that very week.
The sacrifices were about God’s
forgiveness. And in particular, the
sacrifices of the Day of Atonement removed the sin that stood as a barrier
between God and his people. It removed
the sin that cut them off from fellowship with him. Jesus Christ offered himself as the sacrifice
for all – the sacrifice for you. He
provided himself as the ransom in your place by which you have received
forgiveness and eternal life. And in his resurrection from the dead he has
begun the life that will be yours on the Last Day.
During Lent we have the opportunity
to examine our lives and recognize those ways in which we are just going
through the motions. And at the same
time, the season of Lent leads us back to the source that enables us to live as
what Christ has made us to be.
Lent leads us back to our baptism,
for it leads us to the first service of the resurrection - the Vigil of
Easter. It leads us back to a faith
filled remembrance of what God has done for us through water and the word. It leads us to the source of our Christian
life, for through baptism the Spirit has joined you to the saving death of
Jesus. And through baptism the Spirit
has begun the work of Christ within you.
It is the risen Lord through his Spirit who provides strength to live in
faith – to live out the faith in the world instead of just going through the
motions.
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