BENEATH THE SURFACE
This week at Resonate, we had a very special guest – Pastor Josh Hersey – and wow, did he open some eyes. The message he shared was called “Beneath the Surface,” and we sure went deep!
Pastor Josh led us through the gospel, specially focusing on Mark 11:12-17, where Jesus curses a fig tree, and then goes on to clear the temple courts. Here’s the passage:
“The next day as they were leaving Bethany, Jesus was hungry. Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to find out if it had any fruit. When he reached it, he found nothing but leaves, because it was not the season for figs. Then he said to the tree, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” And his disciples heard him say it.
On reaching Jerusalem, Jesus entered the temple courts and began driving out those who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves, and would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts. And as he taught them, he said, “Is it not written: ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations?’ But you have made it a den of robbers.”
On the surface, it’s pretty straight forward. Jesus is searching for food, but doesn’t find it. He then enters the temple and starts flipping tables. Sound familiar? Remember, that while Jesus is 100% God, He was also 100% man. With that in mind, and given the context of the story, doesn’t it sound like Jesus was hangry?
However, digging in, we can see that there’s a deeper lesson here. Jesus is very intentional, and that fact that this story even made it into the Bible tells us that this isn’t just about figs and tables. In fact, Jesus is actually trying to teach us about two things:
1. Purity
In today’s world, purity is easy to fall by the wayside. But Jesus wants us to know that purity always matters. When He started flipping tables in the temple, He wasn’t just hangry – He was upset that the purity of the temple had been stained by the impurity of people.
Animal sacrifices were normal in His day, and people often brought animals they had raised there to kill. But people started selling animals inside the temple for profit, and that crossed the line. Businessmen took advantage of the sacrificial nature of religion at the time, and made it about profit and not God.
Thankfully, we don’t sacrifice animals to commune with God anymore – Jesus was the ultimate and final sacrifice. So what is He telling us in this story? Well, in Corinthians 6:19-20, we are told that our body is the new temple, and that we’re to keep it pure to honour God.
Jesus wants us to recognize that when there’s impurity in the temple, it’s not ok. Likewise if there’s impurity in our lives, we can’t take it lightly. We must attack and remove it, just like He did by flipping the tables.
That doesn’t mean we need to confuse purity with perfection. If we strive to be 100% perfect, we’re destined to fail, because we’re not perfect, we’re human! This can lead to a feeling of inadequacy, and eventually quitting. And if we think we’re already perfect, we’re fooling ourselves. Self-righteousness is one of the most dangerous things in a church.
We need to check our hearts – we’re not better than anyone, we just sin differently! We all inevitably sin. But what’s the state of your heart when you do? We need to strive for a pure heart, not perfection.
2. Fruitfulness
Ok, now back to the fig tree. Upon reading this, it’s a little strange that Jesus is so frustrated that He curses a tree. In fact, the Bible even tells us that it wasn’t even fig season! So where does His frustration come from?
The idea of fruitfulness is actually quite common in the Word, and by studying it, we can understand that we’re called to be ready to bear fruit in all seasons. Even when we’re not “feeling it.” Even through unemployment. Even through heartache. Even through success. We need to always be prepared to bear fruit! That means working on our relationship with God, knowing His word, and changing our hearts to be more like Him.
Jesus uses this fig tree as a sign – the lesson is fruitfulness in every season.
John 15:1-2 clearly illustrates what happens to those that don’t bear fruit – they get cut off. What’s interesting in this passage is that even the branches that bear fruit get prunes, so that they’ll be even more fruitful. Bringing it back to us, that means we’re going to get cut either way, but how we receive the cut is up to us.
It can be hard to serve, but by following God’s ways, the pain we experience will lead to more fruitfulness. If we’re not fruitful, we don’t receive any benefit. I know which branch I’d rather be!
As we seek to be more fruitful, don’t confuse fruitfulness with busyness. We must be careful we don’t just build a list of things we do, for the sake of checking them off a list of things we “should be” doing. Then it becomes more about the things, and less about the fruitfulness of our heart.
The goal of both these lessons – purity and fruitfulness – is to closer align our hearts to Jesus. Because when we put His ways above our own, we dive deeper in relationship with God.
Make sure to check out the full message below!
