Today’s Podcast
Today’s Bible reading plan:
Read it in a year – 2 Timothy 1-2
see the whole year’s plan [here](http://www.bible-reading.com/bible-plan.pdf)
Today’s Devotional
Mark 11:14
Jesus: No one will ever eat fruit from your branches again.
What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?
This is one of those stories you might remember, but if you’re like me, I always wondered a little why it was there. What is so important about this story that Mark would include it in His gospel and why would it come back to him as he recorded the events of Jesus life some thirty years later?
Jesus got up in the morning and started toward Jerusalem after spending the night in Bethany. Apparently, Mary and Martha were not the great hosts that morning they had been previously or Jesus and His disciples left earlier than they expected, because He didn’t eat anything before He left. He was hungry. So as He saw a fig tree in the distance, His salivary glands started acting up, His stomach started growling, and He started longing for some of those early figs from that tree.
When they got to the tree, though, there were no figs. Mark tells us an interesting fact about that tree, though. He says it was in full bloom and looked like it should have figs, but it wasn’t time for it to bear fruit yet. It bloomed too early. It had the right appearance from a distance, but when you got a close look at it, it just didn’t measure up to your expectations.
Jesus approaches the tree and sees no figs. Everything looks good, but no figs. He’s hungry. The tree was enticing. It made everyone even hungrier when they saw it. But no figs. Jesus does something recorded only one time in all the gospels. He uses His godly power to destroy. Jesus curses the tree and says it will never produce fruit again. We’ll see in just a few verses that in less than twenty-four hours, that tree will wither down to its roots. It will die a quick death that cannot be restored.
There is an important lesson in there for us as we watch Jesus’ actions with that tree. I think Jesus sent a clear message to His disciples and to us that day. I don’t think Jesus took action out of anger or spite. He could have easily touched the tree and figs would have grown as quickly as it withered. Remember Aaron’s rod when the other Israelite tribes questioned Moses and Aaron’s authority? In a single night, Aaron’s rod grew leaves, blossoms, and ripe almonds.
God can do miraculous things when He wants to. He did a miraculous thing with the fig tree. Just try to make a healthy tree in full bloom with its leaves spread out over the pathway wither to nothing in a single day. That is not an easy task. With all the pesticides, plant killers, poisons, acids, and all the concoctions we have today, I’m not so sure we can make a mature tree wither in twelve to sixteen hours. But Jesus did – by just talking to it.
So what’s the lesson?
The tree looked really good, but it didn’t have any fruit. It had all the markings of a healthy fig tree, but it didn’t do the job it was meant to do, produce figs. It had pretty leaves, a stout trunk, all the makings of exactly what you’d look for in a well producing tree. That’s why Jesus went to it in the first place. But when you got close to it, you saw it wasn’t what you thought it was. You saw through the sham of its appearance. You saw into the heart of the tree and the hypocrisy the tree represented in presenting itself as a producing fig tree but without fruit.
I think Jesus is telling us appearance doesn’t count. You can look good and sound good, but that’s not what He’s looking for in a life of faith. You can go to the right places and sing the right songs, but so what? You can pray long flowery prayers and even serve on church boards and teach Sunday School classes, but all those outward appearances don’t amount to anything in His book.
Jesus looks beneath the covers. He looks past the leaves and looks for the fruit. What am I talking about? Paul lists some of the fruit Jesus expects us to grow in Galatians chapter five. Remember those? Unconditional love, joy, peace, patience, kindheartedness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. He expects to see those attributes blossoming in our lives. He expects to see more than just outward tapestry and habit. He wants to see our character transform as He takes control of our lives.
When He does, when He is Lord of our lives, you can’t help but see the fruit bloom. He guides us into areas that make that fruit evident to others around us. He puts us into situations that stretch us and fertilizes those parts of our lives so that our circumstance let Him transform our thinking into His thinking. He changes our character and let us bear His fruit. And what happens if we don’t? Just a word, and the fig tree withered where it stood. I don’t want to hear those words from Jesus when He comes, do you?
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