1. Jesus curses a fig tree and clears the temple courts
1-2x songs: (How great is our God).
Notices and kids time
2x song (Jesus take me as I am… refiners fire)
SERMON
Repeat: Refiners God
Mark 11:12-25

2. Mark 11:12-17
12 The next day as they were leaving Bethany, Jesus was hungry. 13 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. 14 Then he said to the tree, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” And his disciples heard him say it.
15 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, 16 and would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts. 17 And as he taught them, he said, “Is it not written: ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations’[c]? But you have made it ‘a den of robbers.’[d]”

3. Mark 11:18-25
18 The chief priests and the teachers of the law heard this and began looking for a way to kill him, for they feared him, because the whole crowd was amazed at his teaching.
19 When evening came, Jesus and his disciples[e] went out of the city.
20 In the morning, as they went along, they saw the fig tree withered from the roots. 21 Peter remembered and said to Jesus, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree you cursed has withered!”
22 “Have faith in God,” Jesus answered. 23 “Truly[f] I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in their heart but believes that what they say will happen, it will be done for them.24 Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. 25 And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive them, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins.” [26] [g]
QUESTION: What are your responses?
Some of this feels frankly out of character for Jesus
I personally am relieved, because it says it’s ok to be angry.
I am chastened, in that it says that dramatic action is to be taken in some circumstances
I am confused and anxious, because I’m not sure what makes these situations different to any other? What makes these particular wrongs warrant such a response?

4. What is wrong (or ‘bad’ or ‘evil’)?
…The actor, the intention, or the consequence?
Why was did Jesus curse the fig tree?
How are we making good impressions, and how are we showing fruit? What is the difference?
Why did Jesus clear the temple courts?
How can we make sure our buildings, our church community, our individual lives, are a “house for all nations”?
I teach the anthropology of evil…
Anthropology is….
So essentially we spend a lot of time studying how different people groups, at different times, came to ascribe evil to other particular people, symbols, actions, and so on.
First lecture I draw from philosophy. Actor/intention/consequence. (The responses characterizes response. Blame, punishment, restoration).
FIG TREE
Note curse was not a magical action, rather a pronunciation against. A judgement over.
So what was it about this situation that Jesus judged as being bad?
(actor, intention, consequence). Was the tree just rotten? Stunted in some way? Was it that it was acting selfishly, holding back somehow? Was it because Jesus was made hungry?
Context is that it’s not just about the tree, but he was echoing the OT
Metaphor for Israel, in it’s Old Testament use.
First fruits owed to God (leafs come after).
- Was Israel had become a bad people? Was it stubbornness or selfishness being highlighted who intended to cheat God? Was it the harm they caused to God, against the right order of God’s universe, that was the problem?
Fruitlessness as rebellious against what God wants us to manifest. What we owe him (Israel's first fruits).
Emphasis on impressions vs fruit
EXERCISE: How are we making good impressions, and how are we showing fruit? What is the difference?
They can look really similar
Organic metaphor. Bubbling up from within. Less about striving to meet or reach some external picture of right, or good. More about submitting to the Christ who is already within us. The spirit and it’s fruit that aren’t glamouress but that ARE godly.
When we think of being fruitful, and the fruit of the Holy Spirit.
They become qualities of people. They are an intentional orientation to others, goals that bring about good and peace in others and in the world. And they ultimately have consequences if not for us, then for others, of feeling love and being lifted.
When we hold back what God asks, we as willing servants, who have made promises to follow, to submit, every time we call ourselves ‘Christians’. We are reprimanded.
The INTENTIONS are critiqued. Because why would we set aside these things? For other things that appear more beneficial. Set aside peace for one uppance, set aside joy for bitterness, set aside gentleness for control.
Not as inherently bad, or obviously bad, but as replacing or obscuring more important intentions.
You know that phrase, the ‘fear of the lord’. Or being a ‘god-fearing’ person. I didn’t like or understand the term, because there is no fear in perfect love. But I think I come to understand it a little better in contexts like this. It’s about you you respect. Who you listen to. Whose degrees you are willing to actually shape your life around? Are you more interested in outcomes and consequences related to the seen world, or the unseen? Harder to hold or be held accountable to the later. We can help eachother in that respect.
TEMPLE
(actor, intention, consequence). Were those people unholy? Was it their great that made their actions unholy? Or the fact it blocked people from God?
JC quoted OT: “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? [Isaiah 56:7–8] But you have made it a den of robbers [Jeremiah 7:11].”
Not just sacred and profane - Main thing is obstructs people from God. (the CONSEQUENCE)
Systems, social justice issues.
Prophets criticised the temple. The system, the elites. (hold that with Mike's sermon about loving those with smallest differences)
E.g. propserity preaching, e.g. complementarianism.
Specifically in the court of the gentiles
How can we make a temple, in the way we develop our new building, that is "a house for all nations””
Jesus promises to tear down the temple, and rebuild it In three days. And he dies. And what the temple curtain keeping the holy ofholies separate is torn. The temple Christ tears down is the own where people make sacrifices, make platitudes, count downs, make hurdle over hurdle to get to God over the mess and sin of life. The one he rebuilds, in his own body, his victory over death, is one where we need only read out in love. Touch his wounds, eat and drink of his body and blood, share in his life giving . The temple he builds is a house for all nations
How can we make our church community a house for all nations? How can we remove barriers to ’unclean’ people nearing God?

5. Speaking to trees, and mountains
Why are the stories of the fig tree, and the temple vendors, told side by side?
Why does Mark make sure to tell us that the fig tree DID wither… and then end the section with Jesus talking about faith, prayer, and forgiveness?
Aligning his life and story with history, prophecy – quoting Old Testament both times. Fulfilling the prophecy.
Taking on the role of God. So on one hand, not sure we are supposed to identify or model after JC in these ones, but more think of ourselves as the tree or the temple sellers.
On the other hand, he invites us to acknowledge our power, especially as we share in his. Our power to change things. Even big, immovable, things. He changed ‘natural’ things, and human systems.
How often do we say ‘that’s just the way of it’ That’s sad but normal. That’s just how the world works.
These two stories are told together, and tied off with this framing, because they both highlight the power we have when we take a Christ-like stance of condemning or speak out against things, with faith. Where we stake our will, our intention, our words, there is power. They way we orient ourselves to God. The way we orient ourselves to others. We are not insignificant, he is saying here, but like Christ have power. Stories like this counter a misunderstanding of what it means to be ‘meek’.