Wartburg Theological Seminary Chapel
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Norma Cook Everist
Psalm 146
Mark 11:12-14, 20-24
(Sunday Nov. 8 texts: Mark 12:38-44; Hebrews 9:24-28, Ruth 3:1-5; 4:13-17)
Prayer is a good thing, a powerful practice. And so, a sermon on prayer: “I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it [already received it!], and it will be yours.”
And a sermon on the power of God’s action through our words: “If you say to this mountain, be taken up and thrown into the sea and if you do not doubt in your heart, but believe that what you say will come to pass, it will be done for you.”
So, brothers and sisters, go pray. Pray powerfully. Pray daily! Pray whenever you pass someone, something on the road.
And of course you see where this is going. We have a dilemma. When prayer turns to cursing, its power is no less but its intent turns cruel. And, here we have Jesus cursing. Or at least that is what Peter named it when he saw the results. Peter remembered what he had seen Jesus say the day before. …for once Peter remembered. The disciples had so often forgotten that Jesus fed four thousand, five thousand. “Don’t you remember?” Jesus had pleaded when they once again wondered where their bread would come from.
But Peter this time remembers “Rabbi, (he calls him teacher) “The fig tree that you cursed has withered.”
This Jesus is the bringer of new life, hope. And there he was, “On the following day” our text read. On the day following Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem, on the way to his own death.
This is Jesus’ first decisive action after coming into Jerusalem, according to Mark, saying to a fig tree, “May no one ever eat of you again.” Luke’s Gospel has, “As he came near, and saw the city, he wept over it.” (Lk 19:41) Matthew has him entering the temple right away and driving out those selling and buying. “My house shall be called a house of prayer and you make it a den of robbers.” And Luke, too has Jesus’ angry action the day he enters Jerusalem. But in Mark Jesus merely enters the temple, looks around at everything, and, because it was already late went out to Bethany with the twelve for the night.
And then the next morning he angrily (?) judgingly (?) hungrily (?) said to that tree, “May no one every eat fruit from you again.”
When we try to figure it out, we are likely to turn the simplistic “What would Jesus do?” into “What would I have done if I had been Jesus?” Maybe aware of his own impending death, he’s in the mood to kill something himself. (Projecting our own state of mind on Jesus.) Maybe he was in a cranky mood….irritable. (We never are irritable, are we?) They had just walked in from spending the night in Bethany. And he was hungry. Some scholars want to make of this text a way to prove that Jesus was human. I think we’ve already seen that he was fully human in all the stories preceding this in Mark. But, ok, he was hungry. He hadn’t had breakfast. How would you have been? Would even the smallest thing have bothered you?
Other writers want to talk about the tree. At this season early small knobs, something like green almonds appear, not real figs. Their appearance should be a harbinger of fruit that will come. Jesus found nothing but leaves. No small knobs would mean no figs later. The tree must already have been dead.
And other writers want to prove Jesus’ power to punish saying the tree withered right away, but the disciples did not see it, and it was dark when they went back to Bethany that night so they didn’t notice it until the morning.
All these explanations. None of them, some of them, all of them true. I don’t know. But the question is still there for me.
Why did Jesus curse the fig tree?
“Cursing” here is not “obscenity,” but judgment.
“May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” And his disciples heard it.
And then that day–the words in between our appointed text: Jesus entered the temple and he began (first thing)to drive out those who were selling….selling out. Jesus had thought about this. He had looked around at everything the night before….this was no quick, mere knee-jerk reaction. He said in effect, “May no one ever again use the temple for their own personal gain rather than to bear the fruit of prayer and praise of God…and become a house of prayer for all nations.” And when the chief priests and scribes heard it, they kept looking for a way to kill Jesus…because they were afraid of him because the whole crowd was spellbound by him. (Jealousy, fear, national self-interest, greed, power,) The fig tree in a way becomes Jesus, the one who would be killed.
And that was the first day of what we now call Holy Week.
That’s all. That’s enough
And Jesus and his disciples went out of the city again.
In the morning as they passed by (casual), they saw the fig tree withered away to the roots (not just dead for the season) Then Peter remembered. “Rabbi, (teacher)” he said, “Look. The fig tree that you cursed has withered.”
Prayer indeed.
In this chapel of prayer, what have we disciples here heard? What prayers do we pray? And in what ministries do we engage? What actions do we take? What pronouncements do we make?
In the distance Jesus had seen a fig tree. He went to see whether perhaps he would find anything on it. Why didn’t he make it bloom? Put fruit on it?
Wait. Cultivate, not curse. Pray, for God’s sake.
For what shall we pray for God’s sake….when a tree will not bear fruit?
And we here, in this community of religious endeavor, what do we see?
Oh, I want to be so careful with this text. In teaching and working with people about the issue of church conflict, so many times I have heard this text quickly pulled out to justify irresponsible behavior: “Jesus turned over tables in the temple….that’s what I’m going to do!” But remember the times before when Jesus chose to avoid, did purposely slip through a crowd away from the jeers. And this day, he goes out of the city again. The time would come for him to die, but not this day.
What, for God’s sake, shall we do when we see self-serving, egregious wrong?
Pray, and look around carefully and thoroughly, and speak up, and ask many questions.
We dare not stop asking questions.
And pray, for wisdom when Jesus comes to us as one unknown.
Jesus told the fig tree, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.”
…. What power he had.
And what power our own words have in the name of Christ.
…..that tree withered to its roots.
And question when answers and circumstances are unknown:
Why did Jesus turn over those tables in the temple?
And not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple?
…..and the chief priests and scribes look for ways to kill him?
Why do I dare to read and preach from this text when I have no idea how you will hear it? Peter heard and remembered.
For God’s sake pray and pronounce and proclaim.
But “for God’s sake” not out of our own fear, or jealousy nor merely to satisfy our own hungers or for our own personal gain.
And so we pronounce and proclaim and doubt our own motivations. We pray, and look around, carefully, thoroughly.
And when we say, out of disbelief, or despair, or …. “Rabbi, look! The fig tree that you cursed has withered.”
Hear Jesus’ answer. What would it be? “I was just hungry, I was just angry, it wasn’t my fault, ….those guys in the temple got to me……. “
Jesus answered them:
“Have faith in God. Truly I tell you, if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea’; and if you do not doubt in your heart, but believe that what you say will come to pass, it will be done for you. So, I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.”
To believe that, to act recklessly on that is dangerous, sometimes idolatrous.
So listen to one more verse:
Jesus says, “Whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone; so that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses.”
Amen
737 He Come to Us as One Unknown, vs. 1, 4, 5