The Barren Temple

They dress the wound of my people as though it were not serious. "Peace, peace," they say, when there is no peace. Are they ashamed of their loathsome conduct? No, they have no shame at all; they do not even know how to blush. So they will fall among the fallen; they will be brought down when they are punished, says the LORD. I will take away their harvest…There will be no grapes on the vine. There will be no figs on the tree, and their leaves will wither. What I have given them will be taken from them (Jeremiah 8:11-13 NIV).

This message from Jeremiah around five hundred years before the birth of Jesus was a message of judgment against the nation of Israel. People of Jeremiah’s generation were minimizing the seriousness of Israel’s sins, downplaying Israel’s rebellion toward God. So God says he’ll judge Israel, and that like a fig tree with no figs, Israel will wither.

Jesus is using the imagery from Jeremiah and applying it to the temple in his own generation over five hundred years later. By having lots and lots of leaves the fig tree promised to be fruitful, but in the end it didn’t produce anything.

Here we find a principle that’s important for our lives.

(1) We follow Jesus when we refuse to live our lives by mere appearances.

Don’t confuse leaves with fruit, because as impressive as leaves are from a distance, they don’t mean anything if there’s no fruit. The Jewish temple, as we’ll see in a few minutes, looked impressive. It had all the appearances of something great, with its massive walls, it’s ornate architecture, it’s sheer size. The temple courts alone were five football fields long. During the Passover celebration well over 200,000 sacrificial lambs were sacrificed on the altar of this incredible temple. But the temple wasn’t producing the fruit of godly people, the fruit of joyful worship, the fruit of an Israel who was compassionate and righteous. The temple had become all leaves and no fruit.

Many people’s spiritual lives are like that too. A person might attend a worship service on Sunday, but fail to actually give God praise and honor. A person might read her Bible every day, but fail to listen and obey it’s message. A person might put a Christian fish symbol on his business card, but fail to actually conduct his business by the values of Jesus. You see, the leaves are the outward trappings that might impress people from a distance. But unless those leaves are producing godly fruit in our lives, then they’re only there for show.

It is very easy to confuse leaves with fruit. But followers of Jesus refuse to live by mere appearances.

2. The Barren Temple (Mark 11:15-19)

Now sandwiched in the middle of the cursing of the fig tree is Jesus’ action in the Jewish temple. Traditionally this event is called "the cleansing of the temple." The typical explanation goes something like this: Jesus was trying to reform the Jewish temple because of the dishonesty of the people selling sacrificial animals there. his explanation views the money changers as being like merchants selling trinkets in the holy land today, and Jesus is upset because they’ve commercialized the worship at the temple. So in his anger, Jesus calls the temple "a den of thieves," because of these money changers peddling their wares for a profit. That’s the traditional explanation of this event, but remember appearances can be deceiving.