A Cursed Fig Tree

 

Tuesday, September 9, 2020

In the morning, as Jesus was returning to Jerusalem, he was hungry, and he noticed a fig tree beside the road.  He went over to see if there were any figs, but there were only leaves.  Then he said to it, “May you never bear fruit again!”  And immediately the fig tree withered up.  The disciples were amazed when they saw this and asked, “How did the fig tree wither so quickly?”  Then Jesus told them, “I tell you the truth, if you have faith and don’t doubt, you can do things like this and much more.  You can even say to this mountain, ‘May you be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ and it will happen.  You can pray for anything, and if you have faith, you will receive it.”  Matthew 21:18-22

This story seems a little out of character for the patient, even-tempered Jesus, doesn’t it?  I mean, cursing a poor, defenseless little fig tree…really?  But if you look a little deeper you see what’s happening; Jesus is on His way to cleanse the Temple of moneychangers, over-charging sellers of sacrificial animals, and hypocritical elitist rulers of the religious system.  Cursing the fig tree is a warm-up.  Jesus is doing stretches before the big game, and He uses the fig tree to school his disciples on what will be happening, and how their faith must develop if they are to carry on the work of delivering the message of Good News in faith, and faithfully.

Another issue that presents itself is the fact that God requires fruitfulness, particularly of those who profess to have faith, and be leaders.  In that region of the world there is more than one kind of fig tree.  Some (perhaps many) types put out their figs even before the leaves appear.  The fruit is edible, but not nearly as tasty as the later ripened crop.  The fig tree in this account already has its leaves, an announcement that the fruit is there, and probably already ripe.  Jesus finds a stick waving leaves, bearing no fruit. 

So, why curse the tree?  Jesus is not just doing stretches for the big game later at the Temple; He is teaching.  The fig tree is a picture of the Pharisees, Sadducees, and Elders at the Temple, proclaiming God is there, but ignorant of the reality that God had turned His back on that place until it could be cleansed. 

Sadly, the Temple has a lot of contemporary places of worship as offspring of that fig tree!  The Scriptures may be read and even revered, but it is far from lived by many who proclaim Christ as Lord.

It’s one thing to recognize you’re a long way from being a fruitful Christian and center your life on surrendering to Christ’s teaching…to grow mature through discipleship, prayer, and study of God’s Word.  It’s quite another thing to wave your fig leaves announcing your accomplishments for the kingdom of God and be as barren as what Jude[1] called bragging clouds, rolling across the landscape, promising rain, but delivering nothing but more dust.

For You Today

Determine right now that you will not be a Christian hot air bag, boasting of spiritual maturity; instead, go after that maturity with an open and humble heart.  Commit to the surrendered life – your will, time, resources, strength, and all your heart totally belonging to Christ, willing to follow and serve.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road today.  Have a blessed day!

VIDEO

Title image Pixabay.com  W  Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation©

For other posts on spiritual fruitfulness: The Ruins of Old Courage  and Grounding Prayer and It’s the Circle of Life

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[1] They are like clouds blowing over the land without giving any rain.  Jude 12c

 

As Long As Life Lasts

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Monday, October 22, 2018

When the ground soaks up the falling rain and bears a good crop for the farmer, it has God’s blessing.  But if a field bears thorns and thistles, it is useless.  The farmer will soon condemn that field and burn it.  Dear friends, even though we are talking this way, we really don’t believe it applies to you.  We are confident that you are meant for better things, things that come with salvation.  For God is not unjust.  He will not forget how hard you have worked for him and how you have shown your love to him by caring for other believers, as you still do.  Our great desire is that you will keep on loving others as long as life lasts, in order to make certain that what you hope for will come true.  Then you will not become spiritually dull and indifferent.   Instead, you will follow the example of those who are going to inherit God’s promises because of their faith and endurance.  Hebrews 6:7-12(NLT)

Sometimes, in the mornings when bones and joints creak out their complaints about getting up too early, or stiff muscles shout their disapproval over another long night in the bed…when aches and pains call out for their fair share of your attention … like 150% of everything you’ve got … thoughts turn to asking oneself just why you still push to answer the call.  Why not just take it easy?  Why not let someone else have it?

I always hated when the conversation turned to the obvious age-related topic, that (barring life getting cut short by violence or something like an incurable tumor), we all get old, lose strength and must depend on others.  But like it or not, I’m there.  I’m in the eighth decade of life, and just thinking about those dozen bushes I bought yesterday to plant in my yard makes my aching back want to call the elder abuse hotline! 

What was I thinking?

And then, thanks to the Apostle Paul, I read something like today’s passage in Hebrews early in the morning.  Suddenly, although the ache in my back from too many yesterdays is still speaking loudly, it changes from a cry to pull the plug, retire, and live out my days with ease, to a reminder that spiritual dullness and indifference are the weeds that must be addressed if life’s race is to be finished well.

Paul said his greatest desire was that his Hebrew brothers and sisters would go on loving others as long as life lasts.  That, for me, means there is something much more important to do with this life than take a nap.  Now, don’t get me wrong, naps are great.  In fact, I’m a firm subscriber to the principle, and practice, that sometimes a good nap can put many of life’s difficulties in proper perspective.  Naps are calming, restorative and probably as necessary as regular breathing, diet, exercise and prayer.  They just aren’t the main focus of life.  They are an aid in maintaining the real focus which is helping others as long as life lasts.  This is the better things Paul ascribed to his Hebrew family; he knew they were destined for a well-deserved reputation of being God’s hands of mercy and lovingkindness in a very needy world.

So, here I am, a cup of coffee and two arthritis pain-relief tablets later, coming to the end of today’s devotion, trying to make sense out of how I can help somebody today.  And this is where the choice between a fruitful life’s garden or a lot full of weeds and thorns is made.  The list of ailments and losses is still there, growing every day; so are the opportunities to make a difference loving those God has placed in my pathway.

For You Today

Crop of weeds or fruit … it’s a choice every moment of every day, as long as life lasts!

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day.

Go to VIDEO

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[1] Title Image: Courtesy of Pixabay.com

It's the Circle of Life

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Thursday, July 26, 2018

You learned about the Good News from Epaphras, our beloved co-worker.  He is Christ’s faithful servant, and he is helping us on your behalf.  He has told us about the love for others that the Holy Spirit has given you.  So we have not stopped praying for you since we first heard about you.  We ask God to give you complete knowledge of his will and to give you spiritual wisdom and understanding.  Then the way you live will always honor and please the Lord, and your lives will produce every kind of good fruit.  All the while, you will grow as you learn to know God better and better.  Colossians 1:7-10^(NLT)

In the Walt Disney animated movie Lion King[2] Mufasa is teaching his son, Prince Simba all about life.  One of the taglines is:  The greatest adventure of all is finding our place in the circle of life.[3]  Simba is told to respect the antelope.  Confused, Simba questions Mufasa:  Um, Dad, don’t we EAT the antelope?  Dad agrees, but then reminds his cub that lions also die and return to the ground to become the grass antelopes eat.  This is the circle of life. 

Mufasa’s wisdom aside (after all, there are holes in his metaphysics – just ask Rafiki, the baboon who plays the shaman clergy seer if there is more to it than blood, sinew and bones returning to the ground); well…aside from the Lion King’s life-circle lesson, there is a spiritual circle of life that Paul holds up for us in his letter to the Colossian believers.

Paul had done much work at Colossae, bringing pagans to Christ.  Epaphras, at Paul’s direction, had been dispatched to the region to help form the new church after Paul left.  Epaphras reported back to Paul that the believers there were growing in their love for God and service to people.  In responding Paul shared his joy at their growth, and how he was praying daily for their continued growth in understanding God’s Word, so they would bear even greater fruit for the kingdom. 

In so many ways this is the Christian, or spiritual circle of life.  The Gospel is shared, a seed is planted.  One comes alongside to nurture that seed of faith, as it grows into a fruitful Kingdom vine. 

It was that way for me (and probably you).  My parents loved Jesus and his church.  They passed this love along to me.  Even in my far country Prodigal son days, I could run far from God, but never out from under Mom and Dad’s prayers.  In due time the faith seedling survived the storm, began to grow on the bread of life, and began to bear fruit.

When your faith survives adolescence, and you begin to exhibit the signs of maturing, the circle of life ceases to be linear…just passed down from leader to follower; it commences bending in an arc to reach wider and deeper.  I’m not just a son, brother, cousin, and uncle…I am a father, grandfather, and…heaven help me…great-grandfather!  At my age I can’t help looking back; it’s been a lot of years since the faith once-delivered to the saints[4] was first told to me at my mother’s knee.  That faith was deepened in Sunday School every week.  It was sharpened in worship, tested in the world, and began to bear fruit as the Spirit worked within to change and grow a seedling into something fit for the Owner of the Vineyard to use.

This is the circle of true life.  It’s not the jungle, or the African plain, eating and being eaten; this is the surrender of the soul, dying to self, living in Christ.

In the movie, Simba the young lion king had ducked out on his responsibility to actually BE king.  Simba was rebuked by Rafiki (the baboon preacher).  Rafiki told Simba to think about the circle of life, then reminded him:  You have become less than you ARE!

That is a challenge to change…to look up and BE changed.

For You Today

We all need a Rafiki to remind us to be what God is calling us to be.  So, let’s have Paul’s benediction ring in our ears today:

We ask God to give you complete knowledge of his will and to give you spiritual wisdom and understanding.  Then the way you live will always honor and please the Lord, and your lives will produce every kind of good fruit.  All the while, you will grow as you learn to know God better and better.  Colossians 1:7-10^(NLT)

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day. 

Go to VIDEO

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[1] Title Image:  I, Hot Dog Wolf [GFDL, from Wikimedia Commons

[2] ©1994 Disney Productions

[3] Ibid. & IMDB

[4] Jude 1:3

Grounding Prayer

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Thursday, May 10, 2018

Ever since I first heard of your strong faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for God’s people everywhere, I have not stopped thanking God for you.  I pray for you constantly, asking God, the glorious Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, to give you spiritual wisdom and insight so that you might grow in your knowledge of God.  I pray that your hearts will be flooded with light so that you can understand the confident hope he has given to those he called—his holy people who are his rich and glorious inheritance.  I also pray that you will understand the incredible greatness of God’s power for us who believe him.  This is the same mighty power that raised Christ from the dead and seated him in the place of honor at God’s right hand in the heavenly realms.  Now he is far above any ruler or authority or power or leader or anything else—not only in this world but also in the world to come.  God has put all things under the authority of Christ and has made him head over all things for the benefit of the church.  And the church is his body; it is made full and complete by Christ, who fills all things everywhere with himself.  Ephesians 1:15-23^(NLT)

Paul constantly prayed for the believers at Ephesus that their minds would embrace wisdom from God’s Holy Spirit, and that it would continually expand their strength to mature them as individual believers and as a church.

My take on an old saying:  Give a man a fish, you have fed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you have equipped him to eat for a lifetime. 

Of course it all depends on whether or not a man likes fish!  In Paul’s case, he had heard the Ephesian believers loved Christ with a strong faith, and that drove Paul to his knees constantly on behalf of this church, that their wisdom and service would grow stronger.

This is the kind of grounding prayer that is needed in the life of any believer.  It is one thing to go forward at a crusade while the choir is singing Just As I Am; it is an entirely different (and needful) thing to grow up into Christ as a disciple who serves Him well. 

To be well-grounded means your root goes deep into the vine.  Jesus told his disciples this plainly:

“I am the true grapevine, and my Father is the gardener.  He cuts off every branch of mine that doesn’t produce fruit, and he prunes the branches that do bear fruit so they will produce even more.  You have already been pruned and purified by the message I have given you.  Remain in me, and I will remain in you.  For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me.  John 15:1-4^(NLT)

This importance of understanding this analogy cannot be stressed too far – we NEED to be grounded in Christ as much as we need our next breath of air.

The older I get, the more my prayer life turns to grounding for you.  I pray constantly that those believers I know, both mature, serving Christians, as well as those newborn in the faith, will daily connect-with, and remain-in the vine.  I pray that you will become healthier in your connection to Jesus, stronger and wiser, following the leading of His Spirit, producing much fruit for the Kingdom.

This vine connection embraces that same power that raised Jesus from the dead.  And, being that close to the throne of God produces true joy!

For You Today

At the start of this day, and every day, it is vitally-important to check your power connection.  Are you going to abide in THE VINE today?

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day. 

Go to VIDEO

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[1] Title Image:  Courtesy Pixabay.com

The Ruins of Old Courage

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Wednesday, June 3, 2015

A final word:  Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.  Put on all of God’s armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies of the devil.  Ephesians 6:10-11 ^(NLT)

I just finished reading a novel entitled “Gilead” and was quite moved by what an old man wrote to his six year old son.  The old man is a preacher coming to the end of his days.  He has lived his whole life in Gilead, preaching in the church his father ministered to before him.  His was a simple life, a simple pulpit and filled with midwest simple and honest ways. 

A widower with no children, the old preacher married a second time at sixty-eight.  They had a child shortly after, and the entire novel tells the story in paragraphs the old man writes each night about his life, friends, family and ministry, so that when he is gone the boy will know him.

At the risk of spoiling, here is one of his last paragraphs to his son:

Theologians talk about a prevenient grace that precedes grace itself and allows us to accept it.  I think there must also be a prevenient courage that allows us to be brave – that is, to acknowledge that there is more beauty than our eyes can bear, that precious things have been put into our hands and to do nothing to honor them is to do great harm.  And therefore, this courage allows us as the old men said, to make ourselves useful.  It allows us to be generous, which is another way of saying exactly the same thing.  But that is the pulpit speaking.  What have I to leave you but the ruins of old courage, and the lore of old gallantry and hope?  Well, as I have said, it is all an ember now, and the good Lord will surely someday breathe it into flame again.[2]

The ruins of old courage are only an image the world sees, of a life lived faithfully and simply.  But underneath the ruins are glowing embers of faith, reborn in the lives of others as the Spirit fans into flames with holy breath all that God has planned.

Paul told Timothy to be courageous – strong in the Lord.  The reasoning then is the same now, as it was for the old preacher:  faith is never wasted; faithfulness will become fruit in somebody’s life.

For You Today

Have you got grand dreams for your life?  Good!

Just don’t let them become confused with God’s grand plans for His Kingdom.  He is still the Master Gardener, and the vineyard is still His.

You can be a faithful servant today if you remember you have the opportunity to be courageous and strong in the Lord because somebody you watched made your pathway clear and your resolve possible.

Stake your claim in the Kingdom of God on the ruins of that old courage!

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[1] Title image: Francisco Goya [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

[2] Marilynne Robinson, Gilead, (NY, Picador, 2004), p.246