The Fruitless Fig Tree and me...Matthew 21:18-27

 


I took this picture up the East Inlet Trail last week.  I posted it to Facebook with the question, "Is the snow deeper than the log it is laying upon?"  The conclusion was that it was.  I guess I will have to trek back up the 4.5 miles with a tape measure to know for sure.  I agree.  The snow is deeper than the log it rests upon.  It makes me think of the hymn line, "How deep the Father's love for us, how vast beyond all measure?"  

I need to remember that God's love for me is greater than my love for Him.  His love for those I love is greater than the love I have for them.  His provision for me and for them is greater and more complete than what I could provide.  While I am commanded to love and provide, I am not to forget who gave me that command and who displays it infinitely beyond what I can do.  That deep love of God comes in many forms.

Before I forget, here is another great new song called "Like No Other."  Listen to the great lyrics about the triune God.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGBOXqaIQlY

The love of Jesus this week was seen in the exposing of those who were in authority who were bearing no godly fruit.  They were green leafed out fig trees with not even immature fruit to grab for a nutritional snack.  The temple they were overseeing was not a place of prayer but a place to make revenue off of others.  It was not a place for the blind and lame to come into to be cared for but rather to hold at arms length outside of its 4 walls.  It was not a place for the teaching of God's word and the praise of even the children.  They were told to be quiet.  The fruit that can feed you spiritually was not in the temple under the leadership of the religious leaders.  Jesus, out of His deep love for us and His disciples and others gathered around Him, expose the religious leaders who were very far from what God had commanded.

This is a tremendous warning of love from Jesus to us today.  We can look like a follower of His and even sound like one of them but Jesus doesn't just look at the outside but starts probing beyond to green leaves to find some fruit.  Is what is prominent about our lives is the expression of the fruit of the Spirit?  Can other people feed off of our love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control?  Those who are hungry spiritually need to not only see a fully leafed out fig tree Christian but they need to be able to pick and feed upon some of our fruit growing from the limbs of our lives.

Jesus' love extends to expose the religious leaders lack of commitment to God's words and ways.  The question from Jesus was about the baptism of John.  Was this from heaven or from man?  After a huddle of discussion they realized they were in a baseball pickle.  If they said from heaven then Jesus would ask them why they, the religious leaders of the day, didn't follow through with the baptism of John.  If they said from man then they feared they would be stoned by the people who thought John the Baptist to be a prophet from God.  So instead of committing they gave a non-committal answer, "We do not know."  Jesus exposed that they, the religious leaders, were just blowing smoke when it came to giving the people an answer about the things of God.  Jesus' love exposed that these religious leaders were more in love with themselves than they were with God or with the people they were to be leading spiritually.  

How about us?  Do we sometime answer "I don't know" not because you truly don't know but because you know that something will be required of you if you answer one way or the other?  You answer this way because you love yourself more than you love God and love others.  You are breaking the 2 greatest commands.  Your true motives are exposed by Jesus and He even does this exposing because He loves you.  I am thankful that in the book of Acts that we see some of the priests and Pharisees have turned to Jesus as their Messiah.  They started having some fruit that the people could actually eat and benefit from.  

So...may the branches of my life have the fruit of Spirit growing to be picked by others.  May I give a Biblical answer to the questions of life no matter what I think might happen.  These are just a few applications I thought of while studying this passage.

Adam



A simple man serving a great God and the local pastor of Stillwater Community Chapel (stillwater-chapel.org). We are in our 39th year of full time ministry. God directed us to this local body of believers on the Western Range of the Rockies to grow with them in mission and mindedness of Christ.

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