There’s money-lenders inside the temple
That circus tiger’s gonna break my heart
Something so wild turned into paper
If you love me, then that’s your fault
There’s money-enders inside the temple
This crystal city’s gonna fall apart
When all their power turns into vapor
If I miss you, well that’s my fault
-Conor Oberst, Lenders in the Temple
After recently reading Mark’s thoughts on Jesus Loves me and Wes’ thoughts on the Withering Fig Tree, I decided I needed to write a theologically laden thought.
The thought begins on many long walks or in silent shadows when I think about the fairness of God. I think of Saul stripped of his kingdom because he wouldn’t follow some very tall orders from Samuel. Can Saul really be blamed that Samuel was late in getting to a meeting? Can Saul really be blamed for the extreme pressure put on the leader of a country to make a decision in the heat of the moment? I read the story which Wes so eloquently spoke on in his post:
“The next day as they were leaving Bethany, Jesus was hungry. 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. Then he said to the tree, ‘May no one ever eat fruit from you again.’ And his disciples heard him say it… In the morning, as they went along, they saw the fig tree withered from the roots. Peter remembered and said to Jesus, ‘Rabbi, look! The fig tree you cursed has withered!’” Mark 11:12-14 & 20-21
I again come back to the basic question: Why would he expect a fig when it was not the season for figs? Why does he expect the impossible? Why does he utterly destroy it when what he wanted was a miracle?
Why does he expect so much out of season?
How can he?
Apparently Jesus doesn’t expect ordinary.
He expects a commitment of life in and out of season.
Apparently he really does take faith seriously
He expects a serious faith in all seasons of life.
This scares me sometimes.
Sometimes it brings me hope.
Danny is a part time substitute teacher and a part time In-N-Out employee looking for some kind of teaching job in California. Hopefully someday the state of California will be back in action and ready to rock and roll and hire teachers back. He enjoys long walks on the beach and Star Wars.
To me this is somewhat scary but at the same time it’s freeing. The lesson to be learned is not, “well, you’d better produce fruit or else.” The lesson is that nothing meets the need of the world except Christ himself… so stop living by useless fig trees which satisfy for a season but leave you hungry in the next. Jesus’ next move is part of this first one… he enters the Temple and makes the bold claim that he himself will do and be for Israel what the Temple was and did. If we find ourselves “in Christ” then the expectation is not on us, it’s on Christ. We are invited into Christ’s life and thus we are invited to share in those expectations and I must say we miss out on the fruit of the Spirit when we deny this invitation.