MARK 11:12-25 Lesson # 31

FAITH FOR DISCIPLES

I. Greetings:

II. Introduction: It was years ago I sat in a parked car outside of St. Agnes hospital trying to have faith. My best friend’s wife was dying of cancer and had two days to live. I was there to pray for her healing. I prayed I would have faith and tried to pump myself up with as much positive feelings as I could muster. However, by the time I arrived at the 5th floor, to enter the intensive care unit, all confidence was gone. She lived another twelve years, but it was certainly not due to my overriding faith. I had much to learn!
I believe faith is to be part of the believer, and Jesus addresses this issue on the last week of His life.
Note: Jesus was a master teacher. He was then and is now. He knew how to seize the moment and use metaphors or concrete images to get across His points.

III. Working with Trees (Metaphor): Mark 11:12-14
>>>> Have someone read Mark 11:12-14
Q Why was Jesus in Jerusalem? What would happen this week?
An = This began the Passion Week; the week of His death. It is His last chance to teach the disciples key truths.
Q Assuming Jesus understood the proper season for figs, why did He approach the tree in the first place?
An = Mark wanted to point out at the end of 11:14 c “And His disciples heard it.” This was a strange occurrence and Mark seemingly did not interpret it for us. Even today, God does things that seem strange and are not understandable to us. However, He is God, and He knows what He is doing.

IV. Justice: Mark 11:15-19.
>>>> Have someone read Mark 11:15-19
Q Why was Jesus so upset?
An = The holy temple of God had been defiled and in a most horrible manner.
Note: It was a matter of injustice! People came from all over the world to pray to the God revealed in the Old Testament Scriptures. Many were not Jews but had been deeply attracted to the Jewish conception of God: All power, unlimited power was in one Person (monotheism) and this power was Just and Loving. At the heart of the Universe was an unmitigated power that was both just and loving; good news indeed! The Jewish religion proclaimed that justice and power were combined, and it was and still is the greatest hopes of mankind.
Jesus was angry because at the very place on earth where one should have expected justice and loving treatment was the scene of robbery. People would come to buy a proper sacrificial animal or grain only to find they had to use temple currency and the rates of exchange were corrupt, or the animal, grain, etc. was found to be deficient, so a temple approved animal had to be bought at exorbitant prices. This was “unrighteous.” In Hebrew, the definition of “righteousness” is usually best understood as “what is appropriate.” Cheating defenseless pilgrims, many who had traveled months for a once-in-a-life-time experience of worship, was inappropriate. They were cheated at the very threshold of the God of Justice and Love.
Jesus was deeply angry and when he was through with the temple thieves a lot of money had been lost, and so Jesus was not the only person angry that day. Jesus had threatened the power structure of His day. He had interrupted their flow of extra money.
Q Before we go on, what did this have to do with fig trees out of season?

V. Trees and Faith: Mark 11:20-24
>>>> Have someone read Mark 11:20-24.
Note: Peter was obviously surprised and pointed this out.
Q #A What did faith have to do with fig trees? How did the tree story in 11:12-14 and 20-24 relate to the temple story in 11:15-19?
Q Why did Mark interrupt his tree story? How did a lesson of faith and a lesson about justice belong together?
Q Was not Jesus’ discussion of faith frustrating and alarming?
Q Were not definitions like the one in 11:24 the cause of so much grief like the experience I had in the parking lot of the hospital?
Q Have you experienced such frustration?
Q #B How do we gain faith?

VI. Trees, Justice, Faith and the Key to gain Faith: Mark 11:24-26.
A. Looking More Closely At Verses 23-24.
Note: To answer these questions, let us examine Jesus’ speech more closely. In 11:22 one was commanded to have faith.
In 11:23 there was an “If…then” structure to the verse. Mountains are put into the sea “if” one spoke with no doubt, and believed in one’s heart (or mind or consciousness for that is more accurately what heart means in Hebrew) what he said, “then” it would be accomplished. Mountains could mean several things, but given in this context of the fig tree it would certainly include physical miracles (see Mark 16:17, 18).
In 11:24 we are given the conclusion/interpretation. If anything was believed, then it would come to pass.
B. Answering Question # A, What Did Trees and Faith Have To Do With Each Other?
Q Again, what did trees and faith have to do with each other?
An = Let them answer without comment by you and then note that Jesus was not through speaking but said one or two verses more (depending on their translation).
>>>> Have someone one read Mark 11:25-26.
Note: There is a text-critical problem with 11:26 and some English versions leave the verse out, but the deletion of the verse does not affect the teaching (see Matt. 6:15, 18:35).
Q Why was this here? Was Jesus’ interpretation of the mountain a lack of forgiveness?
Q Was great power needed to forgive in certain situations?
Q Are brothers (physical or Christian ones) harder to forgive than others? What do you think?
Q What do our churches need most: physical miracles or for their members to forgive one another?
An = Perhaps there is a logical progression here in Mark.
* It was appropriate (righteous) for fig trees to have figs.
* It was appropriate for justice to be found in the temple of the God of Justice.
* It was appropriate for forgiveness to be found in Christians.
There is more logic implied here, and it is frightening:
* Trees that did not act appropriately were withered.
* People who cheated others at the temple were thrown out.
* Christians who did not forgive were not forgiven.
C. Gaining Faith: Applying Verse 25-26 to Verses 12-24.
Perhaps we now need to look at Q #B again. How do we gain such faith? Perhaps, we can start with something very near to us.
Q Do we forgive? Is this where Jesus wants us to start in our quest for faith?
Q If we started forgiving our enemies, would the faith to do healing be present?
An = Jesus seemed to put a priority on forgiving, rather than physical healing. Maybe these are the mountains He was most concerned with. This was not to knock physical miracles. The church has experienced them in every age, and they are often signs of His presence or acts of compassion that God sees fit to give. However, our real problem was what Jesus brings up. We often do not forgive because we do not have faith.
Q Why does it take faith to forgive?
An = Let me offer two reasons.
1) One reason is we do not forgive because we doubt God will judge our persecutors/enemies. Psalm 108:12-13 says differently. However, it does take real faith to believe justice will take place in the end. It does seem the wicked prosper.
2) Second, we are often in doubt whether He can take the feelings of anger/hatred/etc. away.
Q Let me ask you, even if we do forgive in our minds, could we ever be free in our feelings?
An = The fact is that we cannot get rid of these feelings, but He can. Physical miracles are not done by our faith, they are done by God. Our feelings, and the freedom we need from them, will not be accomplished by our faith, but by God. For that matter, so will the judgment of our enemies. Our faith is demonstrated when we do not take matters into our own hands. >>>> Have someone read Psalms 37:34-40
Note: A last word from our brothers/sisters of long ago. This quote comes from the body of literature often termed as the sayings of the Desert Fathers. Men and sometimes women who gave themselves to fasting and intense focus on the Lord in the 3rd to 5th centuries A.D. in the Egyptian, Syrian and Palestinian deserts.
“A brother who was hurt by another brother went to the Theban Abba Sisois and said: `I want to avenge myself on a brother who has hurt me.’ The old man begged him? `Don’t my son: leave vengeance in the hands of God.’ But he said: `I cannot rest until I avenge myself.’ The old man said: `My brother, let us pray.’ The old man stood up and said: `O God, we have no further need to think of Thee, for we take vengeance of ourselves.’ The brother heard it and fell at the old man’s feet, saying: `No longer will I quarrel with my brother: I beg you to forgive me.'”
Another word from the desert fathers….
“They said of a monk, that the more bitterly anyone injured or assailed him, the more he was well-disposed to him; for he said: `People like this are a means to cure the faults of serious men. We often need troublesome people to help us get cured before the last call, the last blast of the trumpet. We should deeply appreciate those who treated us justly and lovingly, but we must admit that the jerks of the world can be the means of our growth in grace and, according to Jesus, our growth in faith.'”