Mark 11:12-14

Mark 11:12-14  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.

There are many interpretations to this difficult passage.  The most obvious is to have a strong faith and things will change.  However, if it were only about faith, Jesus could have chosen a mountain to move or any other major object, and it would have been more impressive.  No, He chose a tree to curse.  The most obvious fact in this scene is that Jesus, the Son of God, chose this tree from which to feed, and the tree failed to feed hIm.  Jesus wanted this tree to satiate his hunger.  But the tree was not ready to bear fruit.  The tree failed to feed the Son of God.  Yes, the tree was beautiful and it was right on time in its stage of development for that year, but it was out of God's timing, out of what He wanted for that day.  Therefore, Jesus terminated that tree's life.  He said by faith, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” 

Are you a fig tree waiting to produce?  Is your spiritual life always on hold?  Do your prayers go nowhere?  Are you always searching for the truth and never coming to the knowledge of the truth?  Are you always waiting for your season to come?  What if Jesus is passing by?  What if He is looking to be glorified in your life?  What if He wants to be glorified in someone else's life today because of your testimony?  Yes, I know the above scriptures are talking about faith, and we will get to that when we talk about verses 22-25 in this chapter.  But last night I had a dream about our prayers, Christian's prayers in general.  Many times our prayers lack focus.  Our minds wander to other things when we pray.  In this dream, I was praying for someone about his addictions.  While I was praying, others who were supposed to be praying with me about this person's addictions were instead half-heartedly praying, but their main concern was about the contents of envelopes that they had in their hands.  They were reading them and then showing me the contents of these envelopes, which enticed me to focus on other things rather than what I was praying.  When I woke up, I thought how true that is in my own life.  Sometimes when I am praying for people, I am thinking about many other things.  When I do that, my prayers are not focused earnestly and powerfully on the subject at hand and on God's desire to perform what I am asking.  I am then not a man of faith, I am a man blowing in the wind, I am a tree without fruit.  My purpose as a Christian dissipates when I am functioning in that way.  

What is the answer for us Christians?  How can we be focused?  How can we be fruit bearing all of the time, in or out of season?  For one thing, we definitely cannot spend every minute of our day focused on ourselves: our duties, responsibilities, entertainment, and still do the perfect will of God.  We cannot always be opening up envelopes to see what life has to offer us and remain focused on God's work.  I know some of us have little time for ourselves, for our lives are very demanding.  However, we still need that one-on-one time with the Lord.  This time might be a quick prayer, a song, a kind response to a needy person.  But it must be there and it must be dedicated to the Lord.  Others of us have more time to ourselves.  However, does the television occupy that time?  Does our flesh just serve only itself?  Or are we giving extended time to the Lord so that our spiritual lives might live, might be in focused and powerful.  Or are we busy opening up envelopes--another book to read, another television show to see, another hobby to do.  

I know this is a tough breakfast to eat.  Today's table might be one that you will want to pass by.  I also know that the fleshly self sometimes likes to beat itself up to prove that it is religious.  But I am not talking about an ascetic life; I am talking about a focused life.  Even if we have only five minutes to ourselves during a day, can we not use that to focus on God in a more powerful and complete way.  God sees our nakedness.  He knows that we are without spiritual strength; we are but FLESH.  HOWEVER, He wants to strengthen us today.  He knows that without him our lives are as a fruitless tree.  We might look fine outwardly, and other people might say that the season for our fruitfulness has not come yet.  BUT THE MESSIAH IS PASSING BY.  If He expects fruit, we should be fruitful.  Maybe this is an oatmeal breakfast when you wanted an omelet, but I need it.