“What Makes Jesus
Curse?” Mark 11:12-25
SCRIPTURE INTRO: If you know someone, and love someone—
then you know what they love and what they hate.
In this passage we learn what Jesus hates.
In fact, Jesus hates something so much, that he curses it.
INTRO: Have you ever cursed an inanimate object?
Have you ever hit your thumb with a hammer and cursed the hammer?
Have you ever had a breakdown and cursed the car?
Have you ever lost a file and cursed the computer?
Of course you haven’t.
But you know weak, irrational people who do that sort of thing!
This is the only time in the Gospels where Jesus is said to have cursed anything.
And he cursed an inanimate object. He cursed a fig tree for not having figs.
Why? Was Jesus really mad that there were no figs?
No, he was teaching.
Did you notice in our reading how Jesus’ action in the
between the two encounters with the fig tree?
Jesus cursed the tree for having no figs.
Then he went to the
Then led disciples by the fig tree the next day so they noticed and he commented.
The cursing of the fig tree was a kind of parable Jesus acted out in front of the
disciples
to prepare them for what they were about to see him do in the
and impress the seriousness of it on their minds,
and then help them understand it later.
So the big questions that we need to ask about this story are these:
What’s the connection between the leafy, fruitless, fig tree
and
what Jesus saw going on in the
What was it that Jesus saw that he hated and cursed?
I want to give it a name.
What Jesus saw and cursed was formalism.
Formalism is not a word used in the Bible.
But it’s a helpful word that summarizes the Bible’s teaching.
Formalism is trusting the forms of true, biblical religion,
instead of trusting Jesus Christ himself.
Or, you could say that formalism is going through the motions,
of true, biblical religion, but doing so without a heart for God.
Or, you could just say that formalism is having big, green, leaves of Christianity,
but having no sweet, figgy fruit of the Spirit in your life.
That’s what Jesus
was condemning in the
That’s what Jesus cursed when he cursed the fig tree.
This is one of those passages that makes us realize that even as Christians
we don’t look at things as God does.
Honestly, if you writing this story, and had to pick one thing for Jesus to curse—
would it be this? No, it would probably be child abuse, or atheism, or perversion.
But instead, he curses the formalism of church people.
Jesus’ curse was a warning to the disciples he loved.
And it’s a warning to us. Jesus says:
Don’t trust religious forms and activities, as good and biblical as they might be—
trust me. I want your life to be full of the fruit that comes from experiencing my
grace, not just the leafy show of Christianity.
I don’t want you one day to be withered from the roots, no good to anybody.
Let’s look at this passage under three points:
1. Why Jesus hates formalism.
2. Why we love formalism.
3. How Jesus saves us from formalism.
MP#1 Why Jesus hates formalism
Jesus hates formalism because it rejects God’s grace and
and keeps other people from experiencing it.
We see this most clearly in Jesus’ actions in the
You have to picture what Jesus would have seen as he entered
the
A huge courtyard as big as 5 football fields—packed with Jewish pilgrims.
Jewish historian
Josephus said population of
All around, hundreds of tables of moneychangers and dove sellers.
Those businesses provided a necessary service.
Jews from all over
There is no doubt that prices were inflated and people got ripped off.
But what I want you to see is that this is not what angered Jesus.
He wasn’t upset about the economics of what was going on.
Because as he began overturning the tables of the moneychangers and dove sellers,
he quoted from two Old Testament prophets.
Isaiah: “My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations.”
Jeremiah: “You have made it a den of robbers.”
“Den of robbers” sounds like economics.
But when you turn to Jeremiah 7, and read the context, it’s very interesting.
It’s a sermon by the prophet Jeremiah. He’s saying to the Israelites.
You people are very busy religiously, but you are just going through the motions,
your hearts are far from God. It’s a sermon about their formalism.
Jeremiah says: Whenever I warn you about your unbelieving hearts you say.
“The
We’re church-going people and we’re worshipping God.
You are like a bunch of robbers in their den.
A robber’s den is where robbers go to hide and be safe.
You think that by going to the
and doing all the things God tells us to do in worship that you are safe,
that things are ok between you and God—but they aren’t.
You have rejected God’s grace. You have rejected God’s way of salvation.
You have turned the religion that he intended to show you your need for him
into the thing you trust instead of him.
That’s Jeremiah’s sermon and Jesus taps into that.
His anger was not in the economics—
it was the spiritual mindset of these people.
They took the forms of biblical religion that were intended to show them
their need for a Savior—used them to avoid God, avoid repentance.
Religion was simply one part of their program of self-salvation.
They substituted church busyness for a relationship with God.
In Flannery O’Connor’s first novel, “Wise Blood” main character a young man
named Hazel Motes. His grandfather is a fiery evangelist.
Preaches passionate sermons about how Jesus died to save you from your sins.
Jesus is determined to rescue lost sinners and claim for his own.
To Hazel Motes that sounds awful, to be rescued and claimed by Jesus,
and have to belong to him and submit to him and trust him.
Thinks: If Jesus came to save sinners—the best way to avoid Jesus is to avoid sin.
So does everything he can to live a moral, religious life—even becomes a preacher
so that he will not have to come to Jesus personally for forgiveness
and give his life to him.
Flannery O’Connor was making a point with this character.
People can use the Christian religion and biblical morality
as a way of avoiding God and the Gospel.
That’s exactly what Jesus saw in the
But what really angered Jesus was that this kept others from knowing God’s grace.
That’s the point of Jesus quoting Isaiah.
Phrase: “My house will be a house of prayer for all nations” in a sermon
by Isaiah about how God extends his saving grace to foreigners,
the eunuchs and the outcasts—people who could not go through the motions
of formal Jewish religion because they were considered unclean.
Shows that the Gospel is a message of grace.
But Jesus saw the
Because the message of formalism is that you save yourself by religious activity,
not by God’s grace.
I think there’s a warning here for us as a church.
If our worship becomes something we do to make ourselves right with God,
will keep other people from Jesus, especially our children.
Learn to be formalists like us—Lord hates that.
MP#2 Why we love formalism
We love it because since the Fall, the bent of our sinful natures is to try
to make ourselves righteous.
We see this most clearly in Jesus’ encounter with the fig tree.
He went to look for figs but he found only leaves.
Let me test your Bible knowledge.
What’s the first place in the Bible where fig leaves are mentioned?
In the Garden of Eden, right after the Fall.
Adam and Eve knew they were naked, made fig leaf aprons to cover themselves.
The nakedness they felt was more than physical.
They knew that they were not right in God’s eyes and their own eyes.
Fig leaf aprons were an attempt to make themselves righteous apart from God.
All of us imitate Adam and Eve. We know the eyes of God and others are on us.
We want to be found acceptable—and so we look for things to do,
standards to try to meet, so that we can feel right before the eyes that matter.
Now, apply this to the fig tree in the story.
This fig tree
represented
It looked healthy and green, but it had no fruit. No heart for God.
This is the lesson:
There are few things that satisfy our self-righteousness more
than the motions of Christian religion. It’s an effective fig leaf apron.
Since worship is something that the Bible commands us to do,
we can easily convince ourselves that we are right with God,
when we are really making the motions of worship our righteousness.
Alexander Maclaren was a 19th century Baptist minister, sermons still published.
Born
in
who called themselves Dissenters.
Dissenters were Christians who had separated from the state church,
in protest against the formalism of the Church of Scotland.
Thought Church of Scotland heavy on rituals and weak on relationship with Christ.
Worship is not about God’s grace but it’s about going through the motions.
We’re tired of that, we want worship that is real.
So Dissenters had their own churches, whether Baptist or Congregational,
and their worship was more free form.
Didn’t just sing Psalms—sang hymns and choruses.
Didn’t read prayers, all prayers extemporaneous.
Deliberately moved away from the formality of the Church of Scotland.
Alexander Maclaren was in agreement with this—a Dissenter himself.
He was for worship that was more free in its form.
But he preached a sermon on this passage,
Said something very insightful to his Dissenting brethren.
Be careful: Free form of worship can just as easily become formalism.
It can become just as much of a barrier between the soul and Christ
as the most elaborate ritual in the most formal church service.
Our hearts love to make our religious activity our righteousness—
it is that much easier to do when we think we are doing things
more biblical and more genuine than others.
Worship style is not the issue. Music style is not the issue.
Is our righteousness in Christ, or in our religious exercises?
I think this hits even closer to home in the matter of private religious exercises.
We get up in time to read the Bible and pray and we have a good day.
Things go well at work, our attitude is great.
We think. I had my devotions. God is blessing me.
But another day we get up too late, things are rushed and crazy—
we don’t read the Bible or pray and we have a bad day.
Things don’t go well. We’re depressed and worried.
We think. Yep. This is what I get for not having devotions.
Should we have private devotions? Of course. Does it please God? It does.
Does it make our days go better and give us better attitudes? Sometimes.
But do you see how subtle this is?
Our focus is not the grace of God, and fellowship with God—
It’s, I’ve done my religious thing and earned a blessing—
Or, I’ve failed to do my religious thing and God’s getting me for it.
That’s formalism. It’s the leaf without the fruit.
It’s our natural way of thinking—just like our first parents, we resist grace.
So, what’s the solution?
MP#3 How Jesus saves us from formalism
He does two things to save us from formalism.
He makes an impossible demand and an incredible promise.
There is one detail in this story that has really bothered people.
It’s when we are told that it was not the season for figs.
Because at first glance it seems like Jesus did something unreasonable or irrational
or that he had an uncontrolled outburst of temper.
He was hungry, he went to a fig tree to look for figs,
cursed it for not having figs, even though it was not the season.
One liberal New Testament scholar wrote that this is:
“a story of miraculous power wasted in the interest of ill temper.”
Another said that Jesus was
“venting his feeling of frustration and despair upon the fig tree.”
It’s interesting to see how conservative commentaries try to make
Jesus look better by trying to explain this away.
One commentary I read said that this was an unusual fig tree that had
for some reason it had put on leaves before any of the others.
Another one I read said that there should have been little green figlets
and that people sometimes ate those. I thought, who eats hard, bitter green figs?
The simple fact is, it was Passover, early spring, not the season for figs.
So rather than trying to get Jesus off the hook—let this detail have full force.
It was not the season for figs—but Jesus Christ demanded figs.
The point is that in every season of your life, at all times,
whether you feel like it or not or are capable or not—
Jesus demands true, heartfelt, genuine worship of God.
He demands a heart that matches the external motions of religion—always.
That’s an impossible demand.
You can no more, worship God truly, believe in his grace, put aside your self-
righteousness in own strength than a fig tree can bear figs out of season.
I can’t. My heart is often cold. I’m often formalistic in my worship.
Many days I go through the motions.
And here is Jesus saying—I want figs every day. In season and out of season.
Shows us that this is not something we cannot do by ourselves.
We can’t make ourselves sincere worshippers of God—we need divine help.
That’s what we find. Because after making this impossible demand,
Jesus makes an incredible promise—by faith in him alone,
you can become that fruitful worshipper of God.
The second time the disciples passed the fig tree Peter said:
“Rabbi, look the fig tree you cursed has withered.”
It seems like Jesus would have said: “Yes, let me explain.
The fig tree stands
for the formalism of
This is what happens when churches and professing believers reject God’s grace.”
Instead, he starts talking about faith and prayer and forgiving, being forgiven.
And it seems like he’s moving on to a totally different lesson.
But he’s not. Jesus says that “this mountain” will be thrown into the sea.
What mountain is Jesus talking about?
The disciples are
walking into
is
the
Forty years after this, in fulfillment of Jesus’ curse, the Romans would come,
and
tear this
But that’s not the only way that formalism is thrown down.
Jesus is saying, I’ve provided a way for that mountain in your life that resists
God’s grace and seeks your own righteousness to be torn down.
It’s by faith in God. Call out to him in prayer.
You can bear fruit of forgiveness, know what it is like to forgive and be forgiven.
Turn to God in prayer. Ask him to make you fruitful, and he will—I promise.
When I was in seminary a German New Testament professor spoke in chapel.
Her name was Dr. Etta Linneman. She was an elderly woman—full of joy.
Could not stop talking about the goodness of God and of Jesus Christ.
This was her story. For decades she wrote and taught theologically liberal
views of the New Testament. Became famous in academic circles.
She knew the Bible but her life had no fruit. Knew something wrong.
Friend invited her to church. Missionary talking about the persecution
of converts, peasants, how they had boldly professed faith in Christ in court.
Dr. Linneman was cut to the heart.
I know so much more about the Bible and than these simple people,
but there is no fruit, there is nothing real. Began to cry out to Lord.
And just like Jesus promised—the mountain was removed.
Years of leafy formalism gave way to a springtime of fruit, even in old age.
CONC: The Lord hates formalism.
He hates the motions of Christianity without a heart for him.
He hates the way it resists his grace and keeps others from it.
And it will be torn down.
Those who persist in it will wither from the roots.
But let that not be us. Let that not be our church.
But those who see the formalism of their hearts, and their own self-righteousness,
and who turn to God in faith, and cry out for his grace and forgiveness,
those he will bless with fruit that pleases him.
Let that be our prayer, that by God’s grace in Christ,
we will be fruitful trees, not just leafy ones—
bearing the fruit of a life of faith.