Scripture Reading:

Mark 11

Please comment below with your conversation with God and/or insights from today’s Scriptures.

You can answer the following:

1. What are your overall thoughts about the chapter?

2. What part of this chapter did you most resonate with?

3. What is your prayer to God brought on by this chapter?

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Chapter Notables:

1. Jesus comes into Jerusalem and the people shout, “Hosanna in the highest.” - verses 1-11

2. Jesus curses the unfruitful tree and turns over tables in the temple - verses 12-26

3. Jesus’s authority questioned - verses 27-33

Fruit Producing Faith | Lemuel Ayudtud

How many farmers do you think plant with hopes of not gaining anything? Have you ever done anything that was unfruitful and you were glad it wasn’t? Of course those questions are a little dumb, nobody wants to see anything they do be ineffective, yet there are times that it happens. We probably can say readily that everyone that puts effort in anything want something out of it.

Fruitfulness is something God commanded all the way in the garden of Eden. Adam and Eve were instructed by God to be “fruitful and multiply.” So imagine what it was like for Jesus when He saw a fig tree that had no fruits on it. Passing it by to go into the temple, the Lord being hungry, wanted to pluck a fruit off the tree. Unfortunately, it was not the season of figs so there was no fruit on the tree. Nevertheless, Jesus curses the fig tree because of it. On their return from the temple the disciples noted that the tree that Jesus had cursed had dried up from the root. Wow!

The disciples were amazed at what it happened. Jesus tells them To have faith in God; and that you can even tell the mountain to throw itself into the sea and it will do it as long as you can believe. He also tells them that whatever you ask for in prayer, if you can believe that you have received it, it will be yours. That’s divine level faith!

Reading the scripture we understand that the action Jesus showed the disciples was teaching them about the power of faith. It’s incredible what we miss when we do not operate in faith. When we consider this very moment as Jesus’s teaching about faith, we must recognize that to God faith is enough to do anything.

Consider the imagery Jesus shared with His disciples: a mountain being cast into the sea! That’s crazy. Then He tells them that the faith, deep faith, can move mountains. How do you suppose they should have taken that? I have a tendency to spiritualize a lot of things, but I don’t think Jesus was spiritualizing this. I truly believe that what He shared with them is the principle of faith. We often think this passage is just an exaggeration to bring home a message, but I truly believe that Jesus was actually speaking the reality of faith. (Of course, He was God in the flesh. He spoke the worlds into existence, so moving mountains by His words was no biggie.)

What’s interesting is that this teaching About faith was drawn from a fig tree being cursed. Again, the fig tree did not have fruit when Jesus was hungry. Is it possible that with Jesus was correlating to them, maybe they missed it (let’s not do the same), The connection between faith and fruitfulness? Is it possible that the deeper teaching of the tree being cursed is that faith produces fruit and that lack of faith displeases God because it doesn’t produce any fruit? Can we say then that God desires for us to be bearers of fruit? I think we can. Why? Because fruitfulness reflects the level of our faith.

We must ask ourselves the question: Have I been fruitful? The answer is not based on the works that we do. The answer is actually based on the faith we express. If fruitfulness and faith go hand-in-hand, then when we are unfruitful it’s because we lack faith; and vice versa when we lack faith we become unfruitful.

At the end God is going to look at our fruitfulness. Whether we have produced in our lives greater things, whether we have used the gifts that He has given us to expand His kingdom, whether we have grown and become more mature, or whether we have brought people to Him; God will judge our fruitfulness. The Jesus asked, “Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” The reality is faith produces fruits. The question that we should ask ourselves is this: am I ready for Jesus to see me? Will He find us fruitful at His return? The fig tree was cursed for being unfruitful. Let’s learn the faith lesson of the fig tree.

Reading the passage again we realize there was no fruit because it was not in season for figs to grow. Interesting that Jesus still cursed the tree. It appears no grace was given to this fruitless tree even though it was not in season. The incident only leads us to this essential lesson, something that we will not discuss in this particular blog, God desires for us to be fruitful in season and out of season. Why? Because faith should not be based on seasons.

Lord, help us to be fruitful. In fact, help us to exercise faith. Help us, Lord truly grab a hold of the reality of the power of faith. Give us a desire to be fruitful before You. Ultimately, You’re the only One that can judge us; You’re the only One that can weigh in balance our fruitfulness or lack of it. So, Lord, increase our faith so we can be fruitful. In Your Name, Jesus, I pray, amen.