Spiritually Fruitful Again

During the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, people laid garments and joyfully blessed Him who came in the name of the LORD and cheered for God to save.  Mark 11:11 says, "And Jesus went into Jerusalem and into the temple. So when He had looked around at all things, as the hour was already late, He went out to Bethany with the twelve."  The next morning the Gospel of Mark says Jesus was hungry and went to a fig tree to see if it had any fruit on it.  Jesus did not find any figs but only leaves, as it was not the season for figs.  Interestingly, we read Jesus "answered" and said to the tree, "Let no one eat fruit from you ever again."  Jesus took action on the fruitless tree by cursing it, and we see He also took action because of the spiritual fruitlessness in the temple.  The following day His disciples were shocked to see it withered away.

Mark 11:15-17 reads, "So they came to Jerusalem. Then Jesus went into the temple and began to drive out those who bought and sold in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves. ¹⁶ And He would not allow anyone to carry wares through the temple. ¹⁷ Then He taught, saying to them, "Is it not written, 'My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations'? But you have made it a 'den of thieves.'"  Jesus quoted from Isaiah 56:7 that spoke of God bringing the outcasts, Gentiles who kept His covenant, and make them joyful in His house of prayer:  "Even them I will bring to My holy mountain, and make them joyful in My house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on My altar; for My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations."  Jesus looked in the temple courts and did not see penitents praying and praising God but a den of thieves where the priests preyed on the worshippers for financial gain.  Unlike figs, prayer to God is appropriate for all seasons and ought to mark the lives of all true worshippers of God.

Where people ought to have been praying, Jesus witnessed animals being sold.  He heard the clinking of coins and loud haggling over the price of doves.  Instead of seeing men bowed in reverence before God, they were sitting at tables as they changed Roman money into temple currency.  These hypocrites refused to accept foreign money for their pricey wares, yet they gladly enriched themselves with foreign money when they exchanged money for a profit.  A place set apart as God's habitation had become a thoroughfare, a holy place reduced to a marketplace where the chief priests greedily made a monopoly from the worship of God to financially profit.  Jesus drove out those who bought and sold, overturned tables of money changers and the chairs of those who sold doves.  He prevented anyone from bringing goods through the temple courts, and then Jesus taught them--that His house ought to be a house of prayer.

Seeing we Christians have been made the temple of the Holy Spirit who dwells within us, our lives ought to be a "house of prayer" as we pray to God continually, praising Him, confessing sin, thanking and interceding on behalf of others.  As Jesus examined the inner workings of the temple and drew near to the fig tree looking for fruit among the leaves, so God looks upon our hearts and lives for evidence of the fruit of the Spirit.  Contrasted with the works of the flesh, Paul wrote in Galatians 5:22-24:  "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³ gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. ²⁴ And those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires."  When God convicts us of sin, we ought to be like Jesus who drove out the money changers, so we ought to take sinful thoughts captive to the obedience of Christ and put away sin far from us.  The fruit of the Holy Spirit is always in season, and when we bear spiritual fruit our LORD prunes us so we will be even more fruitful.

LORD Jesus, cause your light to shine into our hearts so fleshly lusts that naturally congregate there and war against the soul will be cast out, and cleanse us so we can be spiritually fruitful again.  Thank you for freeing us from the curse of sin through the Gospel by providing atonement with your shed blood.  May we be spiritually fruitful as you are!