The Heart of Worship

Scripture: Mark 11:12-25

Video Link: https://youtu.be/RLIx1XnnbJA

Structure:

• Introduction
• Parables
• Prophecy
• Prayer
• Conclusion

Introduction:

Good morning everyone.

When I was training to become a pastor, I spent three months one summer working as a chaplain in Greenlane Hospital. At that time, Greenlane Hospital specialised in cardio thoracic medicine (hearts and lungs).

One day I sat with a patient who had just had a heart transplant. He was so incredibly grateful for the opportunity of a second chance at life.  He went into all sorts of detail about how sick he was before the surgery and how he was going to live his life differently now. I think he had spent his youth recklessly. 

He seemed sincere. I got the feeling he didn’t just get a new heart, he got a whole new attitude, a new spirit, a new vitality.

His was the only heart transplant I remember from that summer. More often than not the surgeon chooses to repair the heart in the least intrusive way possible. But, if the heart is beyond repair (and they can find a donor), the doctors will make a judgement to replace the old heart with a new one.

Today we continue our series for Lent, looking at some of the events in the week leading up to Jesus’ crucifixion. Today’s reading focuses on Jesus’ assessment of the Jerusalem temple and its leadership. The Jerusalem temple was the heart of Jewish life and faith. Sadly, it had become sick beyond repair and needed to be replaced. From Mark 11, verses 12-25 we read…

¹² The next day as they were leaving Bethany, Jesus was hungry. ¹³ 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. ¹⁴ Then he said to the tree, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” And his disciples heard him say it.

¹⁵ On reaching Jerusalem, Jesus entered the temple courts and began driving out those who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves, ¹⁶ and would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts. ¹⁷ And as he taught them, he said, “Is it not written: ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations’? But you have made it ‘a den of robbers.’” ¹⁸ The chief priests and the teachers of the law heard this and began looking for a way to kill him, for they feared him, because the whole crowd was amazed at his teaching.

¹⁹ When evening came, Jesus and his discipleswent out of the city. ²⁰ In the morning, as they went along, they saw the fig tree withered from the roots. ²¹ Peter remembered and said to Jesus, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree you cursed has withered!”

²² “Have faith in God,” Jesus answered. ²³ “TrulyI tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in their heart but believes that what they say will happen, it will be done for them. ²⁴ Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. ²⁵ And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive them, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins.”

May the Spirit of Jesus illuminate God’s word for us.

Parables:

Most people, waiting for an organ donation, have mixed feelings about it. Yes, they want to have the surgery and move on with their life. But, at the same time, they are acutely aware that receiving a new heart or a new set of lungs means someone else has to die. And that’s not a great feeling.     

As I mentioned before, the Jerusalem temple of the first century, was the heart of the Jewish nation. Sadly, the temple system had become too sick to repair and so God, the surgeon, was planning a transplant using his own son. Jesus had to die so others could live.

The man I sat with, in Greenlane Hospital, was well aware of his need for a new heart and welcomed the surgery. But the religious leaders of Jesus’ day were not so keen. They were too blind to see their own need, let alone recognise that Jesus was from God. Jesus had to find a way to communicate the seriousness of the situation.

On his way to the temple, Jesus feels hungry, sees a leafy fig tree and goes over to look for fruit. It’s about mid-April and fig trees don’t normally bear fruit until June, in the Middle East.

When Jesus found nothing but leaves he said to the tree, ‘May no one ever eat fruit from you again’.  This is not the kind of behaviour we have come to expect from Jesus. Was he a bit hangry? Did he lose his temper? No. This is an acted out parable, it is deliberate.    

Jesus is well aware it’s the wrong time of year for figs. He is not expecting to have a feed. The fruitless leafy tree simply provides a vehicle for Jesus to communicate the reality of Israel’s heart disease.

By putting the parable of the fruitless fig tree alongside the account of Jesus clearing the temple, Mark (the gospel writer) is saying, ‘the fig tree represents the Jerusalem temple and its leadership’. It looks good. It looks inviting. But on closer inspection it is fruitless. The temple system has become empty religion.

Perhaps the mention that Jesus was hungry points to the reality experienced by many of those who came to worship at the Jerusalem temple. Their faith was not nourished by ritual sacrifice. They went away dissatisfied, hungry.

When Jesus entered the temple that same day, he began driving out those who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves, ¹⁶ and would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts.

This is another acted out parable. Jesus is demonstrating (in a dramatic way) how he feels about the business being carried out in the temple courts. Mark doesn’t say that Jesus is angry but, clearly, he is not happy with the status quo.  

Whatever Jesus was feeling his actions are measured, surgically precise, fair. He doesn’t fly off the handle in a fit of rage. Jesus’ actions are considered, intentional and appropriately weighted to the situation. 

Jesus, like God the Father, is motivated by love. It is because Jesus cares deeply that he draws attention to the corrupt temple system. It is because God loves the world that he chooses to donate his Son’s heart to save us.  

So why is Jesus not pleased with the business being transacted in the temple? Well, as the parable of the fig tree demonstrates, the religious leadership were practising empty religion. They were taking the Lord’s name in vain.

To the casual observer the temple system looked good but it lacked substance. The fruit that God wanted (of justice, mercy and humility) was not there. The money changers and those selling doves were dishonest. They were scamming pilgrims, ripping people off. 

Prophecy:

Jesus explains his acted out parable by quoting from the prophets. When the Lord says: “Is it not written: ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations’? he is quoting from the prophet Isaiah.

God’s purpose was for Israel to be a light to the other nations of the world. God wanted the nation of Israel to be a picture of what his kingdom is like. The other nations of the world were to learn about God from Israel.

With this in view, the temple was designed with an area for Gentiles (non-Jews) to come and seek the God of Israel. In ancient times, Gentiles could not go past their designated area. It was a case of, you may come this far and no further.

The merchants and money changers were plying their trade in the court of the Gentiles, which essentially made it impossible for people of other nations to draw near to God, in prayer, at the temple.

By clearing the merchants out of the court of Gentiles, Jesus was welcoming people of all nations. He was making room for prayer and reminding Israel of God’s original purpose.

Now, as most of you are aware, we had a church garage sale yesterday. The auditorium and hall were packed with stuff. Given the timing of this message, some of you may be thinking, is our pastor criticising the garage sale? Is he saying we shouldn’t hold it anymore?

No. I’m not saying that. Let me be very clear. The timing of the garage sale and my preaching on Mark 11 is unrelated. Holding a garage sale in the church hall once a year is not the same thing as money changers camped in the Court of the Gentiles on the Temple Mount.  

For one thing we are not ripping people off. If anything we are providing a community service. People in the community are getting a good deal from us.

What’s more, we are not excluding anyone from approaching God in prayer. A garage sale opens the door of the church to the wider community. Besides, you don’t need a church building to pray.

Later, in the gospel of Mark, when Jesus died on the cross, we read how the curtain hanging in the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. This is a sign of what Jesus’ death accomplished. We now have direct access to God through Jesus. We meet God in Christ. Jesus replaces the Jerusalem temple.  You can pray to Jesus anywhere.

So, how does Jesus’ clearing of the temple apply in our world today? Let me offer you three ways to understand this…

Firstly, who are the money changers in our society? Who are the ones who make an enormous profit at the expense of everyday people? Well, we’ve seen in the news recently the obscene profits generated by overseas banks. Then there are the finance companies who appear friendly enough but, in reality, take advantage of desperate people by charging over the top interest.

There is something not right about the way we finance things in this country.

If you work in a bank, then I don’t think the answer is to quit your job. We need men and women of integrity to be salt and light in our financial institutions. We need people who will use their influence for good; to help shift our thinking away from scarcity towards abundance. Away from greed towards generosity. Away from personal gain towards social responsibility.

So that’s one application of Jesus’ parable of clearing the temple. I think also Jesus is taking a crack at nationalism here.

‘Nationalism is identification with one’s own nation and support for its interests to the exclusion or detriment of the interests of other nations.’    

It is not a bad thing to identify with your own nation. In fact, it is a good thing to support the interests of your own country by paying your taxes and making a positive contribution to society.

But, when support for your nation is taken to an extreme, so that other nations suffer, then that becomes nationalism. Jesus is not okay with nationalism. Nationalism does great harm to the world God loves. 

By allowing merchants to set up shop in the court of the Gentiles, the religious leaders were promoting Jewish nationalism. They were effectively excluding other nations from drawing near to God.

When Jesus said, ‘Love your neighbour as you love yourself’, he wasn’t just talking about our inter-personal relationships. He was also talking about a nation’s global relationships.

Russia’s illegal invasion of the Ukraine is a product of nationalism. Likewise, when large countries pursue their own economic interests in a way that destroys the environment and contributes to climate change so that smaller, poorer nations start disappearing into the sea, that also is a product of nationalism. 

We are talking about how Jesus’ clearing of the temple applies to us today. Here’s a more personal application. Given that Jesus is the one through whom we meet with God, then clearing room means making time and space in our busy lives to pray and study the Bible.

The goal is to be fruitful for God’s glory and we can only be fruitful when we abide in Christ. How do you carve out time to be with Jesus?

Returning to Mark 11, Jesus also quotes from the prophet Jeremiah, to explain the meaning of his actions.

The phrase, but you have made it a den of robbers, is a reference to Jeremiah’s prophecy that God was going to destroy the Jerusalem temple because the people were practising false religion. They carried out the prescribed rituals without the fruit of righteousness, without obeying the 10 commandments.     

Jesus is indicating that the religious leaders of his day are just like the religious leaders of Jeremiah’s day. God is not obligated to protect the Jerusalem temple if the priests and people misuse it. God allowed Israel’s enemies to destroy the temple once before and he will do so again.

The next day, as they were walking past the fig tree, Peter noticed it had withered. The dead tree has now become a prophetic parable for what was going to happen to the Jerusalem temple.

In AD 70, some decades after Jesus’ death and resurrection, Jewish nationalism provoked the Romans to lay siege to Jerusalem and eventually destroy the temple building and many lives with it. Jesus’ prediction came true.

It’s important to understand that in giving this prophecy, Jesus held no malice in his heart. Grief, yes, but not hatred. In Luke 13, a parallel passage, Jesus weeps over Jerusalem as Jeremiah did before him.  

Prayer:

The disciples appear to be a bit surprised by how quickly the fig tree withered after Jesus spoke against it. So Jesus uses the opportunity to talk about prayer. We might wonder how Jesus’ teaching on prayer relates to the temple incident. Well, let me explain…

To the ancient mind a temple was sacred ground. It was the place where divine presence resided in a special way. Most people felt closer to God in the temple and imagined prayer to be more effective when offered in God’s house.  

In verses 22-24 Jesus makes it clear that faith in God (rather than geographical location) is what makes our prayers effective. Faith is what really connects us to God, not temples or church architecture.

In verse 23 Jesus says: “TrulyI tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in their heart but believes that what they say will happen, it will be done for them.”

Faith that moves mountains. This is a challenging verse, especially for anyone who has prayed earnestly and with full conviction that their prayer would be answered positively, only to be disappointed when things did not turn out the way they had hoped. 

The assumption in verses 22-24 is that we are praying for things that are in line with God’s will and purpose.  If you pray to win Lotto Powerball, fully believing you have right the numbers, God is under no obligation to answer with a ‘yes’. Prayers offered in faith are not magic. God is unlikely to give you something as harmful as 10 million dollars. He loves you too much for that.

But what about those less selfish prayers, the ones when we are ask God to heal a loved one and yet they still die despite our water tight belief? In a case like that the problem is not with your faith, nor with God’s power.

Prayer is not a mathematical formula. Prayer is cloaked in mystery. Sometimes God’s answer is incomprehensible this side of heaven. From our vantage point, in this world, we cannot see the whole picture of what our prayers accomplish. For what it’s worth, I believe that when someone goes to be with Jesus, they are healed completely and totally.

In the context of Mark 11, ‘this mountain’, that Jesus says can be moved by prayer and faith, is most likely the mountain on which the temple was built. Jesus seems to be saying here that the old temple system, with its ritual sacrifice, is being removed by God and a new system (based on faith in Christ) is being established.

God is removing the old heart and giving Israel (and indeed the world) a new heart to worship him. Jesus is that heart.

Thinking more broadly, ‘this mountain’ might be a metaphor for any seemingly immovable obstacle. For example, ‘this mountain’ could be a powerful but corrupt institution that is beyond reform and needs to be thrown into the sea so it can be replaced with God’s kingdom way of doing things.

The main thought, in verses 22-24, is that God can do what we think is impossible. No one in the first century would have thought it possible to transplant a human heart nor replace the temple with something better. And yet, by God’s grace, these things have actually happened.     

Jesus concludes his lesson on prayer by talking about forgiveness. Jesus says: “…if you hold anything against anyone, forgive them, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins.”

This relates to the temple as well. The temple was a place where people went to be reconciled with God, to be forgiven. In the time of Jesus, the Jews performed ceremonies of reconciliation involving animal sacrifice. Jesus has just been saying the old temple system is on the way out. So how are people to be reconciled to God without a temple. How are we to be forgiven without ritual sacrifice?

We are reconciled to God through Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross, when we forgive those who have sinned against us. If the old (hard) heart of worship was based on ritual sacrifice, then the new (tender) heart of worship is based on faith with forgiveness.

The inconvenient truth of the gospel is that God’s forgiveness of us is conditional on our forgiveness of others. We cannot expect God to answer our prayers if we are holding onto resentment against someone else. Is there anyone you are struggling to forgive at the moment? Pray for the grace to forgive while you can.

Conclusion:

With that in mind, let us pray now…

Gracious God, we thank you for donating your heart, your Son, that we might live. Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us. And Lord, when we find it hard to forgive, help us to be honest about our hurt and give us the grace we need to let it go. Through faith in Jesus we pray. Amen. 

Questions for discussion or reflection:

What stands out for you in reading this Scripture and/or in listening to the sermon? Why do you think this stood out to you?

• Why did Jesus speak against the fig tree? In what way was the fig tree like the religious leadership of Jesus’ day?

• Why did Jesus overturn the tables of the money changers in the temple? What was Jesus saying through this acted out parable?

• Discuss / reflect on how Jesus’ clearing of the temple applies in our world today?

• Have you ever prayed for something with total belief that it would happen, only to have your hopes for that prayer disappointed? What was the situation? How did you feel? What is the basic assumption underlying verses 22-24?

• What do we find at the heart of true worship (according to verses 22-25)? Are these things at the heart of your worship of God? If not, what needs to change. How might we strengthen how heart for worship? 

• Is there anyone you need to forgive? What do you need to let go of your hurt?