“Don’t you have an answer to what these men are testifying against you? …Are you the Messiah, the Son of the Blessed One?” Pharisees to Jesus in Mark 14

I missed this the first hundred times I read it. Just flat out missed it, but there it is – plain as day. And now that I’ve seen it, I see it all over the place.

Jesus is on trial in the middle of the night, and the Pharisees are just bringing false witness after false witness forward. The witnesses can’t keep their lies straight, which isn’t exactly how the Pharisees planned it, but after every false witness they turn to Jesus and ask Him for a response, a rebuttal of some kind.

Jesus just sits there in silence.

Who knows how many hours this goes on, but finally one of the priests loses his mind and asks Jesus the direct question, “Are you the Messiah?”

To this question Jesus answers, “I am.”

A similar scene plays out in front of Pilate next. Witness after witness delivers their created and practiced lies about Jesus. As insults and accusations fly, Jesus sits there and says nothing. I’m sure that some of it is exhaustion. Some of it is that He knows what is coming and has nothing to say at this point.

Then Pilate asks Him a direct question, asks him two actually. “Are you the king of the Jews? Don’t you know I have the power to kill you?”

Now Jesus answers him. “It is as you say. You only have the power my Father has given you.”

So to those who are playing games around Him, He doesn’t answer. Doesn’t mean He doesn’t love them. Doesn’t mean He won’t die for them. He will. It means that while they play this deadly game with deadly consequences, He sits silently.

Then, when He is asked a direct question, He answers. With no pretense or anger. Just truth.

And love.

What am I trying to say? I am trying to point out that we don’t have the language to describe the expanse of God’s grace. That Jesus still seeks and waits on the lost, for those who don’t even believe He is real. And just like on the day He died, He will quickly turn an enemy into a brother. So that’s why He answers when He is spoken to. It’s why He told us to seek and ask and knock.

And why He’ll never just walk away.

May no one ever eat fruit from you again. Jesus in Mark 11:14

FULL DISCLOSURE: The English family runs a hospice for plants.

We can’t keep any kind of potted plant alive. Cactuses are nervous in our house. If it wasn’t expressly forbidden in our neighborhood, I’d put a rock yard in. So Jesus cursing a fig tree and it withering the next day? It’s not the most impressive of His miracles. At least, not in my book.

But then again, maybe that wasn’t the point.

Here’s Jesus on His way into Jerusalem for His last Passover on earth, and He picks out this fig tree that wasn’t even in season to produce fruit in the first place. Yes, the fig tree looked like it was in season. It had flowers and little buds, but everyone knew it wasn’t the season for figs. That tree – no matter how it looked – was never going to produce a fig at this time of year.

Yet – Jesus curses it. Why? Did He hate figs?

It was a message. It was an object lesson. It wasn’t about trees. It was about people.

As Jesus dealt with the religious leaders in the Temple all week, He was dealing with fig trees who looked great on the outside but were never going to bear fruit. He was being questioned and ambushed by people who were incredibly moral but spiritually empty, and Jesus wants His disciples to know – that’s not what following Jesus is about.

The Pharisees and Sadducees were intellectually, theologically, and probably even morally superior to every person in the Temple area, save for Jesus. They were seen as the top of the social system. Many people saw them as God’s representatives. The disciples grew up wanting to be like them.

But they were empty. They could not produce in their life what God wanted. What God wanted out them was a life of loving Him and others. A life that flowed out of a relationship with God, not one defined by rules. God wanted to see love, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness, joy, goodness, and self-control. But they were never going to produce that kind of life on their own, in their own strength.

For some of them, their own selfish kingdoms of power and influence were more important than following God. For others, they were more concerned about appearing good instead of being good. For all of them, Jesus was a huge obstacle, not the Way, Truth, or Life.

The lesson here is Jesus loves humility, loves brokenness. He hates arrogance and pretentiousness. If we set ourselves up as ‘producing fruit,’ as holier than what we are, as ‘having it together,’ but we don’t…. We’ve set ourselves up for discipline from Jesus. If that goes on as a lifestyle – consider the cursed fig tree.

In a few days, Jesus is going to give these disciples the antidote to the cursed fig tree. He’s going to talk about staying connected to the Vine. He’s going to tell them – apart from Jesus they can do nothing, but connected to Him they can do ALL things.

But standing in front of them, Jesus needed to make sure they recognized what it looked like to NOT be connected to the vine.

Looking at him, Jesus loved him… Mark 10:21

I’m changing my mind about the Rich Young Ruler, and it’s pretty much Tim Keller’s fault (pastor and author of many books, two of my favorites being Prodigal God and Jesus The King).

Backstory
In Mark 10, a rich, young ruler approaches Jesus and asks him what he must do to inherit eternal life. He is respectful. He is sincere. He is moral. Jesus informs him that he lacks one thing. If he sells all he owns, gives it to the poor, and then comes and follows Jesus – he will find what he is seeking. The story ends with the young man walking away grieved, because he has many possessions.

For years, I’ve walked away from this story with basically two conclusions:

First, Jesus is not necessarily anti-rich. He’s presenting the rich, young ruler with the one thing that has captured his heart and is his idol. Secondly, the man wasn’t a bad man or even a manipulative one. He genuinely wanted to be a part of what Jesus was doing. He was sincere in his quest.

I think these conclusions are true. I just don’t think that it’s the whole story. And like I said earlier, it’s Tim Keller’s fault. Keller writes this in his book Jesus The King:

So Jesus is saying to the man in this passage, “You have put your faith and trust in your wealth and accomplishments. But the effort is alienating you from God. Right now God is your boss; but God is not your Savior, and here’s how you can see it: I want you to imagine life without money. I want you to imagine all of it gone. No inheritance, no inventory, no servants, no mansions—all of that is gone. All you have is me. Can you live like that?”

Why was this man chasing down Jesus? Why was he so insistent on getting an audience with Jesus? Because by his own admission, his life was not fulfilling. It was successful, and more than likely every single person who knew him would trade places with him. But he knew that it wasn’t enough. It wasn’t enough. He KNEW something was off, incomplete, unfulfilling.

Jesus gives the man a moral checklist to complete the picture for him. Not only was he successful, but he did it the right way. He’s not a cheater or a liar or a thief. He’s not a slimy politician or a greedy tax collector. He’s what every Jew aspired to be. And all of this is good…

But it wasn’t enough. He found no life there. He was gambling that Jesus knew what the answer was. What he couldn’t get his head around is that Jesus IS the answer.

A couple of weeks ago, one of our leaders at church challenged us to imagine Heaven. Then she asked, “Where is Jesus in that picture?” The tension was palatable. She pressed in further by adding if our heaven didn’t have Jesus in it or if He was off to the side, then we probably really didn’t understand Heaven. In fact, it’s probable that we don’t understand Jesus at all.

Keller continues:

Jesus says. I am giving it all away. Why? For you. Now, you give away everything to follow me. If I gave away my “big all” to get to you, can you give your “little all” to follow me? I won’t ask you to do anything I haven’t already done. I’m the ultimate Rich Young Ruler who has given away the ultimate wealth to get you. Now, you need to give away yours to get me.”

That’s the deeper end of the story, isn’t it? Jesus never asks us to do anything He hasn’t already done. Because He IS love.

Whatever it is that is wrapping around our hearts keeping us from fully following Jesus is what Jesus is going to call out of us. Because whatever it is – it pales in comparison to what He has for us – relationship with the Creator being the core of that.

I pray He continues to increase my faith to trust Him. I don’t ever want to walk away from Him grieved. Good news is – neither does He.

“Let the children be fed first, because it isn’t right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.”
Jesus, Mark 7:27

It’s one of the most bizarre interactions in the Gospel. Jesus is hiding from the crowds and finds himself in the out-of-the-way town of Tyre. His hiding didn’t last very long, as He is interrupted by a Syrophoenician woman.

Here’s what we know about her. She’s a Gentile. She’s a mom. She’s smart. She’s quick-witted. She’s got a heart full of faith. And she’s got a sick daughter, which changes everything.

How she knows about Jesus isn’t clear. It’s possible that the stories of the miracles of Jesus were traveling far and wide. It’s probable she knew the family of the house Jesus was hiding out in.

She’s desperate. Desperate for Jesus to heal her daughter. She has enough faith to seek out Jesus. To interrupt His life. To ask for healing. To not even demand that He go back home with her to do it.

And Jesus’ immediate response seems…rude. Calloused. Racist. ‘Dog’ is what the Jews typically called the Gentiles, and it wasn’t a friendly term. Jesus uses a slightly different word – puppy, but it’s her response that gives us a clue as to what is going on here.

Lord, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.