Harmony #79: Fruit, Mold and Mountains (Matthew 21:10-22; John 12:17-19; Mark 11:11-24; Luke 19:45-46)

Let’s talk about figs and fig trees in the Bible.

·   “How miserable I am! I feel like the fruit picker after the harvest who can find nothing to eat. Not a cluster of grapes or a single early fig can be found to satisfy my hunger. The godly people have all disappeared; not one honest person is left on the earth. They are all murderers, setting traps even for their own brothers.” (Micah 7:1-2)

·  “I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness; I saw your fathers as the ‘first ripe’ in the fig tree at her first time: but they went to Baalpeor, and separated themselves unto that shame; and their abominations were according as they loved.” (Hosea 9:10)

·   “For a nation is come up upon my land, strong, and without number, whose teeth are the teeth of a lion, the teeth of a great lion. He has laid my vine [Judah] waste, and barked my fig tree...” (Joel 1:6-7) 

·   “The one who guards a fig tree will eat its fruit, and whoever protects their master/lord will be honored.” (Proverbs 27:18)

So, figs and fig trees are used throughout the Old Testament as a symbol for God’s people, and sometimes very specifically the leaders. In addition, sitting under one’s own fig tree became a common OT image of the Israelite enjoying freedom and prosperity in the land (2 Kings 18:31; Isaiah 36:16; Micah 4:4; Zechariah 3:10); meanwhile, its destruction was a symbol of the nation’s judgment (Jeremiah 5:17; Hosea 2:12; Joel 1:7, 12).

We are going to read an interesting incident in the life of Jesus today, one in which he performs his only recorded “miracle of destruction.” He is going to kill a fig tree. It feels a little jarring because it seems petty and a little mean, like Jesus had a really bad day and he just did not have time for this stupid fig tree!

However, this story wraps around a visit to the temple where the “fig tree” of the leaders of His people are defiling the temple. I am going to suggest that Jesus’ treatment of the fig tree tells his disciples something very important about the future of the Temple and the Sadducees. Let’s read the passage, then talk about what Jesus was doing with the fig tree.

As he entered Jerusalem the whole city was thrown into an uproar, saying, “Who is this?” And the crowds were saying, “This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth in Galilee.” So the crowd who had been with him when he called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead were continuing to testify about it.

Because they had heard that Jesus had performed this miraculous sign, the crowd went out to meet him. Thus the Pharisees said to one another, “You see that you can do nothing. Look, the world has run off after him!” Then Jesus went to the temple. And after looking around at everything, he went out to Bethany with the twelve since it was already late.

Now early in the morning  the next day, as they went out from Bethany and returned to the city, Jesus was hungry.[1]After noticing in the distance by the road a fig tree with leaves, he went to see if he could find any fruit on it.

When he came to it he found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs.  He said to it, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again. Never again will there be fruit from you!” And his disciples heard it.

Apparently, fig trees put out leaves and fruit pretty close together. If it has leaves, it should have some kind of fruit. Even before it is “the season for figs,” there are these little early figs that let you know the harvest will happen (the ‘first ripe’ in Hosea 9). They are like a teaser trailer for the upcoming show. This seems to be what is happening. Not only is this tree lying about its fruitfulness, it’s not going to bear fruit when the season hits.

Then they came to Jerusalem. Jesus entered the temple area and began to drive out those who were selling and buying in the temple courts. He turned over the tables of the money changers and the chairs of those selling doves,[2] and he would not permit anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts.[3]

Then Jesus began to teach them and said, “Is it not written: ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations’? But you have turned it into a den of robbers!”[4] The blind and lame came to him in the temple courts, and he healed them.[5]

But when the chief priests and the experts in the law saw the wonderful things he did and heard the children crying out in the temple courts, “Hosanna to the Son of David,” they became indignant and said to him, “Do you hear what they are saying?”

Jesus said to them, “Yes. Have you never read, ‘Out of the mouths of children and nursing infants you have prepared praise for yourself’?”[6] The chief priests and the experts in the law heard it and they considered how they could assassinate him, for they feared him, because the whole crowd was amazed by his teaching.

When evening came, Jesus and his disciples went out of the city to Bethany and spent the night there. In the morning as they passed by, they saw the fig tree withered from the roots. Peter remembered and said to him, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree you cursed has withered to the roots.” When the disciples saw it they were amazed, saying, “How did it wither so quickly?”[7]

Jesus said to them, “Have faith in God. I tell you the truth, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only will you do what was done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ and do not doubt in your heart but believe that what you say will happen, it will be done for you.[8] For this reason I tell you, whatever you pray and ask for, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.”[9]

THE TEMPLE AND THE FIG TREES (SADDUCEES)

During Passover, hundreds of thousands of Jewish pilgrims would travel to Jerusalem. They would have to exchange their own currency for temple currency and purchase animals and other items for sacrifices. Guess who controlled this whole process? The Sadducees.

You may remember that ever since the Sadducees asked Herod to be the King of the Jews to appease Rome, the priesthood was a political system controlled by Herod. Instead of priests descending from Zadok (1 Chronicles 24), the empire selected the high priests. As you might expect, this led to bribes and corruption, with the chief priests, captains and treasurers of the temple becoming wealthy and influential families who formed a small, powerful group within society with their own little group of thugs #templeguard to make sure they got their way.[10]

They raised the sacrificial animals, sold them, changed the money (for profit), etc. It was a huge money grift. And they did it in a part of the temple where the Gentiles were supposed to be able to worship.

It seems that Jesus cleared the Temple courtyards twice: once at the beginning of his ministry and once at the end. In Levitical law, there was only one scenario for which God’s people need to do a cleansing twice: mold. If after the first cleansing the priests found no more mold, the house was cleansed again and then the family can move back in. However….

If the mold has spread on the walls, he is to order that the contaminated stones be torn out and thrown into an unclean place outside the town. He must have all the inside walls of the house scraped and the material that is scraped off dumped into an unclean place outside the town.[11] Then they are to take other stones to replace these and take new clay and plaster the house.

If the defiling mold reappears in the house after the stones have been torn out and the house scraped and plastered, the priest is to go and examine it and, if the mold has spread in the house, it is a persistent defiling mold; the house is unclean.  It must be torn down—its stones, timbers and all the plaster—and taken out of the town to an unclean place. (Leviticus 14: 39-45)[12]

Or, to use Jesus’ fig tree imagery, it must be withered to the root.

It turns out that Jesus’ triumphal entry took Jesus to the heart of first-century Judaism: the temple, where Sadducee and Temple trees had lots of leaves - and mold, and no fruit. There was nothing to feed and nourish God’s people. It was maybe even toxic and destructive. They were clearly not being the “light to the nations” that God intended of His people.[13]

I believe the destruction of the fig tree was a tangible rabbinic parable that his disciples understood as pointing to the coming destruction of the priesthood and Temple, “withered to the roots.”[14]

This would indicate two things.

• The rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem will no longer be a goal of redemptive history. The New Covenant Temple is the church in which all are priests (2 Corinthians 6; 1 Peter 2) and believers in whom the Holy Spirit dwells (1 Corinthians 3).

• What we now call Judaism will no longer be the primary carrier of the good news that the Kingdom of Heaven is here. It’s meant to be the church: the new temple, with a new priesthood.[15] This does not mean we don’t appreciate and learn from the beautiful foundation of the Old Covenant – they were God’s chosen people - but the mantle has been passed, like Elijah to Elisha, to the New Covenant people.

We must take this seriously. We are not immune from the dangers facing the followers of God in the time of Jesus. We are called to ‘be fruitful and multiply,’ to produce fruit of righteousness that draws the nations to Jesus with words and lives free of hypocrisy, greed, and the love of power.

It struck me yesterday that the Jewish people’s greatest threat had never been other nations in the Bible. It was always themselves. Babylon could take their bodies into exile, and Egypt could enslave them, and Rome could kill them, but the mold that withered them to the root came from within. Say what we will about the course of this country depending how elections go and what the future may look like for followers of Jesus, but nothing out there threatens the church as much as the mold of false and corrupted worship threatens the church.

We are called to not only be God’s temple but to keep His Temple, the church, holy: set apart, pure, full of truth and grace, characterized by generosity, humility, and the kind of love that is will to be broken and spilled out for others in honor of our Savior.

We may will need His cleansing power at times to drive out sin from our personal and corporate temples.  The mold has got to go. Pride. Greed. Unforgiveness. Immorality. Gossip. Slander. Division. Judgment. Untruth. Meanness. Pettiness.

Nothing should get between us and our mission: to glorify the goodness of God with the entirety of our lives, and to demonstrate in all that we do the compelling message of salvation, life and hope that is grounded in Jesus and experienced in His church. I like how Adam Clarke summarizes what Jesus was doing here.

“Having condemned the profane use of the temple, he now shows the proper use of it. It is a house of prayer, where God is to manifest his goodness and power in giving sight to the spiritually blind, and feet to the [spiritually] lame. The church in which the [spiritually] blind and the lame are not healed has no Christ in it, and is not worthy of attendance.” (Adam Clarke)

That’s not scripture, but I think it’s inspired in its own way. I know I’m convicted as I apply that to myself.

• When people are around me who are spiritually struggling or lost, are they healed as I show the presence of Christ in me – God’s truth, grace, love, hope, kindness – or are they hurt?

• Did they pick up some mold from being around me? Or do they leave with maybe a little mold gone, or at least some tools to get rid of it, because the Holy Spirit has worked in our time together?

• Am I just leafy – because I can put on a show if I need to – or is the fruit of the Holy Spirit evident such that my attitudes, words, thoughts, and actions nourish those in my presence with the goodness of God’s provision?

I urge you to consider this for yourself. With your family, you friends, at work, when you are here on Sundays and Wednesdays,

What is the fruit you demonstrate in your character or offer as a service to those around you – not as a show, but as a gift of nourishment in Christ?

What might be the mold clinging to you that Jesus needs to cleanse? What needs to be driven out lest you begin to wither?

If you think this sounds like a daunting task, it is. Good news: Jesus tells his disciples what to do right here in this passage. If the disciples demonstrate faith in God – if they live faithfully - they can remove the mountainous problem of fruitlessness and mold.

When rabbis told parables[16], they wanted a physical representation to make their point. Jesus is likely standing on the Mount of Olives with the Herodian and the Temple Mount in sight. He is probably pointing toward one of these. I lean toward the Herodian, but it’s not a hill I will die on J Why? Because “faith” almost always means “faithfulness” – trust in action – and the Herodian gives a prime example of what seemingly insurmountable hurdles can in fact be conquered when we put one foot in front of the other over and over in the service of a cause.

The Herodian was a mountain fortress overlooking the town of Bethlehem built on a mountain Herod had commanded be literally moved from one location to the place he wanted it to be. One shovelful at a time. If you think of faithfulness as “steadfast commitment,” that’s what it took to literally move a mountain.

Jesus once told his disciples that faith as small as a mustard seed could move mountains. He wanted his followers to know that our lived out faith can accomplish far more than the most amazing earthly feats. You’re impressed that Herod, a ruler of the Empire, moved a mountain? Wait until you see what can be moved with the authority and power of the ruler of the universe behind the faithful witness of your life.

You know what’s more amazing than moving a mountain of stone?

• Being freed from addiction.

• Learning how to control your words.

• Having pride replaced with humility.

• Learning how to really, truly love that person.

• Becoming patient when you have been characterized by impatience for so long.

• Learning to see people as imago dei instead of objects of lust.

• Being moved from greed to generosity.

• Replacing a reputation for being caustic and rude with a reputation for being kind.

• Seeing the fruit of the Spirit[17] – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control – replace the mold of sin.

To go back to today’s text, what about that mountain of fruitlessness, mold, and hypocrisy? Is it even possible to move that mountain? Yes, and the disciples will show that in the book of Acts. They will faithfully go into all the world and preach the Gospel. Historians believe the Christian population grew by 40 percent a decade: probably about 1,000 Christians in AD 40 to 33 million in AD 350.

Mountains are moved when Jesus works within our lived out faith. I like the old joke, “How do you eat an elephant? One spoonful at a time.” How do we move mountains? One faithful shovel at a time, one righteous moment after another, whether it’s in our individual lives, our church life, or our concern for our nation.

And may God, who is a Good Father, be so good as to cleanse His Temple for our good, the good of the world, and God’s glory.

________________________________________________________________________________

[1] “Recalls God’s statement that his bringing Israel out of Egypt was like the joy of finding early figs and his later complaint that Israel’s idolatry and injustice rendered the nation barren and without justice (Hos 9:7–17; Mic 6:1—7:6)…In spite of God’s gift of his law and the land, and his presence now in Jesus, Israel and its leaders have failed to produce the justice and mercy God desires…Jesus, as Israel’s Lord, enacts that image in fulfillment of Malachi’s threatened curse upon the land (Mal 4:6) and hence his following announcement of the destruction of the temple.” (NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible)

[2] The cleansing of the temple by Jesus is reminiscent of how kings like Hezekiah (2 Chr 29–31) and Josiah (2 Chr 34–35) repaired the temple prior to the celebration of Passover. (NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible)

[3] This is the second time Jesus has cleansed the Temple courtyard, reminiscent of Jeremiah twice cursing the temple (Jeremiah 7 and 26). There are soooo many Old Testament hyperlinks in the life and teaching of Jesus.

[4] “Perhaps ‘robbers’ should be translated ‘nationalist rebel’ (as in Jeremiah 7:11). The temple was meant to be a house of prayer, but… had become, like the first temple, the premier symbol of a superstitious belief that God would protect and rally his people irrespective of their conformity to his will.” (Expositors Bible Commentary)

[5] “Most Jewish authorities forbade any person lame, blind, deaf, or mute from offering a sacrifice or appearing before the Lord in his temple. But Jesus heals them, thus showing that "one greater than the temple is here" (12:6).

[6] Jesus here quotes the Greek of Psalm 8:2; Hebrew reads “strength” instead of “praise.”

[7] When they say, “How did you do it so quickly?” I tend to think they knew what Jesus was doing and are wondering how the Sadducees will be dealt with so quickly. They will be in AD 70, when the Temple and the Sadducees are destroyed.

[8] The Eastern Orthodox tradition is all in on the literalness of this. “While it is not recorded that an apostle literally moved a mountain, the Fathers are clear that they had this authority if the need had arisen (certain saints did make crevices appear in mountains). Furthermore, not everything the apostles accomplished was written down.” Orthodox Study Bible) I love the “not everything was written down.” This would suggest they might have moved mountains, but it never made it into the historical record, as if moving the mountain was never the point. I don’t prefer a literalist reading of this teaching, but I appreciate their bold and confident perspective.

[9] NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible

[10] HT NIV Women’s Study Bible

[11] I suspect the ‘unclean place’ in Jesus time was the Valley of Hinnom, Gehenna, which Jesus references multiple times as a place of punishment and destruction.

[12] Side note: Jesus is about to tell some parables that include this kind of cleansing in which people are cast out to places of judgment, very similar to this scenario.

[13] “The tree is fully leafed, and in such a state one would normally expect to find fruit. This symbolizes the hypocrisy and sham of the nation of Israel. The “withered” fig tree likely stands for the nation’s coming destruction.” (NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible)

“The tree with its leaves had the marks of fruitfulness, but it bore no fruit. Israel was likewise practicing hypocrisy (Mk 7:6)…Jesus might also have been illustrating religious hypocrites like the ones he had thrown out of the temple.” (NIV Women’s Study Bible)

“There were leaves, which speak of profession, but no fruit for God. Jesus was hungry for fruit from the nation.” (Believers Bible Commentary)

[14] HT NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible

[15] ESV Reformation Study Bible

[16]  “Many of the rabbins are termed rooters up of mountains, because they were dexterous in removing difficulties, solving cases of conscience, etc. In this sense our Lord's words are to be understood. He that has faith will get through every difficulty and perplexity. Mountains shall become molehills or plains before him. The saying is neither to be taken in its literal sense, nor is it hyperbolical: it is a proverbial form of speech.” (Adam Clarke)

 [17] Galatians 5

Harmony #61: Satan’s Divided Kingdom (Matthew 12:22-37, 43-45; Mark 3:22-27; Luke 11:14-22, 24-27)

Then they brought to Jesus a demon-possessed man who was blind and mute. Jesus healed him so that he could speak and see. All the crowds were amazed and said, “Could this one be the Son of David?”

But the Pharisees, the experts in the law who came down from Jerusalem, said, “He is possessed by Beelzebul. He does not cast out demons except by the power of Beelzebul, the ruler of demons!” (Because, they said, he had an unclean spirit). Now when Jesus realized what they were thinking, he called them and spoke to them in parables.

“How can Satan cast out Satan? Every kingdom divided against itself is destroyed[1], and no town or house divided against itself will stand. So if Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then will his kingdom stand? I ask you this because you claim that I cast out demons by Beelzebul.

“Now if I cast out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your sons cast them out? For this reason they will be your judges. But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God (the finger of God- Luke), then the kingdom of God has unexpectedly overtaken you.

 “When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own palace, his possessions are safe and no one is able to enter his house and steal his property. But when a stronger man attacks, ties him up and conquers him, he takes away the first man’s armor on which the man relied. Then he can thoroughly plunder his house and divide up his plunder.

As he said these things, a woman in the crowd spoke out to him, “Blessed is the womb that bore you and the breasts at which you nursed!” But he replied, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it!”

 “Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters. And so I tell you, every kind of sin and slander can be forgiven, but blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but whoever keeps on speaking against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age about to come.

“Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is recognized by its fruit. You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of. A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him. 

But I tell you that everyone will have to give account on the day of judgment for every empty word they have spoken. For by your account/words you will be acquitted, and by your account/words you will be condemned.”

* * * * * *

I found today’s passage to be one of the most challenging I have covered in this series.

1. It mentions what is often called the Unforgiveable Sin: blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. It turns out that there is a wide range of opinions on what to do with this.

• Having an Unforgivable Sin seems counterintuitive to the overwhelming testimony of Scripture that God forgives all sins, so many theologians add *unless they repent in their commentary.

• Others claim it was a sin that could only be committed by eyewitnesses to Jesus, while God was embodied in front of them.

• Others define it simply as the rejection of the testimony of the Holy Spirit to the divinity of Jesus at any time.

2. Jesus seems to say, “You can blaspheme me, and that will be forgiven, but not the Holy Spirit.” The implication is that there is only one member of the Trinity against whom one can commit the Unpardonable Sin – which seems…odd to me, considering our Trinitarian theology. Those three persons have one essence. God doesn't exist in parts. The Trinity isn’t separable.[2] Jesus says things like, “If you have seen me, you have seen the Father (John 14:9.” It’s a package deal. So whatever reading we have here can’t undermine the Trinity.

3. In the Jewish community, exorcisms were done, but the more I read, the more I suspect that the Pharisee’s sons were not accomplishing what they thought they were (more on this later). Maybe that’s one of the reasons Jesus elsewhere tells the Pharisees they are making disciples of hades (Matthew 23:15).

4. Is “will not be forgiven” the same as “will be damned?” Does it mean something like, “The consequences cannot be avoided while you are sinning,” or more like, “They can never recover from it?” What did Jesus’ original audience think when they heard this? Is there something from the Old Testament or Jewish culture that can help us understand what Jesus audience heard him teach here.

5. What is ‘this age and the age to come’? There is clearly something profoundly serious being communicated here about the nature of the sin, but it’s a surprisingly tricky phrase to translate for a variety of reasons that we will cover.

With those questions in mind, I offer a commentary/translation that is packed full of all kinds of Scriptural and cultural insight and context from 1st century Judaism. There are soooo many footnotes and endnotes to this - including opinions that differ from mine, because I want to be clear I am offering my understanding of this passage, and I could be misunderstanding it. There is no Message+ today, so perhaps our discussion this week can be in the company of church voices throughout history.

There is lots of commentary to ‘flesh out’ the what Jesus is saying about blasphemy and its penalty because it lands pretty hard but…I won’t revisit it. Read the notes. After we (hopefully) clarify the passage, I have one main point to make today about the clash between two kingdoms competing for our souls.

* * * * * *

Then they brought to Jesus a demon-possessed man who was blind and mute. Jesus healed him so that he could speak and see. All the crowds were amazed and said, “Could this one be the Son of David?”

 The Pharisees, the experts in the law who came down from Jerusalem, said, “He is possessed by demons from Beelzebul.[3] He does not cast out demons except by the power of Beelzebul, the ruler of demons!” Now when Jesus realized what they were thinking, he called them over and spoke to them in parables.

“I have a question for you. Do you think Satan casts out Satan? If Satan casts out Satan, he would be divided against himself, destroying his own Kingdom. Is that what you are claiming?  Some of your sons – your disciples - claim to cast out demons, right?

Eleazar claimed to use a signet ring and a root to draw out a demon through the nostrils of a possessed man; Tobias claimed to cast out a demon by forcing it to smell a fish’s liver and heart. Your disciples follow them in the Solomon’s tradition, with incantations and relics and fish guts. [4]  

So, are they and all the others you have trained in this tradition also casting demons out by the power of God or Beelzebul? Ah, I see some of your disciples are here with us today. I will let them judge your opinions on the matter.”

As the Pharisees and their disciples began a heated conversation, Jesus turned to the crowd.  “You know this passage from the Torah about the plagues in Egypt: ‘When the magicians tried to produce gnats by their secret arts, they could not…the magicians said to Pharaoh, “This is the finger of God.”

The Testament of Levi (18:12)[5] says of the awaited Messiah, “And Beliar [Satan] shall be bound by him. And he shall grant to his children the authority to trample on wicked spirits.”

This I have done. I cast out demons not with rings or roots or fish guts, but by the spirit of God, with the finger of God Himself.[6] The King over Beelzebul and all his demons is here. The kingdom of God has arrived,[7] and even the powers hiding behind the gates of Hades will not prevail.[8]

When a Strong Man like Beelzebul, fully armed with his demons, guards his own spiritual palace behind the gates of Hades, his possessions – literally, the people he possesses - are safe from being stolen, and no one is able to enter his house and steal his property.

But when a stronger man attacks, ties him up and conquers him, he takes away the demonic armor on which the Strong Man relied. Then he can thoroughly plunder his palace and re-home the people Beelzebul once possessed.[9]

I have plundered the Strong Man’s Kingdom. I am taking those he has possessed away from him. And when I set someone free, and my Spirit remains on them, they remain free. However, if someone attempts to do this with any other power, what looks like deliverance is not.

When an unclean spirit goes out of a person and can’t find another home, it says, ‘I will return to the home I left.’  When it returns, it finds the house ready for habitation. So it fills this home with spirits more evil than itself. When this happens, that person is worse off than they were before.

That’s not just true for people. It’s what is happening right now, in this generation of Israel.[10] The Pharisees are like whitewashed tombs, looking righteously beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.”[11] The Pharisees think they are cleaning out the evil among you; instead, all the devils are moving back in.”[12]

As he said these things, a woman in the crowd spoke out to him, “Your mother is the most fortunate of women to have you as her son. Blessed is the womb that bore you and the breasts at which you nursed!”

 But he replied, “Blessed rather are those who not only claim to be teacher of the Law, but who hear the word of God and obey it! Whoever does not join with me and gather others into this Kingdom with me scatters them into other kingdoms.” 

He turned to the Pharisees. “This is why you must speak carefully. You dare not scatter the children of God into other kingdoms by misleading them. You know what the Law says about insulting or showing contempt to God.[13]

 ‘Because he has despised the Lord’s message and has broken his commandment, that person must be completely cut off from among his people.[14] His iniquity will be on him.’ (Numbers 15:30-3)

Like a little yeast spreads through the whole loaf of bread, so contempt for God spreads through a community.[15] The Kingdom of God cannot be divided against itself; those who show contempt for the presence, the power, and the path of God must be sent away.

You Pharisees have seen, through me, the Spirit of God at work over and over again; you have persisted in settled hostility, denying and insulting the Spirit’s obvious work.

 And so I tell you, according to the Torah, those who those who bring the leaven of heard-hearted mockery against the Spirit of God [16] and poison the spiritual life of the whole community of the Kingdom will be disfellowshipped from God’s Kingdom community[17]  both now, in this age[18] of the Torah, and in the coming age[19]of the Messiah.” [20] 

 “When a tree is good, its fruit will be good; when a tree is bad, its fruit will be bad. The quality of a tree is recognized by the quality of its fruit.[21] It’s the same with people.” David reminded us that the righteous are like trees that bring forth good fruit. The book of Proverbs calls Lady Wisdom and the righteous, ‘trees of life.’[22]  

Here Jesus turned to the Pharisees. “You are like poisonous snakes, poisoning all that you touch. How can you who evil say anything good? You speak blasphemy, and what you speak is a reflection of what fills your heart.  Speak carefully: everyone will have to give account on the day of judgment for even the most empty and careless words they have spoken. It is by the testimony of your own words that we will see what kind of tree you are.”

* * * * *

I think the key focus of this passage is more on the clash of Kingdoms than it is about the response of the Pharisees (though that is important too). I say this because the theme of conquering Satan’s Kingdom has been ongoing:

• the 70 disciples returned from a mission in which they cast out demons while telling people the Kingdom was coming.

• Jesus responded, “I was watching Satan fall from Heaven.”

• Then, when he demonstrates how to pray, he includes, “Deliver us from the Evil One.”

• Then, Jesus Himself ‘binds the Strong Man’

There are two Kingdoms competing for your allegiance. This is not some mystical battle. This is every day, in every way.

One kingdom is characterized by chaos, degradation, fear, manipulation, evil, injustice, hatred, exploitation, abuse, greed, mockery, lies, selfishness, meanness, unforgiveness, revenge, pride, and self-destruction. It’s path leads to destruction, and the payout is death.

The other Kingdom is characterized by order, growth, hope, persuasiveness, goodness, justice, love, stewardship, gentleness, generosity, encouragement, truth, community, kindness, forgiveness, and human flourishing for all. It’s path leads to righteousness, and it’s payout is Life.

The two opposing spirits we see in today’s events give us a clear snapshot.

The spirits of the Evil One -  - the demonic spirits – at times actually possess in order to control us to our destruction. In contrast, the Spirit of God indwells in order to help us flourish as the image bearers God made us to be.

Those who make disciples of Hades – the blasphemers as described in this story – are also in the control of the Kingdom of Satan, though it’s more subtle. This isn’t those on a genuine spiritual journeys to “work out their salvation with fear and trembling.”[23] There is generous space for those who are questioning, deconstructing bad theology and  reconstructing good theology as a foundation for their faith. This is about (in today’s terms?):  

• the manipulative charlatan who uses the Kingdom of Heaven as a cover for sin

• the mocking accuser who makes everyone around them cynical about the power of God even when it’s obviously at work

• the person so hardened in their prideful arrogance that they refuse to acknowledge that God is working through others.  

• It’s spiritual wolves in the clothing of sheep

Someone living in allegiance to the ways of the Kingdom of Satan may actually do more damage than someone possessed by the minions of the Kingdom. It’s easy to look at possession and say, “No thanks.” It’s a lot harder to look at what appears to be successful, polished spiritual leaders and see through the deception and chaos that is their fruit.

* * * * *

It’s possible to think too much about the spiritual war being wages for our souls. It’s also possible to think too little about it. It is important for us to be aware and engaged without living in fear.

• Is there a Strong Man? Yes. Remember this. Then, remember that we worship the one who binds him and plunders His kingdom.

• Are there demons? Yes. Remember this. Then remember that we worship the one who casts them out and fills up that space with the Holy Spirit that brought us the freedom.

Last week, we were reminded of how Jesus told us to pray: “Deliver us from the Evil One.” May that be our consistent prayer, followed by meditation on the kingdom, the power and the glory of our King

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Here’s some commentary that I am including to give you an idea of the kind of discussion swirling around today’s passage.

·      “St. John Chrysostom teaches that blasphemy against the Holy Spirit would be forgivable if a person were to repent of it. Jesus makes this declaration knowing that those who blaspheme the Spirit are calling pure, divine goodness “evil,” and are beyond repentance by their own choice.” (Orthodox Study Bible)

·      “The immediate meaning of that refers to something only those who saw Jesus in person could do: to see a miracle from Christ and attribute it to Satan. In the most literal sense, that's a sin which no one today can commit.” (bibleref.com)

·      “The only ‘unpardonable sin’ occurs when a person consciously and willfully rejects the operation of the Spirit bearing witness to the reality of Jesus as the Savior and rejects the convicting power of the Spirit in his or her life. (Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds of the New Testament)

·      “It is a contrast between slandering "the Son of man" in His veiled condition and unfinished work—which might be done "ignorantly, in unbelief" (1Ti 1:13).. To blaspheme Christ in the former condition—when even the apostles stumbled at many things—left them still open to conviction on fuller light: but to blaspheme Him in the latter condition would be to hate the light the clearer it became, and resolutely to shut it out; which, of course, precludes salvation.” (Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary)

·      “By rejecting the Spirit’s revelation about the person and work of Jesus, one cuts himself off from the very source of salvation.” (NKJV Evangelical Study Bible)

·      “As for the Jewish leadership, Jesus says that they have taken a route that ends in this irreversible state. All that they can produce is bad fruit, such as attributing Jesus’ deeds to Beelzebub. Their words are so poisonous that he calls them a brood of vipers. Their poison will kill those touched by it, unless proper treatment is given. Such leaders are doing a great disservice to the kingdom of heaven, and will be judged for it.”  Africa Bible Commentary

·      “To blaspheme the Holy Spirit is a sin for which there is no forgiveness in this age or in the millennial age to come. When Jesus said in this age, He was speaking of the days of His public ministry on earth. There is reasonable doubt whether the unpardonable sin can be committed today, because He is not bodily present performing miracles.” (Believer’s Bible Commentary)

·      “The Hebrew word olam (age) means ‘in the far distance’. When looking off in the far distance it is difficult to make out any details and what is beyond that horizon cannot be seen. This word is frequently translated as ‘eternity’ or ‘forever,’ but in the English language it is misunderstood to mean a continual span of time that never ends. In the Hebrew mind it is simply what is at or beyond the horizon, a very distant time. A common phrase in the Hebrew is "l'olam va'ed" and is usually translated as "forever and ever" but in the Hebrew it means "to the distant horizon and again" meaning "a very distant time and even further" and is used to express the idea of a very ancient or future time.”  http://www.ancient-hebrew.org/27_eternity.html

·      “The Hebrew word olam… in contexts where it is traditionally translated ‘forever,’ means, in itself, no more than ‘for an indefinitely long period.’ … In the New Testament, aion is used as the equivalent of olam.”  (Encyclopedic Dictionary of the Bible)

·      There exists considerable ambiguity about the meaning of the phrase olam haba (the age to come). Did it refer to the final state of man or to the one intermediate between the life of this world and the disposition of his soul in…the eternal abode after the last judgment… or Gehenna, the miserable dwelling place of the wicked.” (Jewish Virtual Library)

·      “The word aion originally meant ‘vital force,’ ‘life;’ then ‘age,’ ‘lifetime.’ It is, however also used generally of a (limited or unlimited) long space of time …” (The Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible)

·      In a discussion on Biblical Hermeneutics Stack Exchange, one writer noted, “The word ‘age’ is the Greek word, "aion" which is directly transliterated into the English "eon," a period of time with a beginning and an ending. We are in the "current evil eon" (Galatians 1:3-5); that is ‘this age’ in our critical phrase. ‘The eon to come’ is Christ's Millennial Kingdom. The final eon which follows  is the eon of the New Heaven and Earth. In this eon and in the next, this sin will not be forgiven.”

FOOTNOTES

[1] Perhaps a reference to the division of the Jewish nation under the reign of Jereboam?

[2] In 1 John, the disciple John will say that those who deny that Jesus is the Christ are the antichrist (2:22-23) Yikes. That doesn’t seem less serious, and yet they can be forgiven. Hmmmm.

[3] Beelzebub, or Baal, whom Jesus associates with Satan, was the prince of “the dung heap” or lord of “the flies”—a god worshipped by the Philistines (2 Kings 1:2–16).

[4] “Exorcisms were well known among the Jews. Josephus recorded Solomon developing the art of incantations for healing and exorcism. He wrote about Eleazar, a Jewish exorcist of his day as read in my commentary. Tobias is found in the book of Tobit (Tobit 8:1–3).” (Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds of the New Testament)

[5] A popular extra-biblical Jewish writing.

[6] Exodus 8:19 chronicles the miracles Moses did that the court magicians could not repeat. It makes we wonder if the “children” Jesus references here are actually casting out demons or if they were frauds like the magicians.

[7] Many Jews believed that the Spirit, which had been quenched after the OT prophets, would be poured out again in the end time. Jesus presents his activity by the Spirit as evidence that the end-time kingdom had come. (NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible)

[8] Jesus said this another time (Matthew 16:18), but he’s making the same point.

[9] The binding of Satan was a symbol of the messianic age in Jewish apocalyptic literature. (ESV Reformation Study Bible)  Testament of Levi 18:12 quote found in Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds of the New Testament.

[10] “Jesus implies that… he was driving out demons; “this wicked generation” was welcoming them back in!” (NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible)

[11] Matthew 23:27-28

[12] That last sentence is how The Message concludes the paragraph.

[13] “What Is Blasphemy? - Biblical Meaning, Definition and Examples.” https://www.christianity.com/wiki/christian-terms/what-is-blasphemy-meaning-definition.html

[14] A popular book called The Book of Jubilees said of this kind of sin, “And there is therefore for them no forgiveness or pardon so that they might be pardoned and forgiven from all of the sins of this eternal error.” (15:34)

[15] Paul’s insight in Galatians 5:9.

[16] “It is not thought that this was a blasphemy which under no circumstances could be forgiven if right repentance followed it.” (Augustine) “Many at least of those who said these words believed afterward, and all was forgiven them. What is it then Christ was implying? That this sin is above all things inexcusable.” (Chrysostom)

[17] I think an example of this in the early church is when Paul told the church in Corinth what to do with a man living in blatant, destructive sin: “hand this man over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord.” (1 Corinthians 5:5)

[18] An age - in the Old Testament Hebrew, olam; in the New Testament Greek, aion - could be a person’s lifespan, an indefinite period of time, or a future without an end in sight.

[19] A list found at hebrew4christians.com chronicles the 5 ages that the Jewish people of Jesus’ day believed covered history: :[19] the Age of Tohu (desolation) from Adam to Abraham; the Age of Torah (instruction) between then and the coming of the messiah; the Age of the Messiah; the Age of Souls as we await resurrection; and the Age of Resurrection.  

[20] “I am fully satisfied the meaning of the words is this: neither in this dispensation, (the Jewish,) nor in that which is to come (the Christian). Olam Ha-ba, the age to come, is a constant phrase for the times of the Messiah in the Jewish writers. ” (Adam Clarke) 

[21] If the ‘sons’ of the Pharisees are their fruit, this makes me think their ‘sons’ were not actually casting out demons like they thought they were.

[22] Proverbs 3:18; 11:30

[23] Philippians 2:12

Christian Character In Three Easy Steps! (You Won’t Believe #2!!!)

There is a tension in the Christians life between what God does for us and what God expects us to do. God is always at work doing something in us and for us that we can’t accomplish on our own power, but the Bible is also clear that God expects us to participate in the building of our lives. 

“Whoever hears these sayings of mine and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock, and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock. But everyone who hears these sayings of mine and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand; and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on the house; and it fell.  And great was its fall.”(Jesus, in Matthew 7:24-27) 

Jesus is the rock on which we build a foundation of life that will stand in the midst of storms. But we build. Whether on sand or stone, we will build something. After talking about people who were commended for their faith, Paul wrote,

“Since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith...” (Paul, in Hebrews 12)

Jesus is the author of our faith and the finisher of our faith. There is no righteousness we can earn or attain on our own merit. God does all the heavy lifting when it comes to salvation. However, we were not saved for complacency. We throw off everything that hinders. We lay aside every weight. God may have built the stadium, equipped it with every good and perfect gift, and put us on His own team, but we've still got to put our phone to the side, strap on the shoes and run. 

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I was recently watching a documentary on Rich Froning, multiple winner of the Crossfit Games, aka “the fittest man on earth.” Most people see him for three days on ESPN once a year when he obliterates the competition. But it’s what he has done relentlessly for years that got him to the top of the podium. He didn’t build muscle and stamina a couple weeks before the games.

There are other areas of life where we can observe commitment and then see output. Certainly natural strengths or weaknesses, past experiences and opportunities (or the lack of them) have an impact on what we accomplish, but generally speaking, we get what we give. No matter who you are and whether or not life has been good to you or hard for you, there is no substitute for faithful, committed hard work to take you to a better place than you are now.

From what I can see in the Bible, it is no different with character building. God has given us the privilege and responsibility of being what theologians call “significant moral agents.” In other words, what we do matters. Reaping and sowing is a principle God himself embedded in the world.

“Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap corruption;  whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.” (Galatians 6:7-10)

 Jesus offers to take upon himself the eternal punishment for all the corruption we have sown into our lives. But whenever we plant something of spiritual or moral significance in our life, an appropriate crop begins to grow. This is the building or undermining of our character. Our training matters. Our sowing matters.

Here is a biblical truth that can be hard to accept: God does not gift character. God saves us from the eternal consequences of our sinful failure through his justification; God radically changes our identity through salvation (we are now children of God – Galatians 3:26); and through sanctification he continually transforms us into a Christ-likeness (think of the imagery of the vine and the branches in John 15)  But we still have the freedom to build or undermine our character in the ordinary moments of days, months, and years.

Now, God does not wait until we are perfect until He can accomplish something good with us. The Bible is loaded with stories of deeply flawed people that God uses for the good of the world and for His glory.  This is not about becoming good enough so God will choose you or use you. If that were the standard, none of us would ever be chosen or rise to the occasion. This is not about God noticing us because of how awesome we are. This is, however, about how the Bible shows discipline and character developing by God's grace in the slow, ordinary, plodding times of life.

 It’s not a popular thought. We live in a society that encourages us to see life not as a walk of baby steps, but of huge leaps and bounds 

• If I am going to lose weight, I want to be the biggest loser.  20 pounds over a year is hardly worth my time.  I want to win the show on TV by dropping 100 in a week.

• If I want a makeover, I don’t have time for small improvements over time.  I want an extreme makeover now while I am on vacation.

• I shouldn’t have to be a singer who works my way to the top through hard work and fortitude.  I want to be an idol with a big contract.

• If I want to learn to use the Force, now I can just close my eyes and really want to use the Force instead of train in the middle of nowhere with a little cryptic green guy (apologies, Star Wars fans).

• And dare I say, I want God to finish working in my life now, and be done teaching me now, to get me past my struggles with sin now, to fix my marriage now, and to answer my prayers now. I don’t have time to just do the next thing.  I want the next big thing !!!!  

This past week I was reading some prophecies or predictions for 2016. Most of them were full of exciting, grand, sweeping visions of how God is going to mightily move in nations, kingdoms, and the church. That may be true - God can do that kind of work in the world, of course.  But you know what I didn’t see?

 “God has revealed to me that this next year will be full of countless times when ordinary moments of faithfulness will build His people and His Kingdom. The Holy Spirit will move powerfully and help you not snap at your kids so that overtime what you plant as a parent will lead to a good relational harvest. You will face temptation, and you will need to train: humble yourself, seek accountability, and do the hard work of resisting temptation. You will be overlooked, under-appreciated, ignored and demeaned, but God’s faithful presence will be active in the midst of this to build your character for the good of the Kingdom and for His glory.”

I haven’t seen that yet. 

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Eugene Peterson once said:

“There is a great market for religious experience in our world; there is little enthusiasm for the patient acquisition of virtue, little inclination to sign up for a long apprenticeship in what earlier generations of Christians called holiness.”

There are no three easy steps – which is why you won’t believe #2. Anyone who tells you there are shortcuts to character are lying to you. There is no escaping this Godly practice of doing the next thing: Being faithful in the walk of life, in little things when there is no apparent inspiration, no applause, no crowd, no obvious, immediate payoff to myself.  This is the means through which God so often does His restorative work of grace in us and around us.

As I look back, as meaningful as our marriage ceremony was, the vows my wife and I gave each other offered an inaccurate view of what we would face. There is poverty and wealth, there is sickness and health, there is joy and there is pain, there is passion and there is coldness, and there is arguing and there is making up, but more often than not the majority of our lives are lived somewhere in between, not leaping from momentous event to momentous event, but taking a Tylenol and doing the next thing. And the ‘next things’ become momentous. I like how Alexander Maclaren put it:

“If our likeness to God does not show itself in trifles, what is there left for it to show itself in?  For our lives are all made up of trifles.  The great things come three or four of them in the seventy years; the little ones every time the clock ticks.”

I’m sure God can make us mature in a moment if He wants to, but if the Biblical record (and all of church history and the lives of everyone I know) is any indication, He apparently does not.. He wants us to grow up moment by moment, relying on His Spirit, reading and obeying His Word, and living in a community of His people.

Let’s go back to Jesus’ parable in Matthew 7. When the storms of life arrive, we as follower of Christ will stand not because we were strong suddenly, by surprise, contrary to all expectations. We will stand because 1) God provided a foundation for our lives, and 2) we have built our character by hearing what Jesus has to say about holiness - and doing it. 

This is how discipleship works. After God saves us from ourselves and fills us with His spirit, we commit to being disciples: following Christ, learning what it means to walk in holiness and integrity, putting one foot in front of the other day after day after day, for the good of His Kingdom and the glory of God.