Mark 11:1-25
1. What is impossible with man, is possible with God
Let’s deal with the last verses first – what catches all of our greedy little eyes is this “23 Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him. 24 Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.”
We convieniently leave out the next verse talking about forgiving people and difficult things like that. No, these verses are where it’s at – power, prestige, commanding mountains to fall into the sea, and demanding - I mean asking - God for things. We love it because it pulls at our very core – we can be like God. We can be God, deciding for ourselves. After all, if you’re asking God for things and he’s GOT to do it – well, who’s really God? That’s our problem of sin – we want to be God instead of letting God be God. We have swapped him out with us.
This is a favourite verse of those white-suited salesmen you see on so-called “Christian” television. Peddlers of false religion who sell modern-day indulgences to gullible people. Gullible because they don’t know their Bible, they don’t know the God they profess to love in all his power and might and awesomeness. Who in their right mind would believe that the God of the Bible would do whatever you ask him. Seriously? You? You with all your sin and failings, your rebellion, your shame, your darkness and evil? Ordering God about like he’s your servant, there to bow to the whim of the great <insert your name here>.
What’s the first rule of Bible study? Context.
And the second rule? Context.
And the third? Yes, context!
Because a text without a context is a pretext for a con. And, boy, do these guys con people. They run multi-million dollar enterprises on these cons.
But you might say “I was blessed by that man (or woman)” “they really helped me to understand this or that about God” or “my aunt was saved after listening to x”. God often speaks through the mouths of evil men, and achieves his purposes through his enemies. Let me remind you of the story of Balaams donkey, where the donkey speaks God’s word to Balaam, which causes Balaam to bless Israel and not curse them. God can use the words of an ass to bring blessing. Doesn’t make the ass any less of an ass. Don’t be fooled.
These verses do not mean “whatever pathetic worldly desire I have right now, I can ask for it and God will do it.” No, you cannot muster up enough “faith” to get a Ferrari, no matter how hard you try.
These verses are talking about something much greater than that. The mountain that Jesus is talking about is the impossibility of men to be saved – particularly here the people of Israel. And if Israel can’t be saved, God’s chosen people, what hope have the rest of us?!
None at all.
But as Jesus stated in the text we looked at two weeks ago “what is impossible with man is possible with God” (10:27). Have faith in God brothers, because the mountain of sin and rebellion against God is about to be dealt with – by Jesus on the cross. Jesus will cast that into the sea, the mountains made low and the valleys raised up for the Lord, a highway in the desert, a highway to the city of our God (Is 40 quoted in Mark 1:3).
So does this mean if we pray a pious prayer, asking God for good things like salvation for our loved ones, that he will answer – must answer? Again, no, because who is God and who isn’t? We know already from Mark that prayer is a declaration of dependence on God, not a list of things for him to do. This has to do with two things: 1. The offer of salvation for everyone. Jesus has made a way for everyone to be saved, he has removed the mountain, but who is saved is not for us to decide. 2. You, me, individually – if we pray for forgiveness, and believe in Jesus, we will be forgiven. 24 Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.
How do we know that he’s talking about salvation here, and not big houses and fast cars and pretty women? The very next verse, which even begins with the word “and”, is talking about what? 25 And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.
Forgiveness. Being forgiven by the Father. Being accepted. This is the real big deal. Ferraris are rubbish, utter nonsense compared to this. Knowing the Creator – as FATHER. Being forgiven, completely. Accepted. Free. No guilt, no shame. Utter contentment in life no matter your circumstances. Happiness whether you own a Ferrari or a pair of battered shoes with holes in the soles! This is where it’s at. And as we have been treated, we cannot do any less than treat others the same way. We have been forgiven so we can forgive.
This is where it’s at. Let us stand in awe of Jesus as he does the impossible. Lift up your eyes – lift them up and see your saviour king. Lift up your voice and shout Hallelujah (God saves), Hosanna (save now) in the highest! For here comes the saviour, the humble Warrior King, the Son of David going to war for his people, a battle that will cost his very life.
Jesus can do the impossible, casting the mountain into the sea, because Jesus is the Servant King.
2. Jesus the Servant King
7 [T]hey brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks on it, and he sat on it. 8 And many spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that they had cut from the fields. 9 And those who went before and those who followed were shouting, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! 10 Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David! Hosanna in the highest!” 11 And he entered Jerusalem and went into the temple
Jesus comes riding into Jerusalem on a donkey, the crowds rejoicing and celebrating, just as in 1 Kings 1 when Solomon, the King, the son of David, comes riding into Jerusalem on a donkey (the king’s mule). Here is the true son of David, of which Solomon, the king of peace and wisdom, was really a poor shadow. Jesus is the true King. This is the King we are looking for, fulfilling the word spoken by the prophet Zechariah:
Zec 9:9–11 (ESV) Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. 10 I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the war horse from Jerusalem; and the battle bow shall be cut off, and he shall speak peace to the nations; his rule shall be from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth. 11 As for you also, because of the blood of my covenant with you, I will set your prisoners free from the waterless pit.
Here comes Isaiah’s suffering Servant of God, the king who serves – for to set us free from the waterless pit of death he must (10v45) give his life as a ransom for many. What king is this! What love is this!
If the crowds had really understood what Jesus was doing, instead of just thinking he was a political rescuer, they really would have shouted Hosanna (lit. save now). And really would have blessed his name. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! 10 Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David! Comes from Psalm 118, a Psalm of military triumph against overwhelming odds.
Jesus will fight and win the impossible battle. And he calls us to join him in his triumph. If we will only have faith to pray for forgiveness, believing we have received it, it will be ours. For it is bought by the blood of the King, guaranteed by his awesome love, his awesome power.
Jesus is the Servant King.
3. Jesus the King
But Jesus is not just a servant – he is the servant KING. And the King demands respect, he demands allegiance, and in his anger he will judge. And this is what’s happening with the fig tree and the clearing of the Temple.
Remember how Mark’s Gospel opened?
1:2 Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way, - it’s a direct quote from Malachi 3:1. And the verse continues like this: And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple….But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears?
Malachi promised a day when the Lord himself will come suddenly to his Temple, a sudden day when the sins of Israel will be exposed. Israel’s judgement or evaluation is at hand, and they are found wanting. The fig tree is green – it looks good from the outside – all the religious pomp and circumstance is there, all the rituals… but there’s no fruit, no reality, no love for the Lord God. It is a withered, dead tree.
The cursing of the fig tree, with the Temple pronouncement in between, is part of Mark’s “sandwich” structure. We know what the cursing of the tree (the “bread”) means because of the “meat” in the middle: clearing the Temple. The fig tree is Israel. The fig tree is the old religious order. The fig tree symbolizes both the hollow reality behind the imposing religious structure and the unrepentant, fruit-less nation of Israel itself.
The Temple is unfit for receiving the King. The Temple (God’s “house” v17) is unfit as a house of prayer for the nations – instead it is a den of robbers. And, we might add, a den of murderers – look at v18 the chief priests and the scribes heard it and were seeking a way to destroy him, for they feared him, because all the crowd was astonished at his teaching.
Jesus has come to establish a new Israel, those who follow him – and judgement will fall on the old Israel, who, in only a few days, will crucify their true Davidic King.
New Israel, however, represented by the disciples, will grow from strength to strength, because the very power of God is behind it. Indeed, they merely need to speak to a “mountain” and it will obey them.
On the Day of Pentecost they prayed and received the Holy Spirit of God, and spoke to the mountain of religious Jews of their guilt and their need to repent and accept Jesus as both Lord and Christ. They were cut to the heart, and over 3000 repented and were baptised in one day!
Israel re-forged!
Jesus quotes from Isaiah 56:7 “my house shall be called a house of prayer”. Isaiah 55 and 56 is a beautiful vision of the compassion of our Lord. It begins like this Is 55:1–3 (ESV) “Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. 2 Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labour for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food. 3 Incline your ear, and come to me; hear, that your soul may live; and I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David.
Here is “David”, the true King, standing in his Temple, offering free forgiveness, free because he is about to pay the ultimate price. And the vision in Isaiah is not just for Israel, but the whole world. Note Jesus’ quote “a house of prayer for ALL the nations.” In Isaiah 56 all nations are part of the restoration, all peoples can hear the call to “come”. So will we listen? Will we come to the King while he is to be found? Or will you harden your heart?
I‘m going to end with a story which Jesus tells in Lk 14:16–24 [Jesus] said…, “A man once gave a great banquet and invited many. 17 And at the time for the banquet he sent his servant to say to those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything is now ready.’ 18 But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said to him, ‘I have bought a field, and I must go out and see it. Please have me excused.’ 19 And another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to examine them. Please have me excused.’ 20 And another said, ‘I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.’ 21 So the servant came and reported these things to his master. Then the master of the house became angry and said to his servant, ‘Go out quickly to the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in the poor and crippled and blind and lame.’ 22 And the servant said, ‘Sir, what you commanded has been done, and still there is room.’ 23 And the master said to the servant, ‘Go out to the highways and hedges and compel people to come in, that my house may be filled. 24 For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste my banquet.’ ”
Inside or outside? Feasting with the King? Or facing the outer darkness? Those are the choices.
Jesus is the King, the Servant King, come to judge and to save, and we need to respond rightly.
After listening to this there’s two ways of responding.
The wrong way, the Impossible application is this: I, like the Pharisees, can save myself. I can impress God with my religion, my good works, my niceness. That will work.
The right way is to bow down before this awesome king, and beg him to accept us, to forgive us. And if we do so, listen to these comforting words 24 Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.
Is 55:6–9 (ESV) “Seek the Lord while he may be found; call upon him while he is near; ...return to the Lord, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. 8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. 9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.
Amen.
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