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The Great Covenant Kingdom (Palm Sunday 2023)

Christ Church on April 2, 2023

INTRODUCTION

Augustine says that, “Pride is the beginning of sin.” Pride is a stiff-necked obsession with self, thinking higher of yourself, your looks, your abilities than you ought (Rom. 12:3). And pride is often highly religious and spiritual: “men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud… highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof…” (2 Tim. 3:2, 4-5).

This is Palm Sunday, the Sunday before Easter, when we remember the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem as the greatest conquering King of all time, and precisely because He is the greatest, he came to defeat our greatest enemies: sin, death, and Satan, with pride at the heart of all of it. Our sermon text is after Palm Sunday, on the night of the Passover that week, but it summarizes the mission of Jesus well as He labors to teach His prideful disciples that He is establishing a Kingdom of Humble Servants, a Kingdom of Left-handed Power.

THE TEXT

“And there was also a strife among them, which of them should be accounted the greatest…” (Lk. 22:24-30)

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

Immediately after Jesus had warned that His betrayer was there at the table with them, the disciples began to quarrel about which of them would be the greatest (Lk. 22:21-24). Jesus says that this is how the rulers of the Gentiles talk and act, and this is not how His disciples are to think and act (Lk. 22:25-26). They are to understand greatness and power as arising from the one who considers himself younger and serves (Lk. 22:26). Jesus asks who is greater: the one who sits at the table or the one who serves, and He answers His own question by pointing out that He has served them all (Lk. 22:27).

Jesus affirms that the disciples have been His servants by continuing with Him in His trials, and He says that He is “covenanting” them a Kingdom, as the Father has “covenanted” to Him, a Kingdom where Jesus will continue serving them at His table, and by which they will be authorized and trained to rule well (Lk. 22:28-30). Following this, Jesus warns Simon that Satan is gunning for him, but Jesus has prayed for him to be restored after he falls (Lk. 22:31-34).

PAGAN POWER VS. COVENANT POWER

This text is bookended by pride: the pride of Judas and the pride of Peter, and in the middle, we have all the disciples quarreling because of their pride. Pride is what drives the kings and elites of the nations, like Nebuchadnezzar, vaunting their great power and wealth, ruling with threats of violence and flattery and bribes (Lk. 22:25). And Jesus says, “you shall not be so.” This is both a warning and a promise: they must not act this way, and this is because His kingdom does not work that way. Jesus says that the kingdom He is giving them, He is “covenanting” to them, as His Father, “covenanted” it to Him (Lk. 22:29). In other words, this Kingdom comes by the power of God’s Word, by the power of God’s promises, faith in those promises.

We see this all through the Bible: God occasionally works directly (e.g. the flood, a great plague, or military victory), but the story is more often filled with barren wives conceiving, sacrifices, and ordinary obedience and faith. This is the difference between what Luther called “right-handed power” and “left-handed power.” Right-handed power is direct, material intervention, whereas left-handed power is indirect and looks like weakness: the exaltation of Joseph, the Exodus, and the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. The thing to underline is that while all that God does is powerful and miraculous, left-handed power highlights the power of God’s Word. It happens because God says so. Justification is the central doctrine in salvation that highlights this left-handed power, and this is why justification is the great Christian doctrine of humility.

THE PARABLE OF THE PHARISEE AND TAX COLLECTOR

Pride is so slick, so slippery. Pride can appear at our worst, but it often appears at our best. Pride shows up when we deny temptation or abstain from sin. If you pray, read your Bible, go to church, join the choir or a small group, pride is right there ready to pat you on the back. This is why Jesus tells the parable of the Pharisee and Tax Collector for those who “trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised others” (Lk. 18:9): The Pharisee is not a complete hypocrite: he is pious and godly inside and out and he’s even full of gratitude and gives God all the glory: “I think you, God…” (Lk. 18:11). And then a corrupt IRS agent waltzes in, maybe after a night of hard partying, and in a moment of utter sobriety, staring at the floor, with a hand on his chest says, “God have mercy on me, a sinner.”

Robert Capon says that one of the ways you can test whether you really get this parable is to imagine the tax collector coming back to church the following week without having made any amends. “Now then. I trust you see that on that on the basis of the parable as told, God will not mend his divine ways… He will do this week exactly what he did last: God, in short, will send him down to his house justified.” Does that make you gag? Or turn it around, what if the publican comes back with some slight improvements in his life: no prostitutes this week and less stealing: Capon again: “Why are you so bent on destroying the story by sending the publican back for his second visit with the Pharisees’ speech in his pocket?” The glory of justification has nothing to do with our goodness or improvements, and it has everything to do with God’s sovereign grace. He declares sinners righteous for the sake of Christ alone (Eph. 2:8-9, 1 Cor. 4:7). This is where all human pride goes to die; this is the beginning of true humility.

CONCLUSIONS & APPLICATIONS

This is why Jesus says that His power and greatness comes from being young and humble. It’s because when you “get low” you see God’s greatness and power. He says the word, and the universe comes into existence. He speaks the word and Christ is born, your sins are paid on His cross, and Jesus is risen from the dead. He says the Word and you go home scot-free, justified.

Jesus does not say that Kingdom greatness is doing whatever anyone demands of you; Jesus says that Kingdom greatness is serving at His table in obedience to His Father (Lk. 22:27-30). Kingdom humility and greatness submits to the Word of the King. Kingdom humility is kingdom greatness because God is the greatest, and His Word directs us in greatness. And Jesus embodies this greatness in His obedience to His Father, presented at that very table, with His body broken and His blood shed, to destroy all our pride and make us truly great.

So greatness and leadership in the Kingdom of God first comes by being served by Christ in this way. Acknowledge His greatness and sit down and eat and drink: survey that wondrous cross on which the Prince of Glory died, “my richest gain, I count but loss, and pour contempt on all my pride.” And then as you eat and drink the greatness of Christ (which was His great humiliation in your place), you are being equipped to rule like Christ, judging the tribes of Israel in your place in the Kingdom, in your family, at your place of work, in your service in the church.

And maybe the greatest thing is simply to forgive as you have been forgiven.

Palm Sunday as Powder Keg

Christ Church on April 10, 2022

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INTRODUCTION

Over the years, I have mentioned a number of times that there is no good biblical reason to use the hosannas! of Palm Sunday and the crucify him! of the Passion account as proof of the fickleness of crowds. We have no reason for assuming that the make-up of the crowds was in any way identical. But because we are living in a time driven by mass movements, it is past time for to develop a theology of crowds. Given that America is filling up with competing mobs now, one of the things that believing Christians ought to do is go back to the Scriptures to see what we can learn about mobs. There is a great deal there, actually, and if we pay the right kind of attention, we can profit more than a little bit.

The Text

“And they reasoned with themselves, saying, If we shall say, From heaven; he will say, Why then believed ye him not? But and if we say, of men; all the people will stone us: for they be persuaded that John was a prophet” (Luke 20:5-6).

Summary of the Point

In our text, Jesus asked His adversaries what they thought of John the Baptist, who was a real dividing line. Jesus had cornered them by asking a question that forced them to choose between their own actions, and the hostile reactions of a very hostile crowd. All the people will stone us. A few verses down from this, we see that the Jerusalem elites were plotting against Jesus, and they thought they needed to deal with Him secretly because why? Because they were afraid of the people. Jesus was really popular with a lot of people who did not really grasp the implications of what Christ had come to do. “And the chief priests and the scribes the same hour sought to lay hands on him; and they feared the people: for they perceived that he had spoken this parable against them” (Luke 20:19).

The gospel writers tell us this over and over. Two chapters later, the same thing is repeated. “And the chief priests and scribes sought how they might kill him; for they feared the people” (Luke 22:2). In the gospel of Mark, the same thing is mentioned and emphasized. “And the scribes and chief priests heard it, and sought how they might destroy him: for they feared him, because all the people was astonished at his doctrine . . . But if we shall say, Of men; they feared the people: for all men counted John, that he was a prophet indeed” (Mark 11:18, 32). And in the next chapter of Mark, we see the same thing repeated. “And they sought to lay hold on him, but feared the people: for they knew that he had spoken the parable against them: and they left him, and went their way” (Mark 12:12).

And this same pattern does not disappear after the Lord ascended into Heaven. Not at all. When officials went to detain some apostles, they handled them quite gingerly. And why? Because they feared for their lives. “Then went the captain with the officers, and brought them without violence: for they feared the people, lest they should have been stoned” (Acts 5:26).

A Room Full of Fumes

When the Messiah was born into first century Israel, He was born into a room full of fumes, ready to go off. It was politically volatile, and complicated, but it was also a complexity that could be reduced to two basic groups—those who had been baptized by John, and those who had refused it.

But before we get to that reduction, we have to take a number of other factions into account. That way we know what we are reducing down to their version of red state and blue state. There were the Sadducees, well-connected to the aristocracy that controlled the Temple. They were theologically liberal but quite conservative when it came to their own vested interests. There were the Herodians, whose connections were to the political elite, and who had a deep investment in what Rome was seeking to maintain. The Pharisees were a lay renewal movement, highly respected among the people, at least until Jesus got done with them. There were about 6,000 Pharisees in Israel at this time. They were largely merchants who had made enough money to be able to retire to a life of personal devotion, their goal being to get the average Israelite to live up to the holiness standards that the Torah required of priests.

I am (temporarily) excluding from this political roster the immediate followers of Christ—His twelve disciples, other extras, and the women in His entourage, but I am not excluding the crowds who loved Him, and who were not far from the kingdom. This was yet another group. Think of the massive crowds who welcomed Him during His Triumphal Entry.

But there is another group, almost always overlooked, a bit more surly and anti-establishment, but still clearly in the pro-John-the-Baptist, pro-Jesus camp. This was a group of significant size that was hostile to the establishment that was hostile to Jesus. And by this I mean that they were seriously hostile, and at life-threatening levels. They were “on the Lord’s side,” but had not really internalized all that Sermon-on-the-Mount stuff. The Lord once rebuked a few of His disciples for not knowing what spirit they were of (Luke 9:55), but it should be pointed out that there was quite a large group out there who fit in the same category.

Now can we all agree that these crowds, as warmly affectionate toward John the Baptist as they might have been, and as doggedly committed to the honor of the rabbi Jesus as they were, were people who had not taken on board the full import of what the Scriptures required of them? I mean, had you gone to one of their rallies, who knows what kind of flags might have been there. And did their presence in the mix in any way discredit what Jesus was up to? Not even a little bit.

No. The Lord knew of this group’s cluelessness. He understood their cluelessness. He even used their cluelessness in His debates with that other form of cluelessness, the respectable kind—the kind that is always the last to know. But Henever apologized for their cluelessness. “And the Lord spake unto them, saying, ‘I have recently been informed that the chief priests have been receiving credible threats against their lives, and I wanted to hasten to apologize . . .’”

So in this powder keg called Jerusalem, what did Jesus do? Did Jesus come in to pour soothing oil on troubled waters? No. He went into the Temple, for crying out loud, and started flipping over tables.

Ownership of the Public Square

And this is why we need to follow Christ, Christ above all. There is only one kind of defiant joy in the world that can successfully stand up to this kind of godless pressure. There is only one path for defying the screechers—without becoming a screecher yourself. That path is Christ, the one who has risen from the dead. And He rose from the dead the same place they crucified Him, which is to say, in the public square. Remember: the reason Christians still own the public square is because Jesus rose from the dead in it. I know that the militant secularists despise this truth, but truth it is, and they should have thought of those objections before they crucified Him there.

Psalm 118 (King’s Cross Church)

Christ Church on April 10, 2022

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OVERVIEW

Part 1 (v. 1-4 ) Enduring Mercy – First, the author of the Psalm begins with an exhortation to contemplate God’s goodness and his enduring mercy.

Part 2 (v. 5-18) A Godly Confidence in Turmoil – Here the Psalmist remembers a time when he was surrounded on all sides by entire nations that wanted him dead. But, in the name of the Lord, he had the victory and conquered them. And God has become his salvation.

Part 3 (19-24) A Triumphant Entry – Now he enters through the Gate of the Lord, triumphant, praising God for having saved him from his enemies. Again, he declares that God has become his salvation. But the onlookers are startled by this triumphant entry.

Part 4 (25-29) Hosanna – And now the author calls to God, “O please send salvation O Lord.” It’s strange because he has just finished describing several cases where God has sent salvation. It’s as if the author is begging for another salvation, a salvation still to come.

KING DAVID

Traditionally, this Psalm has been assigned to King David. The events described in the Psalm seem to resonate with the events in David’s life – a man surrounded by enemies on all sides, who puts his trust in the Lord and, as a result, has his right hand strengthened so that he conquers all his enemies.

FEAST OF BOOTHS

But there was another aspect to this Psalm for the Jewish reader. Look at Leviticus 23 where you will see a list of the Old Testament festivals. The last feast listed is the Feast of Booths, which celebrated God’s bringing the Israelites out of Egypt in the Exodus and into the Promised Land of Israel. This feast became closely associated with Psalm 118 and the cry “Hosanna.”

FAILURE

In a very important way, however, both the Exodus and the anointing of David failed to bring about the ultimate salvation of Israel. This Psalm describes something much bigger than what happened with Moses or with David.

NEW TESTAMENT

Psalm 118 is quoted at least a dozen times in the New Testament, and is used in all four of the Gospels to describe Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem. See – Mt. 21:9,42, 23:39; Mk. 11:9; 12:10-11; Lk. 13:35, 19:38, 20:17; Jn. 12:13. This Psalm found its real fulfillment in Jesus, who has become the salvation of the Lord. (See also – Acts 4:11, Heb. 12:5-6, 13:6, 1 Pet. 2:7).

Palm Sunday and the Prophetic Office

Christ Church on March 28, 2021

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INTRODUCTION

When the Lord entered Jerusalem in His triumphal entry, He was walking steadily toward a triumph that only He really understood. His followers knew that it was a triumph, certainly, but they did not yet know what kind of triumph it was going to be. The Lord was going to die on a cross, and that is why He set His face to go to Jerusalem (Luke 9:51). And this is why, as Chesterton once observed, the cross can never be defeated. It can never be defeated because it is defeat.

THE TEXT

“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord” (Matthew 23:37–39).

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

The Lord Jesus enters Jerusalem in triumph, and He is met by an enthusiastic crowd of disciples (Matt. 21:1-17). That entry culminated in the second cleansing of the Temple (vv. 12-17). Jesus had cleansed the Temple once before, at the very beginning of His ministry (John 2:13-17). Remember how in the Old Testament, the priest would inspect a leprous house two times before it was condemned (Lev. 14:39). Remember also that Jerusalem contained three main factions—the disciples of Christ, who knew and loved Him (Matt 21:9), the Jesus mobs who were greatly impressed by Him (Matt. 21:26, 46), and the establishment Jews who hated Him (Matt. 12:14).

After the triumphal entry, Jesus told a few parables (not to mention cursing the fig tree) that indicated the coming cataclysmic judgment on Jerusalem. Not only so, but in chapter 22, He has a series of doctrinal collisions with the Pharisees, Herodians, and Sadducees, again with pending judgment in view. And then in chapter 23, the Lord launches into an extended diatribe against the hypocrisy of the religious establishment, and that chapter concludes with our text. Jerusalem! Jerusalem! How often they killed prophets and stoned messengers sent to them! How often Christ wanted to gather the children of that fated city under His wings, but their leaders wouldn’t have it (v. 37). Their house is therefore left to them desolate (v. 38). But the one who comes in the name of the Lord is blessed (v. 39).

THE PROPHETIC VOCATION

We know that Jesus Christ is our prophet, our priest, and our king. Our purpose in this message is to consider His role as a prophet, the supreme prophet. Moses foretold the fact that a prophet like Moses would eventually arise (Dt. 18:15), and Jesus is that prophet. Because He is that prophet, He fulfills the prophetic vocation perfectly.

But what is that vocation? What is a prophet called to do? This is almost entirely neglected in our day, and when we do pay attention to it, we often understand just half of the prophet’s task. We think the prophet is supposed to denounce the sins of the people. But it is not nearly so simple.

We begin with shalom, with peace between God and His people. But tragically, second, the people become faithless, and they do so in two directions. They are faithless toward God in their worship (vertical) and as a result they grow faithless toward one another (horizontal). Then third, God gets angry with them. This happens because He is a jealous husband (vertical), and because He cares for the downtrodden and oppressed (horizontal). At the penultimate fourth stage, God’s righteous anger is poured out on the people. And last, God calms down, and balance is restored.

The prophet’s role is two-fold. When the people start to veer off, he is to warn them about the destructive path they are on. This is the part of the prophetic ministry that we understand. A prophet denounces the sins of the people. But when the people don’t turn away from sin in repentance, and God’s anger is aroused, the prophet’s calling is to turn back to Jehovah and demand that He turn away from His wrath.

The Hebrew word shuv means to turn. It refers to a change in behavior. The people are called to turn (shuv), and then God is called upon to turn (shuv). For those who understand who God is, this is audacity without boundaries. But this is what Abraham does (Gen. 18:22-25). This is what prophets do—Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Amos, this is their calling. This is what Jonah was so reluctant to do. Jonah’s problem, as the book bearing his name reveals, is that he was only taking up the first half of the office. And what does the king of Nineveh say?

“But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily to God; yes, let every one turn (shuv) from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. Who can tell if God will turn (shuv) and relent (nhm), and turn away (shuv) from His fierce anger, so that we may not perish?” (Jonah 3:8–9, NKJV).

This is the pattern Moses follows. Look closely at this exchange between God and Moses. God says, “Let me at them . . .” “And the Lord said unto Moses, Go, get thee down; for thy people, which thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves” (Ex. 32:7). And how does Moses talk back? “And Moses besought the Lord his God, and said, Lord, why doth thy wrath wax hot against thy people, which thou hast brought forth out of the land of Egypt with great power, and with a mighty hand?” (Ex. 32:11).

We need to remember these things. A prophetic ministry does not just argue with the people about God. There is also the audacious element, the one in which we argue with God about the people.

THE RECKONING AT GETHSEMANE

The prophets of old are all types of the coming one, some very clear types (Jeremiah), and others not so much (Jonah). But all of them establish the pattern and all are types. Jehovah wants a prophet to arise, and come before Him to do this.

“So I sought for a man among them who would make a wall, and stand in the gap before Meon behalf of the land, that I should not destroy it; but I found no one. Therefore I have poured out My indignation on them; I have consumed them with the fire of My wrath; and I have recompensed their deeds on their own heads,” says the Lord God” (Eze. 22:30–31, NKJV)

“Therefore He said that He would destroy them, had not Moses His chosen one stood before Him in the breach, to turn (shuv) away His wrath, lest He destroy them” (Psalm 106:23, NKJV)

Jesus is the one who turned back perfectly in order to stand in the gap, and in order to stand before His Father. And in doing this, He made the choice that led straight to our salvation.

Forgiveness for All Nations (Palm Sunday 2021)

Christ Church on March 28, 2021

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INTRODUCTION

What’s wrong with this world? What do we really need? The central answer of the Bible is that our problems all flow from the problem of sin, and therefore, what the world fundamentally needs is forgiveness. When Jesus entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, He went straight into the temple. And then over the next few days, He keeps returning to the temple: first clearing it out, then preaching and teaching in it. Jesus insists that the point of His life is to fulfill what the temple always pointed to: forgiveness for sins.

THE TEXT

And Jesus entered into Jerusalem, and into the temple: and when he had looked round about upon all things, and now the eventide was come, he went out unto Bethany with the twelve.

¹²And on the morrow, when they were come from Bethany, he was hungry: ¹³and seeing a fig tree afar off having leaves, he came, if haply he might find any thing thereon: and when he came to it, he found nothing but leaves; for the time of figs was not yet. ¹⁴And Jesus answered and said unto it, No man eat fruit of thee hereafter for ever. And his disciples heard it.

¹⁵And they come to Jerusalem: and Jesus went into the temple, and began to cast out them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves; ¹⁶and would not suffer that any man should carry any vessel through the temple. ¹⁷And he taught, saying unto them, Is it not written, My house shall be called of all nations the house of prayer? but ye have made it a den of thieves. ¹⁸And the scribes and chief priests heard it, and sought how they might destroy him: for they feared him, because all the people was astonished at his doctrine. ¹⁹And when even was come, he went out of the city.

²⁰And in the morning, as they passed by, they saw the fig tree dried up from the roots. ²¹And Peter calling to remembrance saith unto him, Master, behold, the fig tree which thou cursedst is withered away. ²²And Jesus answering saith unto them, Have faith in God. ²³For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith. ²⁴Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them. ²⁵And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses. ²⁶But if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses (Mk. 11:11-26).

Summary of the Text

Having ridden into Jerusalem on palm branches and shouts of ‘Hosanna!’ Jesus went directly into the temple and looked around (Mk. 11:11). The next day, Jesus is on His way back into Jerusalem, sees a fig tree without any fruit, and pronounces a curse on it (Mk. 11:12-14). The cleansing of the temple comes next: driving everyone out, overturning the tables of the money changers and pigeon-sellers, and not allowing anyone to walk in the temple for most of the day (Mk. 11:15-16). He was also preaching and teaching on Isaiah 56 and Jeremiah 7 during much of this time and held a rapt audience of many, such that the chief priests and scribes were powerless to do anything (Mk. 11:17-19). Coming back into Jerusalem the next morning, the cursed fig tree has withered to its roots, and Peter points it out (Mk. 11:20-21). To which Jesus replies that Peter should have faith in God, and he may even command this mountain to be cast into the sea. In fact, whatever any disciple asks in prayer will be granted, particularly forgiveness for others, so that God will also forgive all their sins (Mk. 11:22-26).

The Problem

Beginning at the end of our text, the problem is forgiveness of sins. In the Old Testament, God established a system of sacrifice by which God promised to forgive the sins of Israel (Lev. 4:20ff, 1 Kgs. 8:30ff). And when this system was fully functioning, it was to be the kind of light that would draw the nations, so that they might also receive forgiveness (Num. 15:26, 1 Kgs. 8:41-43). The temple was supposed to be a “house of prayer for all nations” (Is. 56:7), and specifically keying off of Solomon’s temple dedication prayer, prayers for forgiveness. The sacrifices of the tabernacle and temple were a sign to Israel and the whole world that God forgave sins. But what was happening at the time of Jesus was what had happened in the days of Jeremiah: people went through the motions of going to worship, chanting slogans about the temple of the Lord (Jer. 7:4). The problem was not with the temple, the problem was with the people sinning up a storm and then going to the temple as an act of empty ritual and formalism. They turned the temple into a “den of thieves” because they brought their sins with them like stolen treasure – with no intention of giving them up, much less seeking forgiveness for any of it (Jer. 7:11). God says that when this happens, He will destroy the temple because it’s become a place where sin is being spread instead of forgiven (Jer. 7:12-14).

Leprous Houses & People

Wound through this episode is a fair bit of Old Testament allusion and symbolism. The fact that Jesus looks around the temple the first evening and then returns the next day refusing to let anyone do anything in the temple is reminiscent of the duties of a priest for a leprous house (Lev. 14:34ff). Leprosy in the Old Covenant wasn’t just a skin disease, it seems to have been a fairly broad category of things that made people and objects ceremonially unclean, which usually just meant they needed to wash and wait until evening before they could offer any sacrifices (although some forms of uncleanness could last longer). The general point of the ceremonial system was to teach Israel that their entire lives mattered to God, and they needed to give thought to how every detail needed to honor Him. Every detail is either pleasing to God and under His blessing and growing life, or else it isn’t pleasing to Him and in some way it’s actually spreading death. In the Old Covenant, washing could make you clean, but you were constantly becoming unclean again. Uncleanness was always contagious. The really striking thing about the New Covenant is that Jesus comes and He’s constantly touching or being touched by unclean people, but instead of becoming unclean, Jesus cleanses the unclean (cf. Mk. 5:27-34, Mt. 8:2-3). In Jesus, cleanness has become contagious. But here Jesus is essentially declaring the temple “unclean”.

This brings us to the cursed fig tree. Fig trees were among the signs that the land of Canaan is a good land (Dt. 8:8), and so the phrase “every man under his own fig tree” became a common expression in Israel for the good life (1 Kgs. 4:25, 2 Kgs. 18:31, Is. 36:16). And in the prophets, the fig tree became a common image for the people of Israel (Jer. 8:13, Hos. 2:12, Joel 1-2). In context, the fig tree in our passage represents Israel and is parallel to the temple. Just as Jesus “inspects” the temple and finds it unclean, so too, when Jesus comes looking for fruit on the fig tree, He is displeased. The curse is also the same: an empty, destroyed temple is the same as a withered, fruitless tree of Israel. And given all of this, it does not seem likely that Jesus changes the subject when He tells Peter that believing prayer will uproot “this mountain” and cast it into the sea. Which mountain? They are on their way to the temple on Mount Moriah.

Conclusions & Applications

And this brings us back to the central problem: if that temple mount is removed and destroyed, how will Israel and the nations be forgiven? Without the sacrifices, priests, and temple, how can they know if they are actually forgiven? Jesus tells Peter and the other disciples: forgive others. But how does that help us?

We sometimes hear these commands/warnings and wonder if Jesus is veering somewhat close to some kind of works-righteousness (e.g. if we do our part, God will do His…?), which can sometimes make us doubt (e.g. Have I really forgiven…? Am I really forgiven…?) But this radically underestimates the task of forgiving sins. To forgive is to release, to set free, to erase the debt of sin. But how can any mere human actually release another human from sin, which properly speaking requires death? Remember, this was one of the great objections of the scribes and Pharisees: no one can forgive sins except God alone (Mk. 2:7). And they were right. Only God can forgive sins. And that was only possible through the shedding of blood (Heb. 9:22). But even the blood of bulls and goats couldn’t actually take away sins; it had to be the blood of a perfectly obedient man, who could truly represent us (Heb. 10:4, 10-22).

Christian forgiveness is a promise not to hold the sins of another against them on account of the blood of Christ. In other words, whenever a Christian forgives someone, they can only do so by holding up the blood of Jesus, which is your forgiveness as well. If you say you cannot forgive someone, you are in effect saying, “there is no bled shed for this.” But if there is no blood shed for their sin, there is no blood shed for your sin. If you do not forgive, you cannot be forgiven. But when you see the blood of Jesus shed for you, there can be no doubt that it is enough for them. But no one has ever forgiven or been forgiven by humanistic good will.

We live in a sin infested world. And having rejected the blood of Jesus, we have turned to all manner of schemes and theories to try to wash away our sin, like trying to use soap on tattoos, and so our culture is quickly becoming a foul cesspool of guilt and shame and uncleanness. But we proclaim the blood of Jesus that cleanses every stain. We proclaim the blood of Jesus which is more potent that the most heinous sin, and His righteousness which is more contagious than all the filth in the world.