Great Expectations
Mark 11: 12–25
12 On the following day, when they came from Bethany, he was hungry. 13 And seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to see if he could find anything on it. When he came to it, he found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. 14 And he said to it, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” And his disciples heard it.
15 And they came to Jerusalem. And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold and those who bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. 16 And he would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple. 17 And he was teaching them and saying to them, “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? But you have made it a den of robbers.” 18 And 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. 19 And when evening came they went out of the city.
20 As they passed by in the morning, they saw the fig tree withered away to its roots. 21 And Peter remembered and said to him, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree that you cursed has withered.” 22 And Jesus answered them, “Have faith in God. 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. 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.”
In my senior year of college, the department head of my program had high expectations for me and my capstone project. I had taken on the daunting task of writing a complete novel, and my professor expected I not only complete it but do rounds of revisions, proofread, and send it off to be printed in hardcover—all in two semesters. If I failed to meet these expectations, I wouldn’t graduate.
As the end of the spring semester neared, no one was surprised that my novel had not been printed in hardcover or extensively edited. My novel was, and still remains, unfinished. I had failed to meet the high expectations set for me, and I worried that I wouldn’t graduate.
Spoiler alert: I did graduate that semester, but I felt only because my professor had been gracious. But about a year after graduating, a friend texted me and said that our professor had just told her this: “I have no doubt that Natalie will be a published author one day.”
Now, while I have doubts about this statement, what I did learn that day was that his expectations were set so high for me because he believed in my ability (and still does) to do something great.
In our passage today, Jesus has three high expectations. This text is a classic Markian sandwich (i.e., Mark starts one story, bunny trails to another, and then circles back to the first story), and I’m not going to pretend like this isn’t one of the most bizarre stories in the Bible. But here we go:
Jesus expects the fig tree to bear fruit out of season (v. 13).
Jesus expects the religious leaders to treat the temple as holy (v. 17).
Jesus expects faith and prayer to move mountains (v. 23).
At first, these expectations seem almost impossible. I mean, Jesus’ expectation for the fig tree was so high that when it failed to measure up, he cursed the tree and it died. Similarly, the expectation Jesus has set out for you and me is a high one. And the bad news is that we’ve already failed to meet that expectation. Our sin made us as withered fruit trees, separated from a holy God. And no amount of temple gold could help us scale the mountain back to God.
As we march toward Easter, now only six days away, we must first stop at the cross. There Jesus bore our sin, suffering, and shame because he knew we could never measure up. But he also knew your potential. He knew who you were created to be—a child of God.
