Tuesday, December 3, 2013

Maggie Flamand
Tuesday Morning Bible Study Leader

Matthew 21: 12-22

12 Then Jesus entered the temple* and drove out all who were selling and buying in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold doves. 13He said to them, ‘It is written,

“My house shall be called a house of prayer”;
   but you are making it a den of robbers.’

14 The blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he cured them. 15But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the amazing things that he did, and heard* the children crying out in the temple, ‘Hosanna to the Son of David’, they became angry 16and said to him, ‘Do you hear what these are saying?’ Jesus said to them, ‘Yes; have you never read,

“Out of the mouths of infants and nursing babies
   you have prepared praise for yourself”?’

17He left them, went out of the city to Bethany, and spent the night there.

18 In the morning, when he returned to the city, he was hungry. 19And seeing a fig tree by the side of the road, he went to it and found nothing at all on it but leaves. Then he said to it, ‘May no fruit ever come from you again!’ And the fig tree withered at once. 20When the disciples saw it, they were amazed, saying, ‘How did the fig tree wither at once?’ 21Jesus answered them, ‘Truly I tell you, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only will you do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, “Be lifted up and thrown into the sea”, it will be done. 22Whatever you ask for in prayer with faith, you will receive.’

Devotional

Both of these stories remind me how easy it is to look busy with religious activities but lack substance; to serve others without anyone experiencing the love of Jesus Christ. Jesus cleared the temple because what was designed to be a place to find God had become a corrupt market place. And the fig tree, like Israel, was not bearing fruit. The fig tree looked good from a distance because of the presence of leaves, but on close examination Jesus found no fruit – evidence of disease – so He cursed the tree.

Especially during this busy Advent season I must ask myself, “Am I doing what God intends for me to do? Am I bearing fruit? Am I being transformed?” Or, am I just going through the motions so I look good, and really I am just keeping Jesus on the periphery of my activities? My prayer this Christmas season is that each of us experience the love of God and become true disciples for Christ.

Additional Readings
Amos 3:1-1; Psalm 5,6; 2 Pet. 1:12-21