Revival and Renewal

Today in the Christian calendar is “Fig Tuesday”, traditionally a day when we remember Jesus’ cursing of the fig tree (Matt 21:18-22). If you remember the story, Jesus was walking from Bethany and came across a fig tree. He was hungry, and hoped to find a fig to munch on, but instead he found nothing but leaves. And so, Jesus curses it, saying “may no fruit ever come from you again!” He does this to symbolize Jerusalem: he expected them to produce the fruit of righteousness and justice, but instead they were too busy focusing on revolution, buying and selling, and the tyranny of the urgent. 

In Matthew 25:31-46, we get another picture of judgment. The whole earth is a pasture, and the Son of Man comes to separate the “sheep” from the “goats.” The sheep are placed on the right, and are invited into the kingdom of God, while the goats are put on the left and are told “depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels” (41). And how does Jesus our Shepherd decide between the sheep and the goats? Their deeds. The goats were complacent, lazy, and always had a handy excuse to avoid obedience (“Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger of naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?”, 44). These people forgot a fundamental truth about God’s covenant, something that he had made clear to Moses, to David, and to Isaiah: God expects us to bear fruit. In essence Jesus comes to these “Christians” like he came to that fig tree, looking for fruit but finding nothing, no evidence whatsoever that these people had a relationship with the living God.

In contrast, the sheep in Jesus’ parable are invited into the kingdom because they (to mix our metaphors) bore the fruit that displayed, without a shadow of a doubt, that they followed the Righteous One. These true believers knew that Jesus had come to bind up the broken, bring sight to the blind, free the captives, and liberate to the oppressed (Luke 4:15-19). So, they got busy with that work. 

Why does Jesus tell us this parable as we approach Calvary and the empty tomb? To warn us. I wager that if we were to ask Jesus what the most dangerous sin for a Christian is, he would reply: “complacency.” We are always at risk of simply sitting back, turning a blind eye to the needs of those around us and the our calling to witness in word and deed. But Fig Tuesday is a stern warning: when Jesus invites us to follow him, he expects us to bear fruit. As we descend toward Golgotha this week, seeing the extent to which our Master went to save us, we should ask ourselves: what would Jesus say of me? Do I bear the fruit of someone who has been transformed by grace?