March 4th, 25: The Creator's Call: Faith, Fruitfulness, and Living in God's Purpose

TODAY'S DEVOTION:

Jesus speaks to the tree, and Jesus speaks to his disciples. Strange thing to speak to a tree. If you caught me speaking to a tree, you might think that's strange, and you would be right. It is. And Mark tells us I love this part. The disciples heard him say it. So Mark circles back to this moment the next day, and what happened there was still lingering in the air, apparently. After seeing it, the tree withered there the next day. They have to bring it to Jesus' attention. They say, Rabbi, look, the tree, it's withered. And Mark tells us this in verse 22, then Jesus said to the disciples. So Jesus speaks to the tree, and now he speaks to the disciples. And I think there's a connection here in this story of the two things Jesus is saying to both. To the tree, well, he's not happy with the tree. He curses it, in fact. It seems unreasonable for him to be so displeased with the tree. I mean, it is just a tree. Mark tells us it was not the season for figs, but still the tree is being called out.

Why? I don't know. It's a mystery. But maybe maybe it has something to do with the fact that it had no fruit. Right? I mean, Jesus says that because it had no fruit, or Mark tells us it had no fruit. It wasn't being what it was meant to be and do. The creator of that tree has come walking by, and he's looking for fruit. You would think that the creator of all the trees, of all things, would have the prerogative to have some fruit from the tree that he has made where and when he wanted it. But the tree is not cooperating with the creator when he comes.

So it came to be what it was, cursed and withered, because it failed to respond and participate with the creator who made it and was asking for some fruit even out of season. The next day, Mark tells us that Jesus speaks to his disciples. No trees today. And to his disciples, he says this, have faith in God. The creator is walking with his disciples and he says, do and be who I created you to be. Participate. Cooperate with me. It's my prerogative.

I made you. So be and do what I ask you to. Does it seem unreasonable or impossible for a tree to produce fruit out of season? Not if the creator asked you to do it. Does it seem impossible for you to tell this mountain to be thrown into the sea? Well, not if the creator asked you to do it. Does it seem impossible to forgive someone? Well, not if the creator has forgiven you and made you his own. Not if he's asked you to do it. The life of the disciple is a life of participation with God. Jesus isn't trying to teach us to have magic trick faith.

Faith isn't about doing parlor tricks. Faith is a response to the creator who is asking us to participate in his life, to be and do what we were created to be and do. And then he says this, so when you pray, when you are participating in my life, forgive. This is what the creator has created you to do and to be, forgiving. You are forgiven, loved, a disciple of God. Now participate with the life of God and do what he says. And when we do that, life might become strange to onlookers, but it will become so much bigger, so much freer, so much more full of life. And that's the prayer that I have for my soul, that I will be and do what the creator has asked me to be and to do.

That's a prayer that I have for my family, for my wife and my daughters and my son, and that's a prayer that I have for you. May it be so.