Jesus' Last Monday

Matthew 21:18-19 (NKJV)
¹⁸ Now in the morning, as He returned to the city, He was hungry.
¹⁹ And seeing a fig tree by the road, He came to it and found nothing on it but leaves, and said to it, "Let no fruit grow on you ever again." Immediately the fig tree withered away.

Monday of Holy Week 

The day before, Jesus entered the outskirts of David’s City in view of a spontaneous celebration. The crowds cheered the conquering King – the Blessed One who entered Jerusalem coming the very name of the Lord.  

Now it is Monday morning. I wonder if Jesus was a morning person. I imagine in awoke quietly and began his spiritual exercises. I think he began everyday in communion with his Father. This was his final Monday morning as a human person who was still untouched by death. While he came to atone for the sins of fallen humanity, he also came to announce the beginning of a new age, an era of gathering his church and preparing Her for an eternal existence in the New Jerusalem.  

This day, he was still in the Old Fallen Jerusalem. This was a city of high hopes but disappointing outcomes. The prophets called the people back to God - time and time again, for centuries. Yet, the people killed the prophets. In one sense, Jesus would fair no better. He too would die at the hands of the people he came to save.

This Monday was his day of judgment on the city. The day begins with hunger. Jesus has an unfulfilled desire. The day begins with a scene of street art. It was a drama about unrequited love and a loving for a restoration that did not come to pass. The people were as fruitless as this tree. There were leaves on it, which promised a sweet treat but no buds appeared beneath the leaves. 

This is how many Church are. You see great surface glory but no fruit on its glorious branches. It is the great bait and switch. Hungry sinners will sit in our pews longing for a food that they do not even know exists. The hunger for salvation is a restlessness without a clear aim. The purpose of the Church is to supply the clarity. “This, O Sinner, is what you are longing for. This is your Savior.” When a Church or Christian disciples fails to point Sinners to their Savior, they are like a fig tree with only the semblance or shadow of fruit but not the substance.

 

On this day, Jesus also trashes the temple courts for making God’s house into a den of thieves. When a congregation takes up an offering but fails to present the Gospel, that church becomes a fraud.

Ask yourself if the church you attend aims at feeding the spiritually hungering or does it merely look good.

 

“Where is the church at 11:25 on Monday morning?” The church then is in the dentist’s office, in the automobile sales room and repair shop, and out in the truck. It is in the hospital, in the classroom, and in the home. It is in the offices, insurance, law, real estate, whatever it is. That is where the church is, wherever God’s people are. They are doing what they ought to be doing. They are honoring God, not just while they worship in a building but out there. Arthur H. DeKruyter (1926– ) 

A Christian church is a body or collection of persons, voluntarily associated together, professing to believe what Christ teaches, to do what Christ enjoins, to imitate his example, cherish his spirit, and make known his gospel to others. R. E. Sample 

A church that is soundly rooted cannot be destroyed, but nothing can save a church whose root is dried up. No stimulation, no advertising campaigns, no gifts of money and no beautiful edifice can bring back life to the rootless tree. A. W. Tozer (1897–1963) 

As long as you notice, and have to count the steps, you are not yet dancing but only learning to dance. A good shoe is a shoe you don’t notice. Good reading becomes possible when you need not consciously think about eyes, or light, or print, or spelling. The perfect church service would be one we were almost unaware of; our attention would have been on God. C. S. Lewis (1898–1963)