Dear Faith Family,
We said last week that what God demands of us is all we are actually able to offer: our life. Yet, if you are at all like me, you wonder: Is what I have to offer really enough? Do I need to exchange what I have for the proper sacrifice, the correct coinage, the right kind of life before I can enter into the presence of God and receive from God what He offers: righteousness, life full and forever, communion, forgiveness? Our All About Jesus story on Sunday addressed this economic tension of faith.
In the story, we see Jesus turning over the economic system of faith (Mark 11:15-17), stopping the flow of exchange between persons and between persons and God.
And Jesus would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple. (Mark 11:16)
Jesus, enacting the prophecies of old, says, "No more 'pay this particular price...get this particular thing from God.'" Jesus, as we said on Sunday, has judged such a system as lifeless, having only the appearance of life like "a fig tree in leaf" but finding "nothing but leaves," not even the anticipated budding of fruit in the making (Mark 11:12-14). Such a system of faith won't reproduce life, much less satisfy even a passing hunger.
Like those who witnessed Jesus' prophetic display, we are astonished but left wondering, for overturning the economics of faith seems impossible. Like those present and participating in the exchange when Jesus taught, we, too, look around at what continues to transpire despite Jesus' actions. Is there any escape from the perpetual marketing of faith products and propaganda exhorting us to exchange our lives' resources for the promise of something we need? For that matter, isn't the whole world built on an economic system of exchange? Those who have, barter with those who need what is had, for what can be exchanged for (sometimes) mutual benefit. To live like Jesus overturns this system, that indeed, God operates in a completely other system, seems, well, about as possible as you or me throwing a mountain into the sea (Mark 11:23).
Perhaps because life with God through Jesus operates in a completely other way than we are conditioned to exist, Jesus says to His apprentices then and today,
"Have faith in God. Trust what He's doing through Me. Don't doubt what He's offering from Me to you. Believe He's given it to Me, for you. You can ask Him yourself!" (Mark 12:22-24, Jeremy's paraphrase)
No bartering or bettering is required. What God has, you need, and He offers to you without exchange: righteous, life full and forever, communion with Him, forgiveness. Have faith. Not as a currency to trade for these things but as a trust that they are yours already through Him. Pray. Not as a means of bartering but a means of receiving what is freely given.
If Jesus had stopped there, perhaps the economic tension of faith would have been resolved. But then again, Jesus is not one to merely level our expectations without rebuilding our anticipation for something true. So He says,
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. (Mark 11:25)
We often hear these words as an echo of the economics of faith: exchange forgiveness for forgiveness. But wait, how do the economics of this exchange work? Jesus seems to be saying, "Give your dollar, get my dollar."
Even if we say that God's "dollar" is better than my "dollar," I think we'd all attest that receiving forgiveness from a spouse, a parent, a sibling, a friend, a co-worker, or even an enemy we've wronged is still of pretty tremendous value. Add to that, Jesus' saying comes after He's overturned and stood in the way of the economics of faith, and after He's said that what God has and what we need (desire), He freely gives. So maybe Jesus isn't talking about how the system of faith works but rather what He anticipates to find on a "fig tree in leaf."
While the economics of faith is overturned, the anticipation for the fruit of faith--the produce of life with God, given us from Jesus, lived through Jesus, and offered to Jesus--remains. Jesus says the system of exchange has been overturned through Him. From Him, a new world order is being established, in which God is doing the impossible, has done the impossible, has forgiven and fulfilled (listen here for what's been fulfilled), and so we too can do the impossible…forgive for the reproducing, the flourishing of life.
The anticipated fruit of All About Jesus life is forgiving faith. Faith that we are forgiven, so no exchange is necessary for us to "stand and pray." And faith that reproduces the life we've received in forgiving others. Being rooted (abiding) in right relationship with God and others because we are forgiven and immersed in His Spirit, we can anticipate bearing fruit in every season:
Blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him. They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit. (Jeremiah 17:7-8)
May Jesus find in our lives today, in whatever season we are in, the budding fruit of faith.
Love you, faith family! God bless.