Be Unreasonable

Easter Sunrise Service (3)

I want to be like the colt, but not the fig tree.

You can read all about the fig tree in Mk 11:12-24. For many, this is a strange passage of scripture. I thought so the first time I read it, indeed I thought so for a long time. But not after I’ve learnt to see things from the perspective of His Kingdom. 

How unreasonable it is for Jesus to demand fruit from the fig tree when “it was not the season for figs”! It’s like going to a virgin and asks if she is pregnant. It’s just not the time, in the natural sense. Well, perhaps Jesus was looking back at His own birth and asked the question: why not? 

Back to the fig tree. I’ve heard some interesting explanations for Jesus’ behavior in this particular episode. Some say the fig tree is a picture of Israel; some say it represents the self-effort of man to cover their unrighteousness (Adam used fig leaves to cover his nakedness after the Fall) - and that’s an interesting one. I am not saying they are wrong, but as we follow the story’s build up to the climax of the cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ, I can’t help but think that Jesus’ action was the result of His awareness of the reality of God’s Kingdom. It was an expression of Kingdom attitude.

Being “reasonable” when we face a condition of lack or non-cooperation is not the correct Kingdom attitude. Granted, there might be many reasons the world can provide to withhold from us what we need and desire, but when we know that we carry the Kingdom of God we don’t have to accept them. What is unreasonable in this world may not be in His Kingdom.

It was some five years ago when this happened to a brother and he told some of us his story. Ted was offered a job which gave him a fifty percent jump in salary. It was a good offer but he had a problem. It was close to year-end and he was expecting a good bonus from his then current employer. If he took up the offer surely he would not receive as much bonus for the year from his new employer. But he really wanted the new job, so he asked for a compensation for his projected loss from his prospective new employer. It seemed quite unreasonable but God gave him so much favor that his new employer agreed to that. Ted had a pretty good time boasting about God’s goodness.

Joe heard about this and about a year later tried the same when he was also offered a job with a fifty per cent adjustment.  He was thinking the Lord would do the same for him. Joe didn’t get the job because the prospective employer thought that his request was unreasonable. But the Lord rewarded his faith in another way. He stayed in his own job but from then on the Lord gave him a side income amounting to more than fifty percent of his salary. At the same time the workload in his work was significantly reduced. And he got to keep his good bonus!

(I don’t know if anyone reading this would think that this is covetousness. If so, what about Jesus? He clearly didn’t need to eat the figs to survive, was He being covetous? Anyway, this is not the point of our discussion. Just for thought.)

So what’s reasonable for you? Did your doctor say it’s reasonable to expect to be on a particular drug for the rest of your life? Did the doctor say it’s reasonable not to plan for a child because you cannot conceive? Do not accept any solutions or excuses from this world that sound reasonable, especially when they run against the reality of the Kingdom. Learn to be “unreasonable” towards anything that’s against the flow of God’s Kingdom; this is an important key to the Much More Life that Jesus comes to give us (John 10:10). We have the Lord as an example, and He is cheering us on.

Let me leave with you this quote for thought from the famous Irish author George Bernard Shaw:

A reasonable man tries to change himself to adapt to the world; an unreasonable man tries to change the world to adapt to himself; therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man.