“After I strayed, I repented; after I came to understand” (Jeremiah 31:19a).

I am paraphrasing Karl Barth who said something like, “The more we understand who God is, the more we understand who we are. And the more truly we understand who we are, the more truly we understand God.”

The more we understand how loving, amazing, wonderful God is, the more we understand who we are as someone God values.

And the more we understand who we truly are as wretched sinners, the more we truly understand how amazing God’s grace and forgiveness is.

I think Barth is right.

The verse of the day talks about coming to a place of understanding. Often, we want to understand before we proceed in our journey of faith.

• I will start giving more when I start understanding more
• I will believe once I understand
• I will start living my life in obedience when I understand
• I will forgive after I understand

The problem with this is that it’s backwards. Obedience comes before understanding.

That’s what our verse teaches us. It’s only after we repent, after we obey, after we start down the path of faith that understanding comes.

Faith and obedience leads to understanding. Trust in God.

“The next day as they were leaving Bethany, Jesus was hungry. Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to find out if it had any fruit. When he reached it, he found nothing but leaves, because it was not the season for figs. Then he said to the tree, ‘May no one ever eat fruit from you again'” (Mark 11:12-13).

“The next day as they were leaving Bethany, Jesus was hungry.”

Okay. That can happen. Bethany is about two miles east from Jerusalem. Jesus, being fully man and fully God gets hungry. So far so good.

The hungry Jesus sees in a distance a fig tree, and he goes to it wanting to snack on some yummy figs. But when he reaches the tree, he finds nothing but leaves. And, get this, BECAUSE IT WAS NOT THE SEASON FOR FIGS.

So, what does hungry Jesus do? Look for another snack option? Nope. He curses the fig tree for not having fruits. And we are told why – BECAUSE IT WAS NOT THE SEASON FOR FIGS!!!

What’s that about? That doesn’t sound right. What did the fig tree do that Jesus curses the tree? The fig tree was just doing what the fig tree was supposed to be doing during the season when it’s not budding fruit. We are told later that by morning, the fig tree Jesus cursed had withered and died.

Context, context, context. Context matters. If we were to read this verse in isolation, it makes Jesus look like an angry tyrant who kills an innocent tree because he doesn’t get his way.

But read in context, we see why the gospel writer Mark tells this story.

• v.11 tells us – “Jesus entered Jerusalem and went into the temple courts…”
• v.15 tells us – “On reaching Jerusalem, Jesus entered the temple courts and began driving out those who were buying and selling there…”

The gospel writer Mark “sandwiches” the fig tree story right in the middle of verses talking about the temple. What Jesus was cursing was the Jewish religion as it was being practiced. The temple should have been the place where people were coming to be transformed by God and his word. Instead, it only looked fruitful. It bore no fruit. By this time, after all these years, the temple ought to be the place of transformation. Instead, Jesus says, “My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations. But you have made it a den of robbers” (Mark 11:17).

Context, context, context. Context matters. Context absolutely matters.

Got it?

“From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been subjected to violence, and violent people have been raiding it” (Matthew 11:12).

Okay. What the heck do these words mean? What is Jesus talking about? This sounds kinda crazy.

Whenever you come across a text that is confusing or not clear, there are several things students of the Bible ought to do.
First, take a look at the context.
Second, compare other translations.
Third, look at reputable commentaries.

First, context. What is Jesus talking about in this section? Jesus is talking about John the Baptist and his role in proclaiming the kingdom of heaven. John is the foremost of all the prophets who ever lived. Yet, Jesus says, whoever is the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than John.

That’s how awesome and important the kingdom of God is.

Second, let’s see what the other translations say:

• NIV – “From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been subjected to violence, and violent people have been raiding it.”
• NRSV – “From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force.”
• NASB – “From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and violent men take it by force.”
• Message – “For a long time now people have tried to force themselves into God’s kingdom.”

“From the days of John the Baptist until now…”

• John the Baptist awakened a spiritual hunger and void that had been dormant. And now people are eagerly seeking the kingdom of heaven.

“The kingdom of heaven has been subjected to violence, and violent people have been raiding it”

• This does not mean that violent people have been forcing their way into God’s kingdom using violence. That would mean that God was powerless to protect his kingdom from the violent men. That’s preposterous.
• What Jesus is talking about has more to do with how people who hunger for God and his kingdom are pursuing that kingdom with the utmost desperation and eagerness.
• This speaks more to how desperately and eagerly we are to seek God and his kingdom.

So, does that – utmost desperation and utmost eagerness – describe the way we are pursuing God and his kingdom?