What is your Religion?

Matthew 21:17-22

I have often stated that everyone is religious, and the reply is always the same, I’m not religious, I never darken the door of a church.  But going to church is not the measure for being religious many are more committed to golf, football, exercise, or travel, than many in the church are about the church.   My computer dictionary uses this as one of many definitions of religion: a pursuit or interest to which someone ascribes supreme importance: consumerism is the new religion.  Let’s get real have you spent time with a person who golfs many times each week, it can easily become a religion, or how about those Aggies and Johnny Football?  It matters not the example, it may be keeping your house or yard, a pursuit or interest to which someone ascribes supreme importance!

And that brings us to the subject of Matthew 21:17-22, and if your take away from these verses is Jesus cursing a fig tree, you need to read it once more, it is about what happens when faith is applied; “if you have faith.”  Now faith is somewhat like religion, you can place it almost anywhere, an example would be in God, in people, in family, in children, in government, in the military, in business, or in faith it self.  So its not faith in faith but in the object of faith that we should be exploring, and this brings us to the above Scripture.

It is morning, Jesus and the twelve are leaving Bethany going to Jerusalem, and Jesus must not have had breakfast for Matthew tells us Jesus became hungry.  Picking up the story in the 19^th verse; “And seeing a fig tree by the wayside, he went to it and found nothing on it but only leaves. And he said to it, “May no fruit ever come from you again!” And the fig tree withered at once.  When the disciples saw it, they marveled, saying, “How did the fig tree wither at once?” And Jesus answered them, “Truly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ it will happen. And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith.”

These thoughts came into my mind, Jesus had total trust in His Father, Jesus knew the Father, and He had total understanding of the Father’s desires.  Jesus never placed faith in Himself, but always went to the Father, and at the worst time of His physical life, He bowed to the Fathers wishes and accepted the cross.  I’m reading a cool book by Bob Goff, it is titled “Love Does” and Bob confesses that he tried to Memorize Jesus, that’s what lawyers do they collect information and memorize facts.  This is such a needed quote from page 197 in “Love Does” “I used to think I could learn about Jesus by studying Him, but now I know Jesus doesn’t want stalkers.”  Bob Goff goes on to state that Bible study can be similar to looking at someone else’s vacation pictures, we have all been there, not much recall the next day. 

You may want to buy the book, it’s a great read and this point hit me between the eyes for there was a time when I also was a stalker of Jesus.  Quote from “Love Does” page 202, “What I like about Jesus’ message is that we don’t need to study Him anymore to know Him.  That’s what the religious people at the time were promoting.  Collecting information about someone is not the same as knowing a person.  Stalkers are ordinary people who study from afar the people they’re too afraid to really know.  Jesus said that unless you know Him like a child you’ll never really know Him at all.  Kids don’t care about facts, and they certainly don’t study each other.  They’re just with each other; they do stuff together.  That’s what Jesus had in mind.”  So mountain-moving faith has some requirements; we must first know Him, and believe that Jesus tells the truth.

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice