One summer I was on a road trip with some friends and we found ourselves in the middle of nowhere. The sights were gorgeous, but the food options were slim. Everyone in the car was starting to get cranky and we decided to stop at the next place we found, before we started eating each other. The first place we found was a restaurant called Country Club…but a country club it wasn’t. It was a windowless building made of unpainted cinderblocks. The only way in was a heavy metal door. It didn’t look like an amazing place to get lunch, but it looked like a decent place to get murdered.
We were too hungry to be picky, so we went inside anyway. Suddenly, all eyes were on us – both from the people at the bar and the two dozen stuffed animal heads mounted on the walls. Based on appearances, we had low expectations. But we were in for a surprise. The food was incredible, and not simply because we were famished. Everyone was friendly. Even the chef came out and asked us about our trip. My friends and I still talk about that stop because of how surprising it was. Experience proved the age-old proverb true: don’t judge a book by its cover. Appearance told us one thing, but what was inside was something totally different.
Have you ever been suckered by appearances? Maybe it was something that looked beautiful but turned out to be shoddy in the end. Or possibly like my experience, it was something that looked shady and turned out to be wonderful. We can be easily fooled by appearances, but God can’t be fooled.
As Jesus continued his march through Jerusalem toward the cross, he stopped at the temple. In Mark 11:12-26, the Scriptures put that story smack in the middle of another story about a fig tree. Jesus and his disciples are walking and see a fig tree with leaves but no fruit. It looked like it should have figs on it, but on closer inspection it didn’t. Jesus responded to this false advertising by cursing the fig tree, so it withered and died.
Compare the fig tree with his experience in the temple. Jesus and his disciples came to the temple in Jerusalem, the symbol of God’s presence among his people and the center of their worship. But what did Jesus find? Not worship, but money changers and market stalls designed to make money by exploiting worshippers. Jesus, refusing to accept this in his Father’s house, responded by turning over tables and driving them out of the temple.
What do these two stories have in common? Jesus isn’t fooled by appearances. He’s not impressed by what’s on the outside; he’s looking at what’s on the inside. God looks at our hearts. He doesn’t want a dry duty from us. He doesn’t want a transactional obedience, expecting God to pay us back if we do our part. He’s looking for a life that’s marked by faith in the Son of God, who loved us and gave himself for us. He’s looking for what’s outside to match what’s inside.
Have you ever thought you could fool God with appearances? The bad news is you can’t fool God, but the good news is that you don’t have to. God doesn’t accept Christians based on their appearances or based on how spiritually put-together they are. He accepts us because of his grace. He accepts us when we’re unacceptable because he accepts us in Christ.
How would our community be different if Christians abandoned the appearances game? What if we let our lives display the real faith inside of us – with all its joys and sorrows, its strengths and weaknesses, its hopes and doubts? Then the world would see it was never about us, but about our God who accepts us in his grace.