The Way of the Fig Tree

It was Holy Week. It was a week of preparation for the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. After the triumphal entry on Sunday and the cleansing of the temple on Monday, Tuesday was a day for learning. Jesus spent the day in the temple teaching His disciples, speaking to them in parables. The topics were many and varied, culminating in the second comiing of Christ.

The day began with a second encouter with a fig tree as Jesus and His disciples made their way from Bethany to Jerusalem first thing in the mornning. The first encounter was on that same road the day before. Let's begin there.

On Monday morning, as Jesus and the disciples made their way from Bethany to Jerusalem, Jesus "was hungry" (Mark 11:12b). "And seeing from afar a fig tree having leaves, He went to see if perhaps He would find something on it. When He came to it, He found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. In response Jesus said to it, 'Let no one eat fruit from you ever again.' And His disciples heard it" (vs. 13-14).

This is a difficult story to understand. Why would Jesus use His incredible power to cause a fruit bearing tree to whither because it did not bear fruit two or three months before its time? A clue is found in the position this story holds in the text. The story is actually divided into two parts and is sandwiched around the cleansing of the temple, which we considered yesterday because it was the big event that occured on Monday. Like the cleansing of the temple, the story of the unfruitful fig tree has to do with judgment.

Jesus was hungry, and seeing the fig tree He went to see if it had any figs on it (v. 13a). Of course it did not because, though fig trees around Jerusalem usually leafed out in March or April, they did not produce figs until June. This tree was no exception. Though it had leafed out it had no figs as Mark said because "it was not the season for figs" (v. 13b).

This is the only miracle of destruction performed by Jesus. But why? Perhaps it is best to view this miracle as an acted-out parable. Just as the cleansing of the temple denounced Israel's worship, the withering of the fig tree denounced Israel as a nation for walking away from God.

You would expect to find fruit on a tree that is fully leafed out, but that is not the case. It is the same with Israel. Mark describes the hypocrisy of the people in Mark 7:6, where he quotes Isaiah 29:13, "The people honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me." They are like a tree with an abundance of leaves but no fruit.

Skip ahead to Teusday morning when Jesus and the disciples come across that same fig tree. "Now in the morning, as they passed by, they saw the fig tree dried up from the roots. And Peter, remembering, said to Him, 'Rabbi, look! The fig tre which You cursed has withered away'" (Mark 11:20-21).

Jesus in reply gave no commentary about the coming judgment on the temple and on Israel. That was obvious. Instead He turned it into a lesson on faith and prayer. He said, "Have faith in God. For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, 'Be removed and be cast into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says. Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them" (vs. 22-24).

God is the source of the power and He must be the object of our faith. And faith here is a faith that prays. The power of faith is found in prayer. When by the power of prayer, faith is joined to the purpose and will of God, amazing things can happen, because that is when you see the great and awesome powers of God at work. Pray believing and you will be bleesed. Amen.