Cursing the Fig Tree
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On the following day, when they came from Bethany, he was hungry. And seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to see if he could find anything on it. When he came to it, he found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. And he said to it, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” And his disciples heard it.
And they came to Jerusalem. And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold and those who bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. And he would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple. And he was teaching them and saying to them, “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? But you have made it a den of robbers.” And the chief priests and the scribes heard it and were seeking a way to destroy him, for they feared him, because all the crowd was astonished at his teaching. And when evening came they went out of the city.
As they passed by in the morning, they saw the fig tree withered away to its roots. And Peter remembered and said to him, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree that you cursed has withered.” And Jesus answered them, “Have faith in God. Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.”
On the following day, when they came from Bethany, he was hungry. And seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to see if he could find anything on it. When he came to it, he found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. And he said to it, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” And his disciples heard it.
1st part of a sandwich.
12-14 Jesus cursing the tree
15-19 Jesus cleansing the Temple
20-25 Jesus explaining to His disciples
All three are tied together - This is why Mark sketches it out this way. If we disconnect them, we end up with just a weird story on either side of Jesus doing one of His most important acts before His crucifixion.
It sure seems odd.
Cursing the tree was clearly symbolic.
The point here isn’t that Jesus has something against fruit trees or fig trees in particular.
How do we know?
a. The tree isn’t sentient - it bears no moral responsibility of any kind. It didn’t do anything wrong.
b. Jewish culture had long used the fig tree as a symbol of peace and prosperity. () It’s fruit is unusually sweet and can even be used for medicinal purposes.
a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey,
It gives terrific shade from the Middle Eastern sun.
Produces fruit 10 months out of the year.
Because it was such a symbol of prosperity it also became a folk symbol of Israel itself.
Often, when God pronounced judgment upon Israel, those judgments included a reference to the destruction of their fig trees.
They shall eat up your harvest and your food;
they shall eat up your sons and your daughters;
they shall eat up your flocks and your herds;
they shall eat up your vines and your fig trees;
your fortified cities in which you trust
they shall beat down with the sword.”
And I will lay waste her vines and her fig trees,
of which she said,
‘These are my wages,
which my lovers have given me.’
I will make them a forest,
and the beasts of the field shall devour them.
So the entire account must be read against this backdrop.
And it begins with this initial scene:
On the following day, when they came from Bethany, he was hungry. And seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to see if he could find anything on it. When he came to it, he found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. And he said to it, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” And his disciples heard it.
c. It was not even the season for figs. So Jesus must have been on about something other than simply being hungry and being upset He couldn’t have a fig. He knew full well it wasn’t the season.
So for these reasons we are on solid ground when we say this is symbolic.
But symbolic of what?
We’ll see.
Summary: Jesus is entering the city.
He is hungry.
He sees a fig tree in leaf: Fig trees bear fruit BEFORE they sprout leaves - so one would expect to find fruit.
He finds nothing.
He curses the tree.
Part 2 -
And they came to Jerusalem. And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold and those who bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. And he would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple. And he was teaching them and saying to them, “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? But you have made it a den of robbers.” And the chief priests and the scribes heard it and were seeking a way to destroy him, for they feared him, because all the crowd was astonished at his teaching. And when evening came they went out of the city.
Jesus enters the Temple
It was just before Passover - and in accord with OT law, people could bring money and buy animal sacrifices rather than bring those animals with them from far off.
They would also pay their annual Temple Tax at this time, but needed to pay it with money that had no images on it - so they needed to exchange it.
These weren’t problems in and of themselves - but what was happening is that this money exchange (for a fee mind you) and animal sales (Josephus mentions over 1/4 of a million lambs) were actually set up on the Temple grounds in what is call the Court of the Gentiles.
A 35 acre area designated specifically for those who did not know the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to seek Him and be exposed to Him.
And, (16) since this was such a large area in the center of the city, people were also using it as just a sort of short cut to go from point A to point B.
So Jesus, symbolically interrupts this chaos (He couldn’t clear all 35 acres) and begins to teach them.
He appeals to
these I will bring to my holy mountain,
and make them joyful in my house of prayer;
their burnt offerings and their sacrifices
will be accepted on my altar;
for my house shall be called a house of prayer
for all peoples.”
“And the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord,
to minister to him, to love the name of the Lord,
and to be his servants,
everyone who keeps the Sabbath and does not profane it,
and holds fast my covenant—
these I will bring to my holy mountain,
and make them joyful in my house of prayer;
their burnt offerings and their sacrifices
will be accepted on my altar;
for my house shall be called a house of prayer
for all peoples.”
Then Jesus leaves with the Disciples until the next morning where we come to our 3rd section.
As they passed by in the morning, they saw the fig tree withered away to its roots. And Peter remembered and said to him, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree that you cursed has withered.” And Jesus answered them, “Have faith in God. Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.”
So coming back into the city, Peter notices that what Jesus said to the fig tree yesterday had results. In one night it had withered from the roots up.
They are obviously startled by it.
They do not understand it.
And Jesus uses a common figure of speech to address their confusion.
Withering a tree completely in one night is impossible.
But if one believes God, His promises and His prophecies, what would appear to be impossible can indeed be possible.
He is not interested in faith doing useless things - He is show how God does the impossible.
And so He goes on to apply that to our prayer lives in general - seek God and believe Him to do what in human terms can’t be done.
BUT - there is no question the impossible thing being discussed here - is the withering or the judgment of Israel and its spiritual leaders - coming faster than anyone could imagine.
The Disciples were looking for a patching up, a restoration of the Judaism they’d known.
Jesus was demonstrating that an entirely new thing was being inaugurated.
As Paul would put it later in
For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.
Israel, was going to be overthrown. Cursed by God.
And it was going to happen suddenly. As in fact it did in 70 AD when Titus commenced the slaughter of the Jews and the destruction of the Temple - the very center of Jewish culture and religion.
In using the fig tree this way - they got both a graphic example of what was going to happen, AND a tie to prophecy they could not help but eventually see:
Woe is me! For I have become
as when the summer fruit has been gathered,
as when the grapes have been gleaned:
there is no cluster to eat,
no first-ripe fig that my soul desires.
The godly has perished from the earth,
and there is no one upright among mankind;
they all lie in wait for blood,
and each hunts the other with a net.
Their hands are on what is evil, to do it well;
the prince and the judge ask for a bribe,
and the great man utters the evil desire of his soul;
thus they weave it together.
The best of them is like a brier,
the most upright of them a thorn hedge.
The day of your watchmen, of your punishment, has come;
now their confusion is at hand.
Put no trust in a neighbor;
have no confidence in a friend;
guard the doors of your mouth
from her who lies in your arms;
for the son treats the father with contempt,
the daughter rises up against her mother,
the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;
a man’s enemies are the men of his own house.
God, in the person of Jesus comes looking for the fruit of His blessing upon His people, and He finds them bereft of spiritual good to one another, let alone those Gentiles who might be seeking God - and He judges them .
Now what can we take from all of this for ourselves?
It is certainly a stark moment.
3 things mainly I think.
1. The reason behind God’s judgment was this:
The Church had lost its purpose.
In this case it is the Jewish Church - but what a warning to us as well!
Its worship was no longer about making God known to the world in His holiness and goodness and grace - but in building itself up and that, in material wealth.
The money changers charged exorbitant exchange rates.
The Temple grounds weren’t conducive to Gentiles being exposed to the Gospel - but to the circus of buying and selling sacrifices for profit.
The public place of worship was just a shortcut - there was no sacredness about it any more.
So the Jewish church was not manifesting any of the fruit of the genuine life of God in it.
The tables had turned.
The Israel was living as though God existed to bless them, and not that they existed to glorify God and carry out His will in the world.
Jesus’ own words conveyed the charge:
And he was teaching them and saying to them, “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? But you have made it a den of robbers.”
The Church as a people, is meant to make God known to people.
To make Him known by how it reverences Him - especially in worship.
How it protects and proclaims His Word.
How it makes saving grace known - In the Jewish Church, this was through the ceremonies that displayed substitutionary sacrifice - which we still do especially in baptism and communion.
To make Him known especially in how we look to Him as our supply in prayer. And thus to encourage others to seek Him.
But when this central purpose evaporates, the Church becomes a robber of the worst kind: It robs God of the glory due Him, and robs Him of the fruit of the labors He has called us to.
And we can be just as guilty of this same fault as they were.
When worship is built more around our tastes and preference than it is in whether or not it is most suited to make God known.
When the same motivations for money and a comfortable life that the World pursues, occupies how the Church acts and what she preaches.
When we present the Church, Christianity, as a shortcut to getting life our way, instead of the precinct of the revelation of God’s glory and plan.
When we stop conducting necessary business, and turn the Church and religion into a profit center to accomplish what we want.
And when we invite the world in, not to find Christ - but simply to have an easier way of life.
2. To believe God for the impossible in carrying out His will
The need for those who trust Christ - to rely upon Him to do the impossible in carrying out the Father’s will.
No mountain of unbelief or mystery can remain when we trust God to fulfill His Word.
No problem too big to be solved to His glory.
No circumstance beyond His sovereign power.
No loved one beyond the power of His Spirit to make alive in Jesus.
No situation so dire that our God is not able.
And that even in His severest judgment, there is still grace.
Which actually brings us to the 3rd point and
And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.”
3. Even in judgment, God is a God of mercy
Even when God was pouring out His judgment upon Israel and especially its leadership for having gone so far awry - He still had not utterly abandoned them.
As Paul would comment later in
I ask, then, has God rejected his people? By no means! For I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin.
Even though God rejected Israel as His church, He has not rejected all JEWS. There is still a remnant. Still a part of that seed.
There is the most amazing mercy even in this example of extreme wrath.
And so it is that Jesus, while giving them this stunning portrayal in the fig tree, and opening up to them Israel’s tragic failure - reminds them to pray as a forgiving people, because God is a forgiving God.
There was still mercy and grace even in His wrath, so that many Jews still came to know Christ as Savior.
Lest the Disciples jump on the condemnation train and say: “Great, we want God to wipe everyone of those rascals off the face of the earth” - He reminds them how they need compassion - from God themselves, and to exercise it toward others.
And so, should we see God’s wrath poured out in some fashion even on the Church today in its compromise - remember how forgiving and loving He is - and never seek our own revenge or desire to see such punishment, but rather seek forgiveness.
These last days of Jesus were filled with deep and amazing acts and words.
And I am so grateful they remain for us today.