Jesus Curses the Fig Tree
Matthew 21:18-22, Mark 11:12-14, 20-26
In the days leading up to Jesus’s crucifixion, Jesus’s time in Jerusalem includes cleansing the temple and healing the sick and lame. In between such days, on his way to the city where he would proceed with his ministry tasks, he seeks to fill his stomach with the fruit from a fig tree. Approaching the tree, however, he finds there is no fruit but only leaves. Now, before we jump into the significance of one of the few destructive miracles Jesus is about to perform, let’s think about the fig tree in light of the Old Testament narrative of God’s people.
There are a few notable mentions of Israel, God’s chosen people, analogized as a fig tree. Possibly the most pivotal and crucial example is in Jeremiah 24. While the nation of Israel is in exile to Babylon as a consequence of their collective sin, Jeremiah receives a promising vision from God who addresses His good figs as those who “I [God] regard as good the exiles from Judah, whom I sent away from this place to the land of the Babylonians. 6 My eyes will watch over them for their good, and I will bring them back to this land. I will build them up and not tear them down; I will plant them and not uproot them. 7 I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the Lord. They will be my people, and I will be their God, for they will return to me with all their heart” (Jeremiah 24: 5b-7).
From the garden, God’s people are told to “be fruitful and multiply.” Throughout the Psalms, offspring reaping honor and goodness is considered an offshoot like that of a fruit-bearing vine. So when Jesus is on his way to the city to expose the corrupt path they have chosen, he finds a fig tree bearing the signs of fruit yet boasting none. There is a greater significance for us to tune into here. God desires for us to bear fruit with our lives, with the way we live and the things we do. Though this is true, Jesus decides to shift the focus to the inner layers of our souls, telling us to pray with faith and forgive others.
Why is Jesus talking about what’s going on in the deeper layers of my heart if all this “bearing fruit talk” is about what we do?
The outpouring of our effort to live into God’s will doesn’t come from a massive amount of willpower or someone who has mastered discipline. Rather, it is our complete and utterly deep submission to the Lord that causes the outpouring to become natural; a chief desire for our inner being. Jesus’s commands allude to the larger call to believe in God (Mark 11:23) and humbly repent of sin (Mark 11:25).
If we want to be the people who bear the fruit we read about in the bible and hear about through testimonies, this is where we start. What is more destructive than causing a plant to wither is if we were to lie to ourselves and others boasting the “leaves” of ministry, whatever that may be, but in reality, could show no fruit for it.
Jesus has this moment with His disciples, His true followers, and not the multitudes. If your desire for ministry has faded, or if you catch yourself lying to others to seem fruitful when this is in fact not the case, consider the gift of repentance. God already knows, and He allows us to turn from this path of wickedness and deceit to “the life that is truly life” (1 Timothy 6:19).
Reflection Questions:
Where have you lied to yourself or others in ministry that you need to repent and turn back to the sovereign grace of God for?
What does the fruit of God look like in your life and how is that connected to your abiding in Him?
