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. (Mark 11:12-14)
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.”
(Mark 11: 15-19)
Jesus’ cursing of the fig tree may as well be called Pass Over,
since it is a passage that many of us like to pass over for some reason. It is
probably because at first glance Jesus seems to make a big deal out of nothing.
Yet, the brevity and abruptness of Jesus cursing the fig tree is meant to spur us
on to dig deeper.
As the story goes, it is on Monday of Passion Week, and Jesus
is on his way back to Jerusalem from Bethany, and he’s hungry. His eye catches a
glimpse of a fig tree with leaves on it. (According to scholars, the leaves
indicate that there should be some kind of edible source on the tree, perhaps
something like immature figs, even though it is not fig season.) Upon inspection, however, Jesus sees nothing
edible on the tree. Again, scholars inform us that because the tree has leaves
on it, but no edible source, then it will also not bear figs in-season either.
So, Jesus curses the tree.
Okay, so what?
We learn from the context of this passage in Mark, that
Jesus went from cursing the fig tree to cleansing the temple. Both of these
acts are messages of judgment toward the religious leadership in Israel. Without doubt, there was a lot of religious activity
going on by the religious authorities. However, Jesus had been inspecting the
“tree” of the religious leaders for the past few years and found no fruit (cf.
Luke 13:6-9). He had also pronounced woes on them for showing only outward religious
works and being terrible shepherds of Israel.
So, the next day, Tuesday, Peter sees the withered fig tree. He is
amazed by its sudden demise and calls Jesus’ attention to it. Jesus segues
immediately into application mode for his followers. Bottom line, Jesus takes fruitfulness from his followers seriously. Jesus urges his followers to believe, pray, and forgive.
What? Forgive? Why forgiveness? The reason is because unforgiveness is a major cause
of a lack of fruit in a follower’s life. Have you ever been around an
unforgiving person? Then you know that unforgiveness is a gigantic obstacle for fruit bearing. It can create bitterness, weariness, and a host of other things, that
cause a follower of Jesus to be unfruitful.
Jesus does not give a fruit pass to any of his followers. However, the good news is, God is able to give to you anything
you need to be fruitful. If you, as a Christian, are holding on to
unforgiveness, know that God has poured out his love into your hearts by the
Holy Spirit (Romans 5:5). What a wonderful blessing he has given! However, it does not end there. His will for us is also to be instruments of
his to love and offer forgiveness to those who have wronged us.
God promises to grant us what we need to be
fruitful. The question is, will you and I pray and act accordingly?
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