Cursing of the Fig Tree

 This post originally appears at cliffymania.com.  My friend, Cliff Richardson, is doing a series on the Passion Week as we lead up to Easter and invited me to take "Tuesday".  This post was my offering.  Please click the link above and visit his site, see what else he has in store for this series. It's good stuff!

There are so many pieces we need in place to understand the curse of the fig tree.  I’m going to break it down by topic and then summarize what I’ve learned in studying this myself.  I urge you to spend time in the Word, fact checking my assumptions and searching out the scriptures for yourself.  

   

What happened

A large crowd of people welcomed him into the city two days before with Hosannas, tossing palm fronds and their cloaks, a custom reserved for a challenging king entering a conquered city.  His popularity was at its height, and the people wanted to get near him and into his good graces, expecting him to lead them out of Roman occupation.  So, the crowd at this moment was very much in his favor. 

Then the next day he went into the temple and cleared it of the moneychangers, challenging the authority of the leaders who governed this practice.

That made him quite a few enemies as a result!  How dare he challenge them!  Who did he think he was? 

The religious leaders of the day, Pharisees and Sadducees, were angry that Jesus broke all the man-made laws they worked so hard to enforce and live by.  (He healed people on the Sabbath, made rulings on disputes that valued restored relationships over the letter of the law, feasted when others fasted, and at the bottom of it preached a gospel that didn’t include complicated sacrifices where they could only buy temple approved livestock with temple money that they had to pay an exchange rate to possess. He was eating into their profits, and pulling more and more people away from their power base.)  He stirred the people up spiritually too,  not only did they follow him around willy nilly in the desert, but now he was on their turf – causing people to question things that they’d never questioned before.  He had to go!  So they plotted.

Now it’s the third day inside Jerusalem.  All this day those same people he’d challenged at the temple the day before were waylaying him trying to set him verbal traps that would legally let them take him into custody.  He refuted them each with words they couldn’t argue against.  Finally, they gave up verbally sparing with him and sought ways to trap him.  Ultimately, they used Judas who betrays him.

Meanwhile Jesus was walking down the road and teaching his disciples, as he went; very much aware of the turmoil brewing and probably looking for ways to use the most of every moment he had left.  He’d set the heat on the teakettle when he upturned the exchange tables in the temple and the traps he’d sidestepped only bubbled their anger more.  All that remained now was waiting for the whistle.  In the meantime, spotting the fig tree from afar off, Jesus finds a way to use it as an object lesson.

The fig tree

First I want to give a basic lifecycle of the fig tree because it’s significantly different than what we typically expect here in North America.  We have buds that blossom into flowers, then leaves and finally fruit comes at the end; not so with fig trees.  Figs develop the fruit first, before the shoots of leaves appear.  A fig tree buds at the end of the branch and that swells into a small green fruit.  Leaves sprout and grow over the spring and summer until they are thick and full over the rest of the tree.  During the course of the summer, those early figs grow in size and ripen.  This particular tree had the full leaves of late summer long before it was the correct season for them to appear.  If a tree has leaves before the fruit, it will not bear fruit later.

Back to the story

Jesus knew that this was his final week on earth, and he was acutely aware that the people would reject him.  No matter how the public was treating him now, the Jewish leaders would find a way to hand him over to the Romans.  On this day in the passion week he said to a group of Greeks who came to see him “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.”  (John 12:24)  Here he is predicting his own death and making the way for the Holy Spirit to come and live in each person who believes. 

I believe, based on what I’ve read, that Jesus was using the fig tree to say something specific.  He walks up to it and finds it in full leaf, out of its season and not bearing the fruit that the leaves promised, so he curses it.  When the disciples see it, they marvel at how quickly it withers.  (I imagine it was quite a show, because he’d been doing miracles and healings for years now – and they still were marveled at this display of power)  Jesus’ response to their amazement however wasn’t to demystify his action on why he did the cursing – rather he went on to talk to them about the state of their faith, and the power available to those who believe and don’t doubt.  He linked his actions (the miracle) to his faith.  The law that the Pharisees were plotting to protect had no such power. 

What this says to me

There is a verse in 2 Timothy 3:3-9 concerning the last days that I can’t get out of my mind.  The cursing of the fig tree, and the reference here in this scripture to “teachers who oppose the truth” seem very similar to me.  See if you agree:

3 But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days.2 People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good,4 treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— 5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people.  6 They are the kind who worm their way into homes and gain control over gullible women, who are loaded down with sins and are swayed by all kinds of evil desires, 7 always learning but never able to come to a knowledge of the truth. 8 Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so also these teachers oppose the truth. They are men of depraved minds, who, as far as the faith is concerned, are rejected. 9 But they will not get very far because, as in the case of those men, their folly will be clear to everyone. (Italics mine)

“who as far as the faith is concerned, are rejected.”

Sounds familiar doesn’t it?  The Pharisees had a form of Godliness, a law that they loved and tried very hard to live up to; one that they tried to hold others to as well.  But, because they claimed to be religious, but they weren’t bearing good fruit in their lives, they denied the power they so craved!  They were always learning, but never able to come to knowledge of the truth.

The Last Word

I want to leave the last word with scripture concerning fruit, and they are familiar passages. 

Galatians 5:22 shows a list of what the fruits are – study them, don’t let them be an intangible metaphor!  (…love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control; against such things there is no law.)  These fruits are the proof that the Holy Spirit lives inside you and is growing there, imparting power through your faith to make a difference in the world.

Finally I leave you with these words Jesus said about fruit:

“I am the vine and you are the branches.  If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.  (John 15:5)

 “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit – fruit that will last – and so that whatever you ask in my name the father will give you.”  (John 15:16) 

By their fruit will you recognize them.  Do people pick grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistles?  (Mat. 7:16)