Jesus and the Fig Tree

The past few weeks I have been observing a pepper plant that's growing near my kitchen. At first I thought hey its growing strong maybe I can soon pluck a few peppers for my early morning chutneys. (My daughter's favourite - green pepper chutney)It stared blooming and every morning I would eagerly look for some signs of baby peppers. The plant continued to grow tall, bushy and was covered in blooms however the one thing it lacked was pepper. So what good is a pepper plant without peppers. All these weeks I have been patient but my thoughts kept turning to an incident in the Book. I am becoming very impatient with the pepper plant in my kitchen yard. So I have decided to see what Jesus did when He faced a similar situation. Come take a journey with me thru the Word of God.

Matthew 21:18-22
Early in the morning, as he was on his way back to the city, he was hungry. Seeing a fig tree by the road, he went up to it but found nothing on it except leaves. Then he said to it, "May you never bear fruit again!" Immediately the tree withered.
When the disciples saw this, they were amazed. "How did the fig tree wither so quickly?" they asked.

Jesus replied, "I tell you the truth, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and it will be done. If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer."

Mark 11:12-14, 19-25
The next day as they were leaving Bethany, Jesus was hungry. Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to find out if it had any fruit. When he reached it, he found nothing but leaves, because it was not the season for figs. Then he said to the tree, "May no one ever eat fruit from you again." And his disciples heard him say it.

When evening came, they went out of the city.

In the morning, as they went along, they saw the fig tree withered from the roots. Peter remembered and said to Jesus, "Rabbi, look! The fig tree you cursed has withered!"

"Have faith in God," Jesus answered. "I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, `Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins."
________________________________________
Why did Jesus curse the fig tree, when figs weren't in season and miraculously cause it to wither ?

It has been ascertained by various scholars that Jesus was crucified during the first days of April. Toward the end of March leaves begin to appear on fig trees. Coincident with this, and sometimes even before, there appears quite a crop of small knobs, not the real figs, but a kind of early forerunner. These small figs are the size of green almonds and are eaten by peasants and others when hungry. These precursors of the true figs are called taqsh in Palestinian Arabic. Their appearance is a harbinger of the fully formed appearance of the true fig some six weeks later. So, as Mark says, the time for figs had not yet come. But if the leaves appear without any taqsh, that is a sure sign that there will be no figs either. Since Jesus found "nothing but leaves" - leaves without any taqsh- he knew that "it was an absolutely hopeless, fruitless fig tree" and said as much.

Jesus - the Great Teacher - could not miss out on such an opportune teaching moment. Jesus' teaching methodology often involved parables and word pictures and this fig tree incident was an acted-out parable which Jesus used to teach His disciples an important truth.

Jesus illustrated the principle of faith to his disciples through the parable. He assured them that If the disciples had such faith, they too could do such things as withering fig trees and moving mountains (Matthew 17:21-22, Mark 11:22-25). . It is also likely that Jesus, knowing in advance that his disciples would be surprised by the quick effect his curse had, used the fig tree to provoke their reaction and thus make the lesson about faith more memorable.

The fig tree had leaves on it and from a distance it gave the appearance of being fruitful. But upon closer examination it became clear that there was no fruit on it at all. By cursing the fig tree Jesus taught his disciples that God will also judge those who give an outer appearance of fruitfulness but in fact are not fruitful. This parable is fair warning to all professing Christians to examine their lives. In John 15: 1-8 Jesus speaks of ‘bearing much fruit’ as an outward symbol of being His disciples.

It is also significant that the account of Jesus' cleansing of the temple in Mark's Gospel (Mark 11:15-18) is sandwiched between the two sections of Scripture dealing with the fig tree (verses 12-14 and 19-25) Certain scholars have suggested that perhaps Jesus was teaching that from afar the Jewish temple and its sacrificial activities looked fine. However up close it symbolized mere religion lacking substance and bearing no spiritual fruit. It was ripe for judgment.

The fig tree is often used in the bible to represent Israel. Israel professed to be faithful to God and fruitful as a nation, but it was faithless and fruitless. Israel even rejected Jesus the long awaited Messiah. Israel was thus ripe for (withering) judgment. The withering of the fig tree could also be seen as a foreshadowing of the destruction of Israel as a nation in a few years time.

When did the fig tree wither?

The potential problem here is that Matthew says the fig tree withered immediately, while Mark says the disciples saw the withered tree the next day only. Here is a possible sequence of events that reconciles the two accounts:

On the morning after the Triumphal Entry, Jesus and the disciples return to Jerusalem. On the way, Jesus sees a fig tree some distance from the road. He goes to it to check for figs, while the disciples continue on the road. Jesus curses the fig tree and the disciples hear him. The fig tree withers, but the disciples have passed the tree and haven’t yet noticed that it withered.

Jesus and the disciples return to Bethany in the evening; likely it's too dark to see the tree. The next morning, they return to Jerusalem along the same road. As they near the withered fig tree, Peter points it out, and the disciples express amazement that it's already withered.