The Barren Fig Tree I

Don: The story of the barren fig tree is told in Matthew and Mark:

In the morning, as he was returning to the city, he became hungry. And seeing a fig tree by the wayside, he went to it and found nothing on it but only leaves. And he said to it, “May no fruit ever come from you again!” And the fig tree withered at once.

Seeing this, the disciples were amazed and asked, “How did the fig tree wither all at once?” And Jesus answered and said to them, “Truly I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ it will happen. And all things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.” (Matthew 21:18-22)

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 were passing by in the morning, they saw the fig tree withered from the roots up. Being reminded, Peter said to Him, “Rabbi, look, the fig tree which You cursed has withered.” And Jesus answered saying to them, “Have faith in God. Truly I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says is going to happen, it will be granted him. Therefore I say to you, all things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them, and they will be granted you. (Mark 11:20-24)

The story has slight differences as told by Matthew and Mark, and is sometimes called the story of Jesus cursing the fig tree. In context, “cursing” here means judging, not swearing at.

Trees figure prominently throughout Scripture to designate places, events, and people. More than 50 types of tree are mentioned, some by species (fig, sycamore, cedar. pomegranate, olive, etc.) and some figuratively (the tree of life, the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and the tree of the cross of the crucifixion.) God planted trees in the garden of Eden:

Then God said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees on the earth bearing fruit after their kind with seed in them”; and it was so. The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed after their kind, and trees bearing fruit with seed in them, after their kind; and God saw that it was good. (Genesis 1:11-12)

Out of the ground the Lord God caused to grow every tree that is pleasing to the sight and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. (Genesis 2:9)

These latter trees were central to the Fall of Man:

Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?” The woman said to the serpent, “From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die.’” The serpent said to the woman, “You surely will not die! For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings. (Genesis 3:1-7)

Note that it was from a fig tree that Adam and Eve sought leaves to cover their nakedness. Having being picked from their life source—the tree—the leaves of course are bound to wither and die. Recognizing this, God made them clothes from skins.

Before the Fall, Wo/Man was clothed in the righteousness of God—in the light of righteousness referred to in Proverbs 13:9, Proverbs 4:8, and here:

This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth; but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us. (1 John 1:5-10)

This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God.” (John 3:19-21)

When Wo/Man fell from the garden, they felt exposed and took matters into their own hands. This is our existential problem: The robe of righteousness is God’s light replaced by a covering of wilted fig leaves. God in His mercy and grace provided a temporary covering, marking the start of the Scriptural story of our long road back to Paradise.

It is possible (even likely, in my opinion) that the tree of knowledge of good and evil is in fact a fig tree. Fig trees are often associated in Scripture with Man’s efforts to attain goodness, as in the story of the dwarfish Zaccheus, who had to climb a sycamore fig to see Jesus. The metaphor was meant to convey that Zaccheus was spiritually short. The fig tree increased his stature spiritually. In the New Earth there is no more curse and therefore no more tree of knowledge of good and evil:

Then he showed me a river of the water of life, clear as crystal, coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb, in the middle of its street. On either side of the river was the tree of life, bearing twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit every month; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. There will no longer be any curse; and the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and His bond-servants will serve Him; they will see His face, and His name will be on their foreheads. And there will no longer be any night; and they will not have need of the light of a lamp nor the light of the sun, because the Lord God will illumine them; and they will reign forever and ever. (Revelation 22:1-5)

I believe the removal of the curse refers to the same curse Jesus used against the barren fig tree and is the curse that existed in the garden of Eden. The tree that led to the Fall of Mankind is the tree from which Mankind sought to make a covering for his sinful nature, but in the New Earth there is no sinful nature and no need for curses or covering.

The immediate and most superficial level of understanding the parable of the barren fig tree is that it was (1) barren, (2) judged accordingly, and (3) destroyed accordingly. The superficial message is: Fail to bear fruit and you will be destroyed. It seems to me the story has much deeper meaning, which can be discerned given the context of the trees in the garden of Eden and in the New Earth.

The role of faith in miracles and the role of prayer are also involved in the story, and we will discuss those later; for now, our focus is on the withered fig tree. Let us observe that:

1. Jesus was hungry. This basic human condition speaks to the humanity of Jesus.
2. He saw the fig tree from some distance away (in Mark’s version) and notices that its leaves are gone.
3. The disciples noted that this was not the season for figs to fruit, so why seek them? On the face of it, it would seem unreasonable for Jesus to have expected any fig tree to satisfy his hunger out of the fruiting season.
4. Before they are ripe, figs are the same color as the leaves of the fig tree and, fruiting near to the center of the tree, they are difficult to spot before ripening, certainly from a distance.

Scripture places the story of the barren fig tree right next to the story of Jesus cleansing the temple. In the latter story, Jesus was cleansing it not merely of crass commercialism but of a false religion made by Man to replace the true religion of God. The fig, too, is a metaphor for man-made religion, a religion of leaves we have stitched together to try to cover our spiritual barrenness with a veneer of self-righteous piety. From a distance, man-made religion seems potentially fruitful but a closer look exposes that it is not what it is making itself out to be. A fruitless tree should be leafless. To be leafy yet lacking fruit is deceitful.

The curse is the judgment of Jesus that man-made religion is no better than leaves that have withered because they are no longer connected to their life-source. The fig leaf is a symbol of Man’s spiritually lifeless standing before God.

Luke presents another metaphorical aspect of the fig tree—namely, that it even it is allowed a measure of God’s grace (fertilizer):

“A man had a fig tree which had been planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and did not find any. And he said to the vineyard-keeper, ‘Behold, for three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree without finding any. Cut it down! Why does it even use up the ground?’ And he answered and said to him, ‘Let it alone, sir, for this year too, until I dig around it and put in fertilizer; and if it bears fruit next year, fine; but if not, cut it down.’” (Luke 13:6-9)

Jason: Indoctrination in the superficial interpretation of the parable makes it hard to dive into the deeper water of a context in the garden of Eden and the New Earth. There seems to be a difference in that the case of the barren fig tree, the absence of fruit was the problem; whereas in the case of the fig tree of knowledge of good and evil, the presence of fruit was the problem.

Candy: It reminds me of the parable of the wheat and the tares—another way of saying good fruit and bad fruit. In both Matthew and Mark, Jesus wanted to draw a spiritual connection with faith and doubt.

Jason: There are certainly multiple layers to the story.

Michael: Why would Jesus curse the tree for not bearing fruit? I cannot see the reason.

Don: His reason is even more elusive given that the tree could not be expected to bear fruit at that time. I chose to look to other parts of Scripture precisely in order to try to tease out its real meaning.

Jason: That it was not fruit-bearing season suggests that the story was not really about bearing fruit because it cannot logically be about bearing fruit out of season.

Don: Jesus seemed to think that it should be bearing fruit, though Mark specifically noted that Jesus was seeing it from some distance and that it was not the season anyway. So it’s hard to accept the simple interpretation that the tree is bad because it is not bearing fruit. Something more must be at stake, otherwise this would indeed seem to be an unjust judgment by Jesus.

Anonymous: Maybe the point is all about faith. A tree full of leaves gives the appearance of being a good tree, but if it has no faith (no fruit) then it is not.

Jason: If the story is taken to be about leaves rather than fruit, then its meaning changes.

Anonymous: A tree full of leaves is like a person full of piety but empty of faith. The (fig) leaves on the tree, as on Adam and Eve, are merely an outward pretense of inner faith.

Michael: Perhaps Jesus, seeing more acutely than anyone else, really did see something seriously wrong with it and was merely making a scientific observation that it was doomed to die.

Candy: What if this is the precursor to the parable of the two sons, one of who agrees to go to work but reneges, while the other refuses to work but then relents.

Jason: Appearance does not match expectation. It shows our inability to judge.

Candy: What if it’s not about faith but about doubt?

Robin: The disciples were amazed at the rapid withering of the tree following Jesus’s curse. Perhaps there is a lesson somewhere in that.

Ebenezer: Can we relate this to the parable of the foolish bridesmaids — that we need always to be prepared?

Don: The critical distinction seems to be between fruit and leaves.

Robin: Aren’t leaves necessary for the fruit to appear?

Chris: With figs, the leaves follow the fruit.

Robin: What if Jesus was criticizing the religious leaders of his time, who dressed well but had no substance?

Jay: Jesus seemed to believe that the tree would have fruit on it even though it was out of season. Then he demonstrated what can be done through faith.

Chris: Fig leaves grow large and so dense that nothing can grow under the tree. They fruit in early Spring, the leaves appear in late Spring. The leaves are fully grown (about a foot across) in Summer.

Jay: If would be impossible to see fruit on a fig tree in Summer, then. Even if one did not know (as Jesus surely did) that a fully leaved fig tree would be past its season for fruit, one could not possibly tell from a distance that there was no fruit (because of the covering of leaves).

Michael: I recall seeing big, ripe figs on the trees in late August, not early Spring. Leaves are already formed. Some trees produce green figs earlier, though.

Chris: There are many different varieties of fig trees, and as many different development patterns.

Don: Jesus would have known all about figs. To me, this is the crux of the story: That despite knowing all this, he cursed the tree.

Anonymous: He cursed it soon after leaving the temple, when the Pharisees who saw him perform miracles before their eyes still refused to have faith in him. Perhaps Jesus was hungry to find faith in them, but found none.

Don: To be continued.

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