Jesus Curses the Fig Tree and It WithersBible World
11:12Mark 11:12
And on the morrow, when they were come from Bethany, he was hungry:
On the morning after the triumphal entry, Jesus was coming with His disciples from Bethany toward Jerusalem after a night spent in prayer, and He was truly hungry. Seeing afar off a tree already covered with leaves, which would normally promise well-developed figs even early in the season, He approached it expecting to find food and searched it thoroughly from top to bottom but found nothing but leaves. His hunger pictures His longing to find the fruits of righteousness in Israel, upon whom He had lavished gifts and privileges that they might bless the world with sympathy, self-sacrifice, compassion, and yearning for others' salvation. The leafy but barren tree stands for the Jewish nation, whose showy profession, ceremonies, and outward religious life concealed selfishness, pride, hypocrisy, and formalism while yielding no goodness, love, or service to others. Begun as a parable-miracle to be ever remembered, the cursing and withering of the tree displays God's righteous anger at fruitlessness and stands as a living warning to Jerusalem in its final doom and to all Christian churches to the close of history that leaves without fruit are hateful to Him.
Setting and Hungry Search
It was the morning after the triumphal entry into Jerusalem. On the previous evening He had passed unnoticed into the temple, found it quiet because the crowds had gone toward Olivet, looked upon it briefly with sorrowful eyes, and then withdrew with His disciples to Bethany, out of reach of those who wanted to make Him a temporal king. The disciples still did not understand the true condition of Israel, the meaning of Jewish hatred, or the retribution coming upon Jerusalem, which He was about to illustrate to them by an object lesson. In this setting He foresaw the city's ruin and wept over it, a temporal destruction pointing to the final destruction of those who reject and kill the Son of God.
Hungry, He came with His disciples from Bethany toward Jerusalem in the morning, after a night spent in prayer. His hunger sets the scene for the fig tree episode that follows. Those who held the other account place the journey as traveling with His disciples on the way from Jerusalem to Bethany when He became hungry. In either reckoning His hunger led Him to a fig tree seen afar off.
A fig tree normally produces figs before its leaves open, so a tree already covered with leaves would be expected to have well-developed figs. This held even though it was early in the season and even on the elevated Mount of Olives, where figs might not yet have been expected. Jesus approached the leafy tree expecting to find fruit because its foliage made fruit seem likely. He searched it thoroughly from the topmost branch to the lowest boughs and found nothing but leaves. His hunger was real physical hunger seeking food from the tree.
Israel's Fruitlessness and Doom
His hunger was His hungering to find the fruits of righteousness in Israel and in His followers. He had lavished upon Israel gifts and every opportunity and privilege that they might bear fruit to bless the world, and He sought in return their sympathy and cooperation in His work of grace, the same unselfish work He did of self-sacrifice and compassion, zeal for God, love to God and man, and deep yearning for the salvation of others. Leaves do not satisfy Him; it is fruit He hungers for and must have, including the fruit of faithful labor in His vineyard and the spiritual fruit His people should have supplied to those He pledged His life to save. By refusing to minister to others and give to the world the treasures of truth committed to them, they brought ruin on themselves and showed what they would be when the grace of God was removed from them.
The barren tree with its abundant green leaves and showy foliage was the Jewish nation and kingdom of Israel. Its foliage represented religious profession and privilege, ceremonies and traditions and outward signs of religious life, with claims to superior piety and righteousness, yet it produced no goodness, truth, love, devotion, Christlike character, or service to others. Beneath that profession lay pride and vanity, selfishness and self-sufficiency, love of the world and of gain, worldly greed, hypocrisy and cruelty, formalism and ignorance of God's requirements. Favored with truth to share and every spiritual advantage, it refused to minister and give those treasures to the world. Its outward appearance of fruitfulness with no fruit made its religion vain, for greater light brings greater responsibility, and profession and privileges and religious appearance unmatched by living according to the light God has given bear nothing to His glory.
God by mighty power had brought this people from Egypt to become trees of righteousness, His planting for His glory. For more than a thousand years they abused His mercy, failed to profit by their blessings, invited His judgments, and determined their own destruction.
The encounter was at once a parable and a miracle to be ever remembered, in which the dumb, unconscious tree was treated as a responsible agent and for the time invested with moral qualities and made the expositor of truth, to show the terrible result of fruitlessness. His hunger led Him to search the pretentious tree thoroughly from topmost bough to lowest branches, and its rich foliage promising abundant fruit yielded nothing but leaves. His curse withered it by the next morning under the curse of an offended God, displaying God's righteous anger. That withering points to Jerusalem's final doom and destruction and agrees with His words that the things belonging to its peace were hidden from its eyes because it knew not its day. Joined with the second cleansing of the temple and driving out of buyers and sellers, the blighting prefigures the future punishment of the nation and shows that the priests as representative men corrupting the people by false principles will wither as the tree withered. The judgment fell on the generation that rejected Jesus; though the Jews continued forty years after the event, they were spiritually dead, and the doom of the nation is as sudden and certain as that of the tree. Jerusalem's temporal destruction pointed to the final destruction of those guilty of rejecting and killing the Son of God.
In contrast, the other leafless trees that made no claim to religious piety represent the Gentiles, who made no claim to know God and whose time to bear fruit had not yet come, but were waiting for light.
Warning to Churches Today
The condemning and destroying of the barren tree, begun by His own creative power that had made it, was a strange act that stands as a living warning appeal to all Christian churches and to all Christians in every age to the close of earth's history. God looks for piety, self-denial, self-sacrifice, compassion for man, zeal for God, obedience to His law through merciful unselfish service, and a deep yearning of soul to save fellow men from unbelief and ruin, and those who keep His commandments are like a flourishing, fruitful fig tree. Leaves without fruit are worship, profession, knowledge, and religious forms without inward repentance and faith, without obedience and a changed life. This vain pretense is hateful in His eyes, and the open sinner is in a more favorable condition before God and less guilty than he who professes to serve God and in profession honors His law but says and does not, bearing no fruit to His glory. No one can live the law of God without ministering to others, for God created people to live in a world where unselfish service must be performed and designed them to help their fellow men in every possible way.
Many who think themselves excellent Christians do not understand what constitutes service for God, but plan and study to please themselves, act only in reference to self, count time as valuable only as they can gather for themselves, minister not for others but for themselves, are so large with self that they cannot see anything else and are not in touch with humanity, and those who thus live for self are like the fruitless tree which made every pretension but was fruitless. This fruitlessness tramples upon the law of Jehovah and makes void His covenant with His commandment-keeping people, making God's memorial, the sign between Him and His people, a despised nothing while exalting the rival spurious sabbath. That exaltation repeats the ceremony, formalism, vainglory and oppression of Nebuchadnezzar's great golden image in the plain of Dura, as men claiming to be Christians call the world to worship the image they have made through the mystery of iniquity carried into effect by the man of sin, with oppressive laws against all who will not observe the spurious sabbath, a manifestation continuing in this day to the end, bringing His verdict, Thou hast destroyed thyself. The flourishing tree flaunting its branches in the very face of justice stands for families that spend much time dressing for display, clothing their children in fashionable worldly attire so they cannot be distinguished from worldlings instead of clothing them neatly with cleanliness, tidiness, and simplicity. When Christ comes to look for fruit He searches thoroughly from the topmost twig to the lowest bough, and where there is only profession and display He finds nothing but leaves, for leaves do not satisfy Him and it is fruit He hungers for and fruit He must have.
That same barren condition comes when commercial enterprises for gain of means are brought into sanitarium work, working counter to the purpose for which the institutions were established, bringing spiritual loss and detracting from the influence desired to attend the work. Christ still searches in His institutions for fruit, which is virtue revealed in the lives of His workers that tells in the saving of the soul unto eternal life. The leafy tree with no fruit also pictures churches that are being converted to the world with beautiful music and splendid decorations yet are fruitless, and as Christ unmasked the fig tree that bore nothing but leaves, He will unmask these pretentious hypocrites. The lesson applies personally as a call to heed Christ's daily invitations and be converted, to reform while there is still time, and to walk in the light while having the light, for Jesus pronounces words of doom over the pretentious fruitless tree with mournful reluctance and under the curse of an offended God it withers and dies. Outward profession and religious form, even with great religious knowledge and impressive prosperous appearance, cannot take the place of God's inward work and inward victory over sin or hide an unholy character and barrenness, and fruitless pretense will be exposed by His close and critical search.
Christ seeks fruits of righteousness from His people, not merely an outward appearance of spiritual life, for like the tree with leaves but no fruit, people may pray and teach Bible truth yet lack the love and spiritual life that make their service acceptable. He also hungers for the fruit of faithful labor in His vineyard, so evangelistic work should be carried out in a way that bears fruit. God is an inexhaustible fountain of wisdom and strength who from age to age raises up human helpers and resources for His people by His appointed means. These God-given agencies will not prove fraudulent if they themselves do not defraud the Lord, but some have defrauded Him and they are represented by the barren fig tree.
On the morning after the triumphal entry, Jesus was coming with His disciples from Bethany toward Jerusalem after a night spent in prayer, and He was truly hungry. Seeing afar off a tree already covered with leaves, which would normally promise well-developed figs even early in the season, He approached it expecting to find food and searched it thoroughly from top to bottom but found nothing but leaves. His hunger pictures His longing to find the fruits of righteousness in Israel, upon whom He had lavished gifts and privileges that they might bless the world with sympathy, self-sacrifice, compassion, and yearning for others' salvation. The leafy but barren tree stands for the Jewish nation, whose showy profession, ceremonies, and outward religious life concealed selfishness, pride, hypocrisy, and formalism while yielding no goodness, love, or service to others. Begun as a parable-miracle to be ever remembered, the cursing and withering of the tree displays God's righteous anger at fruitlessness and stands as a living warning to Jerusalem in its final doom and to all Christian churches to the close of history that leaves without fruit are hateful to Him.
Setting and Hungry Search
It was the morning after the triumphal entry into Jerusalem. On the previous evening He had passed unnoticed into the temple, found it quiet because the crowds had gone toward Olivet, looked upon it briefly with sorrowful eyes, and then withdrew with His disciples to Bethany, out of reach of those who wanted to make Him a temporal king. The disciples still did not understand the true condition of Israel, the meaning of Jewish hatred, or the retribution coming upon Jerusalem, which He was about to illustrate to them by an object lesson. In this setting He foresaw the city's ruin and wept over it, a temporal destruction pointing to the final destruction of those who reject and kill the Son of God.
Hungry, He came with His disciples from Bethany toward Jerusalem in the morning, after a night spent in prayer. His hunger sets the scene for the fig tree episode that follows. Those who held the other account place the journey as traveling with His disciples on the way from Jerusalem to Bethany when He became hungry. In either reckoning His hunger led Him to a fig tree seen afar off.
A fig tree normally produces figs before its leaves open, so a tree already covered with leaves would be expected to have well-developed figs. This held even though it was early in the season and even on the elevated Mount of Olives, where figs might not yet have been expected. Jesus approached the leafy tree expecting to find fruit because its foliage made fruit seem likely. He searched it thoroughly from the topmost branch to the lowest boughs and found nothing but leaves. His hunger was real physical hunger seeking food from the tree.
Israel's Fruitlessness and Doom
His hunger was His hungering to find the fruits of righteousness in Israel and in His followers. He had lavished upon Israel gifts and every opportunity and privilege that they might bear fruit to bless the world, and He sought in return their sympathy and cooperation in His work of grace, the same unselfish work He did of self-sacrifice and compassion, zeal for God, love to God and man, and deep yearning for the salvation of others. Leaves do not satisfy Him; it is fruit He hungers for and must have, including the fruit of faithful labor in His vineyard and the spiritual fruit His people should have supplied to those He pledged His life to save. By refusing to minister to others and give to the world the treasures of truth committed to them, they brought ruin on themselves and showed what they would be when the grace of God was removed from them.
The barren tree with its abundant green leaves and showy foliage was the Jewish nation and kingdom of Israel. Its foliage represented religious profession and privilege, ceremonies and traditions and outward signs of religious life, with claims to superior piety and righteousness, yet it produced no goodness, truth, love, devotion, Christlike character, or service to others. Beneath that profession lay pride and vanity, selfishness and self-sufficiency, love of the world and of gain, worldly greed, hypocrisy and cruelty, formalism and ignorance of God's requirements. Favored with truth to share and every spiritual advantage, it refused to minister and give those treasures to the world. Its outward appearance of fruitfulness with no fruit made its religion vain, for greater light brings greater responsibility, and profession and privileges and religious appearance unmatched by living according to the light God has given bear nothing to His glory.
God by mighty power had brought this people from Egypt to become trees of righteousness, His planting for His glory. For more than a thousand years they abused His mercy, failed to profit by their blessings, invited His judgments, and determined their own destruction.
The encounter was at once a parable and a miracle to be ever remembered, in which the dumb, unconscious tree was treated as a responsible agent and for the time invested with moral qualities and made the expositor of truth, to show the terrible result of fruitlessness. His hunger led Him to search the pretentious tree thoroughly from topmost bough to lowest branches, and its rich foliage promising abundant fruit yielded nothing but leaves. His curse withered it by the next morning under the curse of an offended God, displaying God's righteous anger. That withering points to Jerusalem's final doom and destruction and agrees with His words that the things belonging to its peace were hidden from its eyes because it knew not its day. Joined with the second cleansing of the temple and driving out of buyers and sellers, the blighting prefigures the future punishment of the nation and shows that the priests as representative men corrupting the people by false principles will wither as the tree withered. The judgment fell on the generation that rejected Jesus; though the Jews continued forty years after the event, they were spiritually dead, and the doom of the nation is as sudden and certain as that of the tree. Jerusalem's temporal destruction pointed to the final destruction of those guilty of rejecting and killing the Son of God.
In contrast, the other leafless trees that made no claim to religious piety represent the Gentiles, who made no claim to know God and whose time to bear fruit had not yet come, but were waiting for light.
Warning to Churches Today
The condemning and destroying of the barren tree, begun by His own creative power that had made it, was a strange act that stands as a living warning appeal to all Christian churches and to all Christians in every age to the close of earth's history. God looks for piety, self-denial, self-sacrifice, compassion for man, zeal for God, obedience to His law through merciful unselfish service, and a deep yearning of soul to save fellow men from unbelief and ruin, and those who keep His commandments are like a flourishing, fruitful fig tree. Leaves without fruit are worship, profession, knowledge, and religious forms without inward repentance and faith, without obedience and a changed life. This vain pretense is hateful in His eyes, and the open sinner is in a more favorable condition before God and less guilty than he who professes to serve God and in profession honors His law but says and does not, bearing no fruit to His glory. No one can live the law of God without ministering to others, for God created people to live in a world where unselfish service must be performed and designed them to help their fellow men in every possible way.
Many who think themselves excellent Christians do not understand what constitutes service for God, but plan and study to please themselves, act only in reference to self, count time as valuable only as they can gather for themselves, minister not for others but for themselves, are so large with self that they cannot see anything else and are not in touch with humanity, and those who thus live for self are like the fruitless tree which made every pretension but was fruitless. This fruitlessness tramples upon the law of Jehovah and makes void His covenant with His commandment-keeping people, making God's memorial, the sign between Him and His people, a despised nothing while exalting the rival spurious sabbath. That exaltation repeats the ceremony, formalism, vainglory and oppression of Nebuchadnezzar's great golden image in the plain of Dura, as men claiming to be Christians call the world to worship the image they have made through the mystery of iniquity carried into effect by the man of sin, with oppressive laws against all who will not observe the spurious sabbath, a manifestation continuing in this day to the end, bringing His verdict, Thou hast destroyed thyself. The flourishing tree flaunting its branches in the very face of justice stands for families that spend much time dressing for display, clothing their children in fashionable worldly attire so they cannot be distinguished from worldlings instead of clothing them neatly with cleanliness, tidiness, and simplicity. When Christ comes to look for fruit He searches thoroughly from the topmost twig to the lowest bough, and where there is only profession and display He finds nothing but leaves, for leaves do not satisfy Him and it is fruit He hungers for and fruit He must have.
That same barren condition comes when commercial enterprises for gain of means are brought into sanitarium work, working counter to the purpose for which the institutions were established, bringing spiritual loss and detracting from the influence desired to attend the work. Christ still searches in His institutions for fruit, which is virtue revealed in the lives of His workers that tells in the saving of the soul unto eternal life. The leafy tree with no fruit also pictures churches that are being converted to the world with beautiful music and splendid decorations yet are fruitless, and as Christ unmasked the fig tree that bore nothing but leaves, He will unmask these pretentious hypocrites. The lesson applies personally as a call to heed Christ's daily invitations and be converted, to reform while there is still time, and to walk in the light while having the light, for Jesus pronounces words of doom over the pretentious fruitless tree with mournful reluctance and under the curse of an offended God it withers and dies. Outward profession and religious form, even with great religious knowledge and impressive prosperous appearance, cannot take the place of God's inward work and inward victory over sin or hide an unholy character and barrenness, and fruitless pretense will be exposed by His close and critical search.
Christ seeks fruits of righteousness from His people, not merely an outward appearance of spiritual life, for like the tree with leaves but no fruit, people may pray and teach Bible truth yet lack the love and spiritual life that make their service acceptable. He also hungers for the fruit of faithful labor in His vineyard, so evangelistic work should be carried out in a way that bears fruit. God is an inexhaustible fountain of wisdom and strength who from age to age raises up human helpers and resources for His people by His appointed means. These God-given agencies will not prove fraudulent if they themselves do not defraud the Lord, but some have defrauded Him and they are represented by the barren fig tree.