The story of the Lord cursing the fig tree is the only story told in which He did something destructive (the Gadarene swine He did not destroy; the devils that entered them did the destroying). It has come in for criticism. But there is no cause for it. Jesus was doing no more than any farmer does when he cleans out of his orchard dead or diseased trees. As John the Baptist said: "Every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire." (John 3:10) Nobody raises an eyebrow when a farmer does that. Nor do we raise an eyebrow when we read in Luke 13:7 "For three years now I have been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and have not found any. Cut it down. Why should it use up the soil?" No-one takes any exception to the burning of dead trees in a bonfire.
To reach an understanding of this incident, we look first at its setting.
It follows His day of disappointment in the Temple. The House of Prayer for All Nations had become a den of robbers. The faith of Israel had not borne fruit. Jesus will say as much in similar language in the parable of the Vineyard later in the chapter, 21:33-43. He ended that parable by saying: "Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit." He clearly saw in the fruitless fig tree a symbol of God's People. The fig tree in fact was often used as a symbol of Israel, in the same way the vine was; and in view of the fact that it was on the road from Bethphage that the incident occurred, it is interesting that Bethphage means "The house of unripe figs."
A further difficulty, however, has been seen in this incident. Mark tells us something that makes the Lord's action look even more unreasonable.
Mark 11:13, "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."
It sounds as though Jesus indulged a fit of petulance. If it was not the season for figs, why should He be so upset that there were none?
Fig trees in that land bore two harvests in a year, one in spring and one in autumn. The spring fruit was not a copious crop as the autumn harvest would be. But small figs called 'paggim' ripened in April on the old wood from the previous year. Examples are:
1. Song of Solomon 2:12: "Flowers appear on the earth; the season of singing has come, the cooing of doves is heard in our land. The fig tree forms its early fruit; the blossoming vines spread their fragrance."
Clearly it is spring-time, and fig trees have their early fruit.
2. Nahum 3:12, "All your fortresses are like fig trees with their first ripe fruit; when they are shaken, the figs fall into the mouth of the eater."
The point is that whilst the spring fruit was of little worth in itself, its significance was the promise it held of a harvest later. The season for figs it might not be, but if this was a healthy tree that was going to produce fruit later, there would have been spring figs on it at Passover time. I was careful to check this out with our guide on one of my trips to Israel, and he confirmed it.
We are now in a position to see the meaning of Jesus' action.
He was pronouncing judgment on the nation Israel for failing to produce the fruit of its faith, or any promise of one. That in fact is the whole point of two other parables:
i. The one we have already quoted, Luke 13:6ƒƒ: "A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it but did not find any. So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, 'For three years now I've been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven't found any. Cut it down. Why should it use up the soil?' 'Sir,' the man replied, 'leave it alone for one more year, and I will dig around it and fertilise it. If it bears fruit next year, fine. If not, then cut it down.'"
Israel had had her chances - many of them, from the days of the Judges through many centuries to the days of the Prophets.
ii. The other in this same chapter in Matthew which ended with the King's formal pronouncement of judgment on the nation: "Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit." (21:43) Old Israel was to be replaced by New Israel, the Church. The whole nation of Israel had become a mountainous obstacle to God's purpose for the world, and He finally removed it. (That was the 'mountain' Jesus 'removed' that day!) It was in the spirit of the 'woes' He pronounced on the unresponsive townships by the lakeside.
We may compare with this the warning issued by the risen Christ to the church at Ephesus: "If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place." (Rev. 2:5)
Jesus had the same fault to find with Israel that Mahatma Gandhi found with Christian churches in South Africa. In his early days he enquired into the Christian faith, and for several Sundays attended a Christian Church. "But," he said afterwards, "the congregation did not strike me as being particularly religious; they were not an assembly of devout souls; but appeared rather to be worldly-minded people going to church for recreation and in conformity to custom." He concluded there was nothing in Christianity which he either lacked or needed, and it helped lose Him to Christianity and the Church. (William Barclay, 'Daily Study Bible: Gospel of Matthew Vol. 2' [St Andrew Press] p. 281)
We must never lose sight of Christ's whole purpose in calling us: "I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide ..." (John 15:16)
LESSONS OF PRAYER AND FAITH
What is of even more interest is the lesson Jesus drew from the incident in response to the disciple's astonishment, v. 21, "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."
The connection between faith and prayer is the whole point of the Lord's disappointment with Israel. If she had had faith, she would have had a spirit of prayer: if she had had a spirit of prayer, she would have had faith.
Three requirements of prayer may be deduced from what Jesus said:
The phrase about moving mountains was a quite common one among the rabbis in our Lord's time. It was their way of describing the removal of difficulties. A good teacher who could remove difficulties from the Biblical text was called a 'pulveriser of mountains.' One who heard a famous rabbi said, "I saw Resh Lachish as if he were plucking up mountains."
Jesus means that by the prayer of faith we may resolve difficulties. You go to God with them, you listen, and you do what He says.
My father was fond of telling of a little old lady who heard a sermon on this saying of Jesus. As it happened, there was an offending mountain which blocked a view of the sea from her house; so she resolved to pray that it be removed. In the morning she went out to look and said, "There! I knew it wouldn't be gone." Her prayer had been, not a burning expectation, but a forlorn hope! In more serious vein, remember how Mark put it: "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." (11:23)
That turns upside down the way we normally think of prayer. We are accustomed to think of it as something in which we take the initiative - we prevail upon God in prayer to get what we want done, as though it were a lever in our hands by means of which we work God. But what Jesus said only makes sense if we understand that it is God Who takes the initiative, inviting our co-operation with Him to get what He wants done, so our prayer becomes a ministry we give to Him; it is a lever we put into His hands. That requires that ...
1. we first ask God what He wants us to pray for,
2. we give Him time to tell us, and
3. we then take up prayer as a service to Him in the accomplishment of His purposes. *
Then we can believe that ...
1. the thing is as good as done,
2. what we are asking is according to His will,
3. there is a satisfying reason to go on praying - for we thereby keep open the channel of communication between God and the person we pray for.
On this basis, all hint of self-interest is eliminated; prayer becomes a selfless activity, the aim of which is "not to be ministered unto, but to minister."
There is no doubt in my mind that this was how the Lord prayed Himself. If He said only those things He heard the Father speak, He surely prayed only things the Father purposed.
When Mark quoted this saying (11:25), he remembered that Jesus said next, "And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins. But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father who is in heaven forgive you."
"The prayer of a bitter man cannot penetrate the wall of his own bitterness. If we are to speak with God there must be some bond between us and God, for there can never be any intimacy between those who have nothing in common. And God is Love. If the ruling spirit in a man's heart is bitterness and an unforgiving spirit, then no prayer that man prays will be answered until first he prays that God will cleanse his heart of its bitterness, and put in its place a spirit of love." (William Barclay, 'Daily Study Bible: Gospel of Matthew Vol. 2' [St Andrew Press] p. 289)
That will make a lot of difference to some of the prayers we pray. Years ago my Mother counselled a woman in a Hyman Appleman Crusade who asked her to pray that God would make her husband divorce her. Asked why, she answered, "Because I cannot stand him!" A bitter prayer prompted by a bitter spirit will only end in bitter disappointment.
If we will not respond to His ministry of love, we must bear His ministry of judgment. For He has the right, not only to save, but also to destroy. He said so: Luke 12:5, "But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear him who, after the killing of the body, has power to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him."
In the Temple He was seen as Lord, as Judge, and as Saviour. But this episode is the more solemn, for in it He is seen as the Destroyer. He handed Jerusalem over to destruction that day; and within a generation, it was a heap of rubble.
No man has the right to take our life from us - but God has. He has absolute rights over our life as no man has. He created us; we enjoy the gift of life solely at His discretion. If we endlessly resist Him as Jerusalem had done, then no other word can be spoken to us than the word of the Lord's Himself, "I will show you whom you should fear: Fear him who, after the killing of the body, has power to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him."
* I was first alerted to this understanding of prayer by Rev. Howard Guinness "The Sanity of Faith" [Omega Press], p. 52ƒƒ
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