Jesus and the Fig Tree

(See About Me for how to read these posts in "cracker-speak") 



Literary  folks unnerstan' that Gulliver's Travels can be read as a fun fairy tale, or a very serious essay for adults. Alice in Wonderland, The Wizard of Oz an' dozens more of familiar stories have a deeper message than is apparent on the surface.  Dependin' on which scholars ya' credit, Shakespeare's work is a thinly veiled commentary on the politics of his time, obscured in verse and play to escape the wrath of the powers that be.  But those who knew, knew to whom he addressed his criticism. 


Recently mah own fig tree gave me a moment of insight--an' led to this post.


When I'se a sprout-chile I puzzled over many of the happenings in the bible. Like many, as an adult I 'se tempted to dismiss certain thangs in scripture on account of it not makin' sense--to me. Then I learned how to read between the lines, to unnerstan metaphor an' study the historical references, the cultural symbols...an' then to mah utter surprise, the thangs I once took on faith also began to make real, logical, historical sense.


Jesus an' the Fig Tree is one example.  Admit it--iffin' youse a scripture readin' sort, then youse puzzled too about Jesus cursin' a fig tree--whas' that about?   


 

" 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!" (Mark 11:12-21)

Did  Jesus have a personal meltdown?  An frivolous display of Divine power? A tantrum because He wuz hungry?  Gotta be more to it.  It scared the pantaloons off His followers--Peter wuz really shocked-- so somethin' is up wif' that fig tree.


Doan ya' jes' know  they's all recalling an earlier parable that Jesus told back in Luke 13:6-9

 “A man had a fig tree growing 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’ll dig around it and fertilize it.  If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.’”

An' at least one of them, Nathaniel,  had to be squirmin' cause when Jesus called him to come join the Apostles, Nathaniel wuz lounging under a --fig tree. Yep, that Nathaniel, the one who said "can anything good come from Nazareth?" 


Well then. The Fig Tree must be indicative of somethin'.

 

(Er, somethin' more than leafy covering for Adam an' Eve after the Fall)

 
The context is enlightenin'.  This event occurred after Jesus had been busy up an down the land fer three years. (see above quote)  Some folks got the message, many did not.  Now, the end of His time has arrived, He has been preachin' in Jerusalem fer days now, since drivin' out the moneychangers--an now He is down to His last days to preach --"let he has ears hear."  Jesus is stayin' jes' over the river from the Temple Mount wif' his friends in village of Bethany--home of Martha an' Mary an' Lazarus. Think on it a bit, an' ya realize that these next hours are heavy for His disciples--an' every gesture, every word  of Jesus' is loaded wif meanin'.


Jesus is warning us in a very graphic manner --warning the unrepentant. Flip back a year or so in His sojourn an' ya' have Jesus sayin':

"Therefore bear fruits in keeping with repentance, and do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham for our father,’ for I say to you that from these stones God is able to raise up children to Abraham. “Indeed the axe is already laid at the root of the trees; so every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” (Luke 3: 8-9)


"Jesus  was hungry..."   an' we can read it literally, or see it as a spiritual reality- Jesus was "hungry" for souls--for men who would bear good fruit, not the "evil figs" (Jeremiah 24:8)   of the day--the bickering Sadducees or Pharisee power elite.    Oh sure, the Temple precincts were busy wif' all manner of showy thangs goin' on--but it wuz devoid of true worship of God. It was a spiritual desert.  Folks wuz in need of a serious realignment.


Oh mah mercy--doan ya jes' love the detail? In the quote from Mark, above, we're told the fig tree leafy enough to be seen from a distance.*  Why did the gospel writer take time to tell us this?   First, keep in mind that the fig tree is a symbol for Israel. **

( ‘I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness, I saw your fathers as the first ripe in the fig tree in her first time" (Hosea 9:10). 

 "Like these good figs, so will I acknowledge them that are carried away captive of Judah" (Jer. 24:5).)

St. Mark's gospel is alerting the perceptive, read-between-the-lines fellow that Israel was a showy tree-it looked good, but produced nothin'. The folks runnin' the Temple--the officials of the day, all showy but not in the least helping the people. (hmmmn...2012, anyone?) 

 




Jesus had already warned the Jewish leaders that very week that the Kingdom would be taken from them and given to a nation that would "bear fruit" because they had rejected the Messiah.  Many Jews had heard John the Baptist--most were actively awaiting the Messiah that had been prophesied--and many did repent. But the leadership, for the most part, saw Jesus as a threat to their power and influence.

 Being the Children of Abraham might make one complacent--a deadly condition when it comes to repentance. The Children of Abraham had a long tradition of repentance preachers--practically every one of the Old Testament prophets warned these Chosen Children to get back on track:   
 

"And as the evil figs, which cannot be eaten, they are so evil; surely thus saith the LORD, So will I give Zedekiah the king of Judah, and his princes, and the residue of Jerusalem, that remain in this land, and them that dwell in the land of Egypt" 

 The Fig Tree withers after Jesus condemns it--its a graphic message to Israel as a nation that the apostles did not miss--this is why they trembled.  Forty years later the Israel an' the Temple--the locus for all things sacred to Israel--is "cut down" by the Romans an' ain't never been rebuilt.  It's soberin' to remember that Israel wuz told to offer sacrifices every day for the people--an' the onliest place that could happen was on the Temple altar--no Temple, no sacrifice.

In Matthew 24:32--the same day as the withering of the fig tree--Jesus tells His disciples how to know when He will come again--when the fig tree is back in bud. 

Until then, all us'uns need to be about the bidness of bein' productive--spiritually productive.

~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ 

*  I reckon some of y'all will object: "Wait Aunty, that cursed fig tree thang, well, it say plain that it wuzn't the time yet fer figs, so how come Jesus zapped it?"    Iffin' ya know a bit of fig culture, mayhap youse got the answer--the fig tree puts out little bumps--a precursor before actual figs develop--an' it does this when it leafs out. If no little knobby bumps is present, no figs will be developed in the summer.  Jesus an' other pilgrims along the roads would sometimes eat these little kernels--a sort of nutty flavor--when hungry.  A tree wif'out these early buds is worthless.

**  You could make a case for the fig tree as a general symbol of a prosperous civilization-- Romulus an' Remus wuz suckled by that she-wolf under a fig tree--a prophetic vision of the wealthy civilization to come. An' then thar's Pliny, who insisted eatin' figs would keep yore wrinkles at bay. Who knew?