God’s Word for You

Mark 11:12-14 A search for fruit

by Pastor Timothy Smith on Friday, December 17, 2021

Jesus Curses a Fig Tree
12 The next day, after they had set out from Bethany, Jesus was hungry. 13 When he saw a fig tree in leaf in the distance, he went to see if he might find anything on it. When he came to it, he found nothing but leaves, since it was not the season for figs. 14 Jesus said to it, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again!” And his disciples were listening.

It was Monday morning. This passage proclaims both Jesus’ human nature and his divine; the human with the simple statement, “Jesus was hungry.” Together with grapes and olives, figs are one of the most important fruits of Palestine. There are two seasons for figs. Early figs ripen in June, and late figs in August and September. The late figs are often pressed into cakes (1 Samuel 30:11; 2 Samuel 16:1) and can be preserved for long trips or even for export. The flavor of the early figs is superior to the late ones.

A tree in green leafy fullness looks as if it should have fruit, but since the first ripe figs do not appear until June, Jesus found none at this time (the first week of April). As Mark declares: “It was not the season for figs.” Yet Jesus went looking for them. Finding none, he cursed the tree.

This was a kind of parable, like Jesus’ many other parables, but acted out so that the Lord’s power might also be displayed in addition to his wisdom. God gave Ezekiel some living parables like this to illustrate his message, such as the siege of Jerusalem symbolized by an iron pan and a drawing of Jerusalem (Ezekiel 4:1-15), and the exile symbolized by the prophet packing his bags and digging through the wall of the city (Ezekiel 12:1-7). We don’t need to scrutinize every single detail. The only application Jesus makes to this curse on the fig tree is on the effectiveness of the believers’ prayer, yet it will help to go over what happened once again:

11:12 Jesus was hungry. This should be taken, as I did above, in its literal sense, and thus proclaiming the Lord’s human nature just as when he said, “I am thirsty” (John 19:28). But in the lesson he was teaching, his hunger was for two more things: the salvation of mankind, and also for fruits of faith in mankind; in any one of us. We should not forget to apply the action of Christ directly to ourselves. “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled” (Matthew 5:6).

11:13a He went to see if he might find anything. The act of going to see, to personally scrutinize mankind, is a theme in the Bible as God looks for faith in the sinful world. Jesus illustrated this in another, earlier, parable of the fig tree, in which the owner “went to look for fruit” and found none (Luke 13:6). And God said as he was about to walk down to Sodom, “I will go down and see if what they have done is as bad as the outcry that has reached me” (Genesis 18:21). God teaches his church to do the same. He urges us to examine our lives of faith: “Let us go early to the vineyards to see if the vines have budded” (Song of Solomon 7:11).

11:14b He found nothing but leaves, since it was not the season… God does not always look for our good works or for faith when we might expect him to look. He may come far earlier than we think. When is it reasonable to look for faith in a person? When is it reasonable to demand obedience to the law? What happened to Moses? Sometime after the birth of his son Gershom, the Lord suddenly appeared at the lodging of Moses and his wife in the desert to see whether the prophet had circumcised his son. God was ready to kill Moses, because he had not yet done it, so his wife did it and scolded her husband (Exodus 4:24-25). If God looked for such evidence in the eight-day-old babies of Israel, won’t he look for faith in our week-old children, who have baptism available to them and offered to them, and even commanded (Matthew 28:19-20; Mark 16:16; John 3:5; Acts 16:33)? Should we expect that God wouldn’t look for evidence of faith in us on a Saturday night just because it isn’t Sunday morning? The time to show our faith is now, whenever now might be. Don’t wait for the Lord’s car to pull into your driveway before you make his bed in the guestroom (Mark 14:14; Philemon 1:22).

11:14a Jesus said to it. The simple meaning of apokritheis (ἀποκριθεὶς) is “answered” rather than “said.” If Jesus answered the tree, what had the tree said? The question is evident in the search for fruit. The answer given by the tree was, “I have none.” The tree showed this with its fruit, just as we show our faith with the fruit of our faith.

11:14b May no one ever…! Just as Jesus cursed a tree for not bearing fruit, so also those who have no faith are cursed forever with the sentence of eternal damnation. This is illustrated in other parables of the Lord: “Collect the weeds and tie them into bundles to be burned” (Matthew 13:30). “They threw the bad fish away. This is how it will be at the end of the age” (Matthew 13:48-49). “In his anger the master turned him over to the jailers to be tortured” (Matthew 18:34). “Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 22:13). “Throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness” (Matthew 25:30). “You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you” (Luke 12:20). “If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down!” (Luke 13:9). And finally: “Those enemies of mine who did not want me to be king over them—bring them here and kill them in front of me” (Luke 19:27).

With such a terrible and unyielding thunderclap of judgment, Jesus showed with his hands and voice the search God makes for faith in us. The threat is obvious: Every man, woman, and child without faith is damned. But this only proves once again God’s grace in sending Jesus his Son into the world to rescue us. The hand of Jesus, nailed to the cross and bleeding the streaming blood of God’s one and only Son is the hand of God’s compassion, reaching out to us, offering God’s love and salvation. We are forgiven by the blood of Jesus. His forgiveness is ours through faith, and as Jesus showed with a verse from Isaiah, any amount of faith in Christ is saving faith. Is one persons’ faith as tender as a bruised reed? “A bruised reed he will not break.” Is another person’s faith as weak and shaky as a smoldering, smoking candle wick? “A smoldering wick he will not snuff out” (Matthew 12:20; Isaiah 42:3). Put your trust in Jesus, and strengthen your faith with the gospel in word and sacrament.

In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith

 

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