What's with the Fruit?

Garth Heckman

The David Alliance

TDAgiantSlayer@Gmail.com 

 

 

Mark 11 and Luke 13 tell of Jesus on his way to the temple… he sees a fig tree… 

 

12 The next day as they were leaving Bethany, Jesus was hungry. 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. 14 Then he said to the tree, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” And his disciples heard him say it.

15 On reaching Jerusalem, Jesus entered the temple courts and began driving out those who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves, 16 and would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts. 17 And as he taught them, he said, “Is it not written: ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations’[c]? But you have made it ‘a den of robbers.’[d]”

18 The chief priests and the teachers of the law heard this and began looking for a way to kill him, for they feared him, because the whole crowd was amazed at his teaching.

19 When evening came, Jesus and his disciples[e] went out of the city.

20 In the morning, as they went along, they saw the fig tree withered from the roots. 21 Peter remembered and said to Jesus, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree you cursed has withered!”

22 “Have faith in God,” Jesus answered. 23 “Truly[f] I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in their heart but believes that what they say will happen, it will be done for them. 24 Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. 25 And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive them, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins.”

 

It bears no fruit… neither does the Nation of Israel

The temple had been turned into a shopping mall, not a house of prayer. It was supposed to bear fruit… but it did not. 

It was supposed to be the time… but it was not.

The fig tree was out of season for figs, so why did Jesus curse it? Because typically at that time it was not the season for figs.We know Fig trees produce leaves at the time of the Passover, and small fruits do appear, which will ripen later… so there should have been signs of fruits to come -  These fruits are unripe but marginally edible. The leaves promise fruit on the tree, but its barren fruitless… its a “looks like Tarzan plays like Jane”. Its bark is bigger than its bite… its a poser, its a wanna be…. It’s Israel at the time Of Christ culminating act of dying for the sins of the world… they should be ready, waiting and open to bearing fruit… but they are hard hearted. The religious leaders of the day are barren. 

 

So Jesus curses the posers… don’t miss the irony here. God in just a second talks about unforgiveness…but right now he is cursing a tree symbolically as the religious leaders… so apparently you can without anger or bitterness or hate or malice - you can curse something or someone… but maybe that is just stored up for the religious leaders… and fake pastors and fake social media preachers and bible thumping hustlers… sorry I digress. 

He also shows the power and turn around of a curse - 24 hours. Not bad.

But it also shows us the power of a blessing…surely if Jesus can curse something and get results in 24 hours, he can also bless something and get results in 24 hours.

And might I remind you that he goes on to say in faith we can do the same….

In fact we can tear mountains up with our faith and cast them into the sea… mere words with faith has immediate actions..

But there is a caveat… a warning or a read this before using notification. 

And that is this: don’t try this with unforgiveness in your heart. It seems that the sin of unforgiveness is the kryptonite of prayer.

So maybe our first prayer should not be to move mountains for miracles but rather mountains of unforgiveness… and then we can start moving mountains of miracles…. Something to think about.