Mark 11:12-14--Jesus Curses the Fig Tree

Mark 11:12-14
English Standard Version
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Jesus Curses the Fig Tree
12 On the following day, when they came from Bethany, he was hungry. 13 And seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to see if he could find anything on it. When he came to it, he found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. 14 And he said to it, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” And his disciples heard it.

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On Monday of Passion Week, Jesus is walking by a fig tree that appeared like it would have fruit on it, though Mark tells us it was not the season for figs.  Still, it appeared as if it should have fruit on it because it was full of leaves.  It had the appearance of being alive and fruitful, but upon closer inspection, it had no fruit to show.

This will take some explanation since most of us are not familiar with fig trees.  The fruit of the fig tree starts to form before the leaves come out.  While it takes a long time for the fruit to ripen and be ready to harvest, it would be expected that is you saw leaves on a fig tree that there would be some fruit on there, even if it was not ripe fruit that would taste great--it would do if you were really hungry, like Jesus was here.  While Mark is correct that it was not the time to expect the figs to be ready to harvest, the tree had every appearance from a distance of having fruit.  As we said earlier though, upon closer inspection, there was no fruit to show.

So, is this passage simply about a fig tree, or is there something more going on here?  I think there's much more going on here as we'll see from the reaction of the disciples in a couple more passages (if you want to read ahead and see that, look at verses 20-26, but don't miss what happens in-between.  Here's a little summary of events.

1) On Monday, Jesus is walking from Bethany to Jerusalem, sees the fig tree, reaches out to get some fruit, finds the tree empty and curses it.  Matthew tells us the cursing and the withering happened all at once, but Mark tells us that the disciples didn't notice the withered fig tree until the next day.

2) When reaching Jerusalem, Jesus enters the Temple and cleanses it--this is a different event than what is recorded for us in the book of John at the beginning of Jesus' ministry.  This is the second time He has done this.  Apparently, the religious leaders didn't listen to Him the first time after He cleansed the Temple, and in less than three years, it's right back to the way things were in the beginning of His ministry.

3) The next day (Tuesday), the disciples notice the withered fig tree--withered from the roots up--and they ask Jesus about it.  It would be unusual for such a large tree to die so quickly.  Just the day before it was full of leaves and looked to be alive, but now it is obviously dead.

This teaching to the disciples also has a lot to do with the crowds that appeared to be welcoming Jesus as Messiah on Palm Sunday just a day before this passage.  Were they really ready to accept Him or did they look like something that they were not?  It appears that the condition of the Temple told the real heart of the people (at least the religious leaders the represented and led the nation).  The nation as a whole should have been ready for Messiah to come because the Law and the Prophets and the Writings (the Old Testament Scriptures) had all been pointing to this.  However, when the time came, the faith of most was not genuine and Jesus was not fooled because He could see through the external show they were putting on and see the true condition of their hearts.  He addresses this issue in other passages by comparing them to a cup that's clean only on the outside but still filthy on the inside or a whitewashed tomb that is full of all kinds of unclean things including dead men's bones (anyone who touched a dead body would become ceremonially unclean and Jesus is saying that is kind of uncleanliness that they are carrying around inside of them).  If only their actions and their hearts were in alignment, and they were really ready for Jesus to come and be king in their hearts.  They wanted a political solution to a spiritual problem.

This is not to say that God rejected all of Israel, but that Israel as a nation had rejected their Messiah.  God would still use the Jewish people to start the early Church and take the gospel to the whole world (see the book of Acts), but as a whole, the Jews have rejected the gospel and still do (that will change in the future as one of the signs of the end times is that Israel will realize that Jesus was their Messiah and will once again say "Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD" and welcome Him as their king).  This lesson to Jesus' disciples warns us about those who have an appearance or form of godliness, but their "fruit" shows they do not belong to Jesus (see 2 Timothy 3:1-9 which tells us such men are to be avoided).  James the half-brother of Jesus tells us in his epistle that faith without works (or a tree without fruit in this case) is dead and good for nothing.  Jesus says much the same thing in Matthew 7.  So, we need to be careful that not all that call themselves Christians are for real--ultimately, it will be the job of Jesus to sort them out in the coming judgment, but it appears that He wants us to be discerning here and now.  In this case, the religion that Israel was portraying to those around them was fake as they did not recognize the one who was the fulfillment of the priesthood, the sacrifices, the Law and the Prophets.  That religious system would soon "die" (the Temple would be destroyed in 70 AD and won't be rebuilt until the end times--I believe it be rebuilt in conjunction with Israel returning to their Messiah and expecting His return as their king).  Jesus is able to take something dead like that fig tree and bring it back to life and that is what we see happen in the end times.  Life and fruitfulness will be given to the nation of Israel as Jewish evangelists will make the gospel known to the whole world.

We'll come back and talk about this some more after the cleansing of the Temple and the disciples recognizing what has happened.  Jesus will teach the disciples a lesson about faith, but we see these passages about the fig tree surrounded by challenges from the religious leaders--those who should have been most ready for Jesus and yet were the least "fruitful" when He inspected them (at the same time He's inspecting them, they are trying to inspect Him to try to find any blemish, yet they can find none because He is the spotless Lamb of God that will take away the sin of the world).