Jesus and the fig tree

It happened in a flash. Insights can be like that. One minute something can seem incomprehensible and the next it all makes sense. Most of us have had that experience, whether we’re struggling to understand a foreign language, tackling a knotty business issue, or trying to get a new cell phone to work. In this case it was a Biblical text whose meaning had been obscure to me but had suddenly become clear.

Of course wrestling with difficult stories and sayings in the Bible isn’t a new phenomenon. Bible scholars often refer to these texts as “hard sayings” because their meaning may not be obvious or may run counter to popular perceptions. The particular saying that spurred the insight is one attributed to Jesus by the authors of Mark and Matthew. The saying (or to use the term scholars employ, the logion) is generally known as the cursing of the fig tree.

There are two versions of this “hard saying” of Jesus, one in Mark 11:12-24 and the other in Matthew 21:18-22. What has troubled readers of this logion is the presumed injustice of the curse, since the account in Mark’s Gospel states that it is not the season for fruit bearing. That Jesus would condemn the tree for having only leaves and no fruit out of season appears harsh and unfeeling on his part. Can this incompatibility between a view of Jesus as a just individual and the apparent unfairness of the curse be resolved?

In both Gospels the saying is set during Jesus’ last week in Jerusalem as he confronts hostility from religious and secular authorities. A closer look at Mark reveals that the day before the tree is cursed Jesus had made a triumphal entry into Jerusalem in fulfillment of prophecy. After spending the night at Bethany, a village on the Mount of Olives, Jesus, and presumably his disciples also, headed for the Temple to challenge openly the religious establishment by overthrowing the tables of the moneychangers and declaring that God’s house of prayer had become a den of thieves. This is important because it sets the saying in its context. Looking at where an author has placed an event or a teaching in the overall narrative often provides pertinent details.

In this logion the cursing of the tree serves as a metaphor related to the events in the Temple, and more explicitly to the scribes and priests who are cited in verse 18. The gospel audience would have been familiar with the use of a tree as a metaphor. Jeremiah, for example, speaks of the desolation of Jerusalem because of the people’s backsliding. God tells the prophet, “When I wanted to gather them, says the Lord, there are no grapes on the vine, nor figs on the fig tree; even the leaves are withered, and what I gave them has passed away from them.” In the well-known parable of the tree in Ezekiel 17, God declares, “All the trees of the field shall know that I am the Lord. I bring low the high tree, I make high the low tree; I dry up the green tree and make the dry tree flourish.”

So, Mark’s readership, and Jesus’ audience, would have readily made the association between a tree and the events in the Temple. The religious leaders, like the fig tree, promise much, but like the fig tree that bears fruit only in season, the religious establishment is out of season and unfruitful. In fact the metaphor is carried further by the reference to the dried roots. The rituals of the Temple, like the leaves of the tree, offer promise, but with dry roots neither a tree nor Temple worship can survive. Jesus turns his disciples (and the reader) from looking to the Temple, emphasizing that they should have faith in God rather than trusting rites and ceremonies.

Matthew alters Mark’s order of events. Like Mark, Matthew describes Jesus’ triumphal entry on what subsequently became known as Palm Sunday. The first evangelist then narrates that Jesus went directly into the temple precinct, overthrowing the moneychangers’ tables and quoting Isaiah’s words about the Temple as a house of prayer. Matthew has already related Jesus’ teaching about gathering good fruit from a good tree and not figs from thistles. Like Mark, Matthew’s Jesus finds no fruit, only leaves, although Matthew omits the comment that it was not the season for figs. Instead Matthew embeds the saying in a teaching about the nature of prayer. The prayer of faith can accomplish even the removal of mountains. By contrast the rituals of the Temple, it is implied, soon wither.

Jesus’ cursing of the fig tree is no longer a “hard saying.” Reading the logion in isolation it appears that Jesus’ curse was unfair. Reading the logion in its context clarifies the saying. By a graphic illustration Jesus’ encourages his followers to have confidence, not in the form and outward practice of religion, which can be corrupted, but to have faith in God, who can be relied upon—whatever the season!

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