Calvary Life CalvaryLife-Spring2018-FINALweb | Page 4
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.
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, and would not
allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts. And as he
taught them, he said, “Is it not written: ‘My house will be called a house of
prayer for all nations’? But you have made it ‘a den of robbers.’”
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.
When evening came, Jesus and his disciples 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!”
“Have faith in God,” Jesus answered. “Truly 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.
Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have
received it, and it will be yours. And when you stand praying, if you hold
anything against anyone, forgive them, so that your Father in heaven may
forgive you your sins.”
Mark 11:12-25
While true that it wasn’t the season for figs, when a fig tree grows, it grows
the fruit before or at the same time as leaves. A fig tree with no fruit would
also have no leaves; it would look barren. But a fig tree with leaves but no
fruit is false advertising; it professed to have fruit when it really didn’t. It was
the pretense of the tree saying from afar, “Figs are here.” Only when you
get up close can you see that there’s no fruit.
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a note on
FIGS