Mark 11:12-14,20-24, Lessons from the Fig Tree (1)

In the “Royal Entry” to Jerusalem the people needed to know, “Behold, your king is coming to you!”  Having noted that, we ask, what have we seen in Jesus as He walked the Calvary Road?  Was He anticipating a crown when He arrived at the city?  Of course, He was not!  Here is what He was anticipating:

Mk. 8:31: And He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. 

Mk. 9:31: For He taught His disciples and said to them, “The Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of men, and they will kill Him.  And after He is killed, He will rise the third day. 

Mk. 10:33-34: Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and to the scribes; and they will condemn Him to death and deliver Him to the Gentiles; and they will mock Him, and scourge Him, and spit on Him, and kill Him.  And the third day He will rise again.

If you heeded His call to take up your cross and follow Him, then quit belly-achin’.  So called “disappointment” is part of the road we travel, our own Calvary Road. 

But wait!  Who planned and organized the “triumphal entry”?  Jesus did!  Read it again in Mark. 11:1-3.  He knew where the animals would be, who would question the disciples, and what they should say.  He was in full control of the situation.  So again, what was the point?  We have said that Jesus was our “forerunner” (Hb. 6:19-20), the author and finisher of our faith, “running the race” (Heb. 12:1-2) before us!

With that in mind, let us consider the strange story in today’s passage, the cursing of the fig tree, a barren fig tree at a time of year when fig trees should be barren.  To understand we need to start in the Old Testament.  For example, in the little book of Joel we see Israel described as a fig tree in two ways:

Joel 1:7: He (the LORD) has laid waste My vine, and ruined My fig tree (in judgment). 

Joel 2:22: And the tree bears its fruit (in restoration); the fig tree and the vine yield their strength.

Israel is like a fig tree.  And that tree will be judged by the LORD and then it will be restored by the LORD.  That is what is going on in Jesus’ and the fig tree.  This is not the beginning of the parable nor is it the end.  Look at Luke 13:6-9 for the beginning of the story.  In the midst of Jesus’ ministry He spoke of a fig tree that was bearing no fruit and that the owner wanted to cut down.  Instead it was given a year to see if it would respond to the care of the gardener.  In today’s passage we see that the fig tree did not respond and that it will be cut down.