It’s the last miracle recorded in the book of Mark prior to His crucifixion, and the only miracle in the Gospels that involved destruction… Jesus cursed a fig tree.
It happened on the Monday of Holy Week, the day after His Triumphant Entry and four days before Passover. Jesus had visited the Temple on Sunday and then returned to Bethany. On Monday morning Jesus and His disciples made their way back to Jerusalem. On the way, Jesus saw “a fig tree with leaves, (so) He went to find out if there was anything on it. When He came to it, He found nothing but leaves; for it was not the season for figs. He said to it, ‘May no one ever eat fruit from you again!’ ” (Mark 11:13-14).
Later that day, when Peter saw the miraculously withered fig tree, he declared “Rabbi, look! The fig tree that you cursed has withered” (Mark 11:21). Was he surprised?
To understand the story, we need to know that figs ripen in the summer. In the early spring, fig trees put on their leaves. At about the same time, they also produce a small edible bud. On this spring day, when Jesus examined this tree, He discovered that there were no buds. That meant that the tree wouldn’t produce figs that season. Jesus cursed the fruitless tree.
Why?
The fig tree was a living parable, an object lesson. After cursing the tree, Jesus went immediately to the temple and threw out those that were desecrating His Father’s House of Prayer. Jesus cursed their fruitless behavior just as He cursed the fruitless tree.
But, why a fig tree? Maybe, just maybe, it teaches another lesson about works-based religion. The merchants in the temple courtyard were selling their wares so that people could attempt to appease God with their meaningless sacrifices. This was unacceptable to God.
Adam and Eve attempted to hide their sin and shame and appease God by sewing fig leaves together… fig leaves. This was also unacceptable to God. Maybe cursing the fig tree was Jesus’ way of reminding us that “fig-leaf religion” is dead …
In the Garden of Eden, God killed an animal, presumably a perfect and innocent lamb, to cover the nakedness, sin, and shame of our earliest ancestors. This story reminds us that Jesus, the Lamb of God, was the only acceptable substitutionary sacrifice to atone for mankind’s sin.
When Jesus cursed the fig tree, He was preaching a sermon… “He saved us—not by works of righteousness that we had done, but according to his mercy…” (Titus 3:5).
“… think on these things” (Philippians 4:8, KJV).
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