It is a strange account that Mark shares
in Jesus’ life when he talks about the cursing of the fig tree. This doesn’t
seem like Jesus to us. Jesus blesses, heals, and multiplies loaves and fishes
to benefit others. Here He kills a tree. And for what reason? Because it didn’t have any figs on it. But it
was spring, and figs are harvested in the summer. What does this all mean?
We are confronted here with an
uncomfortable truth: God judges us and
He judges our fruit. At the end of time all things will be laid bare and God
will examine what we have done. He will see where our deeds flowed from faith
and were done in the power of His grace, and when our actions were driven by sin.
And we must be clear, all things that come from ourselves will be judged as sin
and condemned, and only those things which come from God will be praised in us.
This cursing of the fig tree is about
living in faith. There is no fruit we can produce on our own that is good. Expecting
there to be figs on the tree out of season is like expecting sinners to produce
good fruit for God’s kingdom. It doesn’t happen. It cannot happen.
So Jesus points His disciples – you and
me, included – to look to faith as the source of our good. Jesus says that, “whatever
you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.” Pray – an action moved by faith – for forgiveness,
righteousness, strength, peace. Pray for greater faith. Pray for God’s kingdom
to come and His will to be done. Pray
for fruit in your own life.
All these things are near your Father’s
heart and He wants to give them to you. We tend to desire what the money
changers in the temple wanted though – wealth, happiness, prosperity, and
earthly comfort.
Faith takes hold of the promises of God –
what He really promised, and not just what we think He should have promised –
and finds that God gives fruit in our lives.
It may never look good to us, but the dependence we have of God is
beautiful fruit we rejoice in because it is here that the best fruit is formed –
not of ourselves but by Jesus, the one who was withered in our place on the
cross.
Lord Jesus, let my life bear the fruit of
faith in my trust in You, in my words and deeds, and in my testimony to
others. Amen.
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