The Gospels of Matthew and Mark both have the story of Jesus cursing the fig tree. The story goes like this:

As Jesus and the disciples were walking down the road, Jesus was hungry. He saw a fig tree in the distance with leaves on it, so he walked up to it to see if there were figs on the tree. When he saw there were no figs he cursed the tree, saying “may no one ever eat fruit from you again.”¹ He cursed the tree even though the Gospels tell us it was not the time for figs.

This story seems out of character for Jesus. Why would Jesus, who had previously fasted in the desert for 40 days, have such a seemingly reactionary and vindictive response because he was hungry?

Jesus had already multiplied the loaves of bread and the fishes twice to feed thousands of people, if he was really that hungry couldn’t he have made figs appear on the tree? Of course he could have made figs appear, but instead he decided the tree must die.

I sometimes jokingly think of this as Jesus’ “do you know who I am?” story, but of course there is a reason why Jesus did this, it wasn’t simply because he was hangry and lost his temper. There was a lesson to be taught. So what is the lesson?

The Lesson of the Fig Tree

When the disciples saw that the fig tree had indeed withered they were amazed and said to Jesus “look, the fig tree you cursed has withered.”² Jesus’ answer is a lesson in true faith:

²¹ And Jesus answered them, “Truly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ it will happen. ²² And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith.”³

Jesus was teaching a lesson about faith, and how if you have enough faith you can overcome any obstacles put before you. But at the same time I think it goes even deeper than that.

The Parable of the Fig Tree

We need to turn to Luke 13:6-9 because it is there that earlier Jesus gave his disciples the Parable of the Fig Tree. I believe when Jesus cursed the fig tree he was demonstrating a parable which he had previously taught, and I imagine at some point his disciples probably remembered it, if they did not realize it at the time. Here is the parable:

⁶ And he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. ⁷ And he said to the vinedresser, ‘Look, for three years now I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and I find none. Cut it down. Why should it use up the ground?’ ⁸ And he answered him, ‘Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and put on manure. ⁹ Then if it should bear fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.’” (ESV)

In this parable the owner of the vineyard is God and he has passed judgment on the tree, which represents the people (or possibly Israel?), but the vinedresser (Jesus) thought with a little time and tender loving care he could get the tree to bear fruit.

So now we turn back to Jesus and the lesson he was teaching when he cursed the fig tree. The leaves on the fig tree gave him hope that the tree would bear fruit, but on closer inspection the tree was barren, the tree was not bearing fruit, it just looked good. As in the parable of the fig tree, the fig tree in this story is the believer in Jesus and we are expected to not just look good, but to also bear fruit.

Are We Bearing Fruit

But I notice the parable of the fig tree doesn’t tell us the results of the vinedresser’s efforts to get the tree to bear fruit. Did the vinedresser’s nurturing and caring pay off? Did the tree bear fruit or was the owner’s judgment passed onto the tree? Why didn’t Jesus finish the parable?

I believe Jesus did not finish the parable because the story is not finished, even today. The tree is each and every one of us and we are all called to bear fruit. When the seed is planted on good soil it will bear fruit, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.⁴

At this point the questions we have to ask ourselves are, are we good soil? And, are our trees bearing fruit?

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1. Mark 11:12 ↩︎
2. Mark 11:21 ↩︎
3. Matthew 21:21,22 ESV ↩︎
4. Matthew 13:23 ↩︎