Matt's Anthology

Have you ever walked into your house and had the wonderful smell of something hit your nostrils only to find an empty oven or pan?  You know how frustrating that is?  You smell something great, you get hungry, you travel over to the oven and find nothing.  Or maybe you need something from someone, a word, a look, something, so you go over to them only to find they have nothing to say or give you.  Or maybe you see a plant someone has in their house that is beautiful and well-grown, only to find out that it is a fake.  Disappointment comes and opens the door for hesitation the next time it happens to you.

Jesus is on a journey (Mark 11:11-24) to Bethany from Jerusalem with the twelve disciples.  It was already late according to the passage.  The next day after leaving Bethany Jesus became hungry and sees a fig tree in the distance with leaves on it.  So He journeys over to the tree because fig trees only produce leaves when they produce figs.  So the tree had the appearance of substance.  He found nothing but leaves, “for it was not the season for figs”.  So Jesus speaks to the fig tree and says “May no one ever eat fruit from you again!”   The Disciples discover the next day that the tree has withered from the root up.   Now I have a question about the passage. Jesus was from the region so wouldn’t He had known it wasn’t fig season?  Why then did He go over to something and take a group of people with Him when He was sure didn’t have what He needed?

I think Jesus used this entire passage as a teaching principle.  He was traveling and it was late.  He became hungry from the journey.  He sees something in the distance that appears to be able to provide for His needs. He goes over to it only to find it empty.  I think it is to teach us that when it is late and we are hungry we are prone to go after things that appear to give us substance only to find them empty.  And it is dangerous to do so because we could take others with us.

Aren’t we at times like the fig tree? Don’t we try to give the appearance of substance for others?  Don’t we want to provide for people’s needs?  What if it is the wrong season?  Why are we trying to grow fruit in the wrong season and then inviting others to journey over for nothing?  Is Jesus asking you to speak to those trees and kill them?  Speak and kill them.  But not just on the surface. Sometimes things appear to be dead on the surface but still live at the root. Grow real fruit.  Grow the things that God has planted in you.  Grow your God-given dreams and desires and gifts and abilities.  Pour you energy into real trees.

The same story is told in the book of Matthew 21:18-22.  Now Matthew says that the tree withered all at once when Jesus spoke to it.  The book of Matthew is about the Kingdom of God so from a Kingdom perspective when Jesus speaks something it instantly happens.  What if we keep up the appearance of fruit and someone journeys over to us in their time of desperation, needing substance from us, only to find nothing?  Haven’t we committed an injustice against the Kingdom of God?   How much more prone, in the future, is that person to approach a “believer” for their needs?  They are probably going to hesitate.  Kill the appearance producing trees in your life so all of your energy goes into growing real fruit.  If it happens all at once or it takes a day, remember Mark 11:24 “Therefore I say to you, all things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them and they will be granted you”.

~ by MGilstrap on March 16, 2010.

Posted in Biblical Lessons