Mark 11:12-14 (NIV): The next day as they were leaving Bethany, Jesus was hungry. Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to find out if it had any fruit. When he reached it, he found nothing but leaves, because it was not the season for figs. Then he said to the tree, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” And his disciples heard him say it.
Many point to this event as showing Jesus being peevish and even unreasonable. After all, it was too early in the year for figs, being barely into April. The leaves would be out on the fig trees, but no fruit yet. So why would Jesus curse a tree that seemed perfectly normal, just because He looked for fruit and was disappointed?
Jesus never did anything without a clear reason, and He was never peevish or unreasonable. Instead, He was painting a picture for His disciples, much like the prophets of old. (cf., Ezekiel 12:1-14; Jeremiah 19:1-15) Jesus was hungry, just like the world was hungry for the truth of the Lord. Jesus went to a fig tree for food, just as the people of the world looked to the Jewish people to hear God’s word. (After all, they claimed to be “God’s chosen people,” didn’t they?) But Jesus found only leaves – all show and no substance. And that is what the world found when they looked for God’s truth among the leaders of the Jewish religion – all show and no substance. They did a lot of showy things, like making their sacrifices by the hundreds and thousands every day, and all of their rituals and celebrations. But when the people looked beneath the leaves, the “show,” they found no real fruit; no people with a powerful relationship with God Almighty.
In Jesus’ final act here, the cursing of the fig tree for its fruitlessness, He was speaking for God the Father. Just as the tree was cursed to never bear fruit again, so God had pronounced judgment on the religious leaders of Israel: that they would be fruitless. God was even preparing at that moment to remove the “show,” their temple, their sacrifices, and all of their grand celebrations in Jerusalem. (That removal would happen in AD 70, when the Romans would destroy Jerusalem and the Temple.) God was planning on doing this because the leadership of the Jewish people were, at that moment, plotting against Jesus, to take His life. And a plot against Jesus is always a plot against God the Father.
That is not to say that all of the Jewish people had rejected God and His Messiah, or that everyone among them was under that same curse (just as every fig tree in the area was not cursed by Jesus). The curse was for those who had rejected God by rejecting Jesus. It fell on those whose religion was only an outward show, and who were so confident in their own righteousness that they rejected the One God had sent to save them from their sins.
Father, this makes sense. It is easy to see that much of the leadership rejected Jesus, falsely accusing Him before Pilate, and even threw You under the bus in the process (“We have no king but Caesar!” John 19:15)! They bribed the guards to lie about Jesus’ resurrection (Matthew 28:11-15), and the whole time celebrated the Passover and Feast of Unleavened Bread with what they believed were clean hands. They really were whitewashed tombs, and trees with showy leaves but no fruit! Father, help us to never fall into that same trap. Help us to keep our hearts open and soft before You, so that You can help us to bear abundant fruit, day and night, every day of the year (cf. Revelation 22:2; Psalm 1:3). Amen.